Biology (Page 6)

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

Latest in Biology

Forensic science specialist work at a war crime scene investigation

When blood hits clothes, physics takes over

a blue research vessel called the blue heron on water (left). a cup half full of black goo (right).

Mysterious ‘ship goo’ contains new life forms

By Lauren Leffer

A harbor seal (Phoca vitulina) on the beach during the summer premoult stage.

When wily sea lions and determined wildlife officials sparred in Seattle

The acoustic parasitoid fly Ormia ochracea and its host cricket.

This parasitic fly gives birth inside of crickets

By Laura Baisas

a black cat sits in leaves

Pet cat helps discover a new virus

By Laura Baisas

several small fish with colorful organa and blue scales

Orange male guppies are hornier

By Laura Baisas

a team of greenland sled dog puppies with white fur pulls a sled

Oldest known dog breed reveals hidden human history

By Lauren Leffer

a yellow crab on a beach

Australia’s ghost crabs decapitate baby sea turtles

By Laura Baisas

A pseudoscorpion from the genus Nipponogarypus in South Korea.

New pseudoscorpions with dragon-like jaws discovered in a South Korea cave

By Laura Baisas

Burmese python on ground

Pythons can devour bones thanks to unique stomach cells

An artist’s reconstruction of the fossilized landscape, plants, and animals found preserved in a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. The newly described pterosaur Eotephradactylus mcintireae is seen eating an ancient ray-finned fish alongside an early species of turtle and an early frog species, with the skeleton of an armored crocodile relative lying on the ground and a palm-like plant growing in the background.

North American pterosaur could sit on your shoulder

By Laura Baisas

A close up of a mosquito biting human skin

A mosquito killer may lurk in a Mediterranean bacteria

By Laura Baisas

a yellowtail parrotfish swims by a coral reef

Real Coral Reefs of Miami: A Q&A with the marine biologist behind a popular livestream

By Laura Baisas

five goats eating vegetation in a park

G.O.A.T. will be crowned in first-ever professional eating competition for goats

By Margherita Bassi

An illustration of a microscopic neural network in the brain.

Even old brains can make new neurons, study suggests

By Lauren Leffer

a close up of a hermit crab, with brown coloring and dark eyes

What makes a hermit crab more bold? Hairy claws.

By Laura Baisas

A jumping spider devours a hoverfly. The hoverfly has evolved to look like a wasp, but in this case the resemblance is not sufficient to deter a spider from attacking it.

Flies disguised as wasps can’t fool birds

By Lauren Leffer

Eryops megacephalus’ (left) skull alongside Rex from the film “Toy Story” (right).

Skull that looks like a ‘Toy Story’ character unearthed in Texas

By Laura Baisas

An artistic reconstruction of Swaindelphys. it has black fur, pointy pink ears, and pointy nose, and very large brown eyes

Shockingly large extinct possum uncovered in Texas

By Margherita Bassi

eight chipmunk specimens with tags on them in a museum collection

City living is changing rodent skulls in Chicago

By Laura Baisas

Cissy, a Sumatran orangutan mother, is taking a nap in her day nest.

Orangutans sacrifice sleep to socialize–but naps can help

By Lauren Leffer

A turtle basking with its legs outstretched on a rock. This activity is normal and beneficial to turtles.

Why do turtles do the ‘Superman pose’?

By Laura Baisas

two orca whales come into contact with one another and a piece of kelp is between them

Orcas spotted using seaweed to groom each other

By Laura Baisas

a yellow fungus with a white circle around it in a petri dish

Deadly ‘pharaoh’s curse fungus’ could be used to fight cancer

By Laura Baisas

small fish in a net being rescued

After a devastating wildfire, rescued fish make a triumphant return to Malibu

By Margherita Bassi

Koala female with her baby at the Perth Zoo in Australia.

Secret koala population discovered near Australian city

By Margherita Bassi

a beige and brown moth on a stone

Migrating moths can read the stars

By Lauren Leffer

illustration of a large lizard with a bulging head carrying a large egg

Bones of a raccoon-sized prehistoric lizard sat in a jar for 20 years

By Laura Baisas

a long black amphibian with feathered gills called an axolotl swims in a fish tank

Axolotl mucus peptides attack breast cancer cells and MRSA

By Laura Baisas

A Guatemalan tiger rump tarantula (Davus pentaloris) in a terrarium with reflections.

Tarantulas adapt their running style after losing legs

By Laura Baisas

Fuzzy beetle on red flower

Most bugs can’t see red—but these beetles can

A great hammerhead shark swimming close to the surface in Bimini, Bahamas, Caribbean Sea.

