Is there any dinosaur more iconic than Tyrannosaurus Rex? Its mighty jaws and fierce mien ignite the imaginations of four-year-olds everywhere. It’s the dinosaur poster child – yet this fearsome beast’s beginnings were, new evidence suggests, quite humble.   How humble? Well, a little smaller than a kangaroo, as we now know from a newly

From above, the Namib Desert in Africa appears afflicted by disease, pocked with patches of bare earth that are either touched by the gods, the dead, or the wildlife, depending on who you ask.   Science had all but closed the book on these mysterious ‘fairy circles‘, placing the blame squarely on the soil. To

Damage-resistant genes. Healing powers. Very low risk of cancer. No, scientists aren’t describing Wolverine or Superman – those are the powers of the great white shark. The star of Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, whose scientific name is Carcharodon carcharias, has a reputation as a meat-eating monster of the sea. But in fact, great white sharks may

Looking at a picture of Wallace’s giant bee, you wouldn’t pick this insect as elusive. Four times as big as a honeybee, and a stark black colour, it looks like the security guard or bouncer of the bee world. But researchers have just released the first photos and video of a live Wallace’s giant bee

We know that many of the traits we see in animals are there because they evolved by somehow being useful to the species. But evolution is messy, and the supposed benefits of weird features aren’t always obvious. Take zebra stripes, for example.   The stark black and white garb of the three zebra species roaming

Imagine a highly sophisticated body armor that is a tough as it is flexible, a shield that consists largely of water, but remains strong enough to prevent mechanical penetration.   Now imagine that this armor is not only strong, but also soft and stretchy, so much so that the wearer is able to move their

Humanity has always had an uneasy relationship with wolves. They loom large in our ancient mythologies as fearsome beasts; over the millennia, that fear has led to devastation of wolf populations across Europe, including 19th century Germany.   In the 1960s, numbers of wolves (Canis lupus) in Europe hit an all-time low, veering perilously close

For twent million years, the world’s oceans were home to a monstrous shark, named the ‘megalodon’. Then suddenly, without explanation, the 18-metre-long (50 foot) super predator disappeared.   It’s a juicy bit of ancient history that has inspired a host of books, documentaries and blockbuster films, some of which like to imagine that this bloody

Classic sci-fi writer Jules Verne once imagined a whole subterranean landscape deep inside the planet, complete with lost prehistoric species and plant life. The book was aptly titled Journey to the Centre of the Earth.   We might not actually find dinosaurs down there, but new research is revealing features in the underworld resembling structures on

While many people’s reaction to big hairy spiders is usually “AHHH”, you’ve got to admit, this spider’s odd-looking back appendage does look rather amusing. The peculiar and previously undocumented protrusion belongs to the tarantula Ceratogyrus attonitifer found in Angola, Central Africa.   While scientists have observed related species of baboon spiders with a back bulge before, they’ve

On shadowy paws in the dark of the night, the rare black leopard is rarely seen by human eyes. But now its breathtaking beauty has been captured in exquisite detail, thanks to trail cams and camera traps set up in Laikipia County in Kenya.   San Diego Zoo caught the gorgeous animal on remote video

Deep in the Watagans Mountain Range in Australia, a red-eyed green tree frog (Litoria chloris) had bitten off much more than it could chew. Its dinner was to be an unassuming red triangle slug (Triboniophorus graeffei); instead, the frog ended up covered in a sticky mucus and completely stuck to a tree branch.   Researchers

Behind this sentence lies a solid bedrock of mathematics, one that has been shown to govern all human languages. Linguists have found the hoots and hollers, gestures and expressions used by chimpanzees obey some of the same basic principles, demonstrating the foundations of language have deep evolutionary roots.   A study led by the University

Scientists have discovered what they say are the earliest known fossilised traces of multicellular moving organisms, beating the previous record-holder by an incredible 1.5 billion years.   Hidden in a shale rock deposit on the west coast of Africa, thin tube-like structures carved in ancient sediment reveal the footprint of tiny slug-like creatures that lived

Wisdom, a Laysan albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) who is at least 68 years old, has done it again – she’s hatched a new chick at her nesting ground in Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge.   Each year since at least 2006, Wisdom and her mate Akeakamai have been coming back to the atoll in the Pacific Ocean near

