Animals
40,000-year-old woolly mammoth RNA offers a peek into its last moments
Ancient RNA from Yuka, a 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth preserved in permafrost, can offer new biological insights into the Ice Age animal’s life.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
- Animals
This fly’s flesh-eating maggot is making a comeback. Here’s what to know
After a decades-long hiatus, new world screwworm populations have surged in Central America and Mexico — and are inching northward.
- Animals
Woodpecker hammering is a full-body affair
The birds grunt like tennis pros when generating their rat-a-tat, a performance strategy that may help stabilize core muscles.
- Animals
Mosquitoes infiltrated Iceland. Will they survive the winter?
Mosquitoes have reached Iceland, a place once thought too harsh for them to survive. Climate change may play a role in this shift.
- Animals
Deep Antarctic waters hold geometric communities of fish nests
Scientists found thousands of patterned fish nests in Antarctica’s Weddell Sea, boosting calls for marine protected areas.
- Animals
Polar bears provide millions of kilograms of food for other Arctic species
A new study shows how much food polar bears leave behind — and how their decline threatens scavengers across the Arctic.
- Animals
Subway mosquitoes evolved millennia ago in ancient Mediterranean cities
A variety of subway-dwelling mosquito seems like a modern artifact. But genomic analysis reveals the insect got its evolutionary start millennia ago.
- Animals
Which venomous snakes strike the fastest?
Vipers have the fastest strikes, but snakes from other families can give some slower vipers stiff competition.
- Animals
Scientists and fishers have teamed up to find a way to save manta rays
Thousands of at-risk manta and devil rays become accidental bycatch in tuna fishing nets every year. A simple sorting grid could help save them.
- Animals
Guppies fall for a classic optical illusion. Doves, usually, do too
Comparing animals’ susceptibility to optical illusions can show how perception evolved.
