Animals

Animals

Devil worm genes hold clues for how some animals survive extreme heat

Devil worms have many extra copies of genes tied to heat stress and cell death, which may help the critters survive deep underground, a study finds.

Life

Caribou migrate farther than any other known land animal

Caribou in Alaska and Canada migrate up to 1,350 kilometers round trip each year, a study reports.

Animals

Humpback whales in the South Atlantic have recovered from near-extinction

A new count shows the population off Brazil went from about 450 in the 1950s to some 25,000 today.

Animals

A tooth fossil shows Gigantopithecus’ close ties to modern orangutans

Proteins from the past help clarify how an ancient Asian ape that was larger than a full-grown, modern male gorilla evolved.

Earth

Plastics outnumber baby fish 7-to-1 in some coastal nurseries

Ocean slicks serve as calm, food-rich nurseries for larval fish. A new study shows that slicks also accumulate plastics, which get eaten by baby fish.

Animals

Flipping a molecular switch can turn warrior ants into foragers

Toggling one protein soon after hatching makes Florida carpenter ants turn from fighting to hunting for food.

Animals

Power lines may mess with honeybees’ behavior and ability to learn

Under power lines, honeybees might suffer neurological effects from exposure to electromagnetic fields.

Animals

Silver-backed chevrotains have been ‘rediscovered’ by science after 29 years

With help from Vietnamese villagers, researchers captured photos of a species of deerlike ungulate thought lost to science nearly three decades ago.

Animals

Apple TV+’s ‘The Elephant Queen’ shies away from hard truths

The Elephant Queen offers an intimate look into the lives of elephants, but the documentary largely avoids threats the animals face.

Life

Vampire bat friendships endure from captivity to the wild

Vampire bats can form social bonds that persist from a lab setting to the outdoors, suggesting the cooperative relationships are like friendships.

Animals

Spider webs don’t rot easily and scientists may have figured out why

Spider silk doesn’t rot quickly because bacteria can’t access its nitrogen, a nutrient needed for the microbes’ growth, scientists say.

Life

Saharan silver ants are the world’s fastest despite relatively short legs

Saharan silver ants can hit speeds of 108 times their body length per second.