My ideas about animal behaviour were turned upside down in 2002 when I watched Betty, a New Caledonian crow, fashion a hook from a piece of wire and use it to pull a small container with meat from a tube.   Betty’s behaviour captivated scientists because it seemed so creative: there was no obvious solution

Life is miraculous, and watching it unfold in real time is even more so. A new video from Netherlands-based filmmaker Jan van IJken now lets you watch a baby salamander twisting and turning as it grows in its transparent egg.   Simply called Becoming, this beautiful short film follows a single salamander embryo (Ichthyosaura Alpestris)

Valentine’s Day. It’s for suckers, right? A Hallmark holiday designed just to part you with your money. But El Paso Zoo in Texas can help you celebrate in a way that will warm the cockles of your cold, black heart – and it won’t cost you a thing.   In a livestreamed event called “Quit

Maggots repulse us. Despite being the innocent babes of the insect world, there’s something about these larval critters that just gets under our skin. Yes, literally too. And dangerously.   But there are good reasons we should overcome our aversion. It’s becoming increasingly clear how incorporating insects into our diets stands to benefit the environment

Two bird lovers in Erie, Pennsylvania were only expecting to enjoy the company of their colourful feathered friends when they began setting up backyard feeders 25 years ago. But then the lavish spread attracted an unusual visitor: a northern cardinal (Cardinalis cardinalis) that was half the brilliant vermilion of the male of the species, and

A pair of researchers in New Zealand made a surprising discovery several weeks ago while analyzing a pile of seal poop. Nestled inside one of the excrement samples – about the size of two dinner rolls, if you must know – was something unusually hard: a USB stick.   Needless to say, memory drives are

Scientists have identified two proteins that can partially stimulate growth in amputated toes in mice, a discovery that puts us one step closer to one day being able to replace amputated limbs in humans.   While bone growth has been achieved before, the new research demonstrates signs of joint growth as well – this shows

When an earthquake struck near the Indonesian island of Sulawesi on September 28 last year, thousands of people lost their lives. Dragged out to sea, buried in mud, they were the victims of 2018’s most devastating earthquake.   Satellite data has now revealed that the grinding sections of crust responsible for the 7.5 magnitude tremor

Magnetic north is not where it used to be. Since 2015, the place to which a compass points has been sprinting toward Siberia at a pace of more than 30 miles (48 kilometres) a year. And this week, after a delay caused by the month-long partial government shutdown in the United States, humans have finally

Once, about 300 million years ago, when southern Africa was joined at South America’s hip, this now arid region was covered in a wide expanse of glaciers. You wouldn’t know it today, looking out over the dry volcanic desert of the Twyfelfontein area in northern Namibia. But throughout its 4.5 billion year history, our planet

When dinosaurs roamed the Earth in ancient Patagonia, one particular type of dinosaur might have stuck out amongst the rest. Living 140 million years ago in the early Lower Cretaceous, the newly discovered herbivore Bajadasaurus pronuspinax had a thing for growing spikes.   It was part of the Sauropod family, but looked a little like a small Brontosaurus

The story of Archaeopteryx – a Late Jurassic dinosaur known as ‘the first bird‘ – begins with a single, fossilised feather. But like any great scientific tale, that is far from where it ends.   Today, 158 years after the initial discovery, one of the world’s most famous birds remains up in the air. Scientists

A researcher studying whales and dolphins was treated to an extremely rare sight in January: a baby humpback whale swimming with its mum, less than 20 minutes after being born.   It’s the closest Lars Bejder had been to a live birth in around 25 years – and lucky for us, he captured the extraordinary

Bigger dogs, with larger brains, perform better than smaller pups on certain measures of intelligence, new research shows. Larger-brained dogs outperform smaller dogs on measures of executive functions – a set of cognitive processes that are necessary for controlling and coordinating other cognitive abilities and behaviors.   In particular, bigger dogs have better short-term memory

It’s unclear whether the initial incursion happened stealthily at night or brazenly during the day – though authorities are almost certain the invasion occurred by sea. And federal employees who returned from the month-long partial government shutdown decided that it was probably not worth the effort to relocate the roughly 90 individuals involved. That’s because

Since the 1980s scientists have spotted a link between naval sonar systems and beaked whales seemingly killing themselves – by deliberately getting stranded on beaches. Now, researchers might have revealed the horrifying reason why.   In short, the sound pulses appear to scare the whales to death, acting like a shot of adrenaline might in

