Biology (Page 2)

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

Latest in Biology

a bobcat in an enclosure

Bobcat that survived being hit by a car gets a custom-built kennel

By Margherita Bassi

a small bird chick with white feathers yawns

6 bird cam highlights to celebrate nesting season

By Laura Baisas

Small blue octopus on ocean floor

Golf ball-sized octopus discovered near the Galápagos Islands

a mother big horn sheep with three babies

It’s baby season at Yellowstone National Park

By Margherita Bassi

Two views of new box jellyfish species with 5 cm size comparison reference

New box jellyfish name warns of ‘death from behind’

a bird with blue plumage and a broad blue bill squawks in a tree

The boat-billed heron looks fake but is very real

By Margherita Bassi

a black and white cow standing on green grass in an open field

Cows can tell humans apart, new study finds

By Laura Baisas

3D render illustration of T. rext and various other dinosaurs in a forest

Why were T. rex’s arms so tiny? Paleontologists finally find an answer.

spiders with happy faces

Newly discovered spider has smiley face on its back

a close-up of a black and yellow bumblebee landing on the yellow center of an orange flower

Worker bees have power to pick their queen

By Laura Baisas

Drill boring hole in ancient mollusk shell in laboratory

Neanderthals dined on shellfish much earlier than humans

Close up of child hand writing in notebook

Leg evolution made most humans right-handed

small dingo bones in soil with a yellow tape measure showing size

1,000-year-old dingo bones show that it was injured, cared for, and ritually buried

By Laura Baisas

a beetle with black and red coloring

61 new beetles discovered in China

By Margherita Bassi

a shark swimming in dark waters

Mysterious giant sharks that outlived the dinosaurs lurking in Puget Sound

By Margherita Bassi

The exterior of the reconstructed Catholic chapel at Historic St.Mary's City in St. Mary's City, Maryland

1.3 million people share DNA with Maryland’s earliest colonists

a robot scouring a reef

It’s a barracuda! It’s a shrimp! It’s a robot helping coral reefs.

By Mack DeGeurin

A photo of the Guangxi reed snake on the forest floor

‘Two-headed snake’ confuses predators

a superbloom of tall purple wildflowers called lupine with mountains in the distance

Superbloom turns Redwood National Park’s hills purple

By Laura Baisas

Goose flying behind wind turbine

Birds avoid wind turbines painted like venomous snakes

five different views of a neanderthal tooth with a cavity that was filled

Neanderthal ‘dentists’ treated cavities 59,000 years ago

By Margherita Bassi

a young child sitting on a beach smears white sunscreen on her face

Your next sunscreen could be made from E. coli

By Laura Baisas

Stream of coffee pouring into an overflowing coffee mug on a white table

Why coffee tastes bitter, according to molecular biology

two mayflies mating

Mayflies have crazy, acrobatic sex

By Margherita Bassi

a white bison calf walking next to an adult bison in tall prairie grass

One-in-a-million white bison calf born in Iowa

By Laura Baisas

Two white children play on a roundabout in a vintage photograph.

The first playgrounds were for adults, not kids

By Andrew Coletti

a team of vets puts a wire frame on a turtle's shell

Vet constructs ingenious contraption to help a tortoise hit by a car

By Margherita Bassi

Glowing blue algae arranged in different shapes

Glowing algae could power the lamps of the future

Sir David Attenborough’s 100th birthday present is… a parasitic wasp

By Margherita Bassi

shiny crystals found inside of a bone

An extinct human species made surprisingly creative butchery tools

By Laura Baisas

An atmospheric photograph shows a silhouette of a person interacting with a dramatic play of light and shadow. The person’s face and hands are partially illuminated by a bright, warm light source that cuts through a hazy, purple-tinted atmosphere filled with smoke or mist. The composition is abstract and moody, emphasizing the sensory and ethereal nature of light and color.

