Animals
- Life
Tasty animals end up on latest list of threatened species
Growing food market lands several species, including Pacific bluefin tuna and Chinese pufferfish, on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.
- Environment
DDT lingers in Michigan town
Decades after a plant manufacturing DDT shut down in Michigan, the harmful insecticide is still found in neighboring birds and eggs.
- Life
Iguanas’ one-way airflow undermines usual view of lung evolution
Simple-looking structures create sophisticated one-way air flow in iguana lungs, undermining old scenarios of lung evolution.
- Animals
When sweet little bees go to war
Tiny Tetragonula bees don’t sting but have strong jaws. The bees fight by biting a combatant and not letting go.
- Archaeology
Feedback
Readers ask questions about a study on sweeteners, how scientists recognize primitive tools and the purpose of a dinosaur's sail.
- Animals
Ant colonies prefer homes infected with fungus
Choosing a new nest site ridden with a potentially deadly fungus may be a way for pharaoh ants to immunize themselves against the pathogen, scientists say.
- Life
Study finds lack of evidence for infanticide link to monogamy
A new study contradicts idea that the rise of infanticide among mammals drove the evolution of monogamy.
- Animals
Giant otters hum, scream, say ‘hah’ and more
Often overlooked as vocalists, giant otters make 22 different calls as adults and 11 kinds of baby babble.
- Animals
Few humans were needed to wipe out New Zealand’s moa
A new study finds that the Maori population was still small when it managed to drive several species of large, flightless birds extinct.
- Animals
Snake moms-to-be crave toxic toads
The snake Rhabdophis tigrinus seeks out toxic toads to eat when breeding. The snakes can then pass the poisons on to her offspring as chemical defenses.
- Genetics
Genes tell tale of cat domestication
A peek into cats’ genetic makeup may help reveal how hissing wild felines became purring tabbies.
- Life
Epic worldwide effort explores all of insect history
A whopper of a genetic analysis fits all living orders of insects into one genealogical evolutionary tree.
