Biology

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

Latest in Biology

Photograph of the skeletal mount of an Allosaurus specimen (AMNH 5753), from William Diller Matthew's 1915 book “Dinosaurs.”
Biology

When a Jurassic giant died, predatory dinos probably feasted on the carcass

By Laura Baisas

An orange starfish, or sea star, on a black backgorund. The unusual five-axis symmetry of sea stars has long confounded our understanding of animal evolution.
Animals

The sea star’s whole body is a head

By Laura Baisas

Several blooming yellow sunflowers under a blue sky with white clouds.
Agriculture

We still don’t fully know how sunflowers turn toward the sun

By Laura Baisas

An artist's illustration of an early lamprey's teeth and sucker. The Jurassic lampreys Yanliaomyzon had a feeding apparatus that surprisingly resembles that of the pouched lampreys. It foreshadows the ancestral flesh-eating habit of present day. lampreys.
Animals

Giant prehistoric lamprey likely sucked blood—and ate flesh

By Laura Baisas

An artist’s illustration of two Jormungandr walhallaensis mosasaurs fighting. The extinct creatrue is a long sea serpent with flippers, a shark-like tail, and narrow jaws. One is seen biting the other in the next, while pterosaurs fly above it.
Animals

Newfound mosasaur was like a giant Komodo dragon with flippers

By Laura Baisas

The Asian Lady Beetle (Harmonia axyridis) aka the Halloween beetle looks very similar to more common ladybugs, but they are generally bigger and with more spots. The bug is sitting on a yellow flower.
Animals

Why ladybugs and ‘Halloween beetles’ are everywhere right now

By Laura Baisas

A clock-like brain indicates its role in sleep in an illustration.
Biology

Your brain’s ‘master switchboard’ is an underappreciated marvel

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Ma Rainey, a post-reproductive female of the Ngogo community of chimpanzees in Kibale National Park, Uganda, and her adult son Wes. The two are sitting among trees in a forest.
Animals

Wild chimpanzees show signs of potential menopause—a rarity in the animal kingdom

By Laura Baisas

A fuzzy yellow and black bumblebee foraging on a green plant.
Animals

Bumblebees carbo-load on the fly

By Laura Baisas

A life-sized reconstruction of the head and jaws of the oldest megapredatory pliosaur called Lorrainosaurus. The reptile is long and torpedo shaped, with closed jaws and sharp exposed teeth.
Animals

This Jurassic-era ‘sea murderer’ was among the first of its kind

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of a newly discovered shark species called Strigilodus tollesonae. The shark looks somewhat like a stingray, with outstretched wings, fan-like top fins, and a long tail with black spots.
Animals

Prehistoric shark called Kentucky home 337 million years ago

By Laura Baisas

A group of worker bees surround the queen bee on a honeycomb. All worker honeybees are female and they can go to extreme lengths to serve their queen even shedding their own ovaries.
Animals

Female honeybees may pass down ‘altruistic’ genes

By Laura Baisas

A fluorescent microscopic image, magnified 20 times, of a rodent nerve.
Biology

Unraveled nerves and mesmerizing caffeine crystals: 10 sensational glimpses of the microscopic realm

By Popular Science Team

Three stage of digital reconstruction. From left, the Pierolapithecus cranium shortly after discovery, after initial preparation, and after virtual reconstruction.
Animals

12-million-year-old ape skull bares its fangs in virtual reconstruction

By Laura Baisas

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem
Animals

Galapagos giant tortoises are restoring their own ecosystem

By Syris Valentine/Hakai Magazine

Climate change could help fungal diseases thrive
Biology

Climate change could help fungal diseases thrive

By Shreya Dasgupta/Knowable Magazine

AI-designed multi-legged robots on table
AI

AI design for a ‘walking’ robot is a squishy purple glob

By Andrew Paul

The cave lion remains from Siegsdorf, Germany are displayed alongside a reproduction of a wooden spear similar to those used by Neanderthals.
Archaeology

Neanderthals may have hunted mighty cave lions

By Laura Baisas

A pinkish human brain against a black background.
Biology

New human brain atlas is the most detailed one we’ve seen yet

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Two frogs mating in a body of water.
Animals

