It was a typical Florida story. In January 2014, Missy Williams stood at the edge of a park-and-fly in Dania Beach near Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. She watched the boundary…
Category: Animals
Why African striped mice can be the best of dads — or the worst
The difference between a doting dad and a deadbeat one may come down to a molecular switch in the brain — at least in African striped mice. Boosting activity of…
The Amazon molly — a sex-skipping fish — hacks evolution
The Amazon molly is an evolutionary enigma: an all-female fish that reproduces by cloning itself. Because it doesn’t mix its DNA with a mate’s, Darwinian logic holds that harmful mutations…
Submerged bumblebee queens breathe underwater
The bedraggled bumblebee queen seemed lifeless. Yet she was somehow alive — still breathing after being underwater for roughly a week in the lab. Did she manage to hold her breath for…
A koala population’s rapid rebound may let it escape inbreeding’s perils
A rapid koala rebound in southeastern Australia is also boosting their genetic variation, showing one way out of an extinction death spiral. After nearly disappearing from the region over a…
Cockroaches that eat each other’s wings turn into a fierce fighting force
Humans might show commitment with a ring, penguins offer prospective mates rocks and some beetles gift a ball of dung. Wood-feeding cockroaches show commitment with a nibble of cannibalism —…
Here’s how honeyeaters and other birds thrive on sugary diets
To eat a sugar-filled diet, birds had to evolve some sweet genetic tricks. Birds that feed on nectar and fruits have important variants in genes that control metabolism, fat processing…
Climate change could threaten monarch mass migration
Climate change may threaten North America’s iconic mass monarch butterfly migration. Every fall, millions of monarchs (Danaus plexippus) travel thousands of kilometers over North America as they leave their breeding…
Keeping a beat wins caterpillars friends in low places
Some caterpillars speak ant by rocking to a beat. By jiggling like a cellphone receiving a call while on vibrate, the caterpillars cozy up to ants, reaping benefits for them both.…
An African monkey ate a rope squirrel and came down with mpox
A monkey making a meal of a squirrel may have sparked an outbreak. In early 2023, mpox broke out among a group of a few dozen sooty mangabeys (Cercocebus atys) living…
