Biology (Page 16)

A guide to life, on Earth and beyond, including the top news about plants, animals, and physiology.

Latest in Biology

A yellow salamander with a brown stripe on its back sits on a green leaf.

Why small, scary, and ‘non-charismatic’ lost species are harder to rediscover

By Laura Baisas

Dense thickets of the reef-building coral Desmophyllum pertusum make up most of the deep-sea coral reef habitat found on the Blake Plateau in the Atlantic Ocean. The white coloring is healthy–deep-sea corals don’t rely on symbiotic algae, so they can’t bleach. Images of these corals were taken during a 2019 expedition dive off the coast of Florida.

World’s largest known deep-sea coral reef is bigger than Vermont

By Laura Baisas

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

A new evolutionary theory could explain the mystery of shrinking animals

By Lauren Leffer

An octopus hatchling emerges from a group of eggs at a new octopus nursery. This nursery was first discovered in June 2023 at Tengosed Seamount off Costa Rica.

Four new octopus species discovered in the deep-sea vents off Costa Rica

By Laura Baisas

An Eastern dwarf tree frog covered in seeds.

These Australian frogs get absolutely covered in seeds

By Ethan Freedman

Check out some of the past year’s best close-up photography

Check out some of the past year’s best close-up photography

Green rhodopsin proteins inside the blue cell walls help these yeast grow faster when exposed to light.

This yeast loves light

By Laura Baisas

A pink hummingbird sits on a perch inside of a tunnel. Green and black stripes are projected on the walls of the tunnel.

How hummingbirds switch gears at breakneck speeds

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China. Four of these giant apes sit on the grass near a stream, while an orangutan hangs from a tree branch. They are brown with yellow-ish manes around their faces.

These extinct, nearly 10-foot-tall apes could not adapt to shifting seasons

By Laura Baisas

Fruit bats hanging on tree branches in daylight in Bangladesh on November 6, 2023.

Why fruit bats can eat tons of sugar without getting diabetes

By Laura Baisas

Microscopic view of Oikopleura dioica

This tiny sea creature builds a ‘snot palace’ to capture food

A white toilet bowl in a bathroom with yellow brick walls is surrounded by multiple shelves holding plants and towels.

Scientists finally discover the enzyme that makes pee yellow

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilized in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago.

Extinct ‘terror beasts’ were some pretty formidable worms

By Laura Baisas

A Matabele ant tends to the wound of a fellow ant whose legs were bitten off in a fight with termites.

Matabele ants might be able to diagnose and treat infected wounds

By Laura Baisas

A jellyfish Cladonema pacificum with multiple branched tentacles.

These fingernail-sized jellyfish can regenerate tentacles—but how?

By Laura Baisas

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified

Five new species of soft-furred hedgehogs have been identified

By Laura Baisas

A small brown frog standing on leaves at the water’s edge.

This tiny ‘leaf-nester’ is the smallest known fanged frog

By Laura Baisas

Gray and fuzzy mold growing on red strawberries.

Plants may fight mold with molecules and bubbles

By Laura Baisas

An aardvark with a long nose sits in grass.

Why scientists are studying aardvarks’ poop

By Laura Baisas

A reindeer stands on snowy ground with hills in the distance.

Reindeer can see UV light—and we may know why

By Laura Baisas

The Wakayama Soryu was about the size of a great white shark and lived more than 72 million years ago.

This ‘blue dragon’ sliced through the ancient Pacific with paddle-like fins

By Laura Baisas

A bearded seal swimming in Arctic waters in Svalbard, Norway. Their name comes from the long and sensitive facial whiskers that they use to find food.

Arctic seals have special noses

By Laura Baisas

Two people hold coffee cups while looking at a a sunrise.

Neanderthals may have been early risers

By Laura Baisas

A bird called a green honeycreeper stands on a tree branch. It has blue male plumage on its left side and green female plumage on its right.

Rare bird with half male and half female plumage photographed in Colombia

By Laura Baisas

Brainoware biocomputing study illustration

A ‘brain organoid’ biochip displayed serious voice recognition and math skills

An illustration of a tall two-legged dinosaur called Gorgosaurus libratus eating a small bird-like dinosaur called Citipes elegans. The smaller dinosaur's legs are still visible as the Gorgosaurus swallows the Citipes.

This teenage tyrannosaur had a stomach full of dino drumsticks

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of biofiber within cracked concrete

Bacterial ‘blood’ could heal cracks in concrete

A circular grey fossil with long linear grooves on it.

Fossil first identified as plant is actually a baby turtle

By Laura Baisas

NeRmo mouse robot standing against blue background

Meet NeRmo, the mouse robot with backbone

A dark-furred mouse looks into a mirror.

Mice may be able to recognize their own reflections

By Laura Baisas

Glowing blue lights of the tiny ostracods move in sync with one another.

Watch the mucus-filled, synchronized mating dance of bioluminescent ‘sea fireflies’

By Laura Baisas

A dinosaur called poposaurus walks near some trees. The dinosaur comes from a group of extinct relatives of the crocodile known as Poposauroidea.

Tracing the crocodiles’ curious evolutionary family tree

By Laura Baisas

A mosquito encased in yellow-hued amber.

Millions of years ago, male mosquitoes may have been blood suckers too

By Laura Baisas

A white axolotl in a tank. Axolotls are sometimes called the ‘Peter Pan of amphibians’ since they do not go through a traditional metamorphosis and keep larval traits like their signature gills.

Go (virtually) adopt an axolotl, the ‘Peter Pan’ of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

A cicada sitting on a green leaf. The insect has bright orange eyes and large wings. Cicadas live underground for 13 or 17 years, before emerging to mate.

