Life

Animals

Fish That Decorate: Females prefer nests with pizzazz

If scientists give foil strips to male stickleback fish, the fellows carry them back to their nests for decoration, and it turns out that females seem to like guys with lots of shiny stuff.

Animals

Vampire bats don’t learn from bad lunch

For the first time, a mammal has flunked a controlled test for developing a food aversion after getting sick just once, and that unusual creature is the common vampire bat.

Paleontology

Pretty Pollen

The pinup of the pollen grain of the month is just one of several intriguing features at this University of Arizona Web site devoted to palynology–the study of the microscopic, decay-resistant remains of plants and animals. The site provides definitions, illustrations, a brief history, a section for kids, and examples of applications in archaeology, paleoecology, […]

Ecosystems

Spring Forward

Scientists who study biological responses to seasonal and climatic changes have noted that the annual cycles for many organisms are beginning earlier on average, as global temperatures rise.

Animals

Flowers, not flirting, make sexes differ

Thanks to lucky circumstances, bird researchers find rare evidence that food, not sex appeal, makes some male and female hummingbirds look different.

Ecosystems

After Invasions: Can an ant takeover change the rules?

A rare before-and-after study of a takeover by an invasive ant species shows the interloper quickly disassembling the basic rules of the invaded community.

Ecosystems

Lab ecosystems show signs of evolving

An ambitious test of group selection considers whether natural selection can act on whole ecosystems as evolutionary units.

Paleontology

Was it sudden death for the Permian period?

The massive extinctions that came at the end of the Permian period could have occurred within a mere 8,000 years, which suggests a catastrophic cause for the die-offs.

Ecosystems

Ultimate Sea Weed Loose in America

The unusually invasive strain of seaweed that has been smothering coastal areas of the Mediterranean has shown up in a California lagoon, the first sighting of this ecologically devastating alga in the Americas.

Animals

Sibling Desperado: Doomed booby chick turns relentlessly violent

The first known case among nonhuman vertebrates of so-called desperado aggression—relentless attacks against an overwhelming force—may come from the underling chick in nests of brown boobies.

Animals

He and she cooperate on anti-aphrodisiacs

Scientists have for the first time identified a chemical that serves as a butterfly anti-aphrodisiac.

Animals

Better Than Real: Males prefer flower’s scent to female wasp’s

In an extreme case of sex fakery, an orchid produces oddball chemicals to mimic a female wasp's allure so well that males prefer the flower scent to the real thing.