Biology (Page 4)

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

Latest in Biology

a fly with large eyes looks through a hole in a green leaf

11 stunning images celebrating Earth’s life—and the scientists who study it

By Popular Science Team

Ginger fluffy cat showing the flehmen response after picking up a curious scent.

Scientists pinpoint the chemicals behind a cat’s signature urine smell

By Laura Baisas

A male person with an artificial model of a human pelvis.

Male Neanderthal hips looked more like a human woman’s hips

a pod of six narwhals swimming in blue-green water

Narwhal tusks are twisty, magical mathematical marvels

By Laura Baisas

White woman, man, and child sitting on a tree branch in clothing made from scraps with a chimp.

In 1926, a Russian biologist tried to create a human-chimpanzee hybrid

By Nidhi Sharma

the backs of two eagles in a tree

Bald eagle Shadow and new female KD1 sing a morning song

By Laura Baisas

two brown bears nuzzling each other

Don’t worry, Katmai’s brown bears didn’t vanish from Brooks Falls

By Laura Baisas

a long thin transluscent eel with pink-ish coloring

TikTok helps scientists discover new underground, translucent eel in India

By Laura Baisas

a blue-colored crayfish. it has pincers like a lobster and long antennae

Scientists put tiny backpacks on crayfish

By Sara Hashemi

a whale sticks its head out of the water

Southern right whales have bumpy ‘fingerprints’ on their heads

By Margherita Bassi

boy wearing red sweater whistling playing ukulele

Can’t whistle? It’s not you, it’s mouth geometry.

By Jennifer Byrne

a woman holing a yellow potato

Eating potatoes reshaped the DNA of Indigenous Andeans

By Sara Hashemi

MUNICH, GERMANY - APRIL 02: The burial mask of Egyptian Pharaoh Tutankhamun is shown during the 'Tutanchamun - Sein Grab und die Schaetze' Exhibition Preview at Kleine Olympiahalle on April 2, 2015 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Hannes Magerstaedt/Getty Images)

Illegal mummy trafficking may curse buyers with mold, not magic

a diorama of a sperm whale eating a giant squid

How one of the American Museum of Natural History’s most terrifying dioramas get clean

By Laura Baisas

an eagle on a nest with its head down

Who is KD1, the bald eagle spotted in Jackie and Shadow’s nest?

By Laura Baisas

a butterfly with orange, black, and white coloring and wearing a long, thin radio transmitter sits on a green plant

Putting tiny backpacks on butterflies—for science

By Margherita Bassi

a bear cub sits by a tree with porcupine quills in its hand

Katmai bear cub spotted with a paw full of porcupine quills

By Laura Baisas

two frogs mating on a tree branch

‘Less desirable’ males confuse female treefrogs looking for a mate

By Laura Baisas

two men with orange life jackets on in a river holding a large gray fish

300-year-old sturgeon are swimming around the Great Lakes

By Laura Baisas

a hermit crab grabbing a plant that looks like a mushroom

Hermit crab poop spreads a parasitic plant’s seeds

By Laura Baisas

two eagles on a nest

Jackie the bald eagle dead at 14

By Laura Baisas

a small brown rodent standing on dirt

The cute, tiny Texas kangaroo rat needs help

By Sara Hashemi

two lizards with brown with yellow-green coloring sitting on a branch

New lizard named after colorful ‘House of the Dragon’ character

By Laura Baisas

four dogs with black and white fur sitting on grass in front of bushes

Dogs can tell if you’re angry, scared, or sad

a baby penguin chick with fuzzy gray feathers sits on a pink towel

New ‘desert’ penguin chick arrives in Seattle

By Margherita Bassi

a moth flying up to a white flower

These furry moths smell with their wings

By Sara Hashemi

a bald eagle on a nest

Jackie the bald eagle’s blood values drop again, still in critical condition

By Laura Baisas

a baby sea turtle in the sand

What to do if you find a baby turtle

By Margherita Bassi

a small shore bird with white, grey, and black feathers with orange legs and an orange beak

Piping plover beats the odds after losing feet in fishing line

By Laura Baisas

a sub adult eagle sitting on a nest

Outside eagle spotted on Jackie and Shadow’s nest

By Laura Baisas

Rare blue lobster gets another shot at life in the ocean

By Sara Hashemi

a woman wearing glasses with red lights on them

Infrared glasses could push the boundaries of human eyesight

By Mack DeGeurin

a bird with white and black feathers and bright red feet stands on a tree branch

Rare tropical red-footed booby spotted in Maryland

By Laura Baisas

two eagles perched on a tree branch

Bald eaglets Sandy and Luna leave Big Bear Valley, Shadow gets a little vacation

By Laura Baisas

An image of a 100 micrometer coprolite fossil

Poop made life on Earth possible. Yes, poop.

a puma crossing the road

Pumas can help prevent car crashes

By Margherita Bassi

a sea turtle wearing a satellite tag on its shell walks back into the ocean

Rescued sea turtle named Pancake swims to hot hangout for young turtles

By Laura Baisas

Reconstruction of ‘Spea labreae, sp. nov.’ (dark spadefoots, center and right) in La Brea Tar Pits compared with ‘Spea hammondii’ (light spade-foot, left), the species currently present in the area, and the presence of the Mexican burrowing toad (‘Rhinophrynidae,’ bottom).

