Animals

  1. Earth

    Feedback

    Readers comment on changing bird populations, question the usefulness of a new medical test and discuss the interesting physics behind rainbows.

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  2. Animals

    Platypuses are full of mystery

    With duck bills, webbed feet and venomous spikes, platypuses are one of the weirdest animals you’ll ever be lucky enough to see.

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  3. Neuroscience

    Dogs’ brains may process speech similar to humans’

    When it comes to interpreting human speech, dogs may have brain-hemisphere biases similar to people’s.

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  4. Animals

    10 bites of turkey trivia for your holiday meal

    Will turkeys really drown if they look up in a rainstorm? Can they fly? Where did the domestic turkey come from? Learn answers to these questions and more.

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  5. Animals

    Vulture guts are filled with noxious bacteria

    Vultures’ guts are chock-full of bacteria that sicken other creatures.

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  6. Genetics

    Genes linked to feather development predate dinosaurs

    The genes for feather development may have existed more than 100 million years before dinosaurs sported hints of the fluffy plumage.

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  7. Animals

    Fully formed froglets emerge from dry bamboo nurseries

    In remote India, a rare frog mates and lays eggs inside bamboo stalks. The eggs hatch into froglets, forgoing the tadpole stage.

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  8. Animals

    Scientists’ tags on fish may be leading seals to lunch

    In an experiment, 10 young grey seals learned to associate the sound of a pinging tag with fish. The tags may make fish vulnerable to predators, scientists say.

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  9. Animals

    Virus implicated in sea star die-off

    Sea stars on the west coast have been wasting away into puddles of slime. Now, scientists think they have pinpointed the virus that is causing the mass die-off of the dazzling marine creatures.

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  10. Life

    Springs bring gecko stickiness to human scale

    Springs of a stretchy alloy let gecko-inspired adhesives work at human scales to climb glass walls or grab space junk.

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  11. 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.

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  12. 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.

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