Migrating bats use Earth’s magnetic field to navigate in the dark
29 May 2023
Soprano pipistrelles can sense the polarity and inclination of magnetic field lines, and use the position of the setting sun to calibrate their internal compass
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Premium
Living in trees may have given great apes vocal skills for consonants
20 December 2022
A comparison of consonant-like sounds in great apes suggests an arboreal lifestyle may have been a step towards complex speech in our ancestors
Lemurs hug tree trunks to cool down when temperatures top 30°C
22 September 2022
A type of lemur called a white sifaka embraces the base of some trees to release heat, with the bottom of the trunk being up to 5°C cooler than the surrounding air
Blind Mexican cave fish are developing cave-specific accents
14 April 2022
The Mexican tetra has evolved to live in a number of dark caves – and now we know that the fish in each cave use clicks to communicate in distinct ways
Plants prioritise keeping their flowers cool during hot, dry weather
10 December 2021
Under heat and water stress, plants sacrifice their leaves to keep their sexual organs cool – a strategy that we could harness to protect crops from climate change
Watch cuttlefish migrate together in a defensive line with a lookout
17 September 2021
Cuttlefish are usually solitary creatures, but videos show them forming defensive groups to migrate together, suggesting they are more social than we thought
Zebras rolling in pits help give life to the Namib desert in Africa
3 September 2021
Rolling on the ground seems to be essential to life – at least in Africa’s Namib desert, where zebras bathe in dust, creating pits in the landscape that promote biodiversity
Orangutans create new ways to communicate with each other in captivity
4 February 2021
Using new expressions to convey meaning to other group members is a fundamental building block of complex language – and orangutans in captivity can do it
Double climate disaster may have ended ancient Harappan civilisation
26 November 2020
The Harappan lived 5200 years ago in the Indus valley in huge, complicated cities before their society eventually disappeared. Now it seems that two droughts in short succession may have caused their downfall
Terrible drivers could teach autonomous cars how to avoid crashes
25 January 2019
For autonomous cars to master driving, they might need to learn from terrible drivers as well as competent ones