Forgotten fossil from 1950s is actually a new species of Ice Age frog

By Laura Baisas

an eagle glares directly at a camera

Do not share fake images of Jackie the bald eagle

By Laura Baisas

Ants cooperating on branch to lift leaf

Unlike humans, ants work better in larger groups

Megalodon tooth with layers of polymetallic deposits atop a NOAA Ocean Exploration towel

Massive, metal-encrusted megalodon teeth litter deep ocean floor

a yellow banana slug curled up on a green fern

Watching a banana slug chomp greens with thousands of tiny teeth is oddly soothing

By Margherita Bassi

three photos side by side of a bear cub with silver fur

Silver cub spotted on Katmai Bear Cam

By Laura Baisas

a vet holds a hummingbird in a gloved hand, with a pair of tweezers in the other

Pennsylvania vets fix a hummingbird’s tiny broken wing with tweezers

By Margherita Bassi

Jackie the bald eagle’s anemia worsens

By Laura Baisas

a reddish-orange waterfall near ice and gray rock

Antarctica’s Blood Falls teems with life from unexpected source

By Laura Baisas

This carnivorous sponge was one of several seen during Dive 09 of the 2026 Cook Islands ROV Exploration cruise. Unlike fitler feeding sponges, carnivorous sponges prey on animals such as small crustaceans that they capture from the water column.

How to watch a live deep-sea exploration in the Pacific

a white porcupine

Rare baby albino porcupine rescued in Maine

By Margherita Bassi

a red spiky flower growing in a swamp

5 gnarly plants in the Okefenokee Swamp, from digestive slime to Earth’s fastest predator

By Laura Baisas

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - NOVEMBER 11: A monkey carrying a puppy are seen around the park in Dhaka, Bangladesh on November 11, 2022. A monkey was spotted carrying a puppy around the park. The monkey also carried the puppy on its lap and was seen jumping from a tree's branches. Even though monkeys and dogs do not necessarily bond, a different animal friendly relationship was seen in Dhaka. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Monkeys sometimes have ‘pets’ like humans

Smallpox virus seen under microscope

Chilean mummies prove Europeans brought smallpox to the Americas

a grey sponge on the floor of a harbor

Blobby chicken kidney sponges clean dirty water surprisingly well

By Laura Baisas

a split image of a bald eagle on a perch in front of a green background, next to three eagles sitting on a nest overlooking a lake

Bald eagle Jackie out of ICU, but not out of danger

By Laura Baisas

a hammerhead shark underwater, at the side of a boat

Mysterious shark spotted near the Galápagos Islands for the first time in over 20 years

By Laura Baisas

Microscopic image of fungi growing on underground roc

A vast world of rock-eating fungi lurks deep underneath the Great Lakes

Twin black-and-white ruffed lemurs, Maso and Tonga, explore their habitat at Central Park Zoo with their mother, Koa.

Rare twin lemurs born at New York’s Central Park Zoo

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of four humans. one adult is nursing a baby, while a child looks on. two adults are standing over an infant lying on its back

Human newborns have been helpless for 1 million years

By Laura Baisas

Illustration of a tyrannosaurus as an asteroid strikes the Earth. Tyrannosaurus was one of the very last dinosaurs, wiped out 65 million years ago during the extinction event that ended the Cretaceous period. Scientists believe that the incident was provoked by the impact of an asteroid or comet with the Earth off the coast of what is now Mexico.

Dinosaurs died out within hours, new study suggests

Bald eagle Jackie ‘more feisty’ during feedings, still in critical condition

By Laura Baisas

a split picture with a babbon that has a red and grey face and white fur and a bird with bright white and black feathers

Ancient Egyptian god of magic is sometimes a bird, sometimes a baboon. Now we know why.

By Margherita Bassi

Fossilized footprint of P. boisei next to ruler for size comparison

Toothy human ancestor may have traveled in all-male packs

a side by side of vets holding a baby giraffe

Premature baby giraffe keeps beating the odds after emergency C-section

By Margherita Bassi

a large jellyfish with several long tentacles and a red and white center

World’s largest jellyfish spotted near Cape Cod

By Margherita Bassi

a turtle wearing a telemetry device on its shell walks into the ocean

Bon voyage, Papyrus! 5 rescued sea turtles named after fonts released in Cape Cod

By Laura Baisas