Science

What Animal Has the Strongest Bite Force?

Saltwater crocodiles hold the record for the strongest bite force ever directly measured in a living animal. Here's how scientists measured it, and how it stacks up against lions, hippos, and great whites.

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A saltwater crocodile resting at the water's edge

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A saltwater crocodile resting at the water's edge
Science

What Animal Has the Strongest Bite Force?

Saltwater crocodiles hold the record for the strongest bite force ever directly measured in a living animal. Here's how scientists measured it, and how it stacks up against lions, hippos, and great whites.

A deep-sea anglerfish with its bioluminescent lure
Science

How Does Bioluminescence Work in Animals?

From anglerfish lures to glowing plankton, most of the light produced in the ocean comes from a single chemical reaction. Here's how bioluminescence actually works, and why so many animals rely on it.

A brightly colored male panther chameleon on a branch in Madagascar
Science

Why Do Chameleons Change Colour?

Chameleons don't change color for camouflage the way most people assume. The real mechanism involves nanocrystals in their skin, and the real reason is mostly about communication.

An electric eel swimming in an aquarium tank
Science

How Do Electric Eels Generate Electricity?

Electric eels can deliver shocks of several hundred volts using nothing but modified muscle cells wired together like a living battery. Here's how the biology behind it actually works.

A pangolin photographed at night in a forest in Borneo
Science

Why Are Pangolins the Most Trafficked Mammal?

Pangolins are the only mammals covered entirely in scales, and that single trait has made them the most heavily trafficked mammal on Earth. Here's why, and what's being done to protect them.

A microscopic image of a tardigrade, or water bear
Science

Can Tardigrades Survive in Space?

Tardigrades became the first animal proven to survive direct exposure to the vacuum of space. Here's how the tiny 'water bear' pulled it off, and what it couldn't survive.

A common octopus resting on a rocky seafloor
Science

Why Do Octopuses Have Three Hearts?

Octopuses pump blue blood through three separate hearts, and one of them shuts off whenever they swim. Here's the biology behind one of the ocean's strangest circulatory systems.

A horned dung beetle, Onthophagus taurus, on a light surface
Science

What Is the Strongest Insect in the World?

A beetle smaller than a fingernail can pull over a thousand times its own body weight. Here's why the horned dung beetle holds the title of strongest insect on Earth, and how its power was measured.

Close-up of a peacock mantis shrimp's compound eyes
Science

Why Do Mantis Shrimp Have the World's Best Eyes?

Mantis shrimp see the world in a way no other animal can match, with up to sixteen types of photoreceptors to our three. Here's what scientists know about how — and why — that vision evolved.