Animals

  1. Animals

    Fighting like an animal doesn’t always mean a duel to the death

    Conflict resolution within species isn’t always deadly and often involves cost-benefit analyses.

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  2. Animals

    This ancient fowl bit like a dinosaur and pecked like a bird

    A new fossil of Ichthyornis dispar helped scientists create a 3-D reconstruction of the ancient bird’s skull, shedding light on early bird evolution.

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  3. Climate

    Bull sharks and bottlenose dolphins are moving north as the ocean warms

    Rising temperatures are making ocean waters farther north more hospitable for a variety of marine species.

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  4. Animals

    Defenseless moths do flying impressions of scary bees and wasps

    Faking that erratic bee flight or no-nonsense wasp zoom might save a moth’s life.

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  5. Animals

    How a social lifestyle helped drive a river otter species to near extinction

    A reconstruction of 20th-century hunting practices reveals why one species of Amazon river otters nearly went extinct while another persisted.

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  6. Animals

    See (and hear) the stunning diversity of bowhead whales’ songs

    Bowhead whales display a huge range in their underwater melodies, but the drivers behind this diversity remain murky.

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  7. Animals

    ‘The Curious Life of Krill’ is an ode to an underappreciated crustacean

    A new book makes the case that Antarctic krill and the dangers they face deserve your attention.

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  8. Archaeology

    Footprints prove humans hunted giant sloths during the Ice Age

    Footprints of humans and giant sloths show a dramatic chase sequence from more than 10,000 years ago.

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  9. Genetics

    Cicadas on different schedules can hybridize

    A new genetic study suggests that cicadas that emerge every 17 years have swapped genetic material with those that emerge every 13 years.

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  10. Animals

    Male fruit flies enjoy ejaculation

    Red light exposure made some genetically engineered fruit flies ejaculate, spurring a surge of a brain reward compound — and less desire for booze.

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  11. Animals

    These seals haven’t lost their land ancestors’ hunting ways

    Clawed pawlike forelimbs help true seals hunt like their land-dwelling ancestors.

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  12. Animals

    These hummingbirds aim their singing tail feathers to wow mates

    Acoustic cameras reveal how male Costa’s hummingbirds can aim the sound produced by fluttering tail feathers during courtship dives.

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