For one tiny Australian spider, somersaulting is the secret to taking on ants twice its size. Ants — armed with powerful jaws and sometimes chemical weapons — are so dangerous…
Category: Animals
Marcos Simões-Costa asks how cells in the embryo get their identities
Growing up in Brazil, Marcos Simões-Costa often visited his grandparents’ farm in the Amazon. That immersion in nature — squawking toucans and all — sparked his fascination with science and…
A Caribbean island gets everyone involved in protecting beloved species
The coral reef, once bustling with more than 5,000 long-spined sea urchins, became a ghost town in a matter of days. White skeletons with dangling spines dotted the reef near…
After eons of isolation, these desert fish flub social cues
Getting out into society after a long isolation gets awkward. Ask the Pahrump poolfish, loners in a desert for some 10,000 years. This hold-in-your-hand-size fish (Empetrichthys latos) has a chubby,…
Drumming woodpeckers use similar brain regions as songbirds
Songbirds get a lot of love for their dulcet tones, but drummers may start to steal some of that spotlight. Woodpeckers, which don’t sing but do drum on trees, have…
Video shows the first fox known to fish for food
The fox froze. Inches from his paws, frenzied, spawning carp writhed in the shallow water along a reservoir’s shore. In a sudden flash of movement, the fox dove nose-first into…
Here’s what triggers giant honeybees to do the wave
Giant honeybees send waves rippling across their open nests by flipping their abdomens upward in coordination, a sight that approaching predators seem to shy away from. A new study is…
Not all camouflage is equal. Here are prey animals’ best options
From crabs to caterpillars, a wide range of animals successfully use camouflage to hamper detection by hungry predators. But some concealment strategies are more effective than others, a new study…
Need to keep cockatoos out of your trash? Try bricks, sticks or shoes
Human trash can be a cockatoo’s treasure. In Sydney, the birds have learned how to open garbage bins and toss trash around in the streets as they hunt for food…
DNA reveals donkeys were domesticated 7,000 years ago in East Africa
From pulling Mesopotamian war chariots to grinding grain in the Middle Ages, donkeys have carried civilization on their backs for centuries. DNA has now revealed just how ancient humans’ relationship…
