Animals

Gotcha! A frog's tongue can be five times faster than the blink of a human eye.

Inside Every Frog's Mouth Is a Sticky, Grabby Bullet

Investigating frog tongues—and some human ones!—in the name of science

CERN Weasel 2

Museum Displays the Weasel that Brought Down Particle Physics

A stone marten that disrupted the Large Hadron Collider in November goes on display in Rotterdam in an exhibit about human-animal mishaps

An artist's recreation of what the ancient creature looked like.

Bag-Like, Big-Mouthed Sea Creature Could Be Earliest Human Ancestor

This minute wriggly sea blob could represent some of the earliest steps along the path of evolution

The Carnivorous Plant That Feasts on Mice

While the carnivorous cravings of most flesh-eating plants are limited to small insects, one exception is the pitcher plant

An illustration of Australia's past megafauna.

Changing Climate, Not Humans, Killed Australia’s Massive Mammals

But that mass extinction could help us predict what today’s human-wrought climate change may bring

A Puff Adder Swallowing a Rat Is Something You Can't Unsee

A puff adder has just bitten a rat, injecting it with enough venom to finish it off. The next step is to swallow it whole

Komodo Dragons Can Taste Their Prey From Miles Away

A Komodo dragon's strongest sensory organ is its deeply forked tongue. It acts as a meal detector that samples the air for dead or dying animals

A gecko uses millions of tiny hairs to cling powerfully to surfaces. A new device exploits this adaptation by using ultraviolet light as a switch.

Scientists Can Turn This Gecko-Inspired Gripping Device On or Off With the Flick of a Light

The mighty lizard inspires yet another innovation that could prove a boon to robotics and manufacturing

Victorian mores influenced ideas not just about men and women but animals too.

How Victorian Gender Norms Shaped the Way We Think About Animal Sex

No, females aren't always choosy and males don't always get around

Incredible: A Gaboon Viper Strikes a Bird in Slo-Mo

Gaboon vipers don't have the fastest strike in the snake world--but they don't need to be faster than other snakes, just their prey

Two thylacines at the Smithsonian National Zoo around 1905. A thylacine brain from the Smithsonian Institution was scanned as part of a study to learn more about the extinct marsupial, but it is unclear whether that brain belonged to one of the animals pictured.

How Scientists Reconstructed the Brain of a Long-Extinct Beast

This dog-like marsupial went extinct 80 years ago, but its preserved brains help us glean how its mind worked

This aerial view shoes the weird wonder of "fairy circles" in the Namibian desert.

Dueling Theories on the Cause of “Fairy Circles” Could Both Be Right

New research brings together competing concepts to describe how the mysterious features form

Scimitar-horned oryx being released into their holding pen in Chad last March

Second Group of the Once-Extinct African Oryx to Be Released Into the Wild

Hunting wiped out wild populations of the scimitar-horned creatures, but breeding programs are helping them make a comeback

The doormouse hibernates to conserve resources in harsh conditions. Similarly, scientists envision humans hibernating to endure long-distance space travel.

Can Humans Ever Harness the Power of Hibernation?

Scientists want to know if astronauts can hibernate during long spaceflights. First, they need to understand what hibernation is

The Strange Link Between Bats and Tequila

As a nectar feeder, the lesser long-nosed bat follows the trail of cactus blooms between Mexico and the U.S.

Colo died at age 60 in the zoo where she was so famously born.

Colo, the World's First Gorilla Born in Captivity, Is Dead

The miracle baby turned matriarch was 60 years old

As his ancestors have done for generations, Icelander Árni Hilmarsson catches an Atlantic puffin in a net called a háfur.

Disappearing Puffins Bring an Icelandic Hunting Tradition Under Scrutiny

Historically, hunting seabirds has been a distinctive feature of Nordic coastal culture. Should it still be?

Nearly 100 false killer whales are currently stranded in the Everglades in the worst Florida stranding of its kind.

Scores of Dolphins Are Stranded in the Everglades

So far, at least 82 false killer whales have died

What Can a Puff Adder Snake Bite Do to a Rhino?

A puff adder's bite can do serious damage, even to an animal with skin as thick as a rhino's. The photographic evidence we have is not pretty

Macaques and humans seem to share the strength of knowing the limits of what they know.

A Wise Monkey Knows How Little He Knows

Japanese scientists find that macaque monkeys, like humans, know the limits of their own memory

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