Blood-Sucking Bugs Find Bats To Bite Thanks to Bacteria
Blood-sucking flies may be following chemicals produced by skin bacteria to locate bats to feed on. We humans aren’t the only animals that have to…
Field Museum News
First US Case of Human-Led Insect Extinction Confirmed by DNA From 93-Year-Old Butterfly
The Xerces blue butterfly was last seen flapping its iridescent periwinkle wings in San Francisco in the early 1940s. It’s generally accepted to be extinct,…
Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction Took Ten Times Longer on Land Than in the Water
Our planet’s worst mass extinction event happened 252 million years ago when massive volcanic eruptions caused catastrophic climate change. The vast majority of animal species…
Largest-Ever Effort to Artificially Inseminate Sharks – And the Occasional “Virgin Birth”
It’s a tough time to be a shark. Pollution, industrialized fishing, and climate change threaten marine life, and the populations of many top ocean predators…
“Giant Cloud Rat” Fossils Discovered in Philippine Caves
Fluffy rodents twice the size of a gray squirrel survived for tens of thousands of years, and then abruptly disappeared a few thousand years ago…
Two New Species of Screech Owls Discovered in Amazon Rainforest – Both Are Already Critically Endangered
Recordings of owls’ screeches used to help tell species apart. The Amazon rainforest is teeming with creatures unknown to science—and that’s just in broad daylight….
Crystals Discovered in the Stomach of Fossil Bird Complicates the Mystery of Its Diet
It’s hard to know what prehistoric animals’ lives were like—even answering seemingly simple questions, like what they ate, can be a challenge. Sometimes, paleontologists get…
Reindeer Lichens Are Having More Sex Than Thought – Unexpected Levels of Genetic Diversity
Genetic analysis shows that reindeer lichens reproduce sexually as opposed to asexually more often than researchers thought. In northern Canada, the forest floor is carpeted…
“Extinct” Pinatubo Volcano Mouse Rediscovered on Volcano That Erupted 30 Years Ago
A small mouse rediscovered on a volcano that erupted 30 years ago provides hope for wildlife conservation in the Philippines. In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo,…
When Good Governments Go Bad: History Shows That Societies Collapse When Leaders Undermine Social Contracts
All good things must come to an end. Whether societies are ruled by ruthless dictators or more well-meaning representatives, they fall apart in time, with…
Growth Rings From Fossil Bones Reveals T. rex Had Huge Growth Spurts, but Other Dinosaurs Grew “Slow and Steady”
By cutting into fossils and examining growth rings, scientists learned how predatory dinosaurs got so big. Tyrannosaurus rex was one of the biggest meat-eating dinosaurs…
Birds Play by Different Evolutionary Rules in the Amazon’s “Sand Forests”
Birds travel across habitats patches to breed, unlike their forest counterparts. Picture the Amazon. You’re thinking lush rainforests teeming with animals, right? It turns out,…
Pristine Extraterrestrial Organic Compounds Discovered in “Fireball” Meteorite
On the night of January 16, 2018, a fireball meteor streaked across the sky over the Midwest and Ontario before landing on a frozen lake…
Solved: Mystery That’s Been Puzzling Scientists Since 1852 – Bizarre Giraffe-Necked Reptile Hunted Underwater
Twenty-foot-long specimens described as separate species from their cousins, named after mythology’s Hydra. A fossil called Tanystropheus was first described in 1852, and it’s been…
Microscopic Feather Features Explain Why These Terrifyingly Dangerous Birds Shine
Cassowaries are big flightless birds with blue heads and dinosaur-looking feet; they look like emus that time forgot, and they’re objectively terrifying. They’re also, along…
Different Groups of Bats Have Their Own Unique Strains of Coronavirus – They Have Been Evolving Together for Millions of Years
Bats do a lot of good for the world — they pollinate plants, they eat disease-carrying insects, and they help disperse seeds that help with…
Four New Bat Species Discovered — Cousins of the Suspected COVID-19 Bats
Bats play a huge but poorly understood role in humans’ lives — they pollinate our crops, eat disease-carrying mosquitos, and carry diseases themselves. But we…
To Save the Amazon Rainforest, It Helps to Learn About Fish
High fish diversity is a good indicator of forest health. Think of the Amazon, and you probably think of jaguars, monkeys, or parrots. But many…
