With the help of analysis carried out on proteins in 2-million-year-old tooth enamel, researchers have charted out the family tree of the extinct Gigantopithecus blacki ape, and found it’s directly linked to one of the great apes alive on Earth today, the orangutan.   What makes the research remarkable is that G. blacki hasn’t walked the

Ice comes in many shapes and sizes, from mountainous icebergs to tiny flurries of snow. But few of us will ever come across a field of football-sized ‘ice eggs’. Nature just loves to keep us guessing.   When amateur photographer Risto Mattila went for a Sunday stroll along Marjaniemi beach on Finland’s Hailuoto Island recently,

A beautifully preserved insect in amber is giving us new insight into the reproductive life of plants from 99 million years ago. The ancient beetle died with its legs coated in pollen, and its remains have now pushed back physical evidence of insect pollination by at least 50 million years.   This could explain how

The river Nile is one of the most awe-inspiring natural wonders of the world. And it may have been that way for an astonishingly long time. New research suggests it’s been bringing water, irrigation and life for as long as 30 million years.   This latest study also presents a solution to a long-standing mystery

A very rare species of small, deer-like animal thought to be on the verge of extinction has been spotted in the northwestern jungle of Vietnam for the first time in nearly 30 years.   Known as the silver-backed chevrotain or mouse deer, a specimen was last recorded in 1990, according to a study published Monday

The great white shark is often viewed as the most hardcore thing in the ocean. The top of the food chain. The silent slayer in the dark. But evidence is increasingly emerging that even the great white isn’t safe. In fact, these fish too are prey.   Their predator? The orca (Orcinus orca): they of

It has long been thought that one of the reasons we humans developed large brains was to allow us to maintain complex social structures. But the social system of a small-headed guineafowl now suggests that large brains are not necessarily a requirement for complex multi-levelled societies.   Even amongst a crowd, vulturine guineafowl (Acryllium vulturinum) can

The largest fire ever recorded in Sonoma County, California has spent nearly two weeks rampaging across the hills, burning everything in its path. So far, the Kincade Fire has burnt 77,758 acres of vegetation – and it’s still raging.   Its scorched and blackened path has now been revealed in a new NASA satellite photo.

Even in a hopeless place, ants will find a way. No food, no light, no escape? No problem. In the woods of western Poland lies a dismantled Soviet nuclear base, complete with two underground bunkers where nuclear ammunition was once kept. After the military complex was abandoned, these eerie human-made caves became great roosting places

Weeks after a stray puppy was discovered in a backyard in rural Australia, DNA tests revealed that the furry creature is not a dog at all but an Australian alpine dingo. The news was a welcome surprise for conservationists: Australian alpine dingoes are an endangered species vulnerable to extinction because of inbreeding, hunting and government

A giant boulder in Arizona that went missing for weeks has mysteriously reappeared, only days after authorities announced it had vanished. The ‘Wizard Rock’, a distinctive black boulder marked with striking lines of white quartz, is a well-known local landmark along State Route 89 in Prescott National Forest (PNF), near the centre of Arizona.  

Throughout the world’s oceans, hidden in coral rubble, you can find strange blobs of various sizes. Named sailor’s eyeballs (Valonia ventricose) these squishy balls are actually an incredibly cool type of algae – they’re one of the largest unicellular organisms in the world.   Indeed, that whole ball is a single cell. Now, that’s not

As solid as our planet’s crust might feel beneath our feet, we’re literally surfing mountains across a churning sea of hot minerals. For years, researchers have struggled to understand what drives the complex movements of Earth’s surface layers; now, we might be a little bit closer to the answer.     To determine whether drifting

The Kincade Fire has been spreading through California wine country for a week, fuelled by powerful winds as it devours dry vegetation. Diablo winds (northern California’s version of the Santa Ana winds, though some people refer to both by the same name) have enabled the flames to tear through an estimated 76,825 acres (31,000 hectares)

Putting your pregnancy on pause until the time is right to give birth sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel, but for many mammals what’s known as “embryonic diapause” is an essential part of raising their young.   Although scientists have known since the 1850s that some animals have this ability, it is only

Just like us, plants need water to survive, but that doesn’t mean these leafy greens enjoy a downpour any more than we do. When the grey clouds loom and the rain begins to fall, their response is immediate, all-consuming and close to that of ‘panic’, a surprising discovery reveals.   Strange as that might seem

Where there’s water, there’s life, the thinking loosely goes. New evidence suggests starkly otherwise – or at least identifies some harsh new parameters on where life and water may (or may not) be able to co-exist.   To find these limits, scientists travelled to one of the most extreme and inhospitable environments on Earth: the

It’s not easy studying birds. They fly away for months at a time, and even if you can track them down again, their frivolous texting habits threaten to leave you utterly penniless.   That’s what happened to a team of Russian scientists in Siberia, whose research budget blew out when the migrating eagles they were

