Animals

Animals

Scientists Say: Amphibian

Amphibians are ectotherms that live dual lives — they start off in water, breathing with gills, and end up breathing air with lungs.

Animals

Quacks and toots help young honeybee queens avoid deadly duels

It’s not just ducks that quack. Honey bees do it too. They also toot. Researchers eavesdropped on hives to find out why.

Animals

A single chemical may draw lonely locusts into a hungry swarm

Swarms of locusts can destroy crops. Scientists have discovered a chemical that might make locusts come together in huge hungry swarms.

Animals

Some beetles can be eaten by a frog, then walk out the other end

After being eaten by a frog, some water beetles can scurry through the digestive tract and emerge on the other side — alive and well.

Animals

Are coyotes moving into your neighborhood?

How do coyotes survive in New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago? Researchers and citizen scientists are working together to find answers.

Animals

Here’s the summer science you might have missed

From sizzling Siberia and ‘smart’ toilets, to new uses for astronaut pee, more than COVID-19 made news this summer.

Animals

Busy beavers may be speeding thaw of Arctic permafrost

As climate change continues, busy beavers are expanding their range in Alaska. Their dams could further speed the loss of permafrost there and promote local warming.

Animals

Analyze This: Hurricanes may help lizards evolve better grips

Lizards have larger toepads in areas that tend to have higher hurricane activity. This suggests high winds select for those that can hang tight.

Animals

American crocs seem to descend from kin that crossed the Atlantic

A fossil hints that early crocodiles crossed over from Africa, millions of years ago, to colonize a new land.

Animals

Viral scents? Dogs sniff out coronavirus in human sweat

Researchers train dogs to sniff out COVID-19. In the United Arab Emirates, sniffer dogs have already begun identifying infected passengers at airports.

Animals

To figure out your dog’s ‘real’ age, you’ll need a calculator

What’s your dog’s human-equivalent age? Just multiply how old it is times seven, right? Uh, no. And here’s why.

Animals

Superblack fish can disappear in the deep sea’s darkness

Some fish that live in the ocean’s depths are superblack due to a special layer of light-absorbing structures in their skin.