Fiber optic cables can pick up cicadas’ droning din

By Laura Baisas

A large rat stands on a tree trunk at night. The Vangunu giant rat is the first new species of rodent described from Solomon Islands in over 80 years.

A legendary Vangunu giant rat was finally caught on camera

By Laura Baisas

An orange California newt sits on a rock. The amphibians are endemic to California.

Female Taricha newts are more poisonous than males

By Laura Baisas

A newborn rhino calf stands under his mother. He is black and does not have his signature horns in yet.

A critically endangered Sumatran rhino named Delilah welcomes first calf

By Laura Baisas

Six African penguins standing on a rock. They have white plumage with black dots arranged in individual patterns on their chests.

African penguins may tell each other apart by the spots in their plumage

By Laura Baisas

An artist's rendering of a trilobite based on preserved soft body parts. The animal has two antennae protruding from its head and is oval-shaped.

10 new species of trilobite fossil rise from volcanic ash

By Laura Baisas

A mature Megasyllis nipponica with a developing female stolon.

Why these sea worms detach their butts to reproduce

By Laura Baisas

An aquatic nematode living in pond water among cyanobacteria. The small worms are sometimes trapped and eaten by carnivorous fungi.

These tiny worms are no match for carnivorous fungi

By Laura Baisas

A serotine bat with its mouth open, showing teeth. Serotine bats are widely spread throughout Europe and Asia and have a 15 inch wingspan.

Scientists are confounded by the sex lives of serontine bats

By Laura Baisas

Two wild bonobos sit in a tree. Researchers examined pro-social behaviors of the smaller species of great ape in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Wild bonobos show surprising signs of cooperation between groups

By Laura Baisas

A bioluminescent sea cucumber called Scotoplanes or the “sea pig.”

Surprise! These sea cucumbers glow

By Laura Baisas

Attenborough's long-beaked echidna, photographed by a camera trap.

Elusive egg-laying mammal caught on camera for the first time

By Laura Baisas

A lateral view of Loncovilius carlsbergi. It is a six-limbed beetle less than an inch long, with two antennae protruding from its head.

These newfound beetles have male genitals shaped like a bottle opener

By Laura Baisas

Beyond the mitochrondrion: How did our cells get their other complex parts?

Beyond the mitochrondrion: How did our cells get their other complex parts?

By Viviane Callier / Knowable Magazine

An Anna’s hummingbird with bright pink plumage flies near some leafy green trees.

Hummingbirds have two creative strategies for flying through tight spaces

By Laura Baisas

A colorized image of the newly discovered satellite virus latched onto its helper virus. The helper virus is larger and shown in a dark blue, while the satellite virus is smaller and purple. It is attached at the "neck" of the helper virus.

Virus observed sucking on another virus’ ‘neck’ for the first time

By Laura Baisas

Illustration in green, yellow, orange, and purple of big sauropod dinosaurs lifting weights in front of a prehistoric landscape

The mystery of why some dinosaurs got so enormous

A side view of a great white shark. Regional endothermy in fish has been seen in apex predators like the great white sharks or giant tuna.

Megalodon’s warm-blooded relatives are still circling the oceans today

By Laura Baisas

A louse on human hair under a microscope. Humans and lice have coevolved for thousands of years. The oldest human louse known to scientists is a 10,000 year-old specimen from Brazil.

What head lice can tell us about human migration

By Laura Baisas

A baby loggerhead turtle pokes out of a shell on the sand. Its head and front flippers are out of the shell, with the lower half remaining inside.

Endangered sea turtles build hundreds of nests on the Outer Banks

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Ekgmowechashala, the last primate to inhabit North America before humans. The animal has a white furry face, with a pink nose, and large dark eyes like a lemur. It is sitting in a leafy tree.

North America was once home to some unusual wild monkeys

By Laura Baisas

A white rat pops its head out of a black box. Like in humans, the rat’s hippocampus is the part of the brain where mental maps of the world are stored.

Rats may have imaginations

By Laura Baisas

Photograph of the skeletal mount of an Allosaurus specimen (AMNH 5753), from William Diller Matthew's 1915 book “Dinosaurs.”

When a Jurassic giant died, predatory dinos probably feasted on the carcass

By Laura Baisas

An orange starfish, or sea star, on a black backgorund. The unusual five-axis symmetry of sea stars has long confounded our understanding of animal evolution.

The sea star’s whole body is a head

By Laura Baisas

Several blooming yellow sunflowers under a blue sky with white clouds.

We still don’t fully know how sunflowers turn toward the sun

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of an early lamprey's teeth and sucker. The Jurassic lampreys Yanliaomyzon had a feeding apparatus that surprisingly resembles that of the pouched lampreys. It foreshadows the ancestral flesh-eating habit of present day. lampreys.

Giant prehistoric lamprey likely sucked blood—and ate flesh

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of two Jormungandr walhallaensis mosasaurs fighting. The extinct creatrue is a long sea serpent with flippers, a shark-like tail, and narrow jaws. One is seen biting the other in the next, while pterosaurs fly above it.

Newfound mosasaur was like a giant Komodo dragon with flippers

By Laura Baisas

The Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) aka the Halloween beetle looks very similar to more common ladybugs, but they are generally bigger and with more spots. The bug is sitting on a yellow flower.

Why ladybugs and ‘Halloween beetles’ are everywhere right now

By Laura Baisas

A clock-like brain indicates its role in sleep in an illustration.

Your brain’s ‘master switchboard’ is an underappreciated marvel

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas