All Stories by Jake Buehler
- Plants
This squid-like ‘fairy lantern’ plant is new to science
A newly named species of fairy lantern — a parasitic plant — sports tentacles and grows among leaf litter and rotten logs in Malaysian rainforests.
- Animals
Corals may have been the first life forms to glow in the dark
Ancestors of modern octocorals may have lit up the deep sea as far back as 540 million years ago.
- Animals
This egg-laying amphibian feeds its babies ‘milk’
Similar to mammals, this caecilian — an egg-laying amphibian — makes a nutrient-rich, milk-like fluid to feed its babies up to six times a day.
- Animals
Horned lizards and snakes tend to ambush their prey
The reptiles’ horns could help or hinder during foraging, depending on how they hunt. This might be why horns evolved in some species and not others.
- Animals
Bonobos cooperate across social groups — even with no clear payoff
Bonobos cooperate with outsiders, even when they get no clear benefit out of it. This could shed light on social evolution in other primates, even us.
- Animals
These penguins nap 10,000 times a day, for seconds at a time
Such an extreme sleep schedule may help nesting chinstrap penguins protect their young while still getting more than 11 hours of shut-eye.
- Fossils
T. rex may have hidden its teeth behind lips
Dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus have long been portrayed with their big teeth bared. But new research suggests this wasn’t so.
- Animals
This parasite makes wolves more likely to become leaders
Gray wolves infected with Toxoplasma gondii make riskier decisions. This makes them more likely to become pack leaders or strike out on their own.
- Fossils
Armored dinos may have used tail clubs to bash each other
Broken spikes on a fossil dino’s sides are consistent with the armored beast having received a mighty blow from another ankylosaur’s tail club.
- Fossils
Dinosaur ‘mummies’ may not be as rare as once thought
Bite marks found on a fossilized dino show that skin can be preserved even when a carcass is not immediately smothered by sediment.
- Animals
When bees are away, moths come out to pollinate
Camera footage reveals that moths make roughly a third of the visits to red clover, working under the cover of night.
- Animals
Butterfly ‘tails’ might be part of an escape tactic
Slender, tail-like extensions on their wings may help some butterflies survive attacks by hungry predators.
