Animals

  1. Animals

    DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa

    When and where donkeys were domesticated has been a long-standing mystery. DNA now reveals they were tamed much earlier than horses.

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  2. Paleontology

    Living fast may have helped mammals like ‘ManBearPig’ dominate

    Staying in the womb for a while but being born ready to rock may have helped post-dinosaur mammals take over the planet.

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  3. Animals

    A clever molecular trick extends the lives of these ant queens

    Ant queens typically live much longer than their workers by blocking a key part of a molecular pathway implicated in aging, a new study suggests.

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  4. Paleontology

    This bizarre ancient critter has been kicked out of a group that includes humans

    A wee sea creature without an anus was thought to be the oldest deuterostome. New imaging showing it had spines led to its reclassification.

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  5. Animals

    How death’s-head hawkmoths manage to fly straight for miles in the dark

    By tailing death’s-head hawkmoths in an airplane, scientists have found that the nocturnal insects appear to navigate using an internal compass.

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  6. Science & Society

    A new seasoning smells like meat thanks to sugar — and mealworms

    A spoonful of sugars could help cooked mealworms go down more easily, a potential boon for the planet.

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  7. Animals

    News stories have caught spiders in a web of misinformation

    Nearly half of news stories about peoples’ interactions with spiders contain errors, according to a new analysis.

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  8. Animals

    Sea urchin skeletons’ splendid patterns may strengthen their structure

    “Voronoi” geometric patterns found in sea urchin skeletons yield strong yet lightweight structures that could inspire the creation of new materials.

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  9. Animals

    Extreme climate shifts long ago may have helped drive reptile evolution

    The end-Permian extinction left reptiles plenty of open ecological niches. But rapid climate change may be what kick-started the animals’ dominance.

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  10. Life

    An award-winning photo captures a ‘zombie’ fungus erupting from a fly

    The winner of the 2022 BMC Ecology and Evolution photo competition captures a macabre cycle of life and death in the Peruvian Amazon.

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  11. Animals

    Why mosquitoes are especially good at smelling you

    How Aedes aegypti mosquitoes smell things is different from how most animals do, making hiding human odors from the insects more complicated.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    The first known monkeypox infection in a pet dog hints at spillover risk

    A person passed monkeypox to a dog. Other animals might be next, allowing the virus to set up shop outside of Africa for the first time.

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