Animals

  1. Life

    Explainer: What is an invasive species?

    These foreign organisms hitchhike, spread widely and stir up trouble in native ecosystems.

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  2. Animals

    Rewilding returns lost species to strengthen ecosystems

    Restoring the missing species can help undo human-caused problems by aiding forests, slowing climate change and reducing wildfires.

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  3. Animals

    Scientists discover the first true millipede

    The newfound deep-living species tunnels belowground using a whopping 1,306 legs!

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  4. Health & Medicine

    Let’s learn about snot

    For humans, snot plays a key role in fighting off diseases. Other animals have found different uses for the slimy stuff.

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  5. Animals

    As the tropics warm, some birds are shrinking

    Migratory birds are getting smaller as temperatures climb, studies had showed. New evidence shows dozens of tropical, nonmigratory species are, too.

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  6. Climate

    Can scientists develop an icy sanctuary for Arctic life?

    The final refuge for summer sea ice may also protect the creatures that depend on it. Saving it is an ambitious goal with many hurdles.

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  7. Animals

    Let’s learn about chimpanzees and bonobos

    Humankind’s closest cousins in the animal kingdom may look similar, but in terms of behavior, they’re polar opposites.

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  8. Life

    Scientists Say: Adaptation

    This word refers to a feature of a living thing that helps it better survive in its environment — or the process of that feature evolving in a population.

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  9. Fossils

    ‘Penis worms’ could have been the original hermits

    These soft-bodied critters lived in abandoned shells about 500 million years ago, a new study suggests.

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  10. Animals

    A panda stands out at the zoo but blends in the wild

    A panda may stand out among bamboo at the zoo, but in the wild, its black-and-white coloring camouflages it from predators. Learn more with this web comic.

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  11. Animals

    Meat-eating bees have something in common with vultures

    Flesh-eating bees have acid-producing gut bacteria, much as vultures do. It lets them safely snack on rotting meat.

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  12. Fossils

    Fossils point to earliest dinosaurs that lived in herds

    A fossilized family gathering of long-necked Mussaurus from 193 million years ago is the earliest evidence yet of herd behavior in dinos.

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