Stories by Bec Crew

This is my second post in a week featuring spiders doing undeniably adorable things - dancing and cartwheels. It's as if spiders know they have a reputation problem and have launched some kind of secret PR campaign to highlight their cuter, less-likely-to-give-you-skin-rot members.

Spiders and I have a tortured relationship. I know they play a crucial role in their respective ecosystems, and they hunt mosquitos and cockroaches in and around my house.

Easter in Australia is pretty much the same as Easter elsewhere in the world. We do Easter egg hunts and put sad-looking yellow chickens with loose eyespots on display in straw nests and eat nothing but chocolate for three days straight.

Four new species of carnivorous sea sponge have been discovered in a place where ridiculous adaptations for sourcing food seem about as widespread as horrific ways to die - the deep sea.

The world’s 100 most endangered and unique birds have been ranked in a newly published study, and the list includes a corpse-eater with legendary skills of decapitation, a shameless self-inflator, and the world's heftiest parrot.

There's something about humpback whales that makes them seem so peaceful. Just elegant, wonderful creatures that wouldn't hurt a soul, unless that soul happens to be contained by a small fish or a delicious crustacean.

Time to dust off those tuxedos and meet me at the Blood Bar in five, because we've got six new species of Dracula ants to discuss. Species belonging to the Amblyoponinae subfamily of ants from Madagascar have earned the nickname `Dracula ants', thanks to a social feeding system that involves the queens and workers feeding [...]

I know they look like they belong in the ocean 250 million years ago, but trilobite beetles are actually pretty happy existing in the present day.

Late last year I was lucky enough to take a `behind the scenes' tour of the big cat facilities at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. I met one of their female tigers, plus three lions, including their magnificent male named Bruiser.

Look at this guy. So casual. People pay money to look this casual. Just out on the ice in his black and white pyjamas. Waiting for his mulled wine and hard cheeses.

Lisa-Anne Gershwin is something of a hero to me. You won't find anyone in Australia, and very few people in the world, with the depth of knowledge about jellyfish that she does.

Last week a new species of rove beetle was described, almost two centuries after Darwin had discovered it in a little town on the coast of Argentina called Bahia Blanca.

Its jellyfish mania in Australia right now, thanks to our snotastic new friend, whose discovery on a Tasmanian beach was announced just last week.

Available for birthday parties, weddings and corporate functions in the Under the Sea region, the lumpsucker is a chubby, almost-spherical fish with modified pelvic fins that have evolved into adhesive discs on their undersides.

The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute have released more of the kind of footage theyre great at collecting – never before seen by humans.

So good at hunting theyre named after their prize, birds of prey have a whole lot to teach us about flight and airborne pursuit. But for whatever reason – perhaps because theyre so quick – very little research has been done to figure out their hunting strategies.

Prairie dogs have the most sophisticated vocal language ever decoded. Even better than chimps, dolphins and orcas. This could change with further research into chimp, dolphin and orca language, but right now, prairie dogs are where its at.

Its been a good year for strange animals. Which is something you could probably say about every year ever because animals are strange. So heres my Top Ten Strangest Animal Moments of 2013, ordered from most strange to slightly less strange.

With its soft, round ears, pink nose and wide, brown eyes,  the olinguito is an absolute teddy bear, and the first new species of carnivore discovered in the Western Hemisphere in 35 years.

It’s the SciAm Blog Network’s first birthday! Let’s stare inscrutably at things that move, cry till it hurts, throw up on ourselves a little bit  and whatever else one-year-olds do at their own birthday parties.

This lovely little kitten with a head that looks just slightly too big for its face is a Scottish wildcat, a very rare type of wildcat that has dwindled to about 400 individuals living in Britain, mostly restricted to the Highlands of Scotland.

"Period Rock? You're calling me Period Rock now? Guys, seriously, I might look like a stone, but that doesn't mean I have the heart of one.