Biology (Page 20)

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

Latest in Biology

parasitic horsehair worm

‘Brainwashing’ parasites inherit a strange genetic gap

By Maddi Langweil

A car passenger appears to feel nauseous with her hand to her mouth.

What causes motion sickness—and how to avoid it

A saber tooth cat fossil is displayed during a press preview of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History on June 4, 2019.

Paleontologists discover two new sabertooth cat species

By Laura Baisas

Study author shows off the compressed mycelium sheets she created for the project

This fungi-based substance might protect homes from ever-worsening wildfires

By Sara Kiley Watson

An artistic reconstruction showing how this 300,000 year-old stick would have been thrown on a hunt. Two men stand in a shallow body of water, with one aiming the stick towards three birds.

A javelin-like stick shows early humans may have been keen woodworkers

By Laura Baisas

Illustration showing Repenomamus robustus as it attacks Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis moments before a volcanic debris flow buries them both about 125 million years ago.

This badger-like mammal may have died while trying to eat a dinosaur

By Laura Baisas

full venus flytrap on black background

These meat-eating plants are masters of deception

By Ali Blumenthal, Ellen Airhart

A green sea turtle swims in the ocean.

Hungry green sea turtles have eaten in the same seagrass meadows for about 3,000 years

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of Alligator munensis, which is skimming the water with its eye out and surrounded by lush green trees. The large tooth sockets towards the back of its mouth suggest this extinct gator could crush shells and may have snacked on hard-shelled prey like snails.

Extinct snub-nosed gator had big teeth for crushing snails

By Laura Baisas

Red pieces of CRISPR-edited wood against the paler natural type.

Genetically modified trees could mean more sustainable wood

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A dire wolf reconstruction on exhibit at the La Brea Tar Pits & Museum.

Mighty saber-toothed cats and dire wolves probably had achy joints

By Laura Baisas

A banded sea snake swimming freely

Some sea snakes may not be colorblind after all

By Laura Baisas

Influenza Ward No. 4 showing Partitions thru the Ward, U.S. Army Camp Hospital Number 45, Aix-les-Bains, France, 1914-1918

How the 1918 pandemic changed what we knew about viruses

By Richard Conniff/MIT Press Reader

A large group of shells on a beach. Organisms with hard, durable parts, like shells, are more likely to be preserved as fossils than organisms composed entirely of soft tissue.

The fossil record holds clues about modern-day marine ecology

By Laura Baisas

Oldest tunicate on record from the Cambrian explosion, illustrated on the ocean floor

A 500-million-year-old sea squirt is the evolutionary clue we need to understand our humble beginnings

By Maddi Langweil

A honey bee pollinates a yellow flower against a bright blue sky.

Bee brains could teach robots to make split-second decisions

By Laura Baisas

Two male male rhesus macaques sit on the ground, one with his head down towards the other

Same-sex mounting in male macaques can help them reproduce more successfully

By Laura Baisas

Jars of animal and plant specimen.

Why preserving museum specimens is so vital for science

By Darren Incorvaia/Undark

Cells have some clever tricks for copying DNA

By Amber Dance/Knowable Magazine

Crotalus helleri snake

Stressed rattlesnakes just need a little help from their friends

By Laura Baisas

Octopuses brooding near hydrothermal vents deep under water. The 19-day Octopus Odyssey expedition located a site of low temperature (7oC) hydrothermal venting with brooding octopus on an unnamed outcrop that was explored for the very first time on this trip.

New species of inkless octopus may have been found in Costa Rica’s deep seas

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Anomalocaris, which lived 541 million to 530 million years ago during the Cambrian Period. The animal has two bulging eyes on the top of its head and spiny front appendages,

Ancient ‘weird shrimp from Canada’ used bizarre appendages to scarf up soft prey

By Laura Baisas

falcon perches on handler's glove, jersey shore attractions in background

The birds of summer patrolling Ocean City’s boardwalk

By Laura Baisas, Jutharat Pinyodoonyachet

Common bottlenose dolphins swimming in Coffee Bay in South Africa.

Drones are following dolphins to spy on their complex social lives

By Laura Baisas

A Cryo-EM map of a Fanzor protein indicated by gray, yellow, light blue, and pink in complex with ωRNA indicated in purple and its target DNA in red. Non-target DNA strand in blue.

These organisms have a natural gene-editing system that could be more useful than CRISPR

By Laura Baisas

A greater honeyguide feeding on beeswax with an open mouth in Niassa Special Reserve in Mozambique.

Badgers and birds may be teaming up to steal honey

By Laura Baisas

A green adult L. heckscheri frog sits amid some rocks and fungus.

Check out some of the weirdest warty frogs in North America

By Popular Science Team

The silhouette of a female hunter with a bow and arrow at sunrise.

Women have been skillful, purposeful hunters in most foraging societies

By Laura Baisas

A sweating young man with a yellow towel.

How does your body stay balanced inside? Thank homeostasis.

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

A spider monkey stands on a tree branch with a baby monkey on her back.

The ancestor of all placental mammals survived the dino-killing asteroid

By Laura Baisas

A saltwater crocodile peering up over green-ish water.

Why scientists gave vaccines to farmed crocodiles

By Laura Baisas

An orangutan sits in the forest and looks forward with its hands under its chin.

