Biology

A way to map the ancestry of dog breeds reveals the genetic basis of stereotypical dog behaviors

Two-million-year-old DNA, the world's oldest, reveals that mastodons once roamed forests in Greenland’s far northern reaches

This python’s jaw has a stretchy secret to gape impressively wide

Octopus outbursts, spiders evading sexual cannibalism and a human-cockatoo arms race—here are strange animal behaviors we learned about in 2022

Recordings of more than 50 species of turtles and other animals help scientists reassess the origins of acoustic communication in vertebrates.

A nutritious fluid secreted by pupating ants helps to feed the rest of the colony and could play a part in the evolution of social structures

Compared with other diseases with similar economic burdens, research on endometriosis is severely underfunded, in large part because we don’t talk about periods.

Weirdly efficient neurons power birds’ dense brains

Weird new evidence on tooth evolution tips the scales even more toward scales

Fossil trackways may show tyrannosaur tykes teaming up

Researchers put this ancient critter through a subzero gauntlet to learn more about what happens to their internal clock while surviving the extreme.

The parasite Toxoplasma gondii can change the behavior of infected wolves in ways that make them more likely to be pack leaders