Biology

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Colombia's famous "cocaine hippos" are no longer just a strange wildlife story – they've become a fast-growing environmental problem with real consequences. What started with just a handful of animals from Pablo Escobar's private zoo has turned into a population spreading across rivers and wetlands, reshaping ecosystems along the way. Now, with costs rising and options shrinking, the country faces a difficult question: act now, or risk losing control entirely. Costs ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - A cross-species breakthrough uncovers shared biological software capable of one day regenerating human limbs. When an axolotl loses a limb to a hungry predator, it sprouts a structurally sound replacement, rebuilding flesh, bone, and nerve from seemingly scratch. A few other amazing creatures share this remarkable limb regeneration ability, including salamanders, starfish, and planarian worms. Yet although mammals like humans can't do this, the evolutionary wiring for complete limb regeneration ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Scientists have identified a 230 million-year-old reptile with a sharp, parrot-like beak that sliced and processed plants with unusual precision. That discovery adds a new kind of plant eater to a crowded prehistoric landscape just before dinosaurs began to dominate life on land. A skull changes count A fossil skull recovered from southern Brazil preserved the animal's jaws, revealing a cutting beak paired with tightly packed grinding teeth. By examining those features, ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - A mysterious shiny "golden orb" found attached to the seafloor off Alaska in 2023 has finally been identified by scientists, according to NOAA Ocean Exploration. The fleshy glob, which resembled a hatched egg, has been linked to a giant deep-sea anemone with tentacles that reach seven feet "The now two-and-a-half-year-old mystery of the 'golden orb,' an unidentified object that captured significant public interest when it was collected during a 2023 NOAA expedition, has finally been solved," ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Most people picture dinosaurs as either fierce hunters or slow plant-eaters that grazed on anything in sight. But one Australian dinosaur, Muttaburrasaurus langdoni , didn't quite fit that simple idea. It seems this massive creature had a taste for select foods and knew exactly how to find them. About 96 million years ago, Muttaburrasaurus moved across what is now central Australia. For years, scientists assumed it behaved like many other plant-eating dinosaurs. New ... [Read More]

Apr 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google At a shrimp pond in Mai Po Nature Reserve in Hong Kong, researchers have found a new species of Tripedalia jellyfish. The animal is only about half an inch long, which makes it hard to spot in murky pond water. This discovery adds a fourth described member to the family Tripedaliidae , a small group of closely related box jellyfish . These strange creatures as a whole comprise a small group of cnidarians , with only 49 species known worldwide so far. Surprising jellyfish ... [Read More]

Apr 21st, 2026 - While wildlife populations crash globally, research finds designated areas enable recovery of threatened species Wildlife and humans are thriving within sites recognised by Unesco, research has found, allowing for the recovery of threatened species and habitats around the world. While wildlife populations have crashed globally by nearly three-quarters since 1970, those within Unesco-protected areas have remained largely stable. "It's good news, it shows that these sites are extremely resilient ... [Read More]

Apr 21st, 2026 - Welcome! Log into your account Recover your password A password will be e-mailed to you. Hedgehog Behavior Explained: Huffing, Anointing, Quilling, and What Normal Looks Like Hedgehog Behavior Explained: Huffing, Anointing, Quilling, and What Normal Looks Like Pet African pygmy hedgehogs are nocturnal, solitary, scent-driven, and defensive-by-default. Expect huffing, popping, and a tight ball on first contact; 12 to 16 hours of daytime sleep; wheel activity at dusk and overnight; and odd ... [Read More]

Apr 21st, 2026 - Scientists once thought it would take a century or more for animals to return to deforested land in the tropics. Now, new research has found ecosystems can recover in mere decades. "It's been a huge surprise for all of us," said Timo Metz, a postdoctoral researcher at UCLA and first author of the study, published in the journal Nature. "None of us expected it to be so impressive and so quick." Rainforests have been disappearing at an alarming pace for at least a century, and millions of acres a ... [Read More]

Apr 20th, 2026 - A simple fin became the ocean's most sophisticated hunting tool. Anglerfishes look almost too cartoonishly gruesome to be true, especially the famous rod bait dangling in front of the grim mouth with oversized teeth. But a new study describes how this tool (and many others that anglerfish use) came to be. It turns out they developed them gradually, over the years, and sometimes multiple times. Diverse and Dinosaur-Aged Imagine you are a small, hungry fish swimming in the shallow, sun-drenched ... [Read More]

Apr 19th, 2026 - The latest research on a Neanderthal infant from Amud Cave in Israel is giving a clearer picture of how different early development may have been in our extinct relatives. The remains, dated to around 51,000 to 56,000 years ago, suggest something unusual, as reported by Current Biology. The baby was not small in the way modern human infants are at the same age. It shows how much faster it grows in its early months outside the womb. Scientists studying the skeleton think this could reflect a ... [Read More]

Apr 19th, 2026 - Authors set out to correct under-representation of female sounds – and found some surprising revelations When we hear the beautiful call of a bird from a high bough, we're told it's likely to be a male – singing for territory, or belting out tunes to woo a female. But as the annual dawn chorus reaches a crescendo this spring, a new guidebook is urging us to think again – and turn our ears to the hidden world of female birdsong. The songs, sounds and sights of female birds have ... [Read More]

Apr 19th, 2026 - The new study highlights the importance of ongoing research on recovering whale populations. New research from the University of St Andrews shows that the role of age in male humpback whale ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) reproduction has changed as populations recover from centuries of exploitation.   There has been little research on the evolutionary consequences of whaling. This is despite ... [Read More]

Apr 17th, 2026 - Wolves and humans share the same eye trait that helped both species become the ultimate pack hunters. Lock eyes with a chimpanzee, and you will notice something is missing. The tissue surrounding their iris, called the sclera, is a deep brown or nearly black. You cannot easily tell where they are looking. Now, look at another human across the room. Within milliseconds, you know exactly what holds their attention. Most mammals' eyes are camouflaged with dark tissue, likely to stay hidden from ... [Read More]

Apr 16th, 2026 - 10 best dinosaur books, according to a paleontologist I have one of the best jobs in the world: I am a paleontologist who digs up dinosaur bones for a living. I am also the paleontology consultant for the Jurassic World film series, and I teach courses at the University of Edinburgh about Earth history and evolution. I've written science books such as The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Rise and Reign of the Mammals. My latest book, The Story of Birds: A New History from Their Dinosaur ... [Read More]

Apr 16th, 2026 - A newly identified Triassic predator shows crocodiles diversified long before they conquered the water. Sometime around 210 million years ago, in what is now the badlands of New Mexico, a mudslide froze an ancient ecosystem in stone. Two swift, land-dwelling predators—about the size of modern jackals—perished side-by-side in a sudden catastrophic surge, leaving their skeletons locked in the earth as the world moved on. Millions of years later, human hands dug up the now fossilized ... [Read More]