Animals
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Ecosystems
Bird poop helps keep coral reefs healthy, but rats are messing that up
Eradicating invasive rats from islands may help boost numbers of seabirds, whose droppings provide nutrients to nearby coral reefs.
- Climate
Bloodflowers’ risk to monarchs could multiply as climate changes
High atmospheric carbon dioxide levels can weaken the medicinal value of a milkweed that caterpillars eat, and high temperatures may make the plant toxic.
- Life
Bobtail squid coat their eggs in antifungal goo
Hawaiian bobtail squid keep their eggs fungus-free with the help of bacteria.
- Animals
Surprise! This shark looks like a male on the outside, but it’s made babies
External male reproductive organs hid internal female capacity to give birth among hermaphrodite sharks in India.
- Animals
Why humans, and Big Macs, depend on bees
Thor Hanson, the author of Buzz, explains the vital role bees play in our world.
