Credit: Matt Borths. Sixty-three percent. That’s the proportion of mammal species that vanished from Africa and the Arabian Peninsula around 30 million years ago, after Earth’s climate shifted from swampy to icy. But we are only finding out about it now. Compiling decades of work, a new study published this

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Credit: CC0 Public Domain The origin of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which has caused the COVID-19 pandemic, has been hotly debated. This debate has caused substantial difficulties in the Australia-China relationship, with a call by Foreign Minister Marise Payne for another inquiry into its origin being considered by China as a

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Southern California hummingbird foraging nectar from a flower. Credit: David Rankin. In less time than it takes to read this sentence, hummingbirds can catch a whiff of potential trouble. That is the result of new University of California, Riverside research showing, contrary to popular belief, these tiny birds do have

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Credit: CC0 Public Domain In a new study from France’s Pasteur Institute and the National University of Laos, researchers found a new clue to the origins of the virus that causes COVID-19. They found bats living in caves in Laos carry a similar pathogen that could potentially infect humans directly.

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Credit: Elham Nourani/Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and University of Konstanz in Germany have identified how large land birds fly nonstop for hundreds of kilometers over the open ocean—without taking a break for food or rest. Using GPS tracking technology,

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Credit: University of Copenhagen. The indigenous hen lays around 20 eggs a year, whereas a modern laying hen produces around 320 eggs a year. In other words, being a hen bred for the food industry is a full-time job. In fact, the egg laying appears to be such a strain

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