Featured
-
-
News |
Crazy ants’ strange genomes are a biological first
Males of the notorious yellow crazy ant carry a mixture of genomes, a phenomenon unseen in other animals.
- Ewen Callaway
-
News & Views |
From the archive: the wonders of life contained in the soil, and the sociability of cats
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Research Briefing |
Birdsong sequences initiated by a small cluster of cells in the brain
The zebra finch’s courtship song consists of a fixed sequence of vocal elements called syllables. A small structure in the thalamus, deep in the brain, forms connections with a set of nerve cells that become active at the beginning of syllables, thereby initiating components of the finch’s vocal repertoire.
-
News Feature |
Bats live with dozens of nasty viruses — can studying them help stop pandemics?
Researchers are examining the weird immune systems of bats, hoping to help prevent the next outbreak.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
News & Views |
From the archive: Saturn, and Charles Darwin shares animal stories
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Where I Work |
Snub-nosed monkeys have taught me important life lessons
Zoologist Zuofu Xiang’s research in Asia helps governments to protect the populations and teaches him the value of cooperation.
- Andy Tay
-
Research Highlight |
Uncovering the secrets of the world’s only frozen fish
Analysis of the the Amur sleeper’s genome and RNA reveal its tricks for surviving the winter frozen in ice.
-
Research Highlight |
Watch them waggle: bees dance better after lessons from elders
Well-schooled bees’ performances convey where to find food sources, but uneducated insects’ dances mislead.
-
Research Highlight |
These baby mice bawl loudly — and Mum rushes over
Very young deer mice make squeaks audible to the human ear as well as ultrasound calls similar to those made by house mouse pups.
-
Article |
Protomelission is an early dasyclad alga and not a Cambrian bryozoan
Protomelission-like macrofossils from the Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte show features characteristic of dasycladalean green alga, suggesting that Protomelission is unlikely to be an early bryozoan.
- Jie Yang
- , Tian Lan
- & Martin R. Smith
-
News & Views |
From the archive: ancient mazes, and ants under observation
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
News |
Anxiety can be created by the body, mouse heart study suggests
Artificially raising a mouse’s heart rate leads to anxious behaviour.
- Sara Reardon
-
News |
Sex, food or water? How mice decide
Neurons that regulate a mouse’s response to hunger and thirst also influence social interactions with the opposite sex.
- Heidi Ledford
-
News & Views |
From the archive: celebrating Faraday, and an appreciation of parasites
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Research Highlight |
This fish knows its own face in a mirror
The bluestreak cleaner wrasse attacks composite images of its own body and another fish’s head — but not pictures of its own head on another fish’s body.
-
Research Highlight |
Fluffball foxes wander thousands of kilometres to find a home
The Arctic fox, which weighs less than many house cats, covers long distances in the frigid north.
-
Article |
Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain
A well-preserved 319-million-year-old brain of the extinct vertebrate Coccocephalus wildi provides insights into neural anatomy deep within the phylogeny of ray-finned fish.
- Rodrigo T. Figueroa
- , Danielle Goodvin
- & Sam Giles
-
Article
| Open AccessAnnelid functional genomics reveal the origins of bilaterian life cycles
Comparative chromosome-scale genome sequencing and transcriptomic and epigenomic profiling of three different species of annelid provide insight into the evolutionary origin of larvae.
- Francisco M. Martín-Zamora
- , Yan Liang
- & José M. Martín-Durán
-
Article
| Open AccessTriassic stem caecilian supports dissorophoid origin of living amphibians
Analysis of fossils of the oldest known caecilian provide insights into the origin and morphological and functional evolution of caecilians.
- Ben T. Kligman
- , Bryan M. Gee
- & Michelle R. Stocker
-
News |
Transgenic ants shed light on insects’ sense of smell
A fluorescent protein helps to pinpoint parts of the brain that help the animals navigate a world of scents.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
News & Views |
From the archive: an economic model named after a goddess, and an ill-fated octopus
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Research Briefing |
Worms exposed to virulent bacteria show changes in social behaviour
Disease-causing microorganisms can alter the social behaviour of their hosts. Caenorhabditis elegans hermaphrodite worms exposed to an infectious bacterial strain become attracted to a mixture of pheromone cues instead of avoiding it. This boosts mating with males in the hermaphrodites, increasing the ability to produce genetic diversity in the face of microbial challenge.
-
News & Views |
From the archive: how kangaroo rats limit their salt intake, and searching for trout
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Nature Video |
‘Artificial embryos’: the hidden steps in forming a spine
New models called axioloids offer insight into development of vertebrae in humans.
- Dan Fox
-
News & Views |
From the archive: biological clocks, and a pollen puzzle about flies
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Nature Video |
Ant milk: The mysterious fluid that helps them thrive
The liquid secreted by ant pupae appears to be key to colony health.
