Animals
- Astronomy
Questions about solar storms, slingshot spiders and more reader feedback
Readers had questions about solar storms, a robotic gripper, slingshot spiders and more.
- Animals
A 50-million-year-old fossil captures a swimming school of fish
Analysis of a fossilized fish shoal suggests that animals may have evolved coordinated group movement around 50 million years ago.
- Animals
Shy fish no bigger than a pinkie provide much of the food in coral reefs
More than half of the fish flesh that predators in coral reefs eat comes from tiny, hard-to-spot species.
- Animals
Tiger sharks feast on migratory birds that fall out of the sky
Terrestrial birds that fall from the sky during their migration across the Gulf of Mexico can end up in the bellies of tiger sharks.
- Animals
Bad moods could be contagious among ravens
Ravens may pick up and share their compatriots’ negativity, a study on the social intelligence of these animals suggests.
- Animals
Vaccines may help bats fight white nose syndrome
Researchers are developing an oral vaccine that helps little brown bats survive the fungal disease white nose syndrome.
- Animals
Some dog breeds may have trouble breathing because of a mutated gene
Norwich terriers don’t have flat snouts, but can suffer the same wheezing as bulldogs. It turns out that a gene mutation tied to swelling could be to blame.
- Life
Bloodthirsty bedbugs have feasted on prey for 100 million years
Research sheds light on the evolutionary history of the bloodsucking bedbugs. The first species evolved at least as early as the Cretaceous, scientists say.
- Animals
Peacock spiders’ superblack spots reflect just 0.5 percent of light
By manipulating light with tiny structures, patches on peacock spiders appear superblack, helping accentuate the arachnids’ bright colors.
- Genetics
Tweaking one gene with CRISPR switched the way a snail shell spirals
The first gene-edited snails confirm which gene is responsible for the direction of the shell’s spiral.
- Animals
Deep-sea fishes’ eye chemistry might let them see colors in near darkness
An unexpected abundance of proteins for catching dim light evolved independently in three groups of weird deep-sea fishes.
- Earth
A belly full of wriggling worms makes wood beetles better recyclers
Common beetles that eat rotten logs chew up more wood when filled with a roundworm larvae, releasing nutrients more quickly back to the forest floor.
