In December 1855 and January 1856, a trio of vessels set sail from the United States to Jarvis and Baker islands, coral atolls in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.…
Category: Animals
The ‘Mekong ghost’ megafish has resurfaced after an extinction scare
The “Mekong ghost” fish is a ghost no more. Like the legendary Rip Van Winkle, who wandered into the woods and disappeared for 20 years, the giant salmon carp (Aaptosyax…
How insects can help catch rhino poachers
In 1988, police officers in Australia came for Ian Dadour. Not because the entomologist was under arrest, but because they needed his expertise. Investigators asked Dadour to estimate the ages…
Polar bears are being exposed to more pathogens as the climate warms
Polar bears face mounting challenges in a changing, warming world, mostly related to their waning wintery wonderland habitats. But they may be increasingly infected with germs and parasites, too. Compared…
Science has finally cracked male riflebirds’ flirty secrets
New video of male riflebirds’ extreme wrist flares and feather noises reveals how these show-offs do their dazzle. Males of the four Ptiloris species, a group within the birds of…
At-home experiments shed light on cats’ liquid behavior
Cats may seem solid, but they’re actually somewhat liquid — at least according to one 2017 theoretical physics paper inspired by videos of cats squeezing under doors, into tight vases…
DNA from old hair helps confirm the macabre diet of two 19th century lions
A pair of male lions that roamed Kenya more than a century ago gained notoriety as the “man-eaters of Tsavo.” To be sure, the big cats hunted and ate people…
The largest arthropod to ever live finally has a head
Two newly discovered fossils are helping scientists wrap their heads around the anatomy of the largest arthropod of all time — a millipede that grew longer than a king-sized bed…
To tell a right-trunked elephant from a lefty, check the wrinkles
There’s a Sherlock Holmes tale in here somewhere: A clever observer could check wrinkles and whiskers on an elephant trunk to catch a left-trunker pachyderm perp masquerading as a righty,…
These sea creatures can fuse their bodies
In a Frankenstein-y feat, a small, gelatinous sea creature can merge its body with a neighbor’s. The animals — called sea walnuts, a type of comb jelly — can then…
