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Animals

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Hibernation Doesn’t Have to Be Cold

Hibernation tends to go hand-in-hand with cold temperatures, but the greater mouse-tailed bat hibernates at a comfortable 68-degrees Fahrenheit

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher uses a powerful scanning electron microscope to capture all of a bee’s microscopic structures in stunning detail. Above: a bee’s antennae sockets, magnified 43 times.

What Does A Bee Look Like When It’s Magnified 3000 Times?

Photographer Rose-Lynn Fisher uses a powerful microscope to capture all of a bee’s microscopic structures and textures in stunning detail

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The Most Isolated Tree in the World Was Killed by a (Probably Drunk) Driver

The acacia was the only tree for 250 miles in Niger’s Sahara desert and was used as a landmark by travelers and caravans

Coral Reefs Are Fighting Back Against Global Warming

When they get stressed by the heat, coral make their own shade by releasing a chemical that helps clouds form

The First Venomous Crustacean We’ve Ever Found Liquefies Its Prey

Whether or not the remipede venom would have any effect on a curious diver poking at the tiny creature, however, remains unknown

A High Schooler Discovered the Best Fossil Yet of a Baby Tube-Crested Dinosaur

The new fossil, nicknamed “Joe,” sheds light on its species’ characteristic tube-like head formation

Fire Is a Quickly Growing Threat to the Amazon Rainforest

If the Amazon continues to dry at just half the pace as it has over the past 30 years, yearly drought will become the new norm by the end of this century

Yellowstone Bears Actually Eat Moths for Food

It turns out that bears can eat 40,000 moths a day

Female Killer Whales Go Through Menopause

This life history pattern likely evolved as a way for the female whales to ensure their genetic mark in the world does indeed get passed on

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The Red Batfish Looks Like a Muppet-Clam And Should Be Your New Favorite Sea Creature

Part clam, part muppet, this is a great fish

There’s a Universal Law of Urination in Mammals

They all take an average of about 21 seconds to empty their bladders, nearly regardless of how big they are

Yetis Were Probably Just Polar Bears

A recently discovered “Yeti corpse” was likely nothing more than a poor polar bear who many years ago found itself at the wrong end of a spear or a sword

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Some Seemingly Harmless Snakes Possess a Secret Venom Gland

These attacks are extremely rare, however, and victims were probably doing things they should not have been doing

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Zombie Corals Can Come Back From the Dead

Killed by bleaching, this weird kind of coral can regrow from cryptic tissue

Hungry Animals Would Take Down a Zombie Invasion

If large creatures were overwhelmed by the bounty of food available, the microbes and insects would not be

You might be curious, is this something macroscopic or microscopic? It’s actually the wing of a green darner dragonfly, as seen through a scanning electron microscope.

Macro or Micro? Test Your Sense of Scale

A geographer and a biologist at Salem State University team up to curate a new exhibition, featuring confounding views from both satellites and microscopes

Oarfish model in a museum

A Giant Oarfish Just Washed Up in California

Every time an oarfish washes up on the beach, the world freaks out. Here’s the most recent one

A false killer whale and a bottlenose dolphin hanging out at a zoo in Japan.

Dolphins Have Interspecies Hunting Parties

A real life tale of animal BFFs

Being Around Predators Changes the Shape of This Fish’s Penis

Armadillos have bony plates, stick bugs evolved camouflage, and the Bahamas mosquitofish evolved a bigger penis

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Hibernating Turtles Are Still Aware of What’s Going on Around Them

Researchers assumed they entered a coma-like condition during winter hibernation, but turtles are paying attention to the things that matter most

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