Evolution
Vertebrates May Have Used Vocal Communication More Than 100 Million Years Earlier Than We Thought
Animals with a backbone may have first emitted something akin to bleeps, grunts, crackles, toots and snorts more than 400 million years ago
Stories by Rachel Nuwer
Genetics
Why Elephants Don’t Get Cancer
Elephants use 20 copies of a key cancer-fighting gene—and humans just have one
Climate Change
Mountain Goats Battle Bighorn Sheep over Climate-Limited Resources
Climate change may be leading to strange hostilities between different animal species over limited resources
Endangered Species
Extinction Risk May Be Much Worse Than Current Estimates
A machine-learning algorithm predicts that more than half of the thousands of species whose conservation status has yet to be assessed are probably in danger of disappearing for good
Medicine
Two Cancer Patients Battle to Make Psilocybin Accessible for Palliative Care
Their efforts could benefit countless others in need of an end-of-life measure
Health Care
Universal Health Care Could Have Saved More Than 330,000 U.S. Lives during COVID
The numbers of lives lost and dollars spent would have been significantly lower if coverage had been extended to everyone, a new study says
Genetics
Stress Management Helped Wolves Become Dogs
Genetic mutations related to production of the stress hormone cortisol may have played a role in the process of canine domestication
Evolution
Ancient Giraffe Relative Was Evolution’s Headbutting Champion, Perhaps Besting Dinosaurs
Natural selection propels the giraffe family to absolute extremes—and it is not just about the absurdly long necks
Conservation
The Scientists Fighting for Parasite Conservation
Parasites play an outsize role in balancing ecosystems, and some species may be in danger
Conservation
Great Apes’ Biggest Threat Is Human Activity, Not Habitat Loss
An assessment of chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos reveals that our economic “footprint” is the primary driver of great apes’ fate
Animals
Rubbing Up against Sharks May Feel Good despite the Danger
Fish species were found deliberately chafing on sharks around the world, though why they do so is not entirely clear
Endangered Species
Disturbing Answers to the Mystery of Tuskless Female Elephants
Poaching brings evolutionary pressure for tusklessness
Anthropology
Mammoths Roamed when Humans Started Using Tobacco at Least 12,300 Years Ago
A dig in the Nevada desert finds telltale seeds at the site of a late Paleolithic hearth
Public Health
Natural Mosquito Repellent’s Powers Finally Decoded
Here’s how a flower extract keeps off mosquitoes
Public Health
Children’s Birthdays May Have Spread COVID Infections
The risk of infection increased by up to 30 percent or so among people with observances in the first 10 months of 2020
Technology
The First ‘Google Translate’ for Elephants Debuts
An online animal catalogue lets you decode communications and other behaviors for everyone’s favorite pachyderm
Animals
How This Zombie Fungus Turns Cicadas into Horror-Movie Sex Bots
Researchers explore how an amphetamine and a psychedelic help parasitic fungi spread their spores through insects’ doomed mating attempts
Conservation
De-Ratting Rat Island Brought Silent Ecosystem Back to Life
The impact was clear up and down the coastal food chain
Biology
Bird Brawlers Love Spectators—Other Avian Species Are Welcome at Ringside
Tufted titmice scuffle more vigorously in front of a crowd—even if some of the onlookers are woodpeckers
Evolution
The Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs Created the Amazon Rain Forest
Fossilized pollen and leaves reveal that the meteorite that caused the extinction of nonavian dinosaurs also reshaped South America’s plant communities to yield the planet’s largest rain forest...
