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Male Andrea cuttlefish (Sepia andreana)

Male cuttlefish burst through their ink clouds to impress females

14 February 2024

Cuttlefish usually use ink to confuse predators – but one species uses it as a dramatic backdrop, bursting through an inky cloud during courtship displays like a stage performer making a spectacular entrance


Pygmy right whales are the smallest of the baleen whales

World's smallest baleen whale is the last of its kind

15 July 2023

Pygmy right whales are evolutionarily distinct and may be part of a whale family long thought to be extinct


Harvestment can remove one of their own legs to escape a predator

Losing a leg in youth changes how male harvestmen woo females

9 June 2023

Harvestmen can shed legs when attacked by predators, but this survival tactic may have lifelong ramifications for the future sexual strategies of young males


Butterflies evolved 100 million years ago in North America

15 May 2023

Many researchers thought butterflies first evolved in Asia, but a global genetic analysis suggests they arose in North America, well before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct


Demon catshark species identified thanks to weird mystery eggs

5 May 2023

Forty years ago, a strange, empty shark egg case was found off the coast of Western Australia, and scientists have finally determined the species it belongs to


Mexican burrowing caecilian (Dermophis mexicanus)

Weird skin-eating amphibians have no legs due to snake-like mutation

23 April 2023

Worm-like amphibians called caecilians have a mutation in a genetic sequence that’s critical for limb development, which could explain how they became limbless


Wild boars get spooked by even a dead wolf

Even a dead wolf is enough to scare a pig

21 April 2023

Boars that encounter a wolf carcass will try to flee or fight the corpse, suggesting that sometimes dead predators can still influence their prey’s behaviour


Mysterious deep-sea holes may be burrows of tiny shrimp-like creatures

Mysterious deep-sea holes may be burrows of tiny shrimp-like creatures

7 April 2023

Shrimp-like amphipods may be the architects of lines of holes at the bottom of the Bering Sea, which serve as a habitat to a wide range of fauna roaming the abyss


Ants independently evolved to farm fungus at least twice

1 April 2023

Fungus farming by ants has evolved independently in populations separated by the Atlantic Ocean – the latest example was observed in cocktail ants in Cameroon, which cultivate fungus to build their nests


City life may help Darwin's finches survive bloodsucking flies

24 March 2023

In the Galapagos Islands, finches that live near cities have higher survival rates against parasitic flies than those who live in the country


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