A parasitic fungus that infects the common housefly spreads its tiny white spores in a deeply unsettling yet admittedly impressive way. Flying its host to a high place, the hidden fungus turns the fly into an artillery of water cannons, spraying its surroundings with some of the fastest jets of liquid measured in the natural

Seared into the brain of paleontologist Tyler Lyson is the date he cracked open the skull: 10 September, 2016. Before that discovery, Lyson and his colleagues had struck out at Corral Bluffs, Colorado, a site worked by fossil hunters since the 1930s.   As the hours passed at the end of the field season, with

To be an ant is to never get stuck in traffic. It’s one of the many perks (along with super-human strength, an armour-like skeleton and two stomachs, of course). As these tiny disciplined creatures march along their narrow pheromone-lined roads, they somehow manage to keep a smooth flow going back and forth, even during rush hour.

Few composite materials forged by nature are as tough as mother-of-pearl, or nacre. Now, scientists have finally figured out just how the minuscule layers of this pearlescent substance make it so strong.   You’ll find nacre on the outer coatings of pearls and on the inside of some mollusc shells, but until now scientists didn’t

Nobody really knows what a Tully monster is. It’s maybe a squid thing. Or like a lamprey. Only it has these weird eye stalks, and a… is that a tentacle or a claw? It’s a mouth? Seriously?    Categorising the 300 million year old fossilised remains of Tullimonstrum gregarium was never going to be easy. Just

To the pig-tailed macaque, there’s nothing better than sweet fruit plucked from a sprawling palm oil plantation. Except maybe fresh rat. That’s good eating too, apparently. Researchers have found that far from being a pest themselves, monkeys could be welcome guests at Malaysian palm oil plantations, more than making up for the few fruit they steal

There was something odd hanging from Evangeline Cummings’ rose bush in the backyard of her home in Gainesville, Florida. It looked like a dead snake. As she inched forward for a closer look, something else was weaving its way toward the exact same spot.   What happened next was a series of unexpected events. Having

The mating call of the Brazilian white bellbird (Procnias albus) is now officially the loudest birdsong on record: averaging out at a peak of 125.4 decibels, it beats out rock concerts and chainsaws, and is way beyond the level (85 db) considered safe for human ears.   While we might not consider courting loved ones

By sifting through pig faeces, scientists in Japan have discovered a new type of virus that could challenge the already complicated notions of how we categorise what viruses are, and what they can do.   Unlike living organisms that fall within the three ‘domains of life’ – bacteria, archaea, and eukaryota – viruses are fundamentally

One of the most elusive and peculiar lemurs in the world has just escalated the weirdness. The animal has six digits on its hands, making it the only known primate species to sport a “pseudothumb” hiding in the wrist of each arm.   Don’t mistake its hidden nature for uselessness, though. The tiny extra thumb

Are we alone in the Universe? It comes down to whether intelligence is a probable outcome of natural selection, or an improbable fluke. By definition, probable events occur frequently, improbable events occur rarely – or once.   Our evolutionary history shows that many key adaptations – not just intelligence, but complex animals, complex cells, photosynthesis,

At any moment, an earthquake of magnitude 6.7 or higher could ripple through California, leading infrastructure to topple, power to shut off, and buildings to collapse. Scientists expect to experience this “Big One” in their lifetimes – though they’re not sure where or when.   So when researchers detected strange seismic activity along a major

Scientists are experimenting with all kinds of ideas to extend lifespan and give us a few extra years of existence, and now a mouse study has produced some intriguing results: a longer life thanks to hyper-long telomeres.   Telomeres are repeated sequences of DNA material sitting at the tips of each and every chromosome in

The sea wastes nothing. When a dead whale makes its final fall to the floor of the ocean, far from the rippling light of the Sun, its mighty carcass becomes a feast for the dwellers in the dark.   Such a bounty from above creates a new ecosystem where life can thrive for decades at

Male and female mouse brains could have significant differences that reach right down to the cellular level, according to a new discovery. Based on a reading of their genetic activity, neurons in a part of the mouse nervous system responsible for aggression and mating behaviours appear to be chemically structured in subtle but distinctly different

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

You don’t want to ever get too close to a piranha, but if you did, you’d notice something rather strange: these freshwater fish shed their old teeth in groups, one side of the mouth at a time, with new teeth growing in as replacements simultaneously.   A new study has found that an interlocked half

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

When you think of fast animals, it’s probably something like cheetahs, or greyhounds. But when measuring in body lengths per second, the arthropod world is unmatched. And now we have a new record-holder – the fastest speed ever measured in an ant.   The winner is the Saharan silver ant (Cataglyphis bombycina), and the speed

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