Ecology

A Burning Man tribute to the last remnants of humanity, a buried Statue of Liberty, depicted in the 1967 science fiction film, Planet of the Apes.

Six Weird Ways Humans Are Altering the Planet

From deep holes to flying sheep, some signs of human activity might really perplex geologists in the far future

Buck moth caterpillars are the bane of the New Orleans spring.

Caterpillars Beware: Venom Won’t Protect You From Clueless Baby Birds

Young birds will dumbly peck at anything that crawls their way—even if it winds up teaching them a painful lesson

Blood-sucking kissing bugs carry the parasite that causes Chagas disease, a malady that plagues some 9 million people in Latin America.

A Blood-Sucking Foe Lurks in Central American Caves

Kissing bugs, which can spread Chagas disease, turned up positive for human blood meals in caves in Guatemala and Belize

A model of Spinosaurus, based on data published in Science today, gets rock star treatment at a National Geographic photo shoot. A feature story, including the image above, will appear in National Geographic's October issue.

Meet the Mighty Spinosaurus, the First Dinosaur Adapted for Swimming

A mysterious mustachioed man helped paleontologists piece together the life story of the long-lost, semi-aquatic “Egyptian spine lizard”

Fish Eat Mammals on the Regular

A new study indicates that in some ecosystems, mammals are a fairly normal foodstuff for fish

Matt Dean (left) and Jim Dines (right) analyzed pelvic bones of whales and dolphins from 29 different species.

Promiscuous Whales Make Good Use of Their Pelvises

Hips don’t lie: Whale pelvic bones are not vestigial but instead evolved to help the marine mammals maneuver better during sex

This Project Wants to Compost People After They Die

A Seattle-based designer aims to introduce a sustainable way of disposing of bodies

An urban spider hangs out in downtown Los Angeles.

Friendly Neighborhood Spiders Get Bigger in Cities

A study of orb-weaving spiders in Australia shows a correlation between urbanization and fatter arachnids

Scientists observed the view down the borehole via a computer at the surface as they drilled into the Antarctic ice to reach Lake Whillans.

Thousands of Microbe Species Live in This Buried Antarctic Lake

Drilling through half a mile of ice let scientists uncover the first solid evidence of life in a subglacial lake

Changila, a male elephant who was later killed by poachers near Samburu National Reserve in Kenya.

Surprise! Science Shows That Elephant Poaching Is Unsustainable

For the first time, scientists have made a comprehensive tally of illegal killing rates across Africa

A blue shark near the Azores islands.

Bizarre Blue Shark Nursery Found in the North Atlantic

Rather than emerging in protected coves, baby blue sharks spend their first years in a big patch of open ocean

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The Salmon Cannon Is One Way of Helping Fish Get Over a Dam

Making salmon and other fish momentarily airborne is an efficient way of allowing them to clear obstacles, some innovators think

A critically endangered European eel.

Eels Are Victims of Noise Pollution

Critically endangered European eels get distracted by man-made noise, making them more likely to get eaten by a predator

A prairie dog group scans for predators in South Dakota.

Social Networking Prairie Dog Style

Prairie dog kisses might help spread the plague, and stopping the most promiscuous rodents could curb that disease’s reach

Tropical regions are home to many unique species, such as this tiny frog belonging to the genus Dendrophryniscus that lives in the Atlantic Forest of Brazil. A new study finds that removing just a few trees can quickly cause biodiversity in these tropical forests to fall.

Removing Just a Few Trees Can Lower Tropical Animal Biodiversity

Selective logging can halve the number of species of mammals and amphibians in a forest

Offshore Wind Farms Offer Seals a Smorgasbord of Fish

Wind farms could intentionally be fashioned into artificial reefs to further increase their value to wildlife

"Watermarks" earned first place in the contest. “The way water in this picture found its way back to the ocean reminded me of a peacock's tail spreading under the sun or a woman's hair blowing in the wind,” Sadri writes.

Who Knew Fungi and Fruit Fly Ovaries Could Be So Beautiful?

Princeton University’s annual science art contest shines a light on the research world, adding a video element this year

Borneo Has Lost 30 Percent of Its Forest in the Past 40 Years

Borneo's tropical forests have fallen at twice the rate as the rest of the world's felled rainforests

Elusive Indus River dolphins.

Why Freshwater Dolphins Are Some of the World’s Most Endangered Mammals

In Pakistan, dams and drainage has reduced the endangered Indus River dolphin’s range by 80 percent

A Deadly Fungus Is Wiping Out Frogs and Toads—But Some Can Develop Resistance

Scientists hope it might be possible to develop a vaccine to the fungus, based on the frog and toad's immunity

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