Life
- Animals
Why Play Dead?
Common wisdom dictates that playing dead discourages predators, but researchers are now thinking harder about how, or whether, that strategy really works.
- Animals
Tropical diversity came with time
Species in richly diverse tropics don't evolve faster than do species in temperate zones.
- Animals
Courting Costs: Male prairie dogs seem too busy mating to dodge predators
Male prairie dogs get so distracted during mating season that predators find them easy pickings.
- Animals
Krill kick up a storm of ocean mixing
Scientists have measured living creatures' contribution to the stirring of ocean water, and they found that little kicking krill legs do a lot.
- Animals
Silky feet
Zebra tarantulas can secrete silk from their feet, a feat that may help them better adhere to surfaces.
- Animals
Scent Stalking: Parasitic vine grows toward tomato odor
A wiry orange vine finds plants to raid for nutrients by growing toward their smell. With video.
- Animals
Mother deer can’t ID their fawns by call
Fawns can distinguish their mom's voice from another deer's, but a mom can't pick out her fawn's call.
- Paleontology
Flying with Their Legs: Hind feathers made primitive bird nimble
The earliest-known bird had feathers on its legs that may have provided lift for flight, improving its maneuverability.
- Animals
Crickets on Mute: Hush falls as killer fly stalks singers
Within just 5 years, singing has nearly died out among a population of cricket on a Hawaiian island.
- Animals
Sexually Deceptive Chemistry: Beetle larvae fake the scent of female bees
Trick chemistry lets a bunch of writhing caterpillars attract a male bee that they then use as a flying taxi on their way to find food.
- Animals
Family Tree: An arboreal genome is sequenced
Researchers have sequenced the genome of a tree for the first time.
- Animals
Battle of the Hermaphrodites
A biologist argues that combining the sexes can actually make gender wars worse.
