Animals
- Animals
Would dogs return the favor if you gave them treats? It’s complicated
An experiment in which dogs did not reciprocate food giving with humans may reveal something about the dogs, or about how science is done.
- Animals
Climate change may rob male dragonfly wings of their dark spots
Less colorful, cooler wings may be advantageous to dragonflies in a warmer world. But the change could mess with the insects’ mating.
- Animals
Froghoppers are the super-suckers of the animal world
To feed on plant xylem sap, a nutrient-poor liquid locked away under negative pressure, froghoppers have to suck harder than any known creature.
- Animals
Dogs tune into people in ways even human-raised wolves don’t
Puppies outpace wolf pups at engaging with humans, even with less exposure to people, supporting the idea that domestication has wired dogs’ brains.
- Life
Sea otters stay warm thanks to leaky mitochondria in their muscles
For the smallest mammal in the ocean, staying warm is a challenge. Now, scientists have figured out how the animals keep themselves toasty.
- Animals
Focusing on Asian giant hornets distorts the view of invasive species
2021’s first “murder hornet” is yet another arrival. This is the not-so-new normal.
- Animals
These beetles walk on water, upside down, underneath the surface
Many insects can skate atop the water’s surface thanks to water tension, but one beetle can apparently tread along the underside of this boundary.
- Animals
A proposed ‘quantum compass’ for songbirds just got more plausible
Quantum physics could be behind birds’ magnetic sense of direction, new measurements indicate.
- Animals
How a gecko named Mr. Frosty could help shed new light on skin cancer
The distinctive coloring and skin tumors of a type of gecko called Lemon Frost have been pegged to a gene implicated in human skin cancer.
- Animals
Chinese mountain cats swap DNA with domestic cats, but aren’t their ancestors
DNA suggests little-studied Chinese mountain cats have been rendezvousing with pet cats on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau since the 1950s.
- Animals
‘Fathom’ seeks to unravel humpback whales’ soulful songs
The film ‘Fathom’ on Apple TV+ follows the quest of researchers on the ocean’s surface to decipher the eerie symphony of humpback whale calls below.
- Animals
New images clarify how glasswing butterflies make their wings transparent
Close-up views of glasswing butterflies reveal the secrets behind the insect’s see-through wings: sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coating.
