Animals

  1. Genetics

    Study debunks fishy tale of how rabbits were first tamed

    A popular tale about rabbit domestication turns out to be fiction.

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  2. Life

    Shipping noise can disturb porpoises and disrupt their mealtime

    Noise from ships may disturb harbor porpoises enough to keep them from getting the food they need.

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  3. Animals

    Even after bedbugs are eradicated, their waste lingers

    Bedbug waste contains high levels of the allergy-triggering chemical histamine, which stays behind even after the insects are eradicated.

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  4. Animals

    Trove of hummingbird flight data reveals secrets of nimble flying

    Tweaks in muscle and wing form give different hummingbird species varying levels of agility.

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  5. Animals

    It’s a bad idea for a toad to swallow a bombardier beetle

    Toads are tough. But there are some insects even they shouldn’t swallow.

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  6. Paleontology

    This ancient creature looks like a spider with a tail

    A newly discovered ancient creature looks like a spider and has silk spinners and spidery male sex organs.

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  7. Animals

    A peek into polar bears’ lives reveals revved-up metabolisms

    Polar bears have higher metabolisms than scientists thought. In a world with declining Arctic sea ice, that could spell trouble.

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  8. Animals

    A killer whale gives a raspberry and says ‘hello’

    Tests of imitating sounds finds that orcas can sort of mimic humans.

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  9. Animals

    Slower speed, tricky turns give prey a chance against cheetahs and lions

    A bonanza of data on wild predators running shows that hunting is more than sprinting.

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  10. Animals

    Here’s why so many saiga antelope mysteriously died in 2015

    Higher than normal temperatures turned normally benign bacteria lethal, killing hundreds of thousands of the saiga antelopes.

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  11. Genetics

    Baby macaques are the first primates to be cloned like Dolly the Sheep

    Scientists have cloned two baby macaque monkeys with the same technique used to clone Dolly. The research could help advance the cloning of other species.

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  12. Health & Medicine

    Here’s the key ingredient that lets a centipede’s bite take down prey

    A newly identified “spooky toxin” launches a broad attack but might be eased with a version of a known drug.

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