How Old Is the Maltese, Really?

Many dog fanciers like to trace their favorite breed to antiquity, but the researchers who study the modern and ancient DNA of dogs have a different perspective.

The Marvelous Physics of Swarming Midges

There’s more in that cloud of bugs than meets the eye.

The World’s Deadliest Bird Was Raised by People 18,000 Years Ago

Researchers studying ancient cassowary egg shells in New Guinea found signs that the sharp-taloned bird was being domesticated.

Volcanic Eruptions Helped Dinosaurs Dominate Planet Earth

Massive eruptions transformed the climate in the Triassic era, creating the conditions in which dinosaurs diversified into many more species.

Bruce Is a Parrot With a Broken Beak. So He Invented a Tool.

The bird is a kea from New Zealand, and his fabrication of an instrument to help him preen his feathers appears to be unique, researchers say.

ADN y suerte: la fórmula para reunir a una elefanta huérfana y su mamá

Nania ha sobrevivido a la separación de su familia de elefantes del bosque en Burkina Faso. Sus cuidadores esperan que las pruebas de ADN ayuden a devolverla a la naturaleza con su familia.

Milkweed Butterflies Are More Murderous Than They Look

This behavior by the fluttering insects was so unusual that scientists had to invent a new word to describe it.

Komodo Dragons Are Now Endangered and ‘Moving Toward Extinction’

A top conservation organization updated the status of the fierce giant lizards on its Red List of threatened species.

‘Spaceship-Shaped’ Fossil Reveals Hungry Predator of Ancient Oceans

Titanokorys gainesi, turned up in the Canadian Rockies, was among the largest known predators 500 million years ago.

Reuniting an Orphan Elephant and Her Mom, Perhaps, With DNA and Luck

Nania beat the odds to survive separation from her forest elephant family in Burkina Faso. Her caretakers hope DNA testing may help return her to the wild with her family.

Reuniting an Orphan Elephant and Her Mom, Perhaps, With DNA and Luck

Nania beat the odds to survive separation from her forest elephant family in Burkina Faso. Her caretakers hope DNA testing may help return her to the wild with her family.

The Grooviest Cocoons in the Insect Kingdom

Larvae of some paper wasp species use mysteriously fluorescent silk to weave the container in which they mature to adulthood.

Meet the Spotted Skunks. They’ve Been Keeping a Secret From Us.

New research using hundreds of DNA samples showed that there are seven species of these hand-standing, stink-spraying mammals.

Searching for Bird Life in a Former ‘Ocean of Forest’

A century after museum collectors surveyed Colombia’s avian fauna, a new generation of researchers returns to see what remains, and what has changed.

Satellites Spot Oceans Aglow With Trillions of Organisms

A new generation of detectors let scientists identify a dozen large episodes of bioluminescence, one a hundred times larger than Manhattan — and that’s the smallest.

Female Hummingbirds Avoid Harassment by Looking Like Males

Among white-necked Jacobin hummingbirds, those with plumage that resembles colors found on males get harassed less.

Looks Like Bird Dung. But It’s Really a Predatory Spider.

Many creatures use mimicry to hide from predators. This one also uses it to lure in prey.

‘Totally Surprising and Rather Horrifying’: Giant Tortoises Eat Baby Birds

For the first time, scientists in the Seychelles captured footage of one of the hulking reptiles stalking and killing a helpless chick.

Taking the Pulse of the Ocean’s Comb Jellies

New kinds of molecular probes are revealing the true extent of ctenophores, a form of ocean life that has long eluded firm reckonings.

This Rattlesnake Dares You to Call Its Bluff

Scientists designed a virtual reality experiment to understand just how tricky rattlesnakes can be.