Animals

  1. Life

    Male stag beetles face weighty problem for flight

    Male stag beetles need enormous mandibles to fend off other males and find a mate, but computer simulations show that the giant jaws make running and flying very difficult.

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  2. Psychology

    Quantity counts for baboons

    Counting-like logic helps baboons track and compare accumulating sets of peanuts.

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  3. Animals

    A summer challenge: Observe nature

    Opportunities for observing nature are plentiful, no matter where you live.

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  4. Animals

    Ants snap jaws, shoot skyward, escape death

    Emergency trap jaw launchings help some ants pass death tests.

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  5. Animals

    Deepwater dweller is first known warm-hearted fish

    The opah, a deep-diving fish, can keep much of its body warmer than its surroundings, making it similar to warm-blooded birds and mammals.

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  6. Neuroscience

    Fruit flies flee from shadows

    Studying flies’ responses to an ominous shadow may lead to a deeper understanding of humans’ emotions.

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  7. Animals

    Early research asked whether cats dream

    Early research asked whether cats dream; researchers still don’t know definitively.

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  8. Animals

    Nighttime light pollution sabotages sex pheromones of moths

    Artificial lighting at night can trick female moths into releasing skimpy, odd-smelling sex pheromones.

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  9. Animals

    Pruning bug genitals revives puzzle of extra-long males

    Surgical approach highlights question of length mismatch in his and hers morphologies.

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  10. Animals

    An island in the Maldives is made of parrotfish poop

    Coral-eating parrotfish create much of the sediment that a reef island is made of, a new study finds.

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  11. Paleontology

    Ancient brain fossils hint at body evolution of creepy-crawlies

    Fossilized brains — found in the Burgess Shale in western Canada — offer clues to how arthropods morphed from soft- to hard-bodied animals.

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  12. Genetics

    Tameness is in the genes

    Taming affects common genes in multiple species.

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