Animals

  1. Paleontology

    A one-of-a-kind trilobite fossil hints at what and how these creatures ate

    The preserved contents suggest the trilobite fed almost continuously and had a gut environment with an alkaline or neutral pH, researchers say.

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  2. Animals

    Seen Bigfoot or the Loch Ness Monster? Data suggest the odds are low

    Floe Foxon is a data scientist by day. But in his free time, he applies his skills to astronomy, cryptology and sightings of mythical creatures.

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  3. Animals

    These brainless jellyfish use their eyes and bundles of nerves to learn

    No brain? No problem for Caribbean box jellyfish. Their seemingly simple nervous systems can learn to avoid obstacles on sight, a study suggests.

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  4. Animals

    For the first time, researchers decoded the RNA of an extinct animal

    The Tasmanian tiger, or thylacine, was hunted nearly to extinction. Now RNA extracted from a museum specimen reveals how its cells functioned.

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  5. Health & Medicine

    A catalog of all human cells reveals a mathematical pattern

    Smaller cells occur in larger numbers in the human body, and cells of different size classes contribute equally to our overall mass.

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  6. Animals

    Some cannibal pirate spiders trick their cousins into ‘walking the plank’

    A pirate spider in Costa Rica uses a never-before-seen hunting strategy that exploits the way other spiders build webs.

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  7. Animals

    A little snake’s big gulp may put all other snakes to shame

    The humble Gans’ egg-eater can wrap its mouth around bigger prey than any other snake of its size.

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  8. Animals

    Wild male palm cockatoos rock out with custom drumsticks

    Along with flashy dances and distinctive drumbeats, these birds craft their own signature drumsticks to win over mates.

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  9. Animals

    The world’s highest-dwelling mammal isn’t the only rodent at extreme elevation

    After discovering a mouse living nearly 7,000 meters above sea level, scientists scoured other extreme environments to make sure the find wasn’t a fluke.

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  10. Ecosystems

    ‘Crossings’ explores the science of road ecology

    Ben Goldfarb talks about his new book, which looks at the science that’s helping to prevent animals from becoming roadkill.

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  11. Health & Medicine

    Scientists grow humanized kidneys in pig embryos

    The work represents an important advance in the methods needed to grow humanized kidneys, hearts, and pancreases in animals.

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  12. Animals

    A new DNA leaf swab technique could revolutionize how we monitor biodiversity

    Simple swabs of just 24 leaves in Uganda’s Kibale National Park provided a genetic snapshot of 52 animals in the tropical forest.

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