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. 

Scientists plan to develop a software tool to monitor the grunts of commercial pigs and determine when they need help.
Tom Metcalfe, Contributor
Bats often get a bad rap for being scary, nighttime flying creatures, but to know a bat is to love a bat.
Karin Heineman, Executive Producer
Bats calculate where their prey is headed using their echolocation abilities.
Inside Science Contributor
When hermaphroditic worms that usually self-fertilize are exposed to stressful high temperatures, they produce offspring that mate earlier than normal.
Jude Coleman, Contributor
The finest silk wrapping can keep females occupied for just long enough.
Joshua Learn, Contributor
The mega-mawed spider appeared to use the water to reconstitute dried-up food.
Jude Coleman, Contributor
New research points to when massive asteroid impact happened, and why only some animals survived.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
The intelligence of crows is nothing to squawk about.
Jude Coleman, Contributor
An expedition uncovered a surprisingly large number of underwater life forms in the Arctic.
Joshua Learn, Contributor
The chimps may be using insects as a kind of medicine.
James Gaines, Contributor
Scientists found that squirrels extract nitrogen from their urea to make proteins.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
Researchers used machine learning to identify and understand different fish calls.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor