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Nature

2,233 cards. Each one is a 40-second story with a five-minute read behind it. Page 31 of 38.

1801. Springtails glue, jump, and shrink when the heat risesCollembola are the largest of three modern hexapod lineages no longer counted as insects, beside Protura and Diplura. Usually under six millimeters, they carry a sticky collophore…
1802. Squid remade the nautiloid shell into a chitin pen and jetSquid in Myopsida, Oegopsida, and Bathyteuthida are soft-bodied cephalopods with eight arms, two prey tentacles, huge eyes, and Jurassic–Cretaceous radiation into open-water preda…
1803. Starfish walk on glue and hide a hydraulic city insideAbout 1,900 asteroid species carpet seabeds as star-shaped echinoderms—usually five arms, sometimes dozens in Antarctic Labidiaster. Tube feet run on a water-vascular system that …
1804. Seabirds converge on ocean life yet nest in vast coloniesSeabirds are birds adapted to marine life, often showing convergent evolution as similar ocean niches reshape unrelated lineages. They typically live longer, breed later, and rais…
1805. Seahorses are pipefish remade into upright horse-headed swimmersA seahorse is any of forty-seven Hippocampus species—small marine bony fishes with horse-like heads, segmented bony armour, grasping tails, and independent eye movement. The genus…
1806. Africa's secretarybird is an eagle on crane legs that stamps snakesThe secretarybird Sagittarius serpentarius is a large, mostly terrestrial African raptor of open grasslands. An eagle-like body on crane-like legs can lift it to about 1.3 metres;…
1807. Groupers and sea basses are ambush carnivores of the reefSerranidae is a perciform family of marine fishes once counted near four hundred fifty species in sixty-five genera, including many groupers and sea basses, though revisions keep …
1808. Sharks are cartilaginous hunters from lantern size to whale scaleSharks are elasmobranch fishes with cartilaginous, ribless skeletons, dermal denticles, five to seven gill slits per side, and pectoral fins free of the head. They span the sevent…
1809. Domestic sheep began with mouflon and remade Eurasian textilesDomestic sheep Ovis aries are ruminant livestock; everyday 'sheep' means this species even though genus Ovis holds wild kin. They most likely descend from European and Asian moufl…
1810. The shoebill is a whale-headed stalker of African marshesThe shoebill Balaeniceps rex—also whale-headed or shoe-billed stork—is a large, long-legged African wader named for its enormous shoe-shaped bill and solemn look. Ancient Egyptian…
1811. Shrikes are songbirds that butcher prey on thornsShrikes are passerines of family Laniidae—thirty-four species in four genera. Lanius and the family name come from Latin for butcher; some are called butcherbirds because males es…
1812. Shrimp are swimming crustaceans that feed coasts and marketsShrimp commonly names elongated, swimming crustaceans—usually caridean or related decapods—though narrow definitions limit the word to Caridea or only marine forms, and broad ones…
1813. Sauropods were the heaviest animals ever to walk on landSauropoda—lizard-footed saurischian dinosaurs—carried very long necks and tails, small heads relative to bulk, and four pillar-like legs. Some species reached the largest sizes of…
1814. Sawfish swing a toothed snout—and all five species are criticalSawfish are very large rays whose long, flattened rostrum is lined with sharp transverse teeth like a saw. Some species stretch around seven to seven point six metres. They haunt …
1815. Scale insects hide under wax and built dyes and lacquerScale insects are tiny hemipterans of infraorder Coccomorpha, wildly variable and extremely sexually dimorphic. Adult females are often soft, limbless blobs under domed scales, pu…
1816. Scallops swim by clapping shells and watch with mantle eyesScallop names many marine bivalves in family Pectinidae—and sometimes cousins in Pectinoidea. Cosmopolitan in the world’s oceans but never in fresh water, they are among the few m…
1817. Mail-cheeked fishes include stonefish, lionfish, and sculpinsScorpaeniformes are a diverse order of ray-finned fishes—stonefish, lionfish, sculpins, and kin—also once called Scleroparei. With over thirteen hundred twenty species they rank a…
1818. Scorpions have hunted with pincers and sting for 430 million yearsScorpions are predatory arachnids with eight legs, grasping pincers, and a segmented tail that curves forward to a stinger. Their lineage reaches the Silurian, about four hundred …
1819. Sea cucumbers recycle the seafloor with sausage-shaped bodiesSea cucumbers are echinoderms of class Holothuroidea—about seventeen hundred eighty-six known species, densest in the Asia–Pacific region. Benthic worldwide, they act as detritivo…
1820. Sea otters wear densest fur and smash shells with toolsThe sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a North Pacific coastal mammal. Adults weigh fourteen to forty-five kilograms—heaviest of the weasel family yet among the smallest marine mammals…
