In the lower Ordovician period, 480 million years ago, many trilobites died strangely on the seafloor. Their fossils have recorded it: nose to bottom, in orderly lines, their long spines touching each other – as though carefully queuing, or painstakingly trekking from one location to another.   Why they were so arranged has long been

Like an old time carnival show, the Paris Zoological Park’s latest attraction promises a shocking mystery. Dubbed ‘the blob’, the zoo is hoping to draw in the crowds by featuring a goo-like brainless creature with no mouth and hundreds of sexes, which displays an ability to survive – even thrive – when dissected.   While

If you’ve ever studied biology, you’ll be familiar with mitochondria – the organelles often referred to as the ‘powerhouse of the cell’. And you’ll probably be aware that they’re often compared to traditional AA batteries, with each organelle operating as a single unit.   But an important new study suggests they’re actually more like the

Did you know some cetaceans use “nets” to catch their food? Like humpback whales. They’ll dive down and swim in a ring around their prey, blowing out bubbles as they go. That rising ring forms a column that traps fish, allowing other whales in the group to swim up from below, mouths agape, through the bubble

Typhoon Hagibis proved to be extraordinarily devastating for northern Japan when it struck this weekend, unleashing more than three feet of rain in just 24 hours in some locations, causing widespread flash flooding as well as river flooding. The storm has killed at least 58, according to the Japanese public broadcaster NHK.   In addition,

A strange, undulating blob found in the waters of Ørstafjorden in Norway has turned out to be a rare sight: a giant mass of squid eggs. The otherworldly ball, floating mysteriously in the darkness of the fjord, was discovered by captain Nils Baadnes and diver Ronald Raasch with the research vessel REV Ocean. It wasn’t

There’s a fish that can live on land. Georgia officials want you to kill it immediately. A northern snakehead fish was caught earlier this month in a Gwinnett County pond, according to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division, and it’s the first time the species has been reported in Georgia waters, the

A seemingly strange demise has befallen five cattle on the Silvies Valley Ranch in remote eastern Oregon. Reports from NPR and the Associated Press paint a bewildering scene, free from tracks, predator activity, poison, shot wounds and even blood. But it might just be the latest instalment in a long line of ‘mysterious cattle death’ stories

Over millions of years, humans have developed a talent for transforming bits of nature into objects that make daily tasks easier. We got so good at it, we started to think tool-use among animals was a rather exclusive club – as it turns out, we were wrong.   Adding to the long list of animals

Humans have been mining diamonds for a long time, but a new stone hauled from the belly of the Earth could very well be a first. The diamond itself is hollow – and inside is another diamond, freely moving around.   It was discovered in a Russian mine in Siberia, and has been named the

When the last of Earth’s woolly mammoths expired, they were isolated on Wrangel Island in the frigid Arctic Ocean, north of Russia. We’ve known of the species’ last resting place for years; now, we finally know more about their survival and ultimate death.   Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) died out 4,000 years ago over a remarkably

Six elephants died while trying to save each other after a baby elephant fell from a waterfall in a Thai national park, officials said. Staff at Khao Yai National Park, about 85 miles northeast of Bangkok, found the roughly 3-year-old baby elephant drowned on Saturday. Five more dead elephants also were discovered at the bottom

Not unlike the movie “Okja,” where a company breeds massive pigs to maximize profits, some Chinese farmers are growing larger and larger hogs to keep up with pork shortages. In Nanning, the capital of the Guangxi province, one farm owner is breeding pigs that weigh over 1,100 pounds – making them the size of polar

Scientists have been able to teach birds simple songs they’ve never heard before by selectively activating specific neurons in their brains – effectively implanting false memories.   Using the process of optogenetics, where light is used to control living tissue, the team was able to activate certain neuron circuits in the birds and get them

The most significant pterosaur fossil ever discovered in Australia has been unearthed in the Winton area of central western Queensland. The newly discovered species, which my colleagues and I have named Ferrodraco lentoni, had a wingspan of about 4 metres (13 feet). It lived around 96 million years ago, and was surprisingly similar to other

They may not have the muscles and reflexes of the animal kingdom, but that doesn’t mean plants just passively sit around when something starts chewing them up. We know damage triggers a signal that spreads through the plant, mounting its defensive response. And we know part of that response is the release of smelly volatile