- Nick Petrić Howe
-
News & Views |
From the archive: human memory, and fungal cultivation by ants
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
Nature Video |
Record-breaking ancient DNA found in frozen soil
Two-million-year-old DNA from extinct mammals has been sequenced, revealing a lost world in Greenland .
- Shamini Bundell
-
-
Research Highlight |
New Year’s fireworks chase wild geese high into the sky
Tracking data show that the birds fly farther than usual on the last evening of the year and are more likely to switch roosting spots.
-
News & Views |
A fluid role in ant society as adults give larvae ‘milk’ from pupae
Parental-care behaviours include mammalian lactation to provide milk for offspring. The discovery that adult ants harvest nutritious fluid from pupae and give larvae this fluid reveals social feeding that aids colony success.
- Patrizia d’Ettorre
- & Kazuki Tsuji
-
News |
Pupating ants make milk — and scientists only just noticed
A nutritious fluid secreted by pupating ants helps to feed the rest of the colony, and could play a part in the evolution of social structures.
- Miryam Naddaf
-
Nature Podcast |
Mysterious fluid from ant pupae helps feed colony
A previously unobserved source of ant nutrition, and the latest from the Nature Briefing.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Noah Baker
-
Article
| Open AccessThe pupal moulting fluid has evolved social functions in ants
Ant pupae secrete a fluid, derived from the moulting fluid, that elicits parental care behaviour, provides nutrients for larvae and must be removed for pupal survival.
- Orli Snir
- , Hanan Alwaseem
- & Daniel J. C. Kronauer
-
Article |
Cretaceous ornithurine supports a neognathous crown bird ancestor
A new taxon of toothed Late Cretaceous ornithurine preserving a pterygoid is reported, overturning assumptions about the nature of the ancestral crown bird skull.
- Juan Benito
- , Pei-Chen Kuo
- & Daniel J. Field
-
News |
Parasite gives wolves what it takes to be pack leaders
Study is one of the few to show the behavioural effects of Toxoplasma gondii in wild animals.
- Emma Marris
-
News |
Why do bat viruses keep infecting people?
Landmark study reveals ‘spillover’ mechanism for the rare but deadly Hendra virus.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
News Round-Up |
Octopus TV, vaccine hoarding and climate inequality
The latest science news, in brief.
-
News & Views |
From the archive: avian mimicry, and insect metamorphosis
Snippets from Nature’s past.
-
News |
Chances of finding COVID-virus ancestor ‘almost nil’, say virologists
Genome analysis finds SARS-CoV-2 and bat coronaviruses shared an ancestor just a few years ago, but extensive recombination has muddied the picture.
- Smriti Mallapaty
-
News |
Duck! Octopuses caught on camera throwing things at each other
Cephalopods living unusually close together have been filmed throwing shells, algae and silt — sometimes at another octopus.
- Emma Marris
-
Article |
Synchrotron tomography of a stem lizard elucidates early squamate anatomy
A study using high-resolution synchrotron phase-contrast tomography documents the near-complete skeleton of a stem squamate, Bellairsia gracilis, from the Middle Jurassic epoch of Scotland, providing insights into early squamate anatomy.
- Mateusz Tałanda
- , Vincent Fernandez
- & Roger J. Benson
-
Research Highlight |
Plagued by problem birds? Call RobotFalcon!
A robotic bird of prey scares off nuisance flocks in a flash — and they don’t seem to get wise to the deception.
-
News & Views |
Embrace wobble to level flight without a horizon
The apparent motion of a flier’s surroundings is shown to stabilize its flight by providing information about its orientation. Lapses in information are overcome through the effects of sensor noise and body oscillations.
- Graham K. Taylor
-
News |
Orangutan genome mix-up muddies conservation efforts
Reanalysis of landmark paper finds that eight genome sequences were mistakenly assigned to the wrong orangutans. The impacts on research are as-yet unclear.
- Freda Kreier
-
Article |
Ion regulation at gills precedes gas exchange and the origin of vertebrates
Measurements in three taxa with the characteristics of vertebrate ancestors (lamprey ammocoetes, amphioxus and acorn worms) suggest that gas exchange at gills has a vertebrate origin, but that ion regulation at gills has an earlier and possibly stem deuterostome origin.
- Michael A. Sackville
- , Christopher B. Cameron
- & Colin J. Brauner
-
Article
| Open AccessAccommodating unobservability to control flight attitude with optic flow
Attitude can be extracted from optic flow when combined with a motion model that relates attitude to acceleration direction, which leads to stable flight attitude control with slight oscillations due to unobservable conditions.
- Guido C. H. E. de Croon
- , Julien J. G. Dupeyroux
- & Franck Ruffier
-
Nature Video |
The shape-shifting robo-turtle
New amphibious soft robot makes efficiency games with morphing limbs
-
Nature Video |
Exoskeleton boots could power your walk by learning your stride
New design uses model based on lab data to adapt for wearers while in use.
- Dan Fox