Creature
All that slithers, swims, flits, flies, grows and dies
Animals, plants, microbes, fungi and all life on Earth, from long-buried dinosaurs to newly emerging infections, often serve to instruct and amaze. We are interested in everything from the simplest physical structures to the most complex emergent behavior of life's many forms — from the extinct to the evolved and from the web of ecology to the promise of animal-inspired technology.
By mimicking the diabolical ironclad beetles' wing cases, engineers may be able to build stronger joints for applications such as airplanes.
Accidents like the Deepwater Horizon spill may hurt the rays’ ability to hunt.
The subterranean rodents have little use for vision, but their magnetic sense tells them which direction is which.
Separate subspecies of the fork-tailed flycatcher make different trill sounds with their wing feathers.
The bright flowerlike symmetry of Australia’s northern jeweled orb-web spider lures in hungry prey.
Adding seaweed to cows’ diets could help reduce methane production and help curb climate change.
The animals' bodies contained pollutants not found in dolphins before.
The discovery raises hopes that chimps can adapt to threats such as climate change.
Finding suggests "megapredators" may have been more common in Mesozoic Era than previously thought.
For Asiatic lionesses, sex may be a way of protecting their cubs from murderous males.
Alligator blood inhibits a key toxin in the venom of vipers such as rattlesnakes and copperheads.
Study suggests parts of the animals' backs and legs fused together to form wings.
