Animals

Animals

Endangered or just rare? Statistics give meaning to the head counts

Whether studying tiny birds or massive whales, researchers collect a lot of data. The field of statistics helps them make sense of those data.

Life

Even raised by people, wolves don’t tune into you like your dog

Dog puppies outpace wolf pups at engaging with humans, even with less exposure to people, supporting the idea that domestication changed dogs’ brains.

Animals

Here’s how sea otters stay warm without blubber or a large body

For the smallest mammal in the ocean, staying warm is tough. Now, scientists have figured out how the animals’ cells rise to the challenge.

Animals

Abdominal fuzz makes bee bodies super slippery

Scientists find that tiny hairs on a honeybee’s abdomen reduce wear and tear as a bee’s outer skeletal parts rub against each other all day long.

Animals

Uncovering secrets of the glasswing butterfly’s see-through wings

The tricks of its transparency include sparse, spindly scales and a waxy coated membrane.

Animals

Some beetles walk along the underside of the water’s surface

Their upside-down scurrying is a rare method of getting around.

Fossils

Dinosaur families appear to have lived in the Arctic year-round

Fossils of baby dinosaurs in northern Alaska challenge the idea that northern dinosaurs only spent their summers in the high Arctic.

Animals

Spiders can take down and feast on surprisingly big snakes

Snared in sticky webs and subdued by poison, even venomous snakes can become a spider’s soup.

Animals

Birds could get their sense of direction from quantum physics

Songbirds could detect north and south using a protein in their eye. It works somewhat like a compass.

Animals

A bubble of air lets some lizards breathe underwater

Anolis lizards leap into streams to escape danger. Now researchers have figured out how they can stay underwater for up to a quarter of an hour.

Fossils

Sudden shark die-off 19 million years ago eliminated most species

New fossil evidence shows 90 percent of sharks died in the mysterious event.

Animals

Let’s learn about dinosaurs’ fearsome neighbors

Dinosaurs may get much of our attention, but there were plenty of other interesting critters during the Age of Reptiles, including our mammal ancestors.