Orangutans can make two sounds at the same time

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of a megalogon, which went extinct 3.6 million years ago and are believed to have grown to lengths of 50 feet.

Megalodons were likely warm-blooded, despite being stone-cold killers

By Laura Baisas

A close-up of a katydid, an insect with six long and lean legs.

A 50-million-year-old insect testicle is one lucky find

By Laura Baisas

Close-up photos of three fossil animal specimens from the same area and time horizon as the fossil hominin tibia studied by the research team. These fossils show similar cut marks to those found on the hominin tibia studied. The photos show (a) an antelope mandible, (b) an antelope radius (lower front leg bone) and (c) a large mammal scapula (shoulder blade).

Cut-up prehistoric bone raises questions about early human cannibalism

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of Olympicetus thalassodon pursuing a school of fishes alongside plotopterid birds (background) somewhere in the eastern North Pacific Ocean.

This dolphin ancestor looked like a cross between Flipper and Moby Dick

By Laura Baisas

A cockscomb pearl mussel.

The secret to better folding phones might hinge on mussels

Close up of GOOD Meat lab-grown chicken on table

Lab-grown chicken is now USDA approved—if you can afford it

Examples of engravings discovered in the Roche-Cotard cave (Indre et Loire - France). On the left, the "circular panel" (ogive-shaped tracings) and on the right the "wavy panel" (two contiguous tracings forming sinuous lines).

Neanderthals were likely creating art 57,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

Bumblebee pollinator over red and orange flowers

Microscopic worms use electricity to ride bumblebees like EVs

By Laura Baisas

A white Andalusian horse galloping in a field.

Horses once had multiple hoofed toes

By Laura Baisas

Bite marks on Triassic fossils show signs of bloody dino decapitation

Bite marks on Triassic fossils show signs of bloody dino decapitation

By Sara Kiley Watson

This extremely metal Cretaceous dinosaur grew blade-like armor

This extremely metal Cretaceous dinosaur grew blade-like armor

By Sara Kiley Watson

Australian giant skink

This chunky ancient lizard was 1,000 times bigger than its modern relatives

By Sara Kiley Watson

Two ants facing one another. Ants release a pheromone that helps other ants sense danger.

Ants brains are surprisingly good at communicating danger to others

By Laura Baisas

Lucy, our ancient human ancestor, was super buff

Lucy, our ancient human ancestor, was super buff

By Sara Kiley Watson

single fruit fly

Flies age faster once they’ve seen death

By Sara Kiley Watson

emperor penguin and chicks

Many bird species are struggling—but data can help us save them from extinction

By Emily Sohn/Knowable Magazine

Paramecium bursaria under a microscope. All creatures whose cells house a nucleus, including Paramecium bursaria, can be traced back to a common ancestor called the Last Eukaryotic Common Ancestor (LECA).

Newfound single-celled hunters may have been Earth’s first-ever predators

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of the rhynchosaur Bentonyx from the Middle Triassic of Devon, about 245 million years ago.

This ancient reptile had a deadly vegetarian diet

By Laura Baisas

Mice lived longer lives when given the supplement taurine.

Animals given taurine supplements in ‘groundbreaking’ study had longer lifespans

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

The California two-spot octopus (Bimaculoides) is the first octopus species to have its genome sequenced and is very helpful for studying cephalopods.

Octopuses rewrite their own RNA to survive freezing temperatures

By Laura Baisas

A monkey laying on a tree smiling.

Super semen could be one reason why primates evolved to masturbate

By Laura Baisas

Computer illustration of ISS with docket spacecraft

The ISS’s latest delivery includes space plants and atmospheric lightning monitors

A badger in a forest on a rainy day.

Air quality monitoring stations could help track and preserve threatened species

By Laura Baisas

Lionfish are now threatening ecosystems and livelihoods in Brazil

Lionfish are now threatening ecosystems and livelihoods in Brazil

By Osmar J. Luiz/The Conversation

A moth with wings extended outward lands on a flower.

This massively underrated pollinator needs your help

By Laura Baisas

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.

These species were discovered in museum collections. They might already be extinct.

By Katarina Zimmer / Undark

The adult gomphothere skull (foreground, tusk capped in white plaster) was separated from the main body (background, covered in plaster) prior to its preservation.

Elephants once roamed Florida—and scientists just stumbled on a graveyard full of them

By Laura Baisas

A mother and baby golden snub nosed monkey. These primates live in mountainous regions of southwestern China. Longer periods of maternal care may have helped them form more complex societies.

Chilly climates may have forged stronger social bonds in some primates

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur flying with a large wingspan.

Dinosaur Cove reveals a petite pterosaur species

By Laura Baisas

Reassembled partial skeleton Ambulator keanei with silhouette demonstrating advanced adaptations for quadrupedal, graviportal walking.

This 500-pound Australian marsupial had feet made for walkin’

By Laura Baisas

HIV, seen in red budding particles, is among the deadliest viruses.

The deadliest viruses in human history, from COVID to smallpox

By Eva Botkin-Kowacki

A close up of a skull and teeth.

Plague DNA was just found in 4,000-year-old teeth

By Laura Baisas