Life

Sign up for our newsletter

We summarize the week's science breakthroughs every Thursday.

  1. Paleontology

    All mixed up over birds and dinosaurs

    A bit of fossil fakery snookered a team of paleontologists

    By
  2. Ecosystems

    Plight of the Iguanas: Hidden die-off followed Galápagos spill

    Residues of oil spilled in the Galapágos Islands in January 2001 may have caused a 60 percent decline in one island's colony of marine iguanas.

    By
  3. Ecosystems

    Famine reveals incredible shrinking iguanas

    Marine iguanas in the Galápagos Islands are the first vertebrates known to reduce their size during a food shortage and then regrow to their original body lengths.

    By
  4. Animals

    Male bats primp daily for odor display

    For the first time, scientists have described the daily routine of male sac-winged bats gathering to freshen the odor pouches on their wings.

    By
  5. Animals

    Sniff . . . Pow! Wasps use chemicals to start ant brawls

    Wasps sneak around in ant colonies thanks to chemicals that send the ants into a distracting frenzy of fighting among themselves.

    By
  6. Animals

    Walking sticks mimic two leafy looks and split their species

    A species of walking stick may be evolving into two species by adapting to different environments.

    By
  7. Animals

    Mole-rats: Kissing but not quite cousins

    Damaraland mole-rats live underground in rodent versions of bee hives, but a genetic analysis of these colonies finds that kinship isn't very beelike.

    By
  8. Animals

    Gator Feelings: Tough faces, more sensitive than ours

    Alligator and crocodile faces carry pressure receptors so responsive that they can detect ripples on the water's surface from a single falling drop.

    By
  9. Animals

    No Tickling: Common caterpillars deploy defensive hair

    The caterpillars of the European cabbage butterfly have a chemical defense system that scientists haven't documented before.

    By
  10. Animals

    Dogged Dieting: Low-cal canines enjoy longer life

    The first completed diet-restriction study in a large animal shows that labrador retrievers fed 25 percent less food than those allowed to eat as much as they desired tend to live longer and suffer fewer age-related diseases.

    By
  11. Paleontology

    Ancient Whodunit: Scientists indict wee suspects in ancient deaths

    Evidence locked in 180,000-year-old sediments suggests that a toxic algae bloom was the cause of death for a large group of mammals that were fossilized intact on an ancient lake bottom.

    By
  12. Animals

    Rebranding the Hyena

    Zoologists are hoping that long-term ecological studies of the spotted hyena will assist in dispelling the animal's undeservedly bad reputation.

    By