The photo above is not depicting some ten-legged mutant bird as some of our Instagram commenters have suggested. It’s also not one of those hilarious birds with arms memes. He’s just one brave daddy bird hauling his four chicklings to safety.   Comb-crested Jacanas (Irediparra gallinacea) are also known as lillytrotters or Jesus-birds for their ability

Normally, after running a five-year experiment, scientists might pat each other on the back in earnest recognition of having finally made it to the end of an epic, demanding research effort.   But if, after five long years, you’re still less than 1 percent of the way through your actual experiment, the back-patting and champagne will

Quite a bit of news dropped on Friday, so you may have missed a hedgehog-related alert that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued early that afternoon. Those tiny, prickly, adorable mammals — which have jumped in popularity as household pets in recent years — may be carrying salmonella germs and spreading them to nearby humans, according to the

The name is not appetising: it’s called the groundcherry. It’s possible you haven’t heard of this fruit, but with some genetic tweaks, it could become a supermarket staple sooner than you think.   That’s because scientists have used the groundcherry as an experimental test case to illustrate just how quickly CRISPR genome editing can speed

The first time he saw them, on a freezing morning last January, George Howard thought the odd-shaped humps protruding from his iced-over swamp were tree stumps. But somehow that didn’t seem right. He strained his eyes. They were tree stumps with teeth?   Howard panicked. He is, after all, the manager of the Swamp Park, which features

Birds see a very different world to the one we’re familiar with, and now we can get a hint of what that looks like thanks to a specially designed camera that simulates birdo-vision.   Apart from being fascinating, the resulting images also explain why birds can navigate so accurately through dense foliage. Behavioural biologist Cynthia

Nature is crazy. Source link

The markets of Southeast Asia are common places to find the fossils of insects, embedded in amber millions of years old. But last year, gemologist Brian Berger found something much more rare and astonishing.   The piece he bought features an insect inclusion, except it’s not preserved in amber – the lithified resin of ancient

In the water, it’s getting harder to breathe. Suffocating dead zones with little or no oxygen are pervading the world’s oceans, rivers, and streams. This phenomenon – which has exploded in recent decades – poses an extinction-level nightmare for marine populations already beset by a complex interaction of human-made menace.   When it comes to

Lake Mercer, a subglacial lake deep below the Antarctic Ice, sat untouched by humans for millennia – until now. Scientists accidentally discovered the lake in 2007, when they were examining satellite imagery of Antarctica’s ice sheet. Then on December 26, 2018, they finally reached it.   To explore the 50-foot-deep subglacial lake, researchers from a project

Unless you live in the tropical rainforests of South or Central America, most of the sloths you’ll encounter will be two-toed sloths (Choloepus sp.). This is because they are able to eat quite a varied diet and are therefore relatively easy to keep in captivity.   Their relatives, the three-toed sloths (Bradypus sp.), on the

There really isn’t a whole lot you can do to avoid being eaten when you’re trapped inside an egg and your parents are nowhere to be found. Still, the embryo of the pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) gives it everything it’s got. Researchers have found that when faced with a common predator, the unborn cephalopod does

The flowers are listening, according to new research – well, in a sense, at least. Scientists have found evidence that plants can actually hear the buzz of passing bees and produce sweeter nectar in response to entice the flying insects in. And flowers are technically their ‘ears’.   Based on observations of evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii),

Sometimes we don’t know what’s weirder: nature’s strange creations or the ridiculous names we humans give them. That is certainly the case with the Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi).   If you happen to spy one skulking away in whatever shell, rocky crevice or piece of rubbish they can find, they’re typically seen as a dull

A frog by the name of Romeo, thought to be the last of his species, is no longer fortune’s fool. Defying the stars, this lonely amphibious bachelor has at last found his Juliet.   Known as the world’s loneliest frog, for ten years Romeo has burned, he has pined, but he has not perished. His

Like a brain, an ant colony operates without central control. Each is a set of interacting individuals, either neurons or ants, using simple chemical interactions that in the aggregate generate their behaviour.   People use their brains to remember. Can ant colonies do that? This question leads to another question: what is memory? For people,

Nature is filled with astonishing and sometimes terrifying phenomena. Case in point: this footage of spiders seemingly raining from the sky. Filmed in Minas Gerais in southern Brazil, these spiders are Parawixia bistriata, a rare ‘social’ spider that works together to build giant, fine webs up high.   And contrary to how it might look, don’t