A rare and deadly fungus, the only one that can poison a human from mere touch, has just showed up where nobody expected – in suburban Queensland, in the far north of Australia.   Originally discovered in China in 1895, the reddish-orange poison fire coral (Podostroma cornu-damae) is predominantly encountered in Asia, including Korea, Japan,

Half a billion years ago, when trilobites ruled and dry land was a barren wasteland, Earth was having a terrible time making a decision. North and south had switched places nearly 80 times in just a few million years, making it one of the most geomagnetically turbulent moments in history.   Geologists from the Russian

Weird and wonderful, the microscopic tardigrades are sometimes colloquially known as ‘water bears’ and ‘moss piglets’. In all fairness, though, no bear or piglet ever dreamt of doing the amazing things these uniquely gifted creatures are capable of.   Tardigrades are know for their incredible resilience, as they’re able to survive all manner of extreme conditions. When the going gets

Like most people, something called a theory of mind allows me to mentally step into another’s shoes and imagine their thoughts. But whether we share this talent with other primates is still a matter of debate.   A new study adds even more evidence to the view that apes are able to anticipate the others’

Back when you were just a fingernail-sized blob in your mother’s uterus, your tiny baby flippers had far more in common with the paws of ancient reptiles than you might be comfortable with.   Special immunostaining techniques carried out by scientists from Washington’s Howard University and Sorbonne University in Paris have revealed new human atavisms

The Tyrannosaurus rex had the strongest bite of any known land animal – extinct or otherwise. The king of the dinosaurs was capable of biting through solid bone, but paleontologists had long been baffled as to how it accomplished this feat without breaking its own skull.   In a new study published in the journal

Some people can’t sleep if they know there’s a spider in their house. Imagine being in Beaumont, Tex., and thinking that the largest alligator ever caught in the United States was on the loose there.   Fortunately, after a nerve-racking few days, that gator has been found. It was a tense week for neighbors of

As Tropical Storm Karen withers away, Hurricane Lorenzo has become “one of the largest and most powerful hurricanes of record for the tropical central Atlantic,” according to the National Hurricane Center.   Now packing 140 mph winds, Lorenzo became a Category 4 storm Thursday farther east than any other previous storm on record, save for

You ever watch your pets sleeping? When they twitch their paws and whiskers, and yip and mewl? Well, cats and dogs experience REM sleep, which means they’re probably dreaming. And, while evidence of REM sleep has so far not been seen in octopuses, they do have a kind of sleep twitch of their own.  

Like the deserts of the Antarctic, or the deepest parts of the sea, Mono Lake in California is an inhospitable place for most life forms. Apart from bacteria and algae, it appears only brine shrimp and diving flies can put up with its super-salty waters.   But there’s more to this body of water than

In the search for the earliest life on Earth, it can be hard to tell whether you’re looking at an actual fossil, or crinkles in the rock itself. Such doubts have long shadowed the 1980s discovery of 3.5 billion-year-old fossils in the Australian desert. Now, scientists think they have finally put the matter to bed.

The map of the world looked very different 240 million years ago. Earth’s modern-day continents were joined together in one Pac-Man-shaped supercontinent known as Pangea, which eventually split into two fragments: Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south.   The former became Europe, Asia, and North America. The latter dispersed to form modern-day

The crypt-keeper wasp is hardly a fussy eater. Given the chance, this creepy parasitic insect will chew through the heads of at least seven different species to survive, a new study has found.    Discovered just a few years ago, this gruesome predator (Euderus set) is known as a ‘hyper-manipulator’ – a parasite that manipulates a

There could be another force, even stronger than a hydrogen bond, holding our DNA together, new research suggests. First discovered back in the 1950s, the double helix structure of our genetic material has since become iconic, although we’re still figuring out how all its pieces fit together.   Appearing like a twisted ladder, the rungs

Diamonds are hardly ever perfect. Like us, they carry blemishes and flaws: tiny ‘inclusions’ of ancient chemistry trapped inside their lustrous frames. To the jeweller, these minuscule marks may diminish a gemstone’s value. To a scientist, the imperfection itself can actually be the true glittering prize.   In a startling new discovery, researchers in Canada

In a kind of odd man-versus-nature moment, a Russian navy boat was attacked and sunk by a walrus during an expedition in the Arctic, the Barents Observer reported Monday. The Altai, a tugboat of the Russian navy’s Northern Fleet, sailed to the Franz Josef Land archipelago in the Arctic carrying researchers from the Russian Geographical

