All Stories by Susan Milius
- Animals
Is that shark ticking? In a first, a shark is recorded making noise
The ocean can be a symphony of fish grunts, hums and growls. Now add tooth-clacking sharks to the score.
- Plants
A nearly century-old dead date palm tree helped solve an ancestry mystery
The iconic Cape Verde date palm came from commercial trees gone feral and could provide genetic variety to boost the resilience of its tamer relatives.
- Animals
How fish biologists discovered birds of paradise have fluorescent feathers
A survey of museum specimens reveals that more than a dozen species of the birds sport biofluorescence in feathers, skin or even inside their throats.
- Animals
How a mushroom coral goes for a walk without legs
Time-lapse video shows how a mushroom coral polyp pulses and inflates, flinging its soft body into micro-hops to slowly move itself to a new location.
- Ecosystems
Extinct moa ate purple trufflelike fungi, fossil bird droppings reveal
DNA analysis reveals the big, flightless moa birds ate — and pooped out — 13 kinds of fungi, including ones crucial for New Zealand’s forest ecosystem.
- Animals
Mole or marsupial? This subterranean critter with a backward pouch is both
Genetic analyses have solved the riddle of where a marsupial mole fits on the tree of life: It’s a cousin to bilbies, bandicoots and Tasmanian devils.
- Animals
Poop is on the menu for a surprising number of animals
A new tally finds dozens of species giving food a second go-round, from babies boosting their microbiomes to adults seeking easier-to-access nutrition.
- Animals
Climate stress may undermine male spiders’ romantic gift giving
Even spider love lives show an effect of climate uncertainty: Stressed males may offer a bit of silk-wrapped junk rather than a tasty insect treat.
- Life
Here’s how long it would take 100 worms to eat the plastic in one face mask
An experiment reveals that a bio-solution to humans’ microplastics mess is likely to fall short, but could inspire other ways to attack the problem.
- Animals
Videos capture orcas’ tricks for taking down the largest fish on Earth
Citizen science videos document for the first time how orcas coordinate an attack against whale sharks.
- Science & Society
This ‘hidden figure’ of entomology fought for civil rights
Margaret S. Collins, the first Black American female entomologist to earn a Ph.D., overcame sexism and racism to become a termite expert.
- Animals
Putting vampire bats on treadmills reveals an unusual metabolism
A bat gym shows that vampires are more like some insects, burning amino acids from blood proteins rather than the carbs or fats other mammals rely on.
