Michael Jordan liked to stick his out, Miley Cyrus loves to show hers off, and Gene Simmons’s may be the most famous among humans. Yet these tongues have nothing on those of the animal world when it comes to waggle and weirdness. Get a taste of these: Pangolin How can a walking artichoke be so dang cute?...
It’s fall, and that means squirrels are hurriedly securing food for the winter—and so is another creature, the parasitic botfly. As forest animals scurry about transferring nuts from one hiding place to another, they’re also unknowingly carrying this parasite, which tunnels through squirrel flesh, causing swollen protrusions like the one pictured below. These inflamed tubules...
What might be the best-titled research paper of the year comes to us courtesy of researchers at the University of Copenhagen, an investigation entitled “Chemically armed mercenary ants protect fungus-farming societies.” Have you got your popcorn ready? It’s a tale of three species. We begin with a fungus-growing ant called Sericomyrmex amabilis found in the tropical...
What might be the best-titled research paper of the year comes to us courtesy of researchers at the University of Copenhagen, an investigation entitled “Chemically armed mercenary ants protect fungus-farming societies.” Have you got your popcorn ready? It’s a tale of three species. We begin with a fungus-growing ant called Sericomyrmex amabilis found in the tropical...