Biology

Accidents like the Deepwater Horizon spill may hurt the rays’ ability to hunt.
Joshua Learn, Contributor
The subterranean rodents have little use for vision, but their magnetic sense tells them which direction is which.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
The bright flowerlike symmetry of Australia’s northern jeweled orb-web spider lures in hungry prey.
Veronica Tremblay, Contributor
Alligator blood inhibits a key toxin in the venom of vipers such as rattlesnakes and copperheads.
Joshua Learn, Contributor
Study suggests parts of the animals' backs and legs fused together to form wings.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
The beetles apparently use their legs to speed up their trip through the frogs' entire digestive system.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
Traditional microscopes make it look like sperm tails undulate symmetrically -- but that's an optical illusion.
Nala Rogers, Staff Writer
Wormlike amphibians called caecilians may have evolved venomous teeth long before the first snakes crawled the Earth.
Charles Q. Choi, Contributor
Narwhal vocalizations are not well understood, but Inuit whale hunters helped scientists get close enough to listen.
Meredith Fore, Contributor
For years, people believed that royal jelly contained the secret to making queen bees. Turns out it’s simply the amount of food.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
A new paper shows lobsters create sounds that travel more than a mile.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor
When times get tough, an invasive comb jelly appears to make the strange evolutionary choice to cannibalize its young.
Katharine Gammon, Contributor