Ecosystems: Interactions, Energy, and Dynamics
- Animals
Watch: This red fox is the first spotted fishing for its food
Big fish in shallow water were easy pickings for this red fox. It’s the first of its species known to fish.
- Animals
Several mammals use a South American tree as their pharmacy
Researchers in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest stumbled onto something very strange. They watched as animals “doctored” themselves with products from a tree.
- Animals
Some ecologists value parasites — and now want a plan to save them
Parasites get a bad rap as disease-causing, unwelcome guests on other organisms. But parasites are also imperiled, and scientists don’t want to lose them.
- Archaeology
Rats can chronicle human history
Rats have lived alongside people for thousands of years. Now, scientists can study the rats and their leavings to learn more about ourselves.
- Fossils
Ancient ‘ManBearPig’ mammal lived fast — and died young
Developing in the womb for a while — but being born ready to take on the world — may have helped post-dinosaur mammals rise to dominance.
- Health & Medicine
Dogs and other animals could aid the spread of monkeypox
Now that monkeypox has spread to a dog, researchers fear other species could help the virus become widespread outside of Africa for the first time.
- Health & Medicine
Explainer: What is mpox (formerly monkeypox)?
Once rare, the viral disease monkeypox exploded onto the global scene for the first time in 2022.
- Plants
No sun? No prob! A new process might soon grow plants in the dark
Teamwork makes green-work! Collaborating scientists came up with an electrifying farming trick that could make sunlight optional.
- Animals
News stories about spiders are unfairly negative
Nearly half of news stories about people-spider encounters contain errors, according to a new study. And those falsehoods tend to have a negative spin.
- Plants
This pitcher plant lures insects into underground deathtraps
Scientists didn’t expect the carnivorous, eggplant-shaped pitchers to be sturdy enough to grow embedded in the soil.
- Animals
Gophers might be farmers, a controversial study suggests
Pocket gophers air out and fertilize the soil in a way that amounts to simple farming, two researchers claim. But not everyone agrees.
- Fossils
Great white sharks may be partly to blame for the end of megalodons
Zinc levels in shark teeth hint that megalodons and great whites competed for food — and great whites won.
