Cookiecutter sharks are elusive deep-sea fish, seemingly only coming to the surface at night. As a result, we don’t know much about them. Yet if there’s one thing we can say for certain, it’s that they like to bite.   Over the years, scientists have found tiny, cookiecutter-shaped chunks taken out of the bodies of

While no one enjoys seeing carefully nurtured crops destroyed by hordes of hungry insects, the most common way to prevent it – the use of insecticides – is causing massive ecological problems.   Some are wreaking havoc on bee populations globally, killing birds and piling onto the challenges already faced by endangered species. Thankfully, insecticides

Scientists have bridged a missing link in the reptile tree of life. That link is the tiny skull of a lizard-like creature “profusely ornamented” with features that suggest it gave rise to all living lizards, snakes, and the sole survivor of another reptile group found only in New Zealand.   Named Taytalura alcoberi, the fossilized

Since their introduction to Australia in 1935, cane toads (Rhinella marina) have been rapidly devouring their way across the northern part of the continent. Their feasting bonanza, unchecked by predators or parasites evolved to deal with their toxicity, has seen their numbers explode.   There are now so many cane toads, natural selection has favored

A police raid in Brazil has saved our scientific knowledge of an incredibly well-preserved flying lizard that sported a ridiculously large head crest. The police had been investigating illegal fossil trade, and in 2013 found the pterosaur Tupandactylus navigans fossil amongst 3,000 other specimens.    University of São Paulo paleontologist Victor Beccari and colleagues realized they had

​Protected areas will only help species migrating to escape a warming climate if enough of them, strategically located, allow for reproduction, a study of the English countryside showed Wednesday.   ​With humanity’s numbers set to pass 9 billion by mid-century, many animals and plants on our crowded planet are severely threatened by shrinking habitat. ​Carving

Recently, we’ve been learning that the world is a much… glowier place than we ever suspected. More and more terrestrial organisms have been found exhibiting biofluorescence – a soft, eerie, beautiful glow that we can see under ultraviolet light. Now the glow has been found somewhere even more unexpected – the segmented nests of several

With rising temperatures and significant climate shifts predicted for Antarctica in the years to come, the icy continent could use a break. Well, now it’s had one, as it just had a near miss with a giant iceberg double the size of Chicago.   The iceberg in question is A-74. Having originally been attached to

Millions of years ago, an ancient sperm whale had a very, very bad day when a megatoothed shark – possibly the fearsome Otodus megalodon or its ancestor Otodus chubutensis, the largest predatory sharks that ever lived – viciously attacked it in what is now North Carolina, a new study suggests.   Marks from the attack, preserved as gouges out of the

In what amounts to perhaps the most unhurried act of animal predation ever caught on camera, researchers have filmed for the first time a giant tortoise slowly – ever so slowly – closing in for the kill.   This drawn-out encounter – between a lumbering, almost leisurely giant tortoise (Aldabrachelys gigantea) and its grounded bird

Despite humanity’s intense fascination with sparkly pieces of carbon, it seems there is still plenty to learn about how diamonds form deep within our planet. New research has discovered that two different types of rare diamonds share a common origin story – the recycling of once-living organisms over 400 kilometers (250 miles) below the surface.

Giant, carnivorous centipedes on a South Pacific island can kill and eat up to 3,700 seabird chicks every year, a new study has revealed.  Phillip Island centipedes (Cormocephalus coynei) are ferocious beasties, growing up to nearly 1 foot (30 centimeters) long, clad in armored plates along their segments and equipped with a potent venom that they inject

Few geological mysteries are as perplexing as the ‘Great Unconformity‘ riddle at the Grand Canyon: More than a billion years of missing rock layers that for some reason weren’t deposited and stacked like the rest of the geological record. It’s as though those years never happened.   This strange gap was first spotted by geologist

The strength and direction of Earth’s magnetic field has changed a lot over the millennia. Scientists are eager to study its past patterns to work out how the field might change in the future – a pretty vital research field, considering this magnetic shield protects us from damaging cosmic radiation.   However, instruments capable of

“Mamama,” “dadada,” “bababa” – parents usually welcome with enthusiasm the sounds of a baby’s babble. Babbling is the first milestone when learning to speak. All typically developing infants babble, no matter which language they’re learning.   Speech, the oral output of language, requires precise control over the lips, tongue, and jaw to produce one of

