Animals

  1. 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.

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  2. 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.

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  3. 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.

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  4. 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.

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  5. 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.

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  6. Science & Society

    Readers respond to pesticides, Hawking radiation and more

    Readers had questions about pesticides, Hawking radiation and the intersection of science and the public.

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  7. Life

    Skeletons come in many shapes and sizes

    In Skeletons, two paleobiologists recount how and why skeletons evolved, as well as the variety of forms they take and the many purposes they serve.

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  8. Animals

    Pregnant bonobos get a little delivery help from their friends

    As in humans, female bonobos become helpers for mothers giving birth, data from captive apes suggest.

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  9. Animals

    A caterpillar outwits corn defenses by gorging on fattening ‘junk’ food

    The crop plants defend themselves with zombie-maker wasps, but one pest has a desperate work-around.

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  10. Earth

    Keeping global warming to 1.5 degrees C helps most species hold their ground

    Holding global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius by 2100 could help protect tens of thousands of insect, plant and vertebrate species.

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  11. Animals

    50 years ago, scientists warned of a sparrow’s extinction

    Only 17 dusky seaside sparrows remained in 1968. Today, there are none.

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  12. Animals

    Green blood in lizards probably evolved four times

    Pigment buildups that would cause jaundice in people are normal for some New Guinea skinks.

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