Animals

  1. 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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  2. 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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  3. 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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  4. 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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  5. 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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  6. 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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  7. 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.

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  8. 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.

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  9. Life

    Bobtail squid coat their eggs in antifungal goo

    Hawaiian bobtail squid keep their eggs fungus-free with the help of bacteria.

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  10. 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.

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  11. Animals

    Why humans, and Big Macs, depend on bees

    Thor Hanson, the author of Buzz, explains the vital role bees play in our world.

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  12. Animals

    Soaring spiders may get cues from electric charges in the air

    Spiders can sense atmospheric electric fields, which might give them cues to take to the air.

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