Animals
- Paleontology
Furry, spiky mammal scampered among dinosaurs
Early Cretaceous fur ball with spikes discovered in Spain.
- Animals
For glowworms, the brightest girls get the guy
Brighter female glowworms attract more mates and lay more eggs than their dimmer peers.
- Physics
Pentaquarks, locked-in syndrome and more reader feedback
Readers discuss pentaquark sightings, delightful diatoms and whether an ancient four-legged fossil was actually a snake.
- Genetics
Asian tiger mosquito genome sequenced
Researchers have sequenced the genome of the Asian tiger mosquito, a stealthy invasive species and carrier of tropical diseases.
- Animals
How architecture can make ants better workers
The right nest architecture can make harvester ants better at their job, new research shows.
By Susan Milius - Animals
For glowworms, the brightest girls get the guy
Brighter female glowworms attract more mates and lay more eggs than their dimmer peers.
- Paleontology
300 million-year-old giant shark swam the Texas seas
Fossil find shows oldest known ‘supershark,’ about the size of a limo, prowled the ocean 300 million years ago.
By Meghan Rosen - Animals
‘Whalecopter’ drone swoops in for a shot and a shower
Whale biologists are monitoring the health of whales using drones that snap photos and then swoop in to sample spray.
By Susan Milius - Animals
DNA trail leads to new spot for dog domestication
A new study suggests that dogs were first domesticated in Central Asia.
- Animals
Slow, cold reptiles may breathe like energetic birds
Finding birdlike air patterns in lungs of crocodilians and in more distantly related lizards raises the possibility that one-way airflow evolved far earlier than birds themselves did.
By Susan Milius - Animals
Marine biologist chronicles a lifelong love of fishing
In A Naturalist Goes Fishing, a marine biologist takes readers on a round-the-world fishing expedition
By Sid Perkins - Paleontology
New evidence weakens case against climate in woolly mammoths’ death
Hunters responsible for woolly mammoths’ extinction, suggests a chemical analysis of juveniles’ tusks.
By Meghan Rosen