You remember the nutrient cycle from high school? How organic matter breaks down and spreads throughout the ecosphere? Now it looks like the role of animals in this cycle may be larger than previously ...

This is the herbivore grasshopper Melanoplus femurrubrum. This image relates to a paper that appeared in the June 15, 2012, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The paper, by Dror Hawlena at Yale ...