Animals
- Animals
Some male hummingbirds wield their bills as weapons
The shape of some hummingbird bills may reflect a trade-off between drinking nectar and fighting off the competition.
- Fossils
These fuzz-covered flying reptiles had catlike whiskers
New fossils are changing the look of ancient flying reptiles called pterosaurs.
- Animals
To monitor penguin diet from satellites, look to poop
Scientists have figured out what foods dominate an Adélie penguin colony’s diet by looking at Landsat imagery. But to do so, they had to start with penguin poop.
- Animals
How some insects fling their pee
Insects called sharpshooters use a tiny barb on their rear ends to hurl their pee at 20 times the acceleration of Earth’s gravity.
- Animals
Scientists Say: Jellies
Jellies have roamed the seas for 500 million years. Some have stinging tentacles and bell-shaped bodies and are called jellyfish. Others are very different.
- Animals
This spider feeds a type of milk to its babies
Even after spiderlings start hunting for themselves, they return to mom for milk.
- Ecosystems
Mosquito repellent could pose risks to baby salamanders
Two ingredients in bug repellant — DEET and picaridin — can end up in streams. There, they may hurt salamanders but leave mosquitoes alone, a study finds.
- Animals
Living Mysteries: This complex beast lurks on lobster whiskers
A tiny animal discovered on a lobster’s whiskers shows that the smallest animals on Earth can be surprisingly complex.
- Animals
How wombats make their unique cube-shaped poop
The elasticity of the wombat’s intestines helps the creature to shape its distinctive scat.
- Ecosystems
Scientists Say: Symbiosis
Two species can live together and support each other in a relationship called symbiosis.
- Animals
How do elephants eat cereal? With a pinch
Elephant trunks can grab everything from whole trees to cereal bits. To pick up fine grains, they press, then pinch.
- Animals
Bees stopped buzzing during the Great American Eclipse
A rare study of bees during a total solar eclipse finds that the insects buzzed around as usual — until the darkness of totality arrived.
