Animals

  1. Earth

    Oh, rats — there go the snails

    A food fad among introduced rats has apparently crashed a once-thriving population of Hawaii’s famed endemic tree snails.

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  2. Animals

    Oops, missed that fossil iridescence

    Nanostructures on a preserved feather offer the first fossil evidence of bird colors not from pigments, a new study says.

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  3. Animals

    Fruity whiff may inspire new mosquito repellents

    Odors from ripening bananas can jam fruit flies’ and mosquitoes’ power to detect carbon dioxide, a new study finds.

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  4. Animals

    Back off, extinct moa

    A New Zealand tree’s peculiar leaves may have served as defenses against long-gone giant birds.

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  5. Animals

    Vocal abilities lost, found and drowned out

    Reports from the meeting of the American Ornithologists' Union

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  6. Earth

    Rapid evolution may be reshaping forest birds’ wings

    Logging during the last century might have driven birds in mature boreal forests toward pointier wings while reforestation in New England led to rounder wings.

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  7. Animals

    SOS: Call the ants

    Emergency ant workers bite at snares, dig and tug to free trapped sisters

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  8. Animals

    Tool use to crow about

    A pair of new studies indicates that crows can employ tools in advanced ways, including using stones to displace water in a container and manipulating three sticks in sequence to reach food.

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  9. Life

    Death-grip fungus made me do it

    Infection may be driving ants to set their jaws in low-hanging leaves before they die.

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  10. Animals

    Of mice and men

    Rapid anatomical changes in rodents linked to increases in human population density, precipitation.

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  11. Animals

    New HIV-1 group

    Scientists have identified another variant of the virus that can cause AIDS.

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  12. Life

    Bent innards give orchid its kick

    Violent pollen delivery in Catasetum flowers gets its power from temporarily deformed inner strip

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