The title of most poisonous animal on Earth is typically given to the beautiful and deadly golden poison dart frog of Columbia—the one-inch-long frog is sometimes drenched in enough poison to kill ten grown men. But a far less exotic creature is capable of producing enough poison to kill up to 20 people: the unassuming rough-skinned newt, with its bumpy skin and fiery orange underbelly, a familiar sight in the Pacific Northwest of North America. Continue reading Toxic Newts Use Bacteria to Become Deadly Prey
Tag Archives: Weird Animals
The Reason These Poisonous Butterflies Don’t Mate Is Written in Their DNA
About a decade ago, evolutionary biologist Richard Merrill would spend several hours a day in “hot, steamy Panama,” sitting in a cage filled with Heliconius butterflies, waiting for them to have sex. Continue reading The Reason These Poisonous Butterflies Don’t Mate Is Written in Their DNA
How Moonlight Sets Nature’s Rhythms
One November night each year, beneath the full moon, more than 130 species of corals simultaneously spawn in Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Some corals spew plumes of sperm, smoldering like underwater volcanoes. Others produce eggs. But most release both eggs and sperm, packed together in round, buoyant bundles as small as peppercorns and blushed in shades of pink, orange, and yellow.
How Sexual Selection Is Like Advertising
Years ago, Danny Abrams heard about a strange phenomenon: Deer skeletons were being found beside trees in the forests of the Midwest. These male deer had apparently gotten their massive, unwieldy antlers caught in the branches, where they’d found themselves trapped. Unable to find food or flee predators, they quickly met their demise.