1821. Seven sea turtle species still patrol the world's oceansMarine turtles in the chelonioid superfamily still number seven living species worldwide, spanning hard-shelled cheloniids and a single leathery giant. Adults of each kind match i…
1822. Sea urchins crawl on tube feet beneath a spiny globeSea urchins are class Echinoidea within the echinoderms—about nine hundred fifty seabed species from intertidal rocks to the deep ocean. Typically three to ten centimetres across,…
1823. True frogs conquered more land than any frog familyRanidae, the true frogs, claim the widest distribution of any frog family, thriving on most continents with smooth moist skin, strong legs, and big webs. Sizes span tiny species t…
1824. Pit vipers that warn with a castanet of keratinRattlesnakes of genera Crotalus and Sistrurus are New World pit vipers that shake interlocking tail segments as a predator deterrent. Some thirty-six species and sixty-five to sev…
1825. Europe's classic stag is really a species complexRed deer (Cervus elaphus) rank among the largest deer; males are stags or harts, females hinds. Fourth-largest living deer after moose, elk, and sambar, they ruminate with four-ch…
1826. Pet-shop turtles that slid into rivers worldwideRed-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta elegans) are pond terrapins named for crimson ear stripes and a habit of slipping off logs into water. They evolved in the Mississippi basin a…
1827. Marsh blackbirds that may outnumber every other land birdRed-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus) breed from Alaska through much of North and Central America. Winter censuses sometimes find loose flocks so huge that writers call them…
1828. The only deer humans semi-domesticated at real scaleReindeer, or caribou (Rangifer tarandus), circle the Arctic and subarctic in migratory and sedentary herds. Sizes run from tiny Svalbard animals to massive Osborn's caribou. They …
1829. Fish that turned a dorsal fin into a suction hitchhikeRemoras, also called sharksuckers, are ray-finned fish of the family Echeneidae that grow 30 to 110 centimetres long and spend most of their lives stuck to whales, turtles, rays o…
1830. Scaly amniotes that taxonomists keep redrawingReptiles, in ordinary speech, are ectothermic tetrapods with amniotic eggs—traditionally turtles, crocodilians, squamates, and tuatara. Class Reptilia remains disputed; the lineag…
1831. Cloud-forest emerald that crowned Mesoamerican mythResplendent quetzals (Pharomachrus mocinno) haunt Central American and southern Mexican montane cloud forests. Males wear iridescent green, red bellies, and streaming coverts; IUC…
1832. South America's ostrich cousins that never left the groundRheas—also called ñandú—are South American ratites, flightless birds without a keeled sternum, distant kin to ostriches and emus. Most authorities accept two living species: great…
1833. Nose-horned megafauna hunted for keratin worth fortunesRhinoceros means nose-horned in Greek. These megafauna all exceed half a tonne as adults, carrying one or two horns and hide 1.5 to 5 centimeters thick. Poaching for black-market …
1834. Cliff pigeons that invented the city sidewalk flockRock doves (Columba livia)—common or rock pigeons—are Columbidae birds whose wild form is pale grey with two black wing bars and little male-female difference. They forage on open…
1835. Four stomach chambers turned grass into mammal empiresRuminants are grazing or browsing even-toed ungulates in suborder Ruminantia that ferment plant fiber through cud chewing. Roughly two hundred species span cattle, sheep, goats, d…
1836. Lizard-shaped amphibians that can regrow whole limbsSalamanders look lizard-like with slender bodies, blunt snouts, and right-angled limbs, yet they are amphibians. Diversity peaks in eastern North America, especially Appalachia, m…
1837. Anadromous athletes that farm made into a global commoditySalmon are commercially vital euryhaline fishes in genera Salmo and Oncorhynchus of family Salmonidae. Typically anadromous, they hatch in gravelly fresh headwaters, grow in river…
1838. Salmon, trout, whitefish, and grayling share one cold familySalmonidae—the only living salmonoid suborder—holds eleven genera and over two hundred species of ray-finned fish. They look relatively primitive among teleosts, with rear-set pel…
1839. Ninety-eight shorebirds that nest in a scrape of earthScolopacidae packs sandpipers with woodcocks, curlews, and kin—long-bodied, long-legged waders with narrow, variable bills. Most nest in open scrapes, defending territories with a…
1840. Fleshy-finned fish that invented the road to landSarcopterygii—from Greek flesh and fin—are lobe-finned vertebrates whose fins hold muscular limb buds and internal bones, unlike ray-fins. Appearing in Silurian–Devonian seas, mos…
