Researchers have discovered a molecular sensor that tells tardigrades it’s time to toughen up. The tiny eight-legged animals, also known as water bears or moss piglets, are nearly invincible when…
Category: Animals
A new exhibit invites you into the ‘Secret World of Elephants’
For millions of years, over a dozen species of proboscideans, the group that includes mammoths, mastodons and elephants, roamed landscapes as varied as Arctic tundra and African savannas. Then, around…
Some mysteries remain about why dogs wag their tails
When it comes to tail wagging among dogs, some questions still hound researchers. We know that domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) use their tails to communicate — with other dogs as…
Australia’s numbats may overheat quickly as temperatures rise
Numbats are curious creatures. The only marsupials that are active solely during the day, when they scratch at soil and rotting logs for termites, these squirrel-sized animals are built to…
Here’s how poison dart frogs safely hoard toxins in their skin
Toxins found in the skin of poison dart frogs may hitch a ride there via molecular taxicabs. As a group, poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) host an assortment of more than…
Ant face patterns like swirls and stubble might have practical value
National Harbor, Md. — Looking at face patterns in photos of more than 11,000 kinds of ants struck entomologist Clint Penick as a fine pandemic-lockdown project for his students. From…
Reindeer multitask by chewing cud and sleeping at the same time
In this busy holiday season, many of us multitask. Arctic reindeer are no exception. Reindeer can eat and sleep at the same time, a new study suggests. This timesaving strategy,…
The Endangered Species Act is turning 50. Has it succeeded?
While growing up in California in the 1980s, Winifred Frick never saw a condor in the wild. The population of North America’s largest bird, Gymnogyps californianus, had dwindled to nearly…
50 years ago, the U.S. Navy enlisted sea lions and other marine mammals
Excerpt from the December 22, 1973 issue of Science News
These are our favorite animal stories of 2023
From birds repurposing antiavian architecture to jellyfish that can learn, here are dispatches from the animal kingdom that we went wild for in 2023. Intelligent jellies No brain? No problem.…
