Animals
How tuataras live so long and can withstand cool weather
Tuataras may look like your average lizard, but they’re not. Now, researchers have deciphered the rare reptiles’ genome, or genetic instruction book.
Animals
More Stories in Animals
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LifeWater beetles can live on after being eaten and excreted by a frog
After being eaten by a frog, some water beetles can scurry through the digestive tract and emerge on the other side, alive and well.
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AnimalsSome spiders may spin poisonous webs laced with neurotoxins
The sticky silk threads of spider webs may be hiding a toxic secret: potent neurotoxins that paralyze a spider’s prey.
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EcosystemsTo save Appalachia’s endangered mussels, scientists hatched a bold plan
Biologists have just begun to learn whether their bold plan worked to save the golden riffleshell, a freshwater mussel teetering on the brink of extinction.
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AnimalsAn immune system quirk may help anglerfish fuse with mates during sex
Deep-sea anglerfish that fuse to mate lack genes involved in the body’s response against pathogens or foreign tissue.
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AnimalsA South American mouse is the world’s highest-dwelling mammal
At 6,739 meters above sea level, the yellow-rumped leaf-eared mouse survives low oxygen and freezing conditions atop a dormant volcano.
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Health & MedicineClose relatives of the coronavirus may have been in bats for decades
The coronavirus lineage that gave rise to SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in bats for around 40 to 70 years, a study suggests.
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AnimalsA wasp was caught on camera attacking and killing a baby bird
Some wasps scavenge carrion or pluck parasites off birds, but reports of attacks on live birds are rare.
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AnimalsHow Yellowstone wolves got their own Ancestry.com page
Since the wolves’ reintroduction to the park, 25 years of devoted watching has chronicled bold moves, big fights and lots of puppies.
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AnimalsHow some superblack fish disappear into the darkness of the deep sea
Some fish that live in the ocean’s depths are superblack as a result of a special layer of light-absorbing structures in the skin.