Young hammerhead sharks love Biscayne Bay. Leave them alone, humans.

By Laura Baisas

an anaconda coiled sitting on straw

Q&A: How anacondas, chickens, and locals may be able to coexist in the Amazon

a weedy seadragon swimming. they have long snouts and raised backs

Weedy seadragons in the running for nature’s best dads

By Margherita Bassi

Starving bacteria (cyan) use a microscopic harpoon—called the Type VI secretion system—to stab and kill neighboring cells (magenta).

Bacteria will turn to murder if they get hungry enough

an adult osprey looks on as the heads of three chicks pop out over a nest

Three osprey chicks hatch in 500-pound steel nest boxes

By Laura Baisas

European Gray Wolf Cubs in a Grass in a Spring Day

Two Ice Age ‘puppies’ weren’t exactly dogs

an image taken with a microscope that shows a fruit fly approaching a tower made of tiny roundworms

Worm towers are all around us

By Lauren Leffer

an illustration of an extinct marsupial with brown and white fur and a small trunk-like nose

Australia’s giant extinct marsupials may be ID’d using tiny bone bits

Dead coral sit on the ocean bed in the Straits of Florida near Key Largo, Florida, on September 23, 2021. The coral is very gray and white

Probiotics can help heal ravaged coral reefs

By Laura Baisas

a small rod-shaped bacteria seen under a microscope. several individual bacterium are moving along a blue surface

Watch bacteria ‘hitchhike’ and zoom around

By Laura Baisas

A female Anopheles mosquito is sitting on a green vine of the forest a

Scientists engineer mosquito STD to combat malaria

By Laura Baisas

Well-preserved dinosaur skull belongs to new sauropod species

a female student with gloves on working with fungi in a lab

College student discovers mysterious fungus that eluded LSD’s inventor

By Laura Baisas

orange and yellow flames on a black background

Can humans spontaneously combust? The baffling cases explained.

By Lauren Leffer

Close up of fruit fly head on orange background

Researchers genetically altered fruit flies to crave cocaine

a small frog on a road, with a person's bright sneakers in the background

Wildlife underpass reduces squished amphibians by 80%

By Laura Baisas

A harbor seal viewing a simulation of the seabed rushing beneath him, with a red ball target either side of his head to touch, to indicate which direction he appeared to be moving in.

Seals playing a video game reveal how they find their way

By Laura Baisas

A wildfire frontline with emergency services nearby, Okanagan Valley, British Columbia, Canada.

Are we in a sixth mass extinction?

By Lauren Leffer

A female oceanic whitetip shark seen feeding on the carcass.

Sharks surprise scientists by sharing a meal

By Laura Baisas

a cat with wide eyes

Your cat probably knows your smell

By Laura Baisas

a close up of a bed bug

Bed bugs have been bothering humans for 60,000 years

By Laura Baisas

an illustration of a long marine reptile with large teeth eating a shelled animal

‘Very odd’ 40-foot-long marine reptile stalked prehistoric Canada

By Laura Baisas

luffa acutangular, Cucurbitaceae green vegetable fresh on brown fabric in garden on nature background

A trip to the farm where loofahs grow on vines

By Alisha McDarris

a large American bullfrog in water with vegetation

This invasive frog can fit baby turtles inside its mouth

By Margherita Bassi

two birds with black and white plumage with dots of yellow or blue feathers neat their beaks sit near a nest

Male hornbills are at their mates’ every beck and call

By Margherita Bassi

an illustration showing the various sizes of extinct giant sloths

8,000-pound sloths once roamed North America. Where’d they go?

By Laura Baisas

Adélie penguins walking along the Antarctic coastline.

How pungent poop could help Antarctica’s penguins

By Laura Baisas

a pink and yellow flower with delicate petals

Plants can hear tiny wing flaps of pollinators

By Laura Baisas

a clear marine worm with many appendages branching out of its torso and some dots of colors

Sea worm’s reproductive bits grow their own eyes before mating

By Laura Baisas

Sargassum algae piles up along the shore at a beach in Fajardo, Puerto Rico.

31 million tons of seaweed ready to stink up Florida’s beaches

By Laura Baisas

a humpback whale calf swims in front of its mother

Humpback whales can give birth while migrating thousands of miles

By Laura Baisas

a baby howler monkey on the back of a juvenile capuchin

Capuchin monkeys kidnap baby howler monkeys, shocking scientists

By Lauren Leffer

Fossil fragments on black background

These human ancestors weren’t as lonely as experts thought