Biology (Page 23)

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

Latest in Biology

Two orca whales swim in the ocean with mountains in the distance.

Raising male offspring comes at a high price for orca mothers

By Laura Baisas

A beefsteak fungus growing in a forest.

Bacteria and fungi are the first to start rebuilding charred forests

By Laura Baisas

An uncooked brown crab sitting among among seaweed and water.

Neanderthals caught and cooked crabs 90,000 years ago

By Laura Baisas

A wolf-like puppy surrounded by other puppies tries howling.

Do domesticated dogs howl back at wolves?

By Laura Baisas

A scan of a mastodon skeleton with an arrow pointing to the trajectory of the spear.

Ancient humans used mastodon bones to hunt the giant beasts

By Laura Baisas

A fossilized fish brain alongside of a penny for size comparison.

Scientists find 319-million-year-old fossilized fish brain

By Laura Baisas

The racist history behind using biology in criminology

The racist history behind using biology in criminology

By Michael Schulson/Undark

Two small prairie voles.

These fuzzy burrowers don’t need oxytocin to fall in love

By Laura Baisas

Brown cat and white cat fighting and playing in a sunny room

Fun or feud? These are the tell-tail signs that a catfight has gone sour.

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A seaweed farm underwater near an island in Indonesia.

Why seaweed farming could be the next big thing in sustainability

By Laura Baisas

Artist's reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae surviving six months of winter darkness in the extinct warm temperate ecosystem of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada.

These primate ancestors were totally chill with a colder climate

By Laura Baisas

Two long, dark, Koh Tao worm salamanders on a swampy soil

One wormy Triassic fossil could fill a hole in the evolutionary story of amphibians

By Laura Baisas

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses

When wind turbines kill bats and birds, these scientists want the carcasses

By Emma Foehringer Merchant / Undark

A chimpanzee holding out its hand.

Adolescent chimpanzees might be less impulsive than human teens

By Laura Baisas

Stowaway mice carry DNA evidence of an ancient black market fur trade

Stowaway mice carry DNA evidence of an ancient black market fur trade

By Gemma Conroy / Hakai Magazine

A group of oyster mushrooms growing.

Oyster mushrooms release nerve gas to kill worms before eviscerating them

By Laura Baisas

Newly found titanosaur eggs reveal dino nurseries once teemed with baby giants

Newly found titanosaur eggs reveal dino nurseries once teemed with baby giants

By Laura Baisas

An overview of mummified crocodiles during an excavation.

Ancient Egyptians had a unique way of mummifying crocodiles

By Laura Baisas

Adult zebra shark swims in a tank at Shedd Aquarium in Chicago

A virgin birth in Shedd Aquarium’s shark tank is baffling biologists

By Laura Baisas

Five fossil specimens including extinct trilobites.

Trilobites may have jousted with head ‘tridents’ to win mates

By Laura Baisas

an orange spotted fish with a white line that stretches across its body

What rockfish genes can teach humans about living past 100

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A look at how cancer cells move and metastatize could help doctors stop them from spreading

A look at how cancer cells move and metastatize could help doctors stop them from spreading

By Yizeng Li / The Conversation

A small lizard called the Puerto Rican crested anole sits on a human-made fence.

When these reptiles became city lizards, it changed their genes

By Laura Baisas

Geologists collecting Permian fossils on a Tibetan plateau

UV radiation might be behind the planet’s biggest mass extinction

The Jewel Damselfish on off of a rat-free island.

Invasive rats are making some reef fish more peaceful, and that’s bad, actually

By Laura Baisas

A pig looking up from a muddy field.

A new synthetic material could help fix broken penises—at least in pigs

By Laura Baisas

A lush green fjord in Norway with a wooden longship.

Some modern-day Scandinavians lack the ancestral diversity of Vikings

By Laura Baisas

Yellow chlorovirus particles infecting microscopic green algae

These microbes could be the first lifeforms to munch on infectious viruses

By Laura Baisas

The National Institutes of Health is studying dogs to learn more about aging and genetics in people

The National Institutes of Health is studying dogs to learn more about aging and genetics in people

By Helen Bradshaw

College textbooks aren’t keeping up with the severity of the global climate crisis

College textbooks aren’t keeping up with the severity of the global climate crisis

By Carla Delgado

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

‘Snowball Earth’ was crushing and cold. What animals could survive it?

By Chris Baraniuk / Hakai Magazine

A pink iguana in green grass at Galápagos National Park in Ecuador.