Female frogs appear to play dead to avoid mating

By Laura Baisas

Patient wearing a highly integrated bionic hand in between many others
AI

Titanium-fused bone tissue connects this bionic hand directly to a patient’s nerves

By Andrew Paul

Grazer looking chunky and getting ready for winter on September 14, 2023. The bear is in the river intensely staring for salmon.
Animals

Fierce mama Grazer takes 2023’s Fat Bear Week crown

By Laura Baisas

Human hand bones during an archaeological dig.
Archaeology

Sensitive to pain? It could be your Neanderthal gene variants.

By Laura Baisas

An underwater closeup of Cayo margarita (a new species) in the coral reef of the Florida Keys. Note the two long tentacles, used by the snail to spread the mucus net for feeding.
Animals

New neon-yellow snail from the Florida Keys gets a happy hour-ready name

By Laura Baisas

A capybara standing on a riverbank. Capybaras are semi-aquatic rodents that can weigh up to 174 pounds.
Animals

4 capybara facts you’ll love, and 1 you’d like to forget

By Laura Baisas

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints
Biology

A newly discovered sauropod dinosaur left behind some epic footprints

By Laura Baisas

White Sands NPS staff excavating fossilized human footprints from lakebed
Archaeology

Do the ancient human footprints at White Sands date back to the last ice age?

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Sweat sensor worn like a ring on finger
Biology

A new noninvasive patch could monitor a vital hormone

By Andrew Paul

Electronic artificial tongue sensor
AI

An ‘electronic tongue’ could help robots taste food like humans

By Andrew Paul

Two chimpanzees share a meal. A new study found that same-sex sexual behavior helps establish and maintain positive social relationships in animals including chimpanzees, bighorn sheep, lions, and wolves.
Animals

Mammals may use same-sex sexual behavior for conflict resolution, bonding, and more

By Laura Baisas

The Morona-Santiago stubfoot toad (Atelopus halihelos) in Ecuador is listed as critically endangered.
Animals

How we can help the most endangered class of animals survive climate change

By Laura Baisas

A green monk parakeet standing in dirt. Parrots could have a unique tone of voice just like humans do.
Animals

No two parakeets sound exactly the same

By Laura Baisas

T. rex model, T. rex skull, and Triceratops skull at dinosaur display in the Museum of Natural History in Vienna
Animals

4 reasons dinosaurs never really ruled the Earth

By Riley Black

A killer whale in the Salish Sea is observed harassing a porpoise, a behavior that has long perplexed scientists.
Animals

Why are these orcas harassing porpoises? Scientists have 3 theories.

By Laura Baisas

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA
Animals

This 6-million-year-old turtle shell still has some DNA

By Laura Baisas

A person receiving chest compressions.
Biology

What really happens during a near-death experience

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

A volcano spews lava and ash. In roughly 250 million years, massive tectonic activity could push together all of our current landmasses into a supercontinent like Pangea and make the climate inhospitable to humans and other mammals.
Animals

A boiling hot supercontinent could kill all mammals in 250 million years

By Laura Baisas

A row of organic orange carrots with their green stems still attached on a table.
Biology

How carrots get their trademark orange color

By Laura Baisas

A hyenea shows its jaws. Giant hyenas went extinct about 500,000 years ago, but were roughly 240 pounds and skilled scavengers like their modern counterparts.
Animals

How many ancient humans does it take to fight off a giant hyena?

By Laura Baisas

An illustration of Bohemolichas feeding on the seafloor, moments before it is engulfed, buried, and preserved by an underwater mud flow.
Animals

A fossilized trilobite stomach can show us clues to Cambrian cuisine

By Laura Baisas

Aerial view of a hot air balloon over Namib desert. The circular “fairy circles” are derived from any vegetation & surrounded by tall grass.
AI

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ may appear on three different continents

By Laura Baisas

A close up of the black and white stripes of a zebra. The same patterns that dictate zebra stripes could also control the way sperm swim.
Biology

The mathematical theory that connects swimming sperm, zebra stripes, and sunflower seeds

