This newfound tarantula is the first known to make its home in bamboo
Meet “bambootula.” This newfound tarantula gets its nickname from the tall, stiff-shafted grass in which it makes a home in northern Thailand. Taksinus bambus, as…
Category: Life
Africa’s fynbos plants hold their ground with the world’s thinnest roots
Some plant roots draw a line in the sand — literally. In South Africa, you can move between cool, green forest and sunbaked shrubland in…
Why kitchen sponges are the perfect home for bacteria
Ask bacteria where they’d like to live, and they’ll answer: a kitchen sponge, please. Sponges are microbe paradises, capable of housing 54 billion bacteria per…
Fossils show a crocodile ancestor dined on a young dinosaur
For the first time, scientists have found indisputable evidence that an ancient crocodile ancestor chowed down on a dinosaur. Preserved within a fossilized crocodyliform, a…
A diamondlike structure gives some starfish skeletons their strength
Some starfish made of a brittle material fortify themselves with architectural antics. Beneath a starfish’s skin lies a skeleton made of pebbly growths, called ossicles,…
Fossils reveal what may be the oldest known case of the dino sniffles
The prehistoric world wasn’t a paradise free of disease, but diagnosing ancient ailments is tricky: Germs usually don’t fossilize well. Now, though, researchers have unearthed…
How the Human Genome Project revolutionized understanding of our DNA
In October 1990, biologists officially embarked on one of the century’s most ambitious scientific efforts: reading the 3 billion pairs of genetic subunits — the…
Fossils reveal that pterosaurs puked pellets
Picture it: Two hungry pterosaurs, one adult and one juvenile, settle down to dig in to a delicious lunch of fish. Down their gullets the…
Earth may have 9,200 more tree species than previously thought
Trillions of trees are growing on Earth, though how many kinds there are has been underestimated, a new study finds. Earth hosts roughly 64,100 known…
Male elephant seals aim to get huge or die trying
If you’re a male northern elephant seal, your car-sized bulk is crucial to your genetic legacy, since only a fraction of the very largest males…
‘Origin’ explores the controversial science of the first Americans
OriginJennifer RaffTwelve, $30 Scientific understanding of the peopling of the Americas is as unsettled as the Western Hemisphere once was. Skeletal remains, cultural artifacts such…
Gory footage confirms orca pods can kill adult blue whales
Killer whales are skilled assassins, hunting everything from herring to great white sharks. Now, for the first time, scientists witnessed a pod of killer whales…
A faulty immune response may be behind lingering brain trouble after COVID-19
A tussle with COVID-19 can leave people’s brains fuzzy. SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind COVID-19, doesn’t usually make it into the brain directly. But the immune…
A new device helps frogs regrow working legs after an amputation
The cells of adult frogs seem to remember how to regrow lost legs, and a new chemical kick starter helps them hop to it. Scientists…
Gut microbes help some squirrels stay strong during hibernation
Gut microbes give some squirrels a helping hand to stay strong during hibernation. The microorganisms appear to help the squirrels recycle nutrients to keep the…
Urban animals may get some dangerous gut microbes from humans
Animals moving into the big city could be getting more than they bargained for. Gut microorganisms from humans in cities may be spilling over into…
Americans tend to assume imaginary faces are male
There may be a reason we see a man, rather than a maiden, in the moon. When people spot facelike patterns in inanimate objects, those…
An Arctic hare traveled at least 388 kilometers in a record-breaking journey
Arctic hares can go the distance. A member of Lepus arcticus in northern Canada has traveled farther than anyone knew possible. BBYY, as the adult…
Scientists uncover the secret to fishing cats’ hunting success
When the famously enigmatic fishing cat hunts in deep water, it keeps calm and stays still. At least, most of the time. Asia’s Prionailurus…
A ‘trapdoor’ made of muscle and fat helps fin whales eat without choking
Some of the world’s largest whales feed by lunging through the water with mouths wide open. Scientists have long wondered how the animals withstand the…
These tiny beetles fly fast thanks to wing bristles and a weird, wide stroke
Featherwing beetles are some of the world’s smallest flying insects. Yet they can rocket along with the speed and agility of much larger insects. Now,…
Scientists vacuumed animal DNA out of thin air for the first time
On a dreary winter day in December of 2020, ecologist Elizabeth Clare strolled through the Hamerton Zoo Park in England wielding a small vacuum pump.…
A genetic analysis hints at why COVID-19 can mess with smell
For many people, one of the fastest tip-offs that they have COVID-19 is the loss of taste or smell. Now researchers have pinpointed some genetic…
Female dolphins have a clitoris much like humans’
Dolphins have active sex lives, with frequent dalliances not just for reproduction. One reason may be that the prominent female dolphin clitoris provides sexual pleasure.…
Here’s what goldfish driving ‘cars’ tell us about navigation
It might seem like a fish needs a car like — well, like a fish needs a bicycle. But a new experiment suggests that fish…
See stunning fossils of insects, fish and plants from an ancient Australian forest
