Biology

Feb 25th, 2026 - WELLINGTON, New Zealand — The world's only flightless parrot species was once thought to be doomed by design. The kakapo is too heavy, too slow and, frankly, too delicious to survive around predators, and takes a shamelessly relaxed approach to reproduction. But the nocturnal and reclusive New Zealand native bird 's fate is teetering toward survival after an unlikely conservation effort that has coaxed the population from 50 to more than 200 over three decades. This year, with a bumper ... [Read More]

Feb 25th, 2026 - It's quick and easy to access Live Science Plus, simply enter your email below. We'll send you a confirmation and sign you up for our daily newsletter, keeping you up to date with the latest science news. Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Get the Live Science Newsletter Get the world's most fascinating discoveries delivered straight to your inbox. By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and ... [Read More]

Feb 25th, 2026 - By A team of scientists went looking for a minnow declared extinct. What they pulled from a South African river turned out to be something no one had ever documented — a small, colorful fish with a distinctively large head and bright orange-red spots near its fins. In 2017, researchers traveled to South Africa's Umzimkhulu River hoping to find surviving populations of the Maluti redfin minnow, a species that had been abundant in a nearby area during the early 1900s but was later declared ... [Read More]

Feb 25th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Scientists have recently observed a bearded vulture chick hatch in the wild in northern Spain after more than a century without successful breeding in that mountain range. That single hatchling restores the species to a landscape where it had vanished and tests whether decades of recovery work can now sustain a new generation. First hatch in a century On the cliffs of the Moncayo massif in northeastern Spain, a guarded nest finally produced a living vulture chick after ... [Read More]

Feb 25th, 2026 - The alvarezsaurs were thought to have evolved a smaller stature because of their diet of ants and termites, but a new fossil found in Argentina casts doubt on that theory An almost-complete skeleton of a dinosaur that weighed less than a small chicken has provided new insights into the evolution of alvarezsaurs, which are among the smallest dinosaurs that ever lived. The 95-million-year-old fossil of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis was found at the La Buitrera site in northern Patagonia, Argentina, ... [Read More]

Feb 24th, 2026 - By They swim with paddle-like tails, climb trees using hooked claws and hunt on land. Nile monitor lizards, powerful carnivores that can grow longer than six feet, are spreading through South Florida, earning a reputation from wildlife officials as one of the most dangerous invasive reptiles in the state. Data show sightings have grown significantly in recent years, particularly in Southwest Florida, where entire neighborhoods in Cape Coral are now considered their established habitat. ... [Read More]

Feb 24th, 2026 - This year, in what it calls a " study ," Utah's Division of Wildlife Resources is killing off mountain lions in an effort to increase mule deer herds. It has hired trappers from the Utah Department of Agriculture and Food, authorizing them to dispatch lions with any method, including banned traps and neck snares. The study, covering roughly 8.6 million acres in six management units, will run for at least three years with the goal of indiscriminately exterminating "as many (lions) as possible." ... [Read More]

Feb 24th, 2026 - An analysis of 20 urine samples from chimpanzees in Uganda found byproducts of ethanol in at least 17 samples, indicating that apes ingest significant alcohol from the fermented fruit in their diet. Aleksey Maro knows far more than he cares to know about the urination habits of chimpanzees. But if you want to measure the alcohol intake of chimps in a Ugandan rain forest, where a breathalyzer is impractical, collecting urine for analysis is your only choice. To perfect his urine sampling ... [Read More]

Feb 24th, 2026 - Fins washing up in the North Pacific suggest that orcas from one subspecies are snacking on other orcas, and researchers think that may explain their different social dynamics Biologists have seen signs of orca-on-orca predation in the North Pacific, and such cannibalism may explain why some orcas travel in large family groups. Two distinct subspecies of orcas , also called killer whales ( Orcinus orca ), are found in the North Pacific. Transient or Bigg's orcas, as their name suggests, are ... [Read More]

Feb 24th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google For years, Spinosaurus has been portrayed as a dinosaur built for open-water hunting – a giant predator chasing prey through ancient seas. But new fossils from the Sahara are shifting that story. Researchers have identified the first new Spinosaurus species in more than a century. Named Spinosaurus mirabilis , it features a towering, scimitar-shaped skull crest and was discovered in sandstone formed by inland rivers – hundreds of miles from any ancient ... [Read More]

Feb 23rd, 2026 - By A newly-discovered ancient crocodile looked nothing like the low-slung, swamp-delling crocodiles you see today. Instead, it stood upright on long, slender legs and sprinted across dry land with the build of a greyhound. It ate small reptiles, amphibians and early mammals. More than 200 million years after this creature last roamed what is now the United Kingdom, scientists have formally identified it as a new species — and named it after a secondary school physics teacher in Wales. The ... [Read More]

Feb 23rd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google For more than a century, Triceratops has been defined by what we can see – its horns, its frill, its massive beak. But the real surprise may lie in what we couldn't see at all. New CT scans reveal that this horned dinosaur rerouted the main nerves and blood vessels of its snout through its nose instead of its jaw. That unusual detour reshapes how scientists understand the oversized nasal cavity. Rather than a hollow chamber for smell alone, Triceratops ' nose may ... [Read More]

Feb 23rd, 2026 - When science meets art, nature happens. This year's winning gallery of the 2026  World Nature Photography Awards is bubbling with images that depict this marriage of the two, wrapped in dramatic storytelling. A gorilla-butterfly encounter illustrates the beauty of relationships. The dark-skinned gorilla concentrates its intense, enlightened gaze upon the peppy little butterfly as it flutters carefree. The unflinching gaze of a protective lion mom is just as fierce as the gaze of this ... [Read More]

Feb 23rd, 2026 - Your chin might just be an evolutionary side effect of the human face shrinking over millions of years. The human chin is uniquely human, and the assumption has always been that it must have evolved for a specific purpose, perhaps to strengthen the jaw during chewing or speech. After all, chimpanzees and gorillas don't have chins. Neither did Neanderthals nor Denisovans.  In fact, Homo sapiens is the only species known to possess this small bony projection at the front of the lower jaw. ... [Read More]

Feb 22nd, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Fossil evidence shows that baby long-necked dinosaurs were a major food Because these young plant-eaters were so common and easy to catch, predators at the time had an easier food supply than the giant hunters that evolved millions of years later. Dry Mesa evidence At Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in western Colorado, a fossil site known for its rich dinosaur bone beds, a dense layer of remains preserved predators and prey from the same place. By sorting those remains into ... [Read More]

Feb 21st, 2026 - Giant tortoises return to Galápagos island after nearly 200 years Giant tortoises are roaming the Galápagos island of Floreana for the first time in more than 180 years, in what conservationists have called a "hugely significant milestone". The release of 158 captive-bred juvenile tortoises onto the island is part of the Floreana Ecological Restoration Project led by the Galápagos National Park Directorate. The reintroduction follows a "back-breeding" programme launched in ... [Read More]