Animals
- Anthropology
Koko the gorilla is gone, but she left a legacy
An ape that touched millions imparted some hard lessons about primate research.
- Animals
Each year painted lady butterflies cross the Sahara — and then go back again
Painted ladies migrate the farthest of any butterfly.
- Ecosystems
Madagascar’s predators are probably vulnerable to toxic toads
The Asian common toad, an invasive species in Madagascar, produces a toxin in its skin that’s probably toxic to most of the island’s predators.
- Animals
Leaf-cutter ants pick up the pace when they sense rain
Leaf-cutter ants struggle to carry wet leaves, so they run to avoid rain.
- Paleontology
These newfound frogs have been trapped in amber for 99 million years
Trapped in amber, 99-million-year-old frog fossils reveal the amphibians lived in a wet, tropical climate.
- Animals
Here’s what narwhals sound like underwater
Scientists eavesdropped while narwhals clicked and buzzed. The work could help pinpoint how the whales may react to more human noise in the Arctic.
- Animals
Bees join an exclusive crew of animals that get the concept of zero
Honeybees can pass a test of ranking ‘nothing’ as less than one.
- Animals
In a conservation catch-22, efforts to save quolls might endanger them
After 13 generations isolated from predators, the endangered northern quoll lost its fear of them.
- Life
Dogs carry a surprising variety of flu viruses
Dogs in China carry a wider variety of flu viruses than previously thought, and may be capable of passing the flu to humans.
- Health & Medicine
‘Outbreak’ puts the life cycle of an epidemic on display
At the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the exhibit “Outbreak” highlights how infectious diseases shape our world.
- Animals
The first land-walking vertebrates may have emerged from salty estuaries
Early tetrapods were transitional creatures — not only between land and water, but also between fresh and salty environments.
- Paleontology
Oldest known lizard fossil pushes group’s origins back 75 million years
CT scan reveals hidden identity of an unusual lizard fossil found years ago in the Italian Alps.
