Animals
- Animals
‘The Cultural Lives of Whales and Dolphins’ offers window into cetacean societies
Dolphins and whales pass cultural knowledge to one another, the authors of a new book argue.
- Animals
Toads prefer to bound, not hop
The multiple hops made by toads are really a bounding motion similar to movements made by small mammals.
- Animals
Rainforest frogs flourish with artificial homes
A rainforest frog population grew by about 50 percent when scientists built pools for tadpoles that mimic puddles made by other animals.
- Ecosystems
Termite mound paradises help buffer dry land against climate change
Landscapes dotted by Africa’s great termite mounds look on the verge of turning into desert but are, in fact, more resilient.
- Paleontology
Ancient wolf skulls challenge dog domestication timeline
A 3-D analysis of two ancient canine skulls from Russia and Belgium suggests the fossils were of wolves, not dogs.
- Animals
Tropical wasps memorize friendly faces
A social wasp species uses sight and smell to keep intruders from hijacking their nests.
- Paleontology
Monkeys reached Americas about 36 million years ago
Peruvian fossils suggest ancient African primates somehow crossed the Atlantic Ocean and gave rise to South American monkeys.
- Animals
Cockroach personalities can speed or slow group decisions
The mix of temperaments in an alarmed cluster of cockroaches changes how quickly they make group decisions.
- Animals
Migrating ibises take turns leading the flying V
During migration, ibises flying in a V formation cooperate and take turns flying in wake to save energy, a new study suggests.
- Climate
Warming Arctic will let Atlantic and Pacific fish mix
The ultra-cold, ice-covered Arctic Ocean has kept fish species from the Atlantic and Pacific separate for more than a million years — but global warming is changing that.
- Animals
How a spider spins electrified nanosilk
The cribellate orb spider (Uloborus plumipes) hacks and combs its silk to weave electrically charged nanofibers, a new study suggests.
- Neuroscience
Chicks show left-to-right number bias
Recently hatched chicks may have their own version of the left-to-right mental number line.
