Animals
- Animals
A love of small mammals drives this scientist
Alexis Mychajliw’s science is driven by her love of animals. She now looks to tar pits and fossilized poop to understand ancient ecosystems.
- Animals
Prairie voles can couple up even without the ‘love hormone’
Scientists thought the chemical oxytocin was required to make prairie voles mate. They were wrong.
- Environment
Protecting forests may help head off future pandemics
Hungry bats are more likely to shed harmful viruses to people or livestock when they spread out to hunt food. Conserving forests may limit this risk.
- Animals
Bumblebees go out of their way to play
Young bumblebees roll wooden balls and go out of their way to do so. This suggests they play like other animals do.
- Fossils
An ancient ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground
Some 230 million years ago, huge dolphin-like reptiles appear to have gathered to breed in safe waters, just as many whales do today.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Metamorphosis
Animals that go through metamorphosis look very different as adults than they did as kids.
- 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.
- Animals
Tiny bumps on polar bear paws help them get traction on snow
Super-small structures on the Arctic animals’ paws might offer extra friction that keeps them from slipping on snow, a new study concludes.
- Fossils
Let’s learn about pterosaurs
These ancient flying reptiles were not dinosaurs, but they were close relatives.
- Animals
Study finds big drop in animal populations since 1970
But the same thing is not happening throughout the kingdom. For instance, more than half of vertebrate populations are stable or increasing.
- Animals
Some young fruit flies’ eyeballs literally pop out of their heads
The first published photo shoot of developing Pelmatops flies shows how their eyes rise on gangly stalks in the first hour of adulthood.
- Animals
Cougars pushed out by wildfires took more risks around roads
After an intense burn in 2018 in California, big cats in the region crossed roads more often. That put them at higher risk of becoming roadkill.
