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Zoology is the scientific study of animals. This discipline can include animal anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, genetics, evolution, ecology, behaviour and conservation.
Both parents of oldfield mice care for offspring, whereas in deer mice, mothers usually care for pups. The discovery of a type of adrenal-gland cell that is present in oldfield mice but not in deer mice helps to explain the difference.
Some fox species leap up and pounce head first into snow to capture prey that they hear below the surface. An analysis of the forces involved reveals how the shape of the skull has evolved to minimize damage from this behaviour.
The elephant-nose fish senses its environment by emitting electrical pulses. A multi-pronged investigation suggests that this remarkable sensing ability is amplified in social groups by individuals ‘listening in’ on the pulses of their neighbours.
A Penicillium citrinum-associated pellet at mealybugs’ legs, which forms on mealybugs feeding on tomato and originates jointly from plant secretions and waxy filaments, provides multiple protections for mealybugs through suppressing pathogens and host defense.
A study suggests that rifleman – one of the two extant species of New Zealand wrens, the most basal Passeriformes in birds – has predispositions for vocal production learning, including group vocal signatures, vocal convergence, and phenotypic variance call ratios similar to vocal learners.
Both parents of oldfield mice care for offspring, whereas in deer mice, mothers usually care for pups. The discovery of a type of adrenal-gland cell that is present in oldfield mice but not in deer mice helps to explain the difference.
Some fox species leap up and pounce head first into snow to capture prey that they hear below the surface. An analysis of the forces involved reveals how the shape of the skull has evolved to minimize damage from this behaviour.