All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Hearing awful or great singing changes birds’ choice
A male bird’s serenade inspires reactions that depend on the quality of songs a female has been listening to.
- Paleontology
Extinct giant kangaroos tiptoed one leg at a time
Stiff spines, flared hips and other fossil clues suggest extinct, refrigerator-sized kangaroos stepped one hind leg at a time instead of hopping.
- Animals
Rattlesnakes tutor robot on dune climbing
Snakes sidewinding up sand inspire design improvements for robots navigating treacherous slopes.
- Animals
Baby fish are noisier than expected
Gray snapper larvae may be able to communicate in open water using tiny knocks and growls.
- Life
Fledgling birds change rules for caterpillar color
An unusual experiment shows that larvae lose the advantage of warning colors during the seasonal flush of naïve predators.
- Animals
Sneaky little giraffe weevils beat big rivals
A little stealth gives smaller giraffe weevil males a leg up when competing with big ones for mates.
- Plants
Borrowed genes raise hopes for fixing “slow and confused” plant enzyme
Inserting some bacterial Rubisco chemistry into a plant might one day boost photosynthesis and help raise crop yields.
- Paleontology
Lost-and-found dinosaur thrived in water
Fossils pieced together through ridiculous luck reveal Spinosaurus to be the only known dinosaur adapted for regular ventures into water.
- Life
North American bird update finds a little good news
Conservation measures have succeeded in improving the plight of certain North American bird species, but overall the national report card says “needs improvement.”
- Animals
Mystery mushroomlike sea creatures get names
Specimens of a mushroomlike animal from the sea now have a scientific name, but researchers aren’t sure what kind of animal they are.
- Animals
Archerfish mouth is the secret of precision spit
Trained fish shoot down two hypotheses for their fine spit control but reveal fancy mouth work.
- Animals
A fish reared out of water walks better
The normally aquatic fish Senegal bichir raised on land suggests how ancient species might have transitioned into terrestrial ones.
