Biology

A global catalog shows how creatures across the tree of life balance rigidity with flexibility in remarkably consistent ways

These birds’ drilling approach is more like extreme tennis playing than weight lifting

A scientist, a journalist and a remarkable scent‑detecting dog race to learn what’s endangering the last southern resident orcas

Bones of now extinct species became a haven for bee babies thousands of years ago, scientists report in a first-of-its-kind discovery

The sex of many turtles, crocodilians, and other reptiles is determined by the temperature at which their eggs incubate. Global warming could doom them

The sharp, elongated bills of green hermit hummingbirds aren’t just fine-tuned for feeding; they also allow males to joust like knights over mates

Moths sometimes drink the tears of other animals, but the behavior has mostly been observed in the tropics. New photographs show only the second observation outside of that area

New research on strange cycad plants offers a glimpse into the prehistoric origins of pollination

Making fire on demand was a milestone in the lives of our early ancestors. But the question of when that skill first arose has been difficult for scientists to pin down

Cross-species “defense pacts” help animals keep tabs on parasites and predators

It was thought that complex cells couldn’t survive above a certain temperature, but a tiny amoeba has proven that assumption wrong

Two new studies dig into the long, curving path that cats took toward domestication