Animals
- Genetics
Darwin’s Dogs wants your dog’s DNA
The Darwin’s Dogs citizen science project is collecting canine DNA to better understand dog genetics and behavior.
- Animals
Bird nest riddle: Which shape came first?
Today’s simple cup-shaped songbird nests look as if they just had to have evolved before roofed nests. But that could be backward.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Hoverflies (probably) can’t sense gravity
Acrobatic insects called hoverflies may simply use visual and airflow cues and not gravity to orient their bodies midair.
- Animals
Evidence piles up for popular pesticides’ link to pollinator problems
Neonicotinoid pesticides linked to population declines in California butterflies and wild bee extinctions in Great Britain.
- Animals
Lizard mom’s microbiome may protect her eggs
Striped plateau lizard moms don’t do any parenting beyond laying eggs. But they may convey protection from pathogens with help from their microbiome.
- Animals
Female fish have a fail-safe for surprise sperm attacks
A Mediterranean fish provides evidence that, even after laying their eggs, females can still influence who fertilizes them.
- Animals
Capybaras may be poised to be Florida’s next invasive rodent
Some capybaras have escaped their owners in Florida. Others have been set loose. Now there are fears the giant rodents could become established in the state.
- Animals
Anemone proteins offer clue to restoring hearing loss
Proteins that sea anemones use to regenerate may help restore damaged hearing in mammals.
- Animals
Study ranks Greenland shark as longest-lived vertebrate
Radiocarbon in eye lenses suggests mysterious Greenland sharks might live for almost 400 years.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Colugo genome reveals gliders as primate cousins
New genetic analysis suggests gliding mammals called colugos are actually sisters to modern primates.
- Animals
Colugo genome reveals gliders as primate cousins
New genetic analysis suggests gliding mammals called colugos are actually sisters to modern primates.
- Earth
General relativity has readers feeling upside down
Readers respond to the June 25, 2016, issue of Science News with questions on Earth's age, moaning whales, plate tectonics and more.