Animals
- Paleontology
Surprise! Ancient armadillos are related to modern armadillos
DNA evidence proves that ancient glyptodonts are indeed related to today’s armadillos, as Charles Darwin suspected.
- Animals
Without a ban on trade in old ivory, elephant killing continues
Samuel Wasser has been working to track down where poached ivory comes from. But to stop the killing, he says, a ban on the ivory trade is necessary.
- Animals
Chubby king penguins wobble when they waddle
King penguins’ weight gain makes their waddle a bit wobbly, study suggests.
- Animals
Slow-moving nurse sharks have a metabolism to match
The nurse shark has the slowest metabolism of any shark measured so far, a new study finds.
- Animals
Saving salamanders from amphibian killer may take extreme measures
Experience from lethal Bd fungus outbreak is helping researchers defend North America’s salamander paradise from new Bsal threat.
- Animals
Africa’s poison arrow beetles are key in traditional hunting method
In the Kalahari of Namibia, some San people still hunt with a traditional method — arrows laced with poison taken from beetle larvae.
- Tech
This roach-inspired robot can wiggle through tight spaces
Cockroaches inspired a compressible, crevice-navigating robot.
- Animals
White-tailed deer have their own form of malaria
The otherwise well-studied white-tailed deer turns out to carry the first malaria parasite discovered in any deer.
- Animals
Harvester ants are restless, enigmatic architects
Florida harvester ants dig complex, curly nests over, then leave and do it again.
- Animals
Why some birds sing elaborate songs in the winter
Several obvious hypotheses fail to explain why great reed warblers sing in winter.
- Animals
Meet the tarantula in black
Named for Johnny Cash, a new species of tarantula makes its home in the shadow of Folsom Prison.
- Animals
Microbes may help bears stay healthy when fat for hibernation
Brown bears fatten up for hibernation without suffering from weight-related problems. A new study shows that their gut microbes may help.