By Laura Baisas

A tarantula with a mostly black body, but bright blue legs and pincers. Chilobrachys natanicharum is the first tarantula species found in Thailand’s mangrove trees. CREDIT: Yuranan Nanthaisong/ZooKeys.
Animals

Meet the first electric blue tarantula known to science

By Laura Baisas

Rafflesia kemumu in the rainforest of Sumatra.
Biology

Earth’s stinkiest flower is threatened with extinction

By Laura Baisas

A high-density field of corals, including the spiraling Iridogorgia magnispiralis. Image courtesy of the NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas.
Biology

The deepest known ocean virus lives under 29,000 feet of water

By Laura Baisas

Internet data server farm with green and pink glowing LED lights
Biology

Nature generates more data than the internet … for now

By Rahul Rao

Yellow pollen spring out from a coniferous tree. The pollen that makes us sneeze every spring, may have helped lay the groundwork for the migration of our very distant ancestors into Eurasia.
Archaeology

Pollen could hold clues to mysteries of early human migration

By Laura Baisas

A Caribbean box jellyfish on a black background. It has a round, bell shaped body, with about 11 visible tentacles. It also has four parallel brain-like structures with roughly 1,000 nerve cells in each.
Animals

These 24-eyed jellyfish learn from their mistakes

By Laura Baisas

A black and white French bulldog puppy sits in a garden with green grass and orange flowers. In an experiment where dogs had to find food hidden in a box, flat-faced dogs were more likely to look back at people than a breed with a mid-length muzzle.
Animals

Humans might just love French bulldogs because they remind them of babies

By Laura Baisas

Multiple reddish pink parasitic plants called balanophora growing in a forest. Balanophora shed one third of its genes as it evolved into a very streamlined parasitic plant.
Biology

These parasitic plants force their victims to make them dinner

By Laura Baisas

A pied tamarin monkey sits on a large rope. Pied tamarin monkeys live in a small geographic range in Brazil, where they eat fruits, flowers, and various tree gums and saps.
Animals

As humans get louder, monkeys mark more territory

By Laura Baisas

A dissected ant and where you can see the encapsulated parasites (white oval structures) spilling out of the hind body.
Animals

This parasite deploys mucus slime balls to make ‘zombie ants’

By Laura Baisas

An Australian lungfish named Methuselah swims in a tank at the Steinhart Aquarium. The fish has a flat snout, olive-green scales, and a long torpedo-shaped body.
Animals

World’s oldest living aquarium fish could be 100 years young

By Laura Baisas

A giant panda eats a green plant.
Animals

‘Jet lag’ could be messing with pandas’ natural mating behaviors

By Laura Baisas

Can animals give birth to twins?
Animals

Can animals give birth to twins?

By Michael Jaffe and Tracy Jaffe/The Conversation

A beagle running through grass.
Animals

Why your pet might need a glucose monitor

By Gwendolyn Rak

A gray tufted titmouse perches on a scientist's hand.
Animals

What songbirds can teach us about being smart

By Jocelyn Solis-Moreira

Microraptor wearing helmet is shot out of a circus cannon to represent how dinosaurs evolved to fly. Illustration in red, yellow, blue, and green.
Biology

We still don’t know how animals evolved to fly

By Riley Black

Virgin Galactic spacecraft in suborbital flight above Earth
Biology

Virgin Galactic’s latest cargo? Ancient human bones

By Andrew Paul

two jackdaws (Corvus monedula) on a branch
Animals

These crow relatives put food over friendship

By Sara Kiley Watson

An orca whale swims around an ice flow with a crabeater seal and penguin on the ice.
Animals

New series offers an intimate look into how climate change impacts the lives of wildlife

By Laura Baisas

How an internet sleuth rekindled hope for the survival of the clown wedgefish
Animals

How an internet sleuth rekindled hope for the survival of the clown wedgefish

By Brian Howey/Hakai Magazine

3D printer making algae-based water decontaminate
Biology

‘Living material’ water filter uses bacteria to neutralize water pollutants

By Andrew Paul

Kidney transplant sensor on researcher fingertip
Biology

This organ-failure detector is thinner than a human hair

By Andrew Paul

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