Animals
- Fossils
Stunning trilobite fossils include never-before-seen soft tissues
Well-preserved fossils from Morocco help reveal the weird way trilobites ate and perhaps why these iconic animals went extinct.
- Brain
Just how brainy was a T. rex?
A debate rages over how to count brain cells in dinosaurs. At issue: figuring out how these extinct animals’ likely behaved.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Beakiation
Parrots use this clever sidestepping motion to maneuver along thin branches.
- Animals
Wild medicine! An orangutan treated his wound with a local plant
This great ape, living in Indonesia, doctored the gash on his face with a plant that people living in the area use as a natural medicine.
- Animals
Tiny treadmills reveal how fruit flies sprint
Forcing fruit flies to move shows how the insects coordinate their steps. This holds clues to other animals’ brains and movement.
- 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
Hibernating bumblebee queens can survive days of watery submersion
Hibernating queen bumblebees survived accidental submersion, leading researchers to discover their surprising resilience to flooding.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Endotherm and Ectotherm
Endotherms use their own energy to maintain their internal temperature. Ectotherms use external heat sources to control their body temperature.
- Animals
Belugas can warp and wiggle their forehead fat like Jell-O
Molding and moving this ‘melon’ may help the whales communicate.
- Plants
Flowers may electrically detect bees buzzing nearby
The discovery may reveal how plants time nectar production and share information with neighboring blooms.
- Animals
Phoenixes aren’t the only creatures to survive the flames
Although a phoenix that burns and lives is a myth, many living things on Earth don’t mind hot temperatures.
- Planets
The desert planet in ‘Dune’ is pretty realistic, scientists say
Humans could live on the fictional planet Arrakis from Dune. But thankfully giant sandworms probably could not.