If you had to name a creature in the ocean with sharp teeth, you’d probably say “shark”, right? I’d be thinking shark. Obviously, the answer is shark. But what about the humble sea urchin? These strange, prickly orbs dwell on the bottom of the seabed and don’t even look like they have mouths, let alone

Something mysterious happened nearly half a billion years ago that triggered one of the most important changes in the history of life on Earth. Suddenly, there was an explosion of species, with the biodiversity of invertebrate animals increasing from a very low level to something similar to what we see today.   The most popular

Sometimes even the largest natural wonders can remain hidden from human view for centuries. The Amazon is a dense place, full of life with new species of flora and fauna being discovered every other day.   Now, using the same technology that takes driverless cars from A to B, we – led by Eric Gorgens

Antibiotic-resistant superbugs are a growing threat to human health, and without urgent and widespread action, experts warn we might one day slip into a ‘post-antibiotic era‘. As the world heads down this dangerous road, it looks more and more like we’re dragging marine creatures along with us.   A long-term study has now found a

Antarctica is known for its tempestuous weather, and the surface winds surrounding this icy southern continent are some of the strongest and most persistent on Earth. Throughout most of the year, and especially in winter, these powerful gusts of coastal air drive what is described as the “mightiest current” in all the oceans: the Antarctic

Komodo dragons – the biggest, fiercest, most impressive lizards on our planet – just got that much more amazing. A new discovery shows that under their scaly skin, these animals are completely covered in mail-like armour built out of tiny bones, from nose to tail-tip.   Why would something as formidable as a Komodo dragon

It all started earlier this month. Veterinarians in Oslo, Norway were reportedly flummoxed by a rising number of sick dogs being brought to their practices. The pets appeared to be suffering from some sort of mysterious bowel disease, with similar signs of vomiting and bloody diarrhoea.   What had started in the capital city soon

Prepare yourself for a shock of the record-breaking variety – scientists have identified two new electric eel species, and one of them can put out a zap that’s stronger than any other animal we know about.   The supercharged species is Electrophorus voltai, and it can discharge 860 V of electricity in a single shock,

More than 40,000 years ago, the landscape of southwestern Australia was replete with giant kangaroos. One of these extinct kangaroos, known as a short-faced kangaroo, boasted a single-toed clawed foot (modern-day roos have three toes), weighed more than 260 pounds (118 kilograms), and munched on plants.   According to a new study published in the

During the age of the dinosaurs, the skies of North America were home to some of the largest flying animals the world has ever seen. New research now suggests there were at least two types of giant winged reptile living on the continent at the same time.   Re-analysing a jumble of pterosaur fossils found in

Sixty-six million years ago, Earth had a very bad day indeed. A giant asteroid up to 81 kilometres (50 miles) across smashed into the coast of what is now Mexico near Chicxulub – an event thought to have triggered a wave of extinction that killed 75 percent of all life on Earth.   Now, thanks

Nature. Some see it as beautiful and some as red “in tooth and claw“. Of course nature is dynamic, it changes between both the beautiful and the dangerous as in Blake’s famous words: Tyger Tyger, burning bright, In the forests of the night; What immortal hand or eye, Could frame thy fearful symmetry?   With

Scientists thought the Wilmington blind‐thrust fault that runs deep under the Los Angeles region had been dormant since the Late Pliocene era, millions of years ago. But a new study reveals that it’s very much alive, and capable of generating the kind of 6.4-magnitude earthquakes that could cause serious damage in such a populous area.

One of the most famous and beloved cryptids in all the world is Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster. Reports describe a large, long-necked beast like a plesiosaur, yet Nessie has remained curiously elusive to scientific searches. Multiple sonar scans of the loch have come up blank.   But there’s more than one way to skin a

When they started to film, scientists on the exploration vessel Nautilus could barely contain themselves. Way out in the Pacific Ocean, over 750 metres deep (2,500 feet), their remotely operated vehicle had stumbled upon one of the spookiest creatures they’d ever seen.   At first, as they watched the dancing ghost-like entity, there were only

Scientists have discovered what could be some of the very earliest animal trails left on the surface of Earth. The finding dates back to around half a billion years or so, and it could finally reveal more about this distant part of history, and the very first moving organisms.   What makes the finding particular