Pink Iguana hatchlings spotted for the first time on the Galápagos in decades

By Laura Baisas

It’s easier than ever to make DNA from scratch—but what are the risks?

It’s easier than ever to make DNA from scratch—but what are the risks?

By Michael Schulson/Undark

Zebrafish swimming in an aquarium.

A primitive part of the zebrafish brain helps them find their way home

By Laura Baisas

A young orangutan in a tree.

Why do humans talk? Tree-dwelling orangutans might hold the answer.

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of adult and young of the ichthyosaur species (Shonisaurus popularis) chasing ammonoid prey 230 million years ago, in what is now Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada.

Millions of years ago, marine reptiles may have used Nevada as a birthing ground

By Laura Baisas

Giant gray cat snuggling a child with black hair in an orange sweater to show their cat-human bond. Illustration.

Your cat is probably more attached to you than you think

By Brandon Keim

What’s in a genome? The quest to decipher human difference

What’s in a genome? The quest to decipher human difference

By Michael Schulson/Undark

a young male chimp eating in a tree

Foraging in trees might have pushed human ancestors to walk on two feet

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Scientists just found out female snakes have two clitorises

Scientists just found out female snakes have two clitorises

By Laura Baisas

A reconstructed image of Ramsayia, alongside a modern day wombat.

Giant wombats the size of small cars once roamed Australia

By Laura Baisas

Large fossilized fragments of free swimming arthropods

Newly discovered fossils give a whole new meaning to jumbo shrimp

By Laura Baisas

a collage of six plates of agar growing colorful bacteria that has been intentionally grown in artistic shapes. some of the plates include representations of jellyfish and neurons. there's also abstract art like two plates representing a connection between mother and child

These intricate ‘living’ paintings are teeming with microscopic organisms

A Labrador and a terrier play with a rope toy.

How breeding dogs for certain traits may have altered their brains

By Laura Baisas

Woolly mammoths in forests in Greenland after eDNA reconstruction. The scene is an illustration.

Oldest DNA ever sampled paints a lush portrait of a lost Arctic world

The last Tasmanian tiger’s remains were finally found—in a cupboard

The last Tasmanian tiger’s remains were finally found—in a cupboard

By Laura Baisas

Brightly colored tropical fish in a coral reef

To save coral reefs, color the larvae

By Laura Baisas

The tortoise, the myth, the legend: Jonathan turns 190

The tortoise, the myth, the legend: Jonathan turns 190

By Laura Baisas

This dinosaur dove like a duck

This dinosaur dove like a duck

By Laura Baisas

Plastic bottles and fishing nets and other trash on sea beach

Plastic microfibers in the Mediterranean Sea are keeping bacteria afloat

By Lauren J. Young

Artist’s impression of Cryptovaranoides when it was alive

A key to lizard evolution was buried in a museum cupboard for 70 years

By Laura Baisas

The newest member of the T. rex family has piercing eyes

The newest member of the T. rex family has piercing eyes

By Laura Baisas

Steller's Sea Cow

Meet the extinct sea cow that cultivated Pacific kelp forests

By Laura Baisas

Ancient army ant

Eyeless army ants chomped their way through Europe millions of years ago

By Laura Baisas

Kimberella fossil

Oldest evidence of digested plants in a roughly 575-million-year-old creature’s gut

By Laura Baisas

A giant prehistoric salamander

These pleasantly plump salamanders dominated the Cretaceous period

By Laura Baisas

Big ancient turtle

Gigantic fossils hint at super-sized 7,000-pound sea turtle

By Laura Baisas

This 18-foot python’s last meal was a whole alligator

This 18-foot python’s last meal was a whole alligator

By Dac Collins / Outdoor Life

Children raising their hands in a classroom.

Kids learn faster than adults. This neurotransmitter could explain why.

By Laura Baisas

Monkeys with close friends have friendlier gut bacteria

Monkeys with close friends have friendlier gut bacteria

By Laura Baisas

Nine patients with paralysis walking again with aides in various environments after electrode therapy. Black and white.

The slow, but promising progress of electrode therapy for paralysis

a fuzzy bumblebee settles on a pink flower

Bees can sense a flower’s electric field—unless fertilizer messes with the buzz

By Lauren J. Young

A woman in a long sleeve white shirt reaches from bed to turn off her alarm clock.

The science behind our circadian rhythms, and why time changes mess them up

By Helen Bradshaw

Sex, not violence, could’ve sealed the fate of the Neanderthals

Sex, not violence, could’ve sealed the fate of the Neanderthals

By Laura Baisas