Australia’s oceans are home to a startling array of biodiversity – whales, dolphins, dugongs, and more. But not all components of Aussie marine life are the charismatic sort of animal that can feature in a tourism promotion, documentary, or conservation campaign.   The echiuran, or spoon worm, is one such animal. It is also called

We know that Earth’s magnetic field is always shifting in its direction and its strength. Just how quickly these changes are happening is of great interest, considering this planetary feature keeps us all protected from violent cosmic radiation.   Now, a new analysis of ancient lava flows in eastern Scotland – filling in some crucial

Towering beneath sparkling waters off the coast of Australia’s Palm Islands is an ancient coral community that predates the European settlement of its neighboring continent. This giant coral community has just been reported as the Great Barrier Reef’s widest coral, in fact – at an impressive 10.4 meters (34.1 ft)  across.   Named Muga dhambi

Early on their quest to reach the Lonely Mountain in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit (1937), Bilbo Baggins and company cross paths with an enormous, shape-shifting warrior named Beorn.   “Sometimes he is a huge black bear,” the wizard Gandalf says of the man, “sometimes he is a great strong black-haired man with huge arms and a

Human activity has shrunk the size of wild animals the world over, and yet recent research has found many mammals living near cities have become steadily larger, both in length and in weight.   The findings are unexpected. Sprawling urban environments, with their vast swathes of sun-soaked cement, can grow much hotter than natural habitats, and

Can you remember what you had for dinner last Tuesday? Or on this day last year? It turns out that cuttlefish can, right up to old age – the first animal we’ve found that doesn’t show signs of deterioration in memory function over time.   In humans this is known as episodic memory, the what-where-when

Sometime around 3.5 billion years ago, life on Earth was ignited into existence from molecular beginnings, and branched through time into the spectacular array of entities we know and love today. So goes the current line of thinking.   But we still don’t even really have a clear definition of life. For example, is a virus

A huge horde of mixed animal bones, including the remains of humans, has been found in an ancient lava tube in Saudi Arabia. The hollowed cave, called Umm Jirsan, is a sprawling lava conduit system underneath the volcanic fields of Harrat Khaybar in the northwest of the country.   Umm Jirsan extends for a staggering

Three volcanoes in the Alaskan chain of Aleutian islands are currently erupting, and two others are rumbling with disquiet. According to a report by NBC, it’s been at least seven years since three Aleutian volcanoes erupted simultaneously. This increased volcanic activity, at this point, is not causing any disruptions, but it is an interesting situation;

The main types of dog coats we see today have been around since the earliest days of domestication, according to new research. Some patterns might even outdate wolves themselves.   Until now, it’s often been assumed that our species was responsible for the huge diversity of dog coats due to thousands of years of careful

Fruit bats might not have the greatest eyesight, but they know a good smell when they sniff one.  Even in the dark of night, the olfactory receptors in their brains can bind to a whole array of specific odors wafting into the air, allowing these tropical pollinators to track down nearby fruit for a midnight

People in New Zealand have cut down so many trees, some native insects are losing their wings. In the space of 750 years, humans have changed the natural landscape of the country’s South Island so much, scientists say it’s causing rapid evolutionary changes among certain species.   With no more alpine forest to break the

About 3,500 feet under the South Pacific sits a piece of land 2 million square miles in size – about half as big as Australia. But scientists can’t agree on whether this submerged landmass, called Zealandia, is a continent or not. A team of geologists declared it one in 2017, but not all researchers are convinced.    “It’s

East-facing sunflowers are happier, healthier, and more productive than those that face other directions – and it’s all down to the warmth of the morning Sun. That’s the conclusion drawn by a new study that sought to find why the cheerful yellow blooms tend to mature facing east, in spite of a more flexible youth

When plants first ventured onto the land, evolving from freshwater-dwelling algae, more than 500 million years ago, they transformed the planet. By drawing carbon dioxide from the air, they cooled Earth, and by eroding rock surfaces they helped build the soil that now covers so much land.   These changes to the planet’s atmosphere and

Legends of the last ice age, woolly mammoths played a pivotal ecological role in the grassy tundra they once roamed. So much so, that scientists have even proposed resurrecting them in an attempt to mitigate some of the damage that our way of life has inflicted on the planet.   Glacial melts have defrosted incredibly

A dead jellyfish that recently washed up on a beach in the UK shows off its last meal – a whole, and rather surprised-looking, fish – through its translucent belly, stunning photos reveal.   The jelly is a compass jellyfish (Chrysaora hysoscella), named for its brown, V-shaped markings that look like the lines on a

