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Despite looking like it has borrowed parts from hedgehogs, anteaters, and porcupines, the echidna has followed its own fascinating evolutionary path.
science

Why the Echidna is Australia's Most Delightfully Different Mammal

The evolutionary marvel mates in love trains, can swim in the ocean, and even uses jazz hands as a defensive tactic.
Jack Ashby August 4, 2022
This eye-catching Finsch's Imperial pigeon has a wingspan of about two feet—the biggest birds ever to fly were more than 12 times its size.
animals

What's the Biggest Bird in the World?

From a flightless giant heavier than a polar bear to a super-glider with a 24-foot wingspan, avians ancient and modern compete for the crown.
Jackie Mead July 19, 2022
<em>Meraxes gigas</em>, a large dinosaur recently discovered in Argentina, was dangerous to know. Despite the tiny arms, it was not related to <em>T. rex</em>.
dinosaurs

Behold Meraxes, Argentina’s Ancient ‘Giant Dragon’

With a ‘Swiss Army knife’ head, tiny arms, and no relation to T. rex, a new dino find is providing intriguing evolutionary insights.
Gemma Tarlach July 7, 2022
dinosaurs

In Egypt's ‘Land of Death,’ Dinosaurs Were Supersized—and Hungry

Fossils unearthed in the Bahariya Oasis tell a story of giant predators hunting on land and in the water.
Abe Musselman July 5, 2022
A new study finds that black-handed spider monkeys like their fruits, well, boozy.
monkeys

Monkeys Love Their Alcohol

But proving the “drunken monkey” hypothesis has been an exhausting—and messy—endeavor.
Sarah Durn April 21, 2022
Eagle Lake, north shore.
Spaulding, California

Eagle Lake

At the edge of the high desert, California's second-largest natural lake is home to a unique subspecies of trout adapted to its alkaline waters.
Today, the Changma Basin in China is a dry, rocky expanse but 120 million years ago it was a thriving lake teeming with Mesozoic birds.
dinosaurs

The World Has Two New Flying Dinosaurs

Or at least it used to. What can these recently identified dino-birds teach us about extinction?
Sarah Durn February 18, 2022
These Neronian points have no equivalent technology among the Neanderthal groups that lived before and after the arrival of the first modern humans in Grotte Mandrin.
archaeology

How a Baby Tooth and Soot Rewrote the Story of Humans in Europe

Modern humans arrived in Southern France—deep in Neanderthal territory—10,000 years earlier than thought.
Ludovic Slimak February 14, 2022
Methuselah, an Australian lungfish, is at least 86 years old, and according to her keeper, biologist Allan Jan, she shows no signs of slowing down.
dinosaurs

How Do You Care for One of the World's Oldest Aquarium Fish?

It requires lots of figs and belly rubs to keep Methuselah happy and healthy.
Sarah Durn February 1, 2022
Silky sharks just below the surface near Darwin Island.
islands

Marine Life in the Galápagos Gets a New Protected 'Ocean Highway'

More room to roam for the islands' unique fauna.
Winnie Lee January 31, 2022
Students in a new paleoanthropology master’s program—co-led by the Turkana Basin Institute and Turkana University College—visit Kenya's Kokiselei archaeological site.
science

East Africa's New Generation of Human Evolution Researchers

In a region central to the study of human evolution, a new program focuses on training more African students.
Linda Nordling December 13, 2021
In Antarctica, the aptly-named icefish survives extreme cold thanks to an unusual suite of anatomical oddities.
science

The Evolutionary Quirk That Allows Antarctica's Icefish To Survive Extreme Cold

Unique adaptations allow the ambush predator to thrive in an environment that would kill most other organisms.
Bill Schutt November 4, 2021
Bells Bridge, Australia

Jurassic Ark

A museum in rural Queensland wrongly claims that dinosaur fossils possess evidence that the earth is only 10,000 years old.
Spotted skunks perform an impressive handstand to appear twice their size and ward off would-be predators.
science

Wanted: Sweet Skunks That Do Sick Stunts

Scientists' creative approach to collecting spotted skunks led to a new family tree for the handstanding li'l stinkers.
Ashley Stimpson September 22, 2021
A cross-section of a juvenile sea urchin reveals its neural network in yellow and muscle fibers in bright blue.
science

This Nighttime Drone Shot of a Futuristic City Is Actually a Sea Urchin

Studying the animal’s nerve network may help scientists understand our own.
Gemma Tarlach July 12, 2021
deserts

Podcast: Valley of the Whales

Join us for a daily celebration of the world’s most wondrous, unexpected, even strange places.
The Podcast Team July 7, 2021
An artist's rendering of one of the three new giant cloud rat species.
islands

Giant Cloud Rats Hint at a Prehistoric Biodiversity Paradise

Oversized, fluffy rodents in the Philippines may have been hunted by our evolutionary cousins. 
Gemma Tarlach April 27, 2021
Among the most successful reptiles in North America, garter snakes thrive from the tropics to the edge of the Arctic.
snakes

What Can 26,000 Snakes Teach Us About Climate Change?

Oregon State University's massive collection is helping researchers learn how animals adapt to changing environments.
Jack Tamisiea April 22, 2021