All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Where salamanders should be very afraid
Three zones of North America at high risk if the salamander-killing fungus disease Bsal invades.
- Animals
Caterpillar treats and tricks ants by oozing spiked juice
Caterpillars ooze droplets that lure ants away from colony duties to instead lick and defend their drug source, new lab tests suggest.
- Life
The tree of life gets a makeover
Biology’s tree of life has morphed from the familiar classroom version emphasizing kingdoms into a complex depiction of supergroups, in which animals are aligned with a slew of single-celled cousins.
- Animals
Toddler seahorses are bumbling and adorable
Rice-grain-sized youngsters can’t yet get a grasp with their tails.
- Animals
Social pecking order gives roosters something to crow about
Small groups of laboratory roosters keep to the rankings for orderly morning crows.
- Animals
Polar bears’ ‘walking hibernation’ not much of an energy saver
Summer’s “walking hibernation” doesn’t shut down polar bears as much as winter does.
- Life
Good luck outsmarting a mosquito
Mosquitoes use their senses in sophisticated combinations and sequences to find you.
- Paleontology
Ancient comb jellies might have had skeletons
Soft and filmy today, comb jellies might once have had rigid skeletons.
- Animals
Why seahorses have square tails
3-D printed seahorse tails reveal possible benefits of square cross-sections for armor and gripping.
- Animals
Flatworm can self-fertilize by stabbing itself in the head
Hermaphroditic flatworms with hypodermic-style mating get sharp with themselves.
- Animals
Heat turns wild genetic male reptiles into functional females
Genetic male bearded dragons changed to females by overheating in the wild can still breed successfully.
- Animals
How mantis shrimps spar
In ritualized combat between deadly mantis shrimp, blows count but don’t kill.
