Ticks are the leading cause for the majority of vector-borne diseases in North America. Yet, the molecular tools to study and genetically modify these arthropods lag behind other insect vectors, such as mosquitoes. New research published in the journal iScience is the first to tinker with the DNA of black-legged ticks, better known as deer
When the first dinosaur fossils were recognized in the mid-19th century, scientists envisioned that the creatures were basically giant, lumbering lizards. They also presumed that dinosaurs were like present-day, cold-blooded lizards, meaning that their body temperature depended on the surrounding environment. However, this notion was later fiercely debated. “The general picture that we have of
Most pet owners probably know what it’s like to cave to those “puppy dog” eyes—no matter the age of their canine. When your dog looks at you with that curled brow and doleful stare, it’s difficult not to give it a loving scratch or meaty treat. And why not: You and your furry friend have
Hagfish have one of the animal kingdom’s gooiest secret weapons: they shoot gill-clogging slime at their enemies. Dean Palmer / University of Guelph The waters around New York City used to be filled with hundreds of thousands of acres of oyster beds. Before humans gobbled them up and polluted their waters, these oysters cemented themselves
The ten hottest years on record were all during the past two decades and the hottest global ocean temperatures ever were recorded in 2018—a heat increase from 2017 equivalent to 100 million times that of the Hiroshima bomb. Climate change is here and it’s already wreaking havoc. The polar bear—something of a poster child for
You may have seen recently some footage of an anglerfish pair mating—the first ever video of such a feat. The male suckles at the female, clinging to her body and slowly melding into her over time. She takes his sperm and nutrients until he’s nothing more than a shell of his former self—literally. Once he’s
Picture this: You’re hiking through a redwood forest in Northern California, and you stumble upon a towering trunk with tens of thousands of acorns drilled into it. You might think it’s some Satanic ritual, but in reality, it’s the handiwork of an 8-inch-long woodpecker and its kin. In fact, it’s what acorn woodpeckers are best
When you leave a zoo, you physically carry traces of the animals home with you. A pair of new studies, published together in the journal Current Biology, found that by simply filtering air around zoos, researchers could recover genetic material from surrounding animals. They didn’t just detect the captive animals, though—the teams captured environmental DNA‚
AMBER IS a portal to the past. The pieces often capture insects and other tiny organisms in stained-glass mausoleums, providing vivid glimpses of flora and fauna that lived more than 100 million years ago. Each reveals subtle clues about how life on Earth evolved—and where it might be headed. “Because it preserves with such intricacy
What can we learn from a zebrafish’s regenerating tail? Or a termite army’s march into uncharted terrain? Welcome to the fields of ecology and evolution, where researchers observe the natural world to better understand how species are shaped by each other and their environments. In practice, it takes years of notetaking and analysis to break
