Animals

Animals

Surprise! Fossils in a flash

By studying how dead tissues decay — or turn to ‘instant’ fossils — scientists are gleaning helpful clues to what ancient life looked like.

Animals

Helping birds doctor their babies

Darwin’s finches will soften their nests by weaving in fibers, such as stray bits of cotton. An observant biologist offered those birds some insecticide-treated cotton and the birds took it, which saved their young from deadly parasites.

Animals

Move over cheetah: Mite sets new speed record

A super-speedy species sprints faster than any other land animal — for its size, a new study finds. Scientists may someday tap this tiny mite’s technique to create robots and other devices that zip around at sensational speeds!

Animals

Don’t mess with a frustrated fish

When a trout doesn't get the snack it expected, look out. These fish get aggressive. Sometimes they can defeat even bigger fish.

Animals

These insects thirst for tears

In some parts of the world, insects will drop by for a savory beverage. Interestingly, neither a croc — nor a scientist who offered his eyes up to ‘tear-sipping’ bees — seemed bothered much by the freeloaders.

Animals

One plus to wearing stripes

A zebra’s black-and-white coat doesn’t offer cooling or camouflage, researchers find. Instead, its stripes appear to keep away biting flies — and deadly diseases.

Animals

Sea otters picked up swine flu

A new study finds that large numbers of sea otters off of the U.S. Pacific coast have been exposed to the ‘pandemic’ type of this killer virus.

Animals

When a species can’t stand the heat

When temperatures rise, New Zealand’s tuatara produce more males. With global warming, that could leave the ancient reptile species with too few females to avoid going extinct.

Animals

Explainer: How invasive species ratted out the tuatara

The introduction of rats to New Zealand led to huge population losses of the ancient tuatara. These uncommon reptiles vanished from the mainland. This left isolated populations to survive on several dozen isolated islands.

Animals

Kangaroos have ‘green’ farts

The farts and belches of these animals contain less methane than do those from other big grass grazers. Microbes in their digestive tract appear to explain the ‘roos lower production of this greenhouse gas, a new study finds.

Animals

Pythons seem to have an internal compass

The giant, Burmese pythons living in Florida’s Everglades like their adopted home. And new research shows they can find their way back to it if people try to move them somewhere else. Not all snakes will do this.

Animals

Quieter vibes for city spiders

How much a web vibrates affects how well a spider senses when that web has captured prey. But webs attached to concrete, plastic and other artificial materials vibrate less than do those built on natural materials, such as twigs or leaves.