Life

Animals

Beyond Falsetto: Do mice sing at ultrasonic frequencies?

Male mice may serenade prospective mates at pitches about two octaves higher than the shrillest sounds audible to the human ear. With Audio.

Paleontology

Caribbean Extinctions: Climate change probably wasn’t the culprit

Remains of extinct sloths unearthed in Cuba and Haiti indicate that the creatures persisted in Caribbean enclaves until about 4,200 years ago, a finding that almost absolves climate change following the last ice age as a cause for the die-offs.

Paleontology

Some plesiosaurs went for clams

The fossils of plesiosaurs recently unearthed in Australia suggest that the long-necked, aquatic reptiles had a more varied diet than scientists had previously suspected.

Animals

Great Galloping Crinoids: Lilylike sea animal takes a brisk walk

A sea creature called a stalked crinoid may look as motionless as a flower on a stem but a video has revealed it practically jogging across the ocean floor. Video.

Animals

Cool Birds

Emperor penguins go to such extremes to cope with life in Antarctica that they've inspired interesting science as well as a hit movie.

Animals

Proxy Vampire: Spider eats blood by catching mosquitoes

Researchers studying food preferences among spiders report finding the first one with a taste for vertebrate blood.

Paleontology

Raptor Line: Fossil finds push back dinosaur ancestry

Fossils of a newly discovered raptor dinosaur species suggest that the reptile's lineage is older and more widespread than previously suspected.

Animals

Baited camera snaps first live giant squid

For the first time, researchers have photographed a living giant squid in the wild.

Animals

Looks Matter: If swallows aren’t spiffy, mates’ fidelity is iffy

If a male barn swallow's plumage is more attractive than that of other males, his mate is less likely to have furtive flings with other wooers.

Paleontology

DNA pegs Irish elk’s nearest relatives

Analyses of DNA of the Irish elk, which died out after the last ice age, may settle a long-running debate about the creature's place on the deer family tree.

Animals

Balls of Fire: Bees carefully cook invaders to death

Honeybees that defend their colonies by killing wasps with body heat come within 5 degrees C of cooking themselves in the process.

Ecosystems

West Nile virus fells endangered condor

A 3-month-old California condor chick, one of only four of this highly endangered species born in the wild this year, succumbed to a West Nile virus infection.