Biology

The incompleteness of the fossil record complicates efforts to figure out how life on Earth is faring today

Quirky perspectives, separated lovebirds and a tobogganing penguin star in 2024 winners of the world’s largest bird photography competition

Cave fish develop taste buds on their head and below their chin—and even in humans, taste cells grow in truly unexpected locations

In online forums the term “cuck” has become synonymous with “sucker” and “loser.” But this use distorts its history and meaning, creating a baseless moral panic that harms both women and science

Entanglement lets researchers watch plants in action without disruptive visible light

A strange sound dubbed “biotwang” was first heard bouncing around the Mariana Trench 10 years ago, and scientists have finally figured out where it comes from

When different chickadee species meet, they sometimes choose each other as mates—with surprising results

Predators’ electricity gives caterpillars an early warning

New research harnessed the highly absorbent dye tartrazine, used as the common food coloring Yellow No. 5, to turn tissues in living mice clear—temporarily revealing organs and vessels inside the animals

Not all cats are hydrophobic

The octopus sex chromosome appears to have been maintained over hundreds of millions of years, making it the most ancient of such chromosomes in animals

Dolphin ecologist Tadamichi Morisaka discusses common dolphin behaviors that could explain instances of the animals biting people in Japan