Life
- Paleontology
Armored dinos may have used their tail clubs to bludgeon each other
Broken and healed spikes on Zuul's flanks are consistent with the armored beast receiving a mighty blow from the tail club of another ankylosaur.
- Life
A parasite makes wolves more likely to become pack leaders
In Yellowstone National Park, gray wolves infected with Toxoplasma gondii make riskier decisions, making them more likely to split off from the pack.
- Animals
A new book asks: What makes humans call some animals pests?
In an interview with Science News, science journalist Bethany Brookshire discusses her new book, Pests, and why humans vilify certain animals.
- Animals
A natural gene drive could steer invasive rodents on islands to extinction
A few genetic tweaks to a readily passed-on chunk of DNA could sterilize a mouse population, eliminating them in as little as 25 years.
- Paleontology
Why the sale of a T. rex fossil could be a big loss for science
At least half of the roughly 120 known T. rex fossils are owned privately and not available to the public. “Maximus” may join them.
- Paleontology
This dinosaur may have had a body like a duck’s
Natovenator polydontus may have been adapted for life in the water, challenging the popular idea that all dinos were landlubbers.
- Paleontology
Mammoths may have gone extinct much earlier than DNA suggests
Ancient DNA in sediments may be leading paleontologists astray in attempts to figure out when woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos died out, a new study argues.
- Animals
Dry pet food may be more environmentally friendly than wet food
The environmental cost of wet pet food is higher than dry food, scientists say. That may be because wet food gets most of its calories from animals.
- Neuroscience
Rats can bop their heads to the beat
Rats’ rhythmic response to human music doesn’t mean they like to dance, but it may shed light on how brains evolved to perceive rhythm.
- Animals
Long considered loners, many marsupials may have complex social lives
Some marsupials may be more sociable than previously thought, opening the door to a possible deep legacy of social organization systems in mammals
- Animals
These devices use an electric field to scare sharks from fishing hooks
SharkGuard gadgets work by harnessing sharks’ ability to detect electric fields. That could save the animals’ lives, a study suggests.
- Health & Medicine
Louis Pasteur’s devotion to truth transformed what we know about health and disease
Two centuries after his birth, Louis Pasteur's work on pasteurization, germ theory and vaccines is as relevant as ever.
