Animals
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Animals
What spiders eating weird stuff tell us about complex Amazon food webs
By documenting rare events of invertebrates eating small vertebrates, scientists are shedding new light on the Amazon rainforest’s intricate ecosystem.
By Jeremy Rehm -
Animals
This parasitic cuckoo bird shows cheaters don’t always get ahead
Birds called greater anis that can slip extra eggs into other nests create a natural test of the benefits of honest parenting.
By Susan Milius -
Animals
‘Mama’s Last Hug’ showcases the emotional lives of animals
In ‘Mama’s Last Hug,’ Frans de Waal argues that emotions occur throughout the animal world.
By Erin Wayman -
Animals
Hermit crabs are drawn to the smell of their own dead
A new study finds that the smell of hermit crab flesh attracts other hermit crabs of the same species desperately looking for a larger shell.
By Yao-Hua Law -
Animals
The world’s largest bee has been rediscovered after 38 years
Researchers rediscovered the world’s largest bee living in the forests of an island of Indonesia.
By Jeremy Rehm -
Paleontology
A deer-sized T. rex ancestor shows how fast tyrannosaurs became giants
A newly found dinosaur called Moros intrepidus fills a hole in the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurs, helping narrow when the group sized up.
By Jeremy Rehm -
Animals
50 years ago, DDT pushed peregrine falcons to the edge of extinction
In 1969, peregrine falcons were at risk of extinction. But a ban on the pesticide DDT and new captive breeding programs allowed the raptors to recover.
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Animals
A rare, ancient case of bone cancer has been found in a turtle ancestor
A 240-million-year-old fossil reveals the oldest known case of bone cancer in an amniote, a group that includes mammals, birds and reptiles.
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Artificial Intelligence
Readers marvel at AI, space missions and wombat poop
Readers had comments and questions about defining artificial intelligence, the New Horizons space mission and more.
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Animals
How black soldier fly larvae can demolish a pizza so fast
When gorging together, fly larvae create a living fountain that whooshes slowpokes up and away.
By Susan Milius -
Genetics
DNA from extinct red wolves lives on in some mysterious Texas coyotes
Mystery canids on Texas’ Galveston Island carry red wolf DNA, thought to be extinct in the wild for 40 years.
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Animals
Giant pandas may have only recently switched to eating mostly bamboo
Giant pandas may have switched to an exclusive bamboo diet some 5,000 years ago, not 2 million years ago as previously thought.
By Jeremy Rehm