wildlife

September 2004

The lower bill of the hummingbird makes a nectar-drinking beak into one for catching insects.

December 2009-January 2010

Insects induce plants to grow nurseries for their larvae.

November 2009

Whales act instinctively to save seals

December 2009-January 2010

Birds use egg speckles to predict parasitism.

December 2009-January 2010

Why do some female bovids have horns, whereas others don’t?

January 1954

Even as a pet, his single interest was in ants, and he never quite got used to a tame chimpanzee.

November 2009

Colorado marmots “remember” a long-gone foe.

October 2009

"Necromones" that tell insects their dead are near may be ancient.

March 2009

Are double-crested cormorants overrunning their niche—or recovering from centuries of suppression?

June 1946

A Paleontologist's Rendezvous with History and Prehistory in St. Louis

Teeth that stab or crush to match their meal

To walk on walls and ceilings, your feet have to stick, but they have to get unstuck, too.

Ferns and fungi that explosively reproduce

The seemingly unwieldy shape of a fish is anything but a drag.

Hear author Xiaoming Wang interviewed by Vittorio Maestro, Editor in Chief of Natural History. (MP3, 17 minutes)