Unlike numerous other animals, cats show a strange unwillingness to work for their food. When given the choice between a freely available meal and a meal trapped inside a puzzle, scientists have found most animals, such as dogs, bears, pigeons, pigs, goats, mice, rats, monkeys and other primates, prefer to work for their food –

When humans interact with each other, we tend to follow invisible rules. We may greet each other with ‘hi, how are you?’ to indicate the start of a conversation; once someone starts using phrases like ‘oh, it was nice to see you’, we know the chat has reached its end.    Until now, we thought

Mount Etna’s southeastern crater has grown in height after six months of activity, Italy’s volcano monitoring agency said Tuesday, making Europe’s tallest active volcano taller than ever.   The famous volcano’s youngest and most active crater has risen to a new record of 3,357 meters (11,000 feet) above sea level, said INGV, the National Institute

The specter of terrifying volcanic eruptions is emblazoned in our imaginations from childhood: an earth-shattering explosion, followed by gushing bursts of lava and billowing smoke.   The dangers of large-scale volcanic eruptions are very real: In the worst-case scenario, an extremely rare and powerful supervolcanic eruption might even devastate the planet. But scientists now warn it

In 1895, on turning 50, Elie Metchnikoff became increasingly anxious about aging. As a result, the Russian Nobel prize-winning scientist, and one of the founders of immunology, turned his attention away from immunology and towards gerontology – a term that he coined.   He was fascinated by the role that intestinal bacteria play in health

In the wetlands of the west coast of North America – from Alaska to California – there lives a herb-like plant that has just been discovered to have the occasional taste for flesh.   While the plant – called Triantha occidentalis – employs insects to pollinate its very normal-looking flowers, it also has sticky hairs

With a seven-meter wingspan, and a mouth bristling with fangs, a newly discovered pterosaur would have ruled the skies over Australia’s northeast around 110 million years ago. It’s the largest species of pterosaur ever found on the continent, an extremely important find that contributes to our understanding of pterosaur diversity in Australia. And it would

Slathering yourself in deadly poison is a great way to discourage predators from trifling with you and your cousins. There is, however, one massive flaw in this genius plan – it involves slathering yourself in deadly poison.   Since toxic compounds typically wreak havoc by locking up an enzyme or receptor, a clever way to

Through a process known as RNA interference (RNAi), scientists have been able to modify the genetic make-up of the daddy long-legs arachnid so that its distinctive spindly limbs become twice as short.   This process – which uses a gene’s own DNA sequence and small fragments of RNA to turn the gene off – was

 A nearly 28,000-year-old cave lion cub, discovered frozen in the Siberian permafrost, is so well preserved, you can still make out each and every one of her whiskers. Researchers in Sweden claim the cub, nicknamed Sparta, is probably the best preserved Ice Age animal ever uncovered and describe Sparta in Quaternary. Her teeth, skin, and

Plants thirst for water, just as we animals do, but exactly how they slurp it through their tissues has remained a bit of a mystery as attempting to see it happening impairs the process.   By applying a gentle imaging technique in a new way, University of Nottingham physicist Flavius Pascut and the team were

Some types of bacteria are hardy enough to survive in the most inhospitable of conditions – and that includes concrete, as a new study proves. Not only can microbes survive in this dry, inhospitable building material, they can actually thrive there too.   The research shows that bacteria could provide early warnings of moisture-induced alkali-silica

The Earth is rumbling beneath Yellowstone National Park again, with swarms of more than 1,000 earthquakes recorded in the region in July 2021, according to a new US Geological Survey (USGS) report. This is the most seismic activity the park has seen in a single month since June 2017, when a swarm of more than 1,100 rattled the area,

A long-lost piece of Stonehenge that was taken by a man performing restoration work on the monument has been returned after 60 years, giving scientists a chance to peer inside a pillar of the iconic monument for the first time.   In 1958, Robert Phillips, a representative of the drilling company helping to restore Stonehenge, took the

The strange-looking caecilians are limbless, worm-like amphibians that have been around for hundreds of millions of years, but they’ve never been found in the wild in the US – until now.   It’s now been confirmed that a creature caught in 2019 in the C-4 (or Tamiami) Canal in Florida is a Rio Cauca caecilian,

Emperor penguins thrive on Antarctica’s coastlines in icy conditions any human would find extreme. Yet, like Goldilocks, they have a narrow comfort zone: If there’s too much sea ice, trips to bring food from the ocean become long and arduous, and their chicks may starve. With too little sea ice, the chicks are at risk