Color doesn’t exist—at least not how you think

By Jennifer Byrne

Close up of speartooth shark

Shark lasers could help save vulnerable species

two eaglet chicks in a nest

How to tell Jackie and Shadow’s chicks, Sandy and Luna, apart

By Laura Baisas

a grizzly bear in the woods

CAUTION: That dead elk in Yellowstone could be grizzly bear bait

By Margherita Bassi

two eaglets on a nest

Jackie and Shadow’s eaglets’ names announced: Say hello to Sandy and Luna

By Laura Baisas

A brain implant to treat depression gets FDA greenlight to start trials

By Mack DeGeurin

small kitten sitting on a golden retriever's head.

Why some cats love dogs—despite the risk

By Clarissa Brincat

a brown bear eating a piece of salmon in a river

Fat Bear Week champion Chunk spotted taking a stroll in Alaska

By Laura Baisas

a chicken with brown and white stripes and large orange sacks on the sides of its head

A rare prairie chicken shakes his butt all day to attract ladies

By Laura Baisas

Rough thicktail scorpion (Parabuthus raudus). Paratuthus scorpions' venom is quick-acting, so they do not need to rely as much on their pincers to capture prey.

Metal-reinforced scorpions evolved to kill

a yellow glider in the ocean

The ‘Waymo of the sea’ tracks sperm whale conversations

By Laura Baisas

sea lion on pier

How to watch Chonkers, the 2,000-pound sea lion live from San Francisco

By Laura Baisas

Close up photo of white woman wearing jean overalls showing a scar on her upper left chest several inches long.

Why scars never disappear

By RJ Mackenzie

an illustration of a woolly mammoth with brown fur and two large tusks and a trunk walking around a snow landscape

We’re still recovering from losing the woolly mammoth

By Laura Baisas

an eagle feeding two chicks

Jackie and Shadow’s chicks getting new feathers

By Laura Baisas

Black and white photo of person standing in sheet ghost costume in backyard

That ghostly presence may just be bad plumbing

a parrot with blue and yellow feathers and an open mouth

Parrots use names to talk to each other

By Margherita Bassi

two sea otters in the ocean with one with its paw up

Why playing is no laughing matter for otters

By Heide Island

a sea turtle on a vet's table

Meet Earl Grey, the sea turtle with a wild family tree

By Margherita Bassi

Honeybee on a woman's fingertip

Honeybees understand basic math

Illustration of giant, ancient finned octopus

65-foot-long octopuses ruled ancient oceans

a penguin with black and white feathers and long yellow feathers on top of its eyes

Macaroni penguins are surprisingly buff

By Laura Baisas

a green bee pollinating a yellow flower

Humidity makes these bees go from blue to green

By Laura Baisas

a lobster with orange color on one side and black on the other

1 in 50 million split-colored lobster found in Massachusetts

By Laura Baisas

a woman plays rug of war with a black and white dog

Play with your dog. It’s good for both of you.

By Laura Baisas

Egyptian fruit bat hanging upside down on black background

People keep trespassing near cave filled with bats infected by Ebola’s cousin

two bald eagles

How to tell eagle parents Jackie and Shadow apart

By Laura Baisas

NASA's Curiosity Mars rover took this selfie at a location nicknamed "Mary Anning" after a 19th century English paleontologist. This was the site of the chemical experiment uncovering diverse organic molecules on Mars, in the Glen Torridon region, which scientists believe was a site where ancient conditions would have been favorable to supporting life, if it ever was present.

Curiosity finds molecules needed for ancient life on Mars

Illustration of ancient tubular polyps on the ocean floor

450-million year old jellyfish ancestor looks like a flailing carwash tubeman

a parrot with green feathers and a missing top beak

Bruce is missing his upper beak, but it has not stopped him from dominance

By Laura Baisas

Crimson (left) was rescued shortly after Clover(right).

Two mountain lion cubs rescued from certain death

By Margherita Bassi

an illustration of an extinct hedgehog like animal

New megafauna looked like spiky, 30-pound hamster

By Margherita Bassi

a bright red bird with a long beak

Hawaiian forest birds are stealing each other’s twigs

By Margherita Bassi

a flower with red petals and a large pole-like center growing in a tropical forest

Rare rotting-flesh smelling flower blooming at a Massachusetts college

By Margherita Bassi