Initially mistaken for one of its close relatives, a group of small, spiky mammals in eastern China has now been identified as a new species: the eastern forest hedgehog. Researchers…
Category: Animals
Why do some lizards and snakes have horns?
Horns aren’t just for rhinos and cattle. A fair number of snake and lizard species have heads adorned with spiky, scaly accessories. But how the reptiles snag food may determine…
Fish beware: Bottlenosed dolphins may be able to pick up your heartbeat
To snap up fish, bottlenosed dolphins may rely on more than just sharp sight and sonar detection. The creatures might also pick up on the weak electric pulses prey produce…
These nesting penguins nod off 10,000 times a day, for seconds at a tim
Nesting chinstrap penguins take nodding off to the extreme. The birds briefly dip into a slumber many thousands of times per day, sleeping for only seconds at a time. The…
Scientists eavesdrop on a South American forest to find a missing bird
How do you look for an animal you don’t even know exists anymore? The last sighting of the purple-winged ground dove (Paraclaravis geoffroyi) — a small, bamboo-loving dove native to…
A Brazilian mountain is home to a surprising number of parasitic wasps
The tropics are teeming with life, tending to hold far more species than milder environments closer to the poles. But one group of insects, the Darwin wasps, were thought to…
Some picky Australian mosquitoes may target frog nostrils for blood
An Australian mosquito species knows the best spot to drink its bloody meals: a frog’s nostril. The bloodsuckers are surprisingly selective when dining on frogs, seemingly picking no other place…
These bats are the only mammals known to mate more like birds
As the only mammals that can fly, bats are the oddballs of the mammalian world. But serotine bats stand out for another, glaringly obvious reason — when erect, a male’s…
The first embryos from a mammal have now been grown in space
Saima Iqbal is the fall 2023 science writing intern at Science News. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard College, where she studied the history of medicine, conducted research on…
Crabs left the sea not once, but several times, in their evolution
Most terrestrial plants and animals left the ocean a single time in their evolutionary history to live ashore. But crabs have seemingly scuttled out of the sea more than a…
