Animals (Page 6)

Shadowy areas are a heat-absorbing liability, but losing them may mess with the insects’ mating Many dragonflies zip through the air with their translucent wings painted in an array of dark spots and bands. But — for males at least — those dapper decorations could soon fall out of styleContinue Reading

A withered old male hornet shows that repeat invasions are the not-so-new normal Fingers crossed for finding nothing: July marks the main trapping season to check for Asian giant hornets still infesting Washington state. The first of these invasive hornets found in North America in 2021, in June, was probablyContinue Reading

The smallest mammal in the ocean doesn’t rely on blubber or a large body to keep toasty Sea otters’ secret to staying warm isn’t in thick stores of blubber. It’s in their muscles. Leaks in the energy-generating parts of muscle cells help otters maintain a resting metabolism three times asContinue Reading

Sparse, spindly scales and a waxy membrane coating are behind the insect’s transparency. Most butterflies sport colorful, eye-catching patterns on their wings. But some species, like the glasswing butterfly, use mostly transparent wings to hide in plain sight. To figure out how these Central American butterflies go incognito, researchers putContinue Reading

Her nickname is “Fernanda.” A giant tortoise in the Galápagos Islands that was thought to have gone extinct over a century ago just came out of hiding. Researchers discovered the female tortoise on the Galápagos’ Fernandina Island during a joint expedition carried out by the Galápagos National Park Directorate andContinue Reading

A single-celled creature known as a dinoflagellate may have one of the weirdest genomes on Earth, The Scientist reported. Life can be categorized into three major domains: Bacteria, Archaea and Eukarya. The latter carry their DNA inside a nucleus, where they package the genetic material in compact structures called chromosomes.Continue Reading

The baby whale was alone and hundreds of miles from home. An injured baby minke whale stranded in the River Thames was put down on Monday after rescuers lost all hope for its survival. The 10-foot-long (3 meters) whale calf was first discovered trapped inside a concrete lock in Richmond,Continue Reading