Animals

  1. Animals

    A ghost gene leaves ocean mammals vulnerable to some pesticides

    Manatees, dolphins and other warm-blooded marine animals can't break down organophosphates due to genetic mutations that occurred long ago.

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  2. Animals

    This killifish can go from egg to sex in two weeks

    The fastest known maturing vertebrate in the lab is even faster in the wild.

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  3. Genetics

    The first detailed map of red foxes’ DNA may reveal domestication secrets

    Thanks to a newly deciphered genome of red foxes, researchers have pinpointed regions in the animals’ DNA linked to taming them.

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Rat lungworm disease is popping up in the mainland United States

    A disease caused by a parasite endemic to Asia sickened at least 12 people in eight states in the continental United States from 2011 to 2017.

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  5. Paleontology

    Fossil teeth show how a mass extinction scrambled shark evolution

    The dinosaur-destroying mass extinction event didn’t wipe out sharks, but it did change their fate.

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  6. Animals

    With one island’s losses, the king penguin species shrinks by a third

    Once home to the largest known colony of king penguins, Île aux Cochons has lost most of its birds for unknown reason.

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  7. Health & Medicine

    A medical mystery reveals a new host for the rat lungworm parasite

    Doctors report that A. cantonensis was transmitted to two people who ate raw centipedes, but you can get it from other creatures as well.

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  8. Animals

    Got an environmental problem? Beavers could be the solution

    A new book shows how important beavers have been in the past — and how they could improve the landscape of the future.

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  9. Animals

    A new ankylosaur found in Utah had a surprisingly bumpy head

    The spiky, fossilized skull of a newly discovered dinosaur species may be a road map to its ancestors’ journey to North America.

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  10. Animals

    New ‘Poké Ball’ robot catches deep-sea critters without harming them

    A machine that gently catches and releases animals underwater could help researchers take a more detailed census of the deep sea.

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  11. Paleontology

    This amber nugget from Myanmar holds the first known baby snake fossil

    Amber preserves the delicate bone structure of a 99 million year old baby snake.

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  12. Animals

    Malaysia’s pig-tail macaques eat rats, head first

    Pig-tail macaques are seen as a menace on Malaysian palm oil plantations, but may be helping to reduce rodent populations.

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