A new trove of plant, insect, fish and other fossils offers an unprecedented snapshot of Australia’s wetter, forest-dominated past. McGraths Flat in New South Wales…
Drug-resistant bacteria evolved on hedgehogs long before the use of antibiotics
Beneath the prickly spines of European hedgehogs, a microbial standoff may have bred a dangerous drug-resistant pathogen long before the era of antibiotic use in…
‘Feeling & Knowing’ explores the origin and evolution of consciousness
Feeling & KnowingAntonio DamasioPantheon, $26 Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio believes that the link between brain and body is the key to understanding consciousness. In his latest…
A 1,306-legged millipede is the first to live up to its name
Millipedes, as we’ve known them, have been a lie. The Latin name for the arthropods implies an impressive set of 1,000 feet. Yet no millipede…
Here are 7 incredible things we learned this year that animals can do
This year, animals of all shapes and sizes surprised us with amazing abilities we didn’t know they had. From powerlifting to walking on the underside…
Here are 7 incredible things we learned this year that animals can do
This year, animals of all shapes and sizes surprised us with amazing abilities we didn’t know they had. From powerlifting to walking on the underside…
A terrifying robot can thwart invasive mosquito fish
Invasive mosquito fish are often fearless. Free from the predators of their native range, these mosquito fish run rampant, throwing naive ecosystems from Europe to…
Cicada science heats up when Brood X emerges. 2021 was no exception
In one of history’s weird coincidences, the second summer of a global pandemic brought Johns Hopkins biologist Ethan Allen Andrews out on a Baltimore lawn…
Cleared tropical forests can regain ground surprisingly fast
Tropical forests are disappearing at an alarming clip across the globe. As lush land is cleared for agriculture, climate-warming carbon gets released and biodiversity declines. But…
Gut bacteria let vulture bees eat rotting flesh without getting sick
Mention foraging bees and most people will picture insects flitting from flower to flower in search of nectar. But in the jungles of Central and…
Light-colored feathers may help migrating birds stay cool on long flights
From teeny hummingbirds to giant whooping cranes, roughly half of the world’s more than 10,000 bird species migrate. Longer wings and beefed-up flying muscles often…
This dinosaur had a weapon shaped like an Aztec war club on its tail
A newly discovered species of ankylosaur had a bizarre club on its tail unlike that of any known dinosaur. With its flat surface and sharp…
‘Life as We Made It’ charts the past and future of genetic tinkering
Life as We Made ItBeth ShapiroBasic Books, $30 With genetic engineering, humans have recently unleashed a surreal fantasia: pigs that excrete less environment-polluting phosphorus, ducklings…
Some songbirds now migrate east to west. Climate change may play a role
As the chill of autumn encroaches on Siberia’s grasslands, Richard’s pipits usually begin their southward trek to warmer latitudes. But a growing number of the…
‘Penis worms’ may have been the original hermits
Hermit crabs have been taking shelter in abandoned shells for millions of years, but scientists now have evidence suggesting that the “hermit” lifestyle has existed…
50 years ago, scientists were on the trail of ‘memory molecules’
Learning and memory transfer: More experimental evidence — Science News, November 6, 1971 The first memory molecule has been isolated, characterized and synthesized … [from the brains…
Brainless sponges contain early echoes of a nervous system
Brains are like sponges, slurping up new information. But sponges may also be a little bit like brains. Sponges, which are humans’ very distant evolutionary…
Baleen whales eat (and poop) a lot more than we realized
Whalers have plucked giant whales from the sea for much of the last century, reducing their numbers by up to 99 percent for certain species.…
Gene-edited stem cells help geckos regrow more perfect tails
Regenerating body parts is never easy. For instance, some lizards can grow back their tails, but these new appendages are pale imitations of the original.…
Assassin bugs tap spiders to distract them before a lethal strike
Assassin bugs live up to their name. The insects expertly stalk and feed upon other small invertebrates, jabbing them with a venomous proboscis. Some species…
Flamingos dye their sun-faded feathers to stay pretty in pink
Greater flamingos apparently aren’t fans of a sun-faded look for their neck feathers. Scientists have known that the leggy birds touch up their color by…
Jumping spiders’ remarkable senses capture a world beyond our perception
Imagine that the world is shades of gray and a little blurry, almost as if your lousy peripheral vision has taken over. This fuzzy field…
Tuskless elephants became common as an evolutionary response to poachers
When ivory poachers target elephants, the hunters can affect more than just animal numbers. In Mozambique, past hunting pressure led to an increase of naturally…
Some dinosaurs may have lived in herds as early as 193 million years ago
A treasure trove of fossilized eggs, nests and skeletons represents the earliest evidence yet of dinosaurs traveling in herds, a study finds. The newly unearthed…
Scientists found modern domestic horses’ homeland in southwestern Russia
Much of human history was made astride, or beside, a horse. The animal’s stolid speed and strength powered massive migrations of people, pulled plows that…