zoology

A survey of more than 200 whale skulls has unveiled bursts of evolution over the past 50 million years.

Other winners of this year’s prizes include research on the physics of ducklings and the therapeutic potential of ice cream.

Australians are resorting to increasingly drastic measures to keep cockatoos out of their garbage bins.

Researchers say they've figured out how some reproductive ants live up to 30 years—far longer than workers.

Though it’s poetic to say that ants were grieving the bee at a funeral, the reality is a bit more prosaic.

In Chapter 1, “The Science of Animal Dreams,” author David M. Peña-Guzmán relays the history of researchers digging into the mental realities of nonhuman brains.

A high-quality genome sequence for this versatile insect will likely aid eco-evolutionary research.

Pet dogs produce a larger volume of tears when they are reunited with their owners than with acquaintances, possibly because of surging oxytocin levels—findings that could be the first evidence of emotional crying in nonhuman animals.

Tortoise leaf beetles enjoy the protection the fungus provides from insect predators such as ants, then carry the microbe to a mutual plant host, which their fungal symbiont infects.

Neurons in mosquito antennae can express more than one olfactory receptor at a time, a redundancy that likely ensures they don’t lose a potential host’s scent.

After years of work, conservationists have successfully eliminated two invasive rat species from the Tetiaroa Atoll in French Polynesia.

Threatened and endangered species were among the dead, likely poisoned overnight by a chlorination system used to decontaminate the animals’ tank water.

Experimental evolution study sheds new light on the origin of animal-microbe symbioses and what it takes for bacteria to support their insect hosts.

Research shows that humans aren’t the only animals whose imaginations run wild while they sleep.

Meet the team trying to restore mollusk populations with the help of underwater speakers.

Understanding the biomechanics of the trap-jaw ant could help humans build better, faster robots.

In a citizen science project, thousands of pet dogs are helping scientists to understand what happens to memory and cognition in old age.

Female fruit flies assess the physical symmetry of male suitors through the songs they sing, a study claims.

Bottlenose dolphins can recall trivial details of a prior event to later solve a novel task, a study finds, suggesting these mammals are capable of episodic memory.

A species that transports the spermatia of red algae is the first known instance of an animal facilitating fertilization in this ancient photosynthetic lineage.