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Biology

Though small, the snail darter has played an outsize role in American law, conservation and biology.

A Tiny, ‘Endangered’ Fish Delayed a Dam’s Construction in the 1970s. Now, Scientists Say the Snail Darter Isn’t So Rare After All

A lawsuit to protect the snail darter from the Tellico Dam in Tennessee offered the first real test of the 1973 Endangered Species Act. But a new study disputes the fish’s status as a distinct species

Tetiaroa is a haven for wildlife, including sea turtles, crabs, seabirds, sharks, coral and fish.

Marlon Brando Wanted to Build a ‘University of the Sea.’ These Scientists Are Bringing the Late Actor’s Vision to Life

On Tetiaroa, a vibrant coral atoll dotted with sandy islets, archaeologists, marine biologists and cultural practitioners are working together to improve understanding of a unique ecosystem

In 2024, engineers used a fluorescent protein found in some jellyfish to create a non-toxic spray that highlights fingerprints at a crime scene.

Seven Scientific Discoveries From 2024 That Could Lead to New Inventions

From indestructible tardigrades to body-merging comb jellies, animals can teach humans so much about medicine, robotics, aging and survival

Some people are genetically built to require less sleep than the rest of us.

Why Do Some People Thrive on So Little Sleep?

Short sleepers cruise by on four to six hours a night and don’t seem to suffer ill effects

The invasive northern giant hornet, also called a murder hornet, has been eradicated from the United States.

Officials Declare the U.S. Free of ‘Murder Hornets’ in a Rare Victory Against an Invasive Insect

Five years after the first sighting in Washington state, intense efforts have eradicated the bee-killing hornets from the nation

The wasp species known as the "velvet ant" has a pattern of white and ultra-black coloration.

Meet the Brazilian Velvet Ant, a Rare ‘Ultra-Black’ Wasp That’s So Dark It Absorbs Almost All Visible Light

While the distinctive coloration is thought to be a warning to predators, it also has intriguing implications for designing man-made materials

Last week, scientists conducted the first-ever dissection of a spade-toothed whale, the rarest whale species on Earth.

Scientists Just Dissected the World’s Rarest Whale in New Zealand. Here’s What They Found

Only seven spade-toothed whales have ever been identified, and the species has never been seen alive. After one washed ashore last summer, researchers have made new discoveries—including that the animal had nine stomach chambers and vestigial teeth

DNA on Earth is built from sugars with a property known as right-handedness. Though left-handed sugars aren't used by any known life, scientists can create them—but now, researchers say they shouldn't.

Scientists Warn of an ‘Unprecedented Risk’ From Synthetic ‘Mirror Life,’ Built With a Reverse Version of Natural Proteins and Sugars

So-called mirror cells could rampage through our ecosystems, food supply and immune systems, experts say, potentially without existing barriers to protect against them

A Nile crocodile.

Scientists Unlock the Secrets of Crocodile Skin and Its Irregular, Mystifying Patterns

The scales on crocodiles’ heads are very different from the skin appendages of other animals and even distinct from the scales on the rest of their bodies

Scientists have discovered the strongest evidence yet that healthy vertebrates can have brain microbiomes.

Fish Have a Brain Microbiome. Could Humans Have One Too?

The discovery that other vertebrates have healthy microbial brains is fueling questions about our own brains

An artist's depiction of two sauropodomorphs in a wet Early Jurassic environment, eating the newly evolved plants.

The Secret to the Rise of Dinosaurs Could Be Hidden in an Unlikely Place: Their Poop

In a new study, scientists examined bromalites, including fossilized feces and vomit, to reveal prehistoric diets and reconstruct the timeline of how dinosaurs established dominion over the world

An Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) licks nectar from the Ethiopian red hot poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa).

New Research

These Endangered Wolves Have a Sweet Tooth—and It Might Make Them Rare Carnivorous Pollinators

Ethiopian wolves like to lick up the flower nectar of red hot poker plants, and researchers have caught the behavior on camera

Bottlenose dolphins are highly social and typically live in pods.

A Solo Dolphin Is Chattering Away Off Denmark’s Coast—Is He Talking to Himself?

Marine biologists are perplexed by the lone bottlenose dolphin’s vocalizations, because some resemble sounds typically used for communication

Straw-colored fruit bats typically start drifting into the park around October and leave in January.

The World’s Largest Mammal Migration Is Taking Place in Zambia Right Now

Each year, millions of straw-colored fruit bats descend on Kasanka National Park for a few months, and scientists are working to understand their mysterious journey

Gus did not hesitate to belly flop into the ocean.

Gus, the Young Emperor Penguin Who Made a Surprise Appearance in Australia, Is Now Heading Home

Wildlife caretakers released the bird into the Southern Ocean after he’d put on some weight and regained his strength

The creature lives in the “midnight zone," an area of the ocean so deep that sunlight never reaches it.

Scientists Finally Identified This Glowing, Transparent ‘Mystery Mollusk’ After Nearly 25 Years of Puzzling

The newly described species of sea slug dwells in darkness in the ocean’s midnight zone, using a hood to capture prey with a Venus flytrap-like technique

The 3D bioprinter at the Collins BioMicrosystems Laboratory at the University of Melbourne.

New 3D Bioprinter Could Build Replicas of Human Organs, Offering a Boost for Drug Discovery

The invention uses light, sound and bubbles to quickly create copies of soft tissue that might one day support testing individualized therapies for cancer and other diseases

A sperm whale swims away, leaving a cloud of feces.

Scientists Are Crafting Fake Whale Poop and Dumping It in the Ocean

The artificial waste could fertilize the ocean and sequester carbon

The beloved baby penguin Pesto is in his "awkward" phase, molting his downy feathers in favor of adult plumage.

See New Images of Pesto, Australia’s Enormous Baby Penguin, in His ‘Awkward Phase,’ Molting His Downy Feathers

The viral king penguin chick at Sea Life Melbourne Aquarium is beginning to lose his youthful down, a process that will give him his distinctive and waterproof adult plumage

Cassius held the title of the largest crocodile in captivity for much of his life. His age? That's harder to know.

After the Death of Cassius, the World’s Largest Captive Crocodile, Scientists Are Trying to Solve the Mystery of His Age

The beloved reptile in Australia died last weekend and was thought to be up to 120 years old, though that age is only an estimate. Research on his bones might reveal a more exact number

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