1841. Tiny oily fish whose name may remember SardiniaSardine and pilchard label assorted small oily forage fishes in the herring group Clupeoidei. Meanings shift by region—the UK Sea Fish Industry Authority draws its own size lines.…
1842. Secretive marsh birds named for a scraping cryRails of family Rallidae are cosmopolitan ground birds from twelve to sixty-three centimeters and twenty grams to three kilograms. Sexual plumage rarely differs; bills range from …
1843. Tubenosed seabirds nest on islands and invent long faithfulnessProcellariiformes—albatrosses, petrels, shearwaters, and storm petrels—are “tubenoses” named for bony nostrils. Colonial breeders on remote predator-free islands, larger species n…
1844. Raccoons’ family are New World “little bears” with weak carnassialsProcyonidae—raccoons, coatis, kinkajous, olingos, olinguitos, ringtails, cacomistles—are New World carnivorans, generally omnivorous across many habitats. German Kleinbären (“smal…
1845. America’s “antelope” is really a giraffe’s distant cousinThe pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) is a western and central North American artiodactyl nicknamed American antelope though it is not one. Its closest living relatives are the gi…
1846. Booklice’s tiny pincer nemesis hides in homes unnoticedPseudoscorpions are flat, pear-shaped arachnids with scorpion-like pedipalp pincers but no stinging tail. Usually 2–8 mm long—Garypus titanius of Ascension Island reaches 12 mm—th…
1847. Flying foxes live long, breed slowly, and carry rare virusesPteropus bats—fruit bats or flying foxes—are among the world’s largest bats. Females of most species bear only one young a year, so slow life histories make hunting, culling, and …
1848. Pterosaurs flew before birds—and wore fuzzy pycnofiber coatsPterosaurs were warm-blooded flying reptiles of the Late Triassic to end-Cretaceous (about 228–66 million years ago)—the earliest vertebrates known to evolve powered flight. They …
1849. Nearly every insect you meet descends from the winged experimentPterygota—“winged”—is the insect subclass holding all winged insects and lineages that secondarily lost wings, about 99.9% of insect species. Only jumping bristletails and silverf…
1850. Rabbits are lagomorphs, not rodents—and Rome farmed them earlyRabbits are small leporid mammals in Lagomorpha alongside hares and pikas—familiar as herbivores, prey, livestock, and pets. They are a paraphyletic grouping because hares nest in…
1851. Europe’s large white butterfly became New Zealand’s unwanted guestPieris brassicae, the large white or cabbage butterfly, is a Pieridae relative of the small white. Common from Europe through North Africa to the Himalayas in farms and parks, it …
1852. About 1.5 billion pigs yield roughly 120 million tonnes yearlyThe domestic pig (Sus domesticus) is an omnivorous even-toed hoofed mammal farmed mainly for pork, with hide used as leather. China leads production, then the EU and United States…
1853. Piranha means scissors in Old Tupi—and myths outrun the bitePiranhas are South American freshwater serrasalmids often cast as extreme predators, though many are less ferocious than folklore claims. The name traces to Old Tupi pirãîa, attes…
1854. Armored placoderms invented jaws, teeth, and pelvic fins earlyPlacoderms—“plate skins”—were Paleozoic jawed fishes of the Silurian and Devonian with cartilaginous endoskeletons under heavy armor. They were among the first jawed vertebrates, …
1855. Plaice names four flatfish—and Europe’s favorite dinner flounderPlaice covers four flatfish species: European, American, Alaskan, and scale-eye. The European plaice (Pleuronectes platessa) is Europe’s principal commercial flatfish, also angled…
1856. Half Earth’s photosynthesis rides on drifting microscopic plantsPlankton—from Greek planktos, “wanderer”—are water or air drifters too weak to swim against currents or wind. The cast spans bacteria and algae to jellyfish, split trophically int…
1857. Europeans first thought the platypus was a taxidermy hoaxOrnithorhynchus anatinus, the duck-billed platypus, lays eggs yet nurses young along eastern Australian streams including Tasmania. In 1799, naturalists facing a preserved body de…
1858. Long-necked and short-necked plesiosaurs “flew” through Mesozoic seasPlesiosaurs were Mesozoic marine reptiles of Sauropterygia, appearing by the latest Triassic (possibly Rhaetian, about 203 million years ago). Broad bodies, short tails, and four …
1859. Weaverbirds sew grass into nests and flash seasonal reds and yellowsPloceidae are small passerines—weavers, bishops, and kin—named for intricately woven vegetation nests. Carl Jakob Sundevall coined the family (as Ploceïdes) in 1836. Phylogenetics…
1860. The Arctic’s top land carnivore still depends on melting sea icePolar bears (Ursus maritimus) are the largest living bears and land carnivores by mass—adult males 300–800 kg—and can interbreed with brown bears. Marine mammals by dependence on …

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