A mind-bending parasite may one day deliver drugs to the brain. Toxoplasma gondii is a single-celled parasite that famously makes mice lose their fear of cats, but also can cause…
Category: Animals
Komodo dragon teeth get their strength from an iron coat
Komodo dragon teeth are ironclad. Literally. The serrated edges and tips of the reptiles’ razor-sharp chompers are lined with a layer of iron, researchers report July 24 in Nature Ecology…
Bird flu has been invading the brains of mammals. Here’s why
In spring 2022, a handful of red foxes in Wisconsin were behaving oddly. Veterinary pathologist Betsy Elsmo learned that a local wildlife rehabilitation center was caring for foxes with neurological…
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’
Beef jerky and some woolly mammoths have at least one thing in common: Drying turns their DNA into super-tough glass. This glassy DNA is so stable that it preserved the…
Tiny saunas help frogs fight off chytrid fungus
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Bird flu viruses may infect mammary glands more commonly than thought
The discovery of bird flu in dairy cow milk highlighted a previously overlooked target for the H5N1 virus: mammary glands. A new study suggests it’s not unique to cows. An…
The last woolly mammoths offer new clues to why the species went extinct
Four thousand years ago, on an island off the coast of what is now Siberia, the world’s last woolly mammoth took its final breath. Living on that island, isolated from…
Beneficial bacteria help these marine worms survive extreme cold
Antarctic marine worms survive with a little help from their bacterial friends. Close relatives of earthworms, polychaetes are some of the most common animals on the ocean floor, but how…
Can leeches leap? New video may help answer that debate
A chance video by a grad student relishing her first big field trip might help resolve an argument that’s raged among biologists for more than a century. The question: Can…
‘Cull of the Wild’ questions sacrificing wildlife in the name of conservation
In his new book, ecologist Hugh Warwick seeks middle ground in the waging battle that is wildlife management.
