In the cold, dark waters of the Arctic and North Atlantic lives an animal whose lifetime may span several human centuries. The extraordinary Greenland shark lifespan has made Somniosus microcephalus …
A beaver dam can look surprisingly simple: branches, mud, stones, leaves, and pieces of vegetation arranged across moving water. Yet that structure can alter the physical behavior of an entire …
Every February, the groundhog becomes famous for supposedly predicting how much winter remains. Its real winter ability is far more remarkable. Groundhog true hibernation involves a profound, controlled reduction in …
Pangolins look almost as if nature covered a small mammal in pinecone-like armor. Their unusual appearance comes from overlapping keratin scales, and the pangolin scale defense becomes especially impressive when …
A turtle resting beneath the surface of a river or frozen pond may look completely cut off from the air. Yet some species possess remarkable ways of exchanging gases with …
One of the easiest ways to struggle with an indoor orchid is to treat it like an ordinary houseplant. For many commonly grown orchids, especially Phalaenopsis, the roots are adapted …
A finished weaver bird nest can look almost too precise to have been made with a beak and two feet. Yet weaver bird nest building is a remarkable combination of …
On a dark African night, a dung beetle can climb onto a freshly made ball of dung, perform a brief orientation dance, tip forward, and begin rolling backward across the …
Standing almost motionless in a tropical African swamp, the shoebill can look more like a creature reconstructed from a fossil than a living bird. Its enormous shoe-shaped bill, pale staring …
Rooibos seems as though it should be easy to grow. It is a tough, shrubby legume adapted to heat, drought, and relatively poor soil. Yet anyone interested in growing rooibos …