Animals

Early felines spread out across the world in two distinct waves

Cats Have Actually Grown Larger Over Time—Unlike Most Domesticated Species

Between the Viking Age and modern times, felines increased in size by 16 percent

Dispatch from 2018

Chicken Bones May Be the Legacy of Our Time

A new study argues that the sheer abundance of chicken consumption, coupled with the strange skeletons of modern chickens, will leave a unique fingerprint

Arctic Ice Is Retreating and Reindeer Are Going With It

Herds in Canada, the U.S. and Russia have dropped by over half in 20 years—and some may not recover

A City Frog's Love Song Attracts More Mates Than Countryside Croaks

Fewer predators and heightened competition for mates allowed urban tungara frogs to add more notes and frills to their calls, with big results Read more: h

The so-called "Great Dying" depleted ocean oxygen levels, effectively suffocating nearly all of the planet's marine life

How Did the ‘Great Dying’ Kill 96 Percent of Earth’s Ocean-Dwelling Creatures?

Researchers say the prehistoric mass extinction event could mirror contemporary—and future—devastation sparked by global warming

The blue-fronted Amazon parrot lives up to 66 years in the wild.

Parrot Genes Reveal Why the Birds Are So Clever, Long-Lived

Researchers say the avian creatures are as genetically distant from other birds as humans are from other primates

The Ten Best Children's Books of 2018

Our picks deliver feminist history, folklore reimagined and an adventurous romp through awe-inspiring destinations

Satellite Data Detects Hundreds of New Sources of Ammonia Pollution

Detailed data shows livestock operations and fertilizers plants are major sources of the pollutant

The Best Places to See Reindeer Around the World

From Norway to Alaska, here's where to see members of Santa's herd in person

Smaller nanoplastics spread throughout the scallops' muscles, gills, gonads and other organs, while larger ones stayed mainly in the intestines

It Only Takes Six Hours for Billions of Plastic Nanoparticles to Accumulate in Sea Scallops

The particles accumulated with rapid speed, but it took up to 48 days for them to disappear from the mollusks’ systems

Lonesome George

Lonesome George the Giant Tortoise's DNA Reveals Cancer-Fighting and Longevity Genes

The iconic reptile and last Pinta Island tortoise passed in 2012, but a new look at his DNA is helping researchers understand genetics

The jumping spider bears a distinct resemblance to ants

Jumping Spiders Are the Only Arachnids Known to Provide ‘Milk’ For Their Young

The milk-like nutritious fluid contains four times the protein of cow’s milk

Here's How That Cow Got So Large

The sad fact is most steers are slaughtered before they reach their full, awesome size, making the Aussie bovine more lucky than freakish

If Light Can't Escape Black Holes, How Do We Get Photos of Them... and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

The cholla plant’s prickly proclivities actually serve a reproductive purpose

Researchers Stabbed Slabs of Meat With Cacti Spines to Learn About Puncture Strength

Barbed spines function much like porcupine quills, drawing on an overlapping shingled design to hook onto victims’ muscle fibers

Early Mammals Were Thought to Be Small and Unseen in the Age of Dinosaurs. An Elephant-Sized Fossil Complicates That Story

At a time when proto-mammals and other creatures were getting smaller, this dicynodont bulked up with the thunder lizards

The skull-collecting ants use chemical mimicry, a behavior usually observed amongst parasitic species, to entrap prey

These Ants Immobilize Prey With Acid Then Drag Them Back to Nest for Dismemberment

Decapitated heads, dismembered limbs litter the floor of <i>Formica archboldi</i> nests

Why Wombats Make Cube-Shaped Poos

New research shows differences in elasticity in the intestines shapes the poo as it moves through

To attract females, males release a series of mating calls

Hurricane Harvey Didn’t Stop These Fish From Mating

Spotted seatrout engaged in normal spawning patterns as the eye of the storm passed directly over their habitat

Orangutan mothers waited an average of seven minutes before alerting infants to a potential predator's presence

Orangutans Are the Only Non-Human Primates Capable of ‘Talking’ About the Past

Mothers waited several minutes before alerting offspring to potential predators, pointing toward capacity for displaced referencing

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