Biology

Dec 25th, 2025 - Experts and novices alike hunt for specimens that could change our understanding of evolution – and all only a short day trip from Melbourne Between the cliffs and the sea at Jan Juc, on Victoria's Surf Coast, researchers scour the shore platform for evidence of life from 25m years ago, as beachgoers revel in the sand and surf nearby. "You can be there discovering a fossil that might change our understanding of the evolution of life on Earth. And you're sharing it with a family that's ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google For about fifteen years, a group of early humans called Denisovans lived only in gene sequencers and human imagination. Now, a skull nicknamed "Dragon Man" has helped put a face to the name. Scientists have learned to use ancient DNA like a time machine. When it survives, it can tell us who ancient humans were related to, where they moved, and even when different groups had children together. But DNA is fragile. After tens of thousands of years, it starts to fall apart, ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - When European scientists first set eyes on the platypus, in the form of a pelt and a sketch shipped over from Australia in 1798 , they couldn't believe it. The specimen was so bizarre that English zoologist George Shaw said it was impossible not to question its authenticity. Had a prankster sewn the beak of a duck onto the body of a beaver? To make sure, he examined the specimen thoroughly to check for any stitches. With no seam in sight, Shaw became the first to formally describe the animal. ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - Palaeontologists reported some remarkable dinosaur fossils this year, including a Velociraptor relative, a dome-headed pachycephalosaur and one of the most heavily armoured creatures that ever lived If there's ever a creature you would not want to bump heads with, it is Zavacephale rinpoche. This dome-headed dinosaur found in Mongolia lived 108 million years ago, making it the oldest of its kind ever discovered. When palaeontologists first saw the fossil skull protruding from the ground, they ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - 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 Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter One of the closest living relatives of the dodo has been spotted multiple times in Samoa — raising hopes that this critically endangered creature can ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - By Mary Ann Thomas, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette PITTSBURGH - After returning from a trip Nov. 2, an Oakmont, Pa., man was surprised to find a white speck, smaller than an apple seed, on his hummingbird feeder. A hummingbird dropping? It looked promising. An hour later, Ron Burkert saw a hummingbird at his feeder and quickly grabbed his cell phone to take photos. Later, he used his digital camera to capture high-resolution images to identify the species. National Aviary ornithologist Bob Mulvihill, ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google New species are still being added to the tree of life – not only from remote field sites, but also from museum drawers, where specimens have waited for better tools and new questions. In 2025, researchers at the American Museum of Natural History documented more than 70 new species and one new mineral, spanning fossils, living animals, and geology. The findings highlight how much biodiversity remains hidden, even in well-studied places. "Together, these discoveries ... [Read More]

Dec 25th, 2025 - Government poised to officially protect 200,000 hectares of remote Patagonian coastline and forest Chile's government is poised to create the country's 47th national park, protecting nearly 200,000 hectares (500,000 acres) of pristine wilderness and completing a wildlife corridor stretching 1,700 miles (2,800km) to the southernmost tip of the Americas. The Cape Froward national park is a wild expanse of wind-torn coastline and forested valleys that harbours unrivalled biodiversity and has ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google An international team of researchers is looking for answers behind the mystery of Gigantopithecus blacki , a giant prehistoric primate that once lived in what is now southern China. The species is known from its teeth and mandibles found in cave sites. The fossils suggest it was the largest primate ever, with estimates of its size ranging from about 5.9 to 9.8 feet (1.8 to 3 meters) in height, weighing roughly 550 pounds (250 kilograms). In search of Gigantopithecus ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - How centuries of human pressure quietly reshaped a rare brown bear Bears are one of the big victims of deforestation. As more and more forests get cut down, bears keep retreating to remote corners, keeping their distance from people. In a small stretch of central Italy, however, bears have followed a different path. A new genetic study suggests that Apennine brown bears have gradually become less aggressive over thousands of years of living alongside people. Rather than retreating entirely from ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - 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 Flipboard Join the conversation Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter From a distance, it might have looked like a small child was wending her way through the waving grass along a vast lake. But a closer look would have ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - Long before flowers dazzled insects with colors, ancient plants used a different signal. We tend to think of plants as passive, vulnerable actors. But in their partnership with insects, it's plants that often play the leading role. Sometimes, this can get pretty surprising. As evening approaches, certain tropical plants raise the temperature of their reproductive cones well above the surrounding air. The heat produces infrared radiation that nocturnal beetles can sense, even though humans ... [Read More]

Dec 24th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Modern sightings of living coelacanths in the 20th century surprised the world, but this fish species' story goes back a long way. Although coelacanth remains are well known from Paleozoic and Cretaceous rocks in Britain, very little is known about their relatives from the Late Triassic. A fresh look inside British museum drawers has just closed one of these gaps. A new peer-reviewed study reports more than 50 late Triassic coelacanth specimens from southwestern England, ... [Read More]

Dec 23rd, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . R oughly 120,000 years ago, in what would someday be Spain, a group of Neanderthals prepared their supper. That night's menu did not feature mammoth, or any other big game. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. Instead, as dusk descended, some individuals tended tortoises, crackling belly-up on the fire. Others used flint knives to quarter rabbits for roasting and marrow. A pack of youngsters returned to the cave, perhaps with a haul of ... [Read More]

Dec 23rd, 2025 - According to a team of researchers from the University of Arizona, new species are being discovered at a faster rate than ever before, one that far exceeds extinction University of Arizona About 300 years ago, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus set out on a bold quest: to identify and name every living organism on Earth. Now celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the binomial naming system and described more than 10,000 species of plants and animals. Since his time, scientists ... [Read More]

Dec 22nd, 2025 - You can now listen to Fox News articles! Paleontologists may have uncovered the traces of a dinosaur that may have been limping, thanks to fossilized footprints preserved in stone for over 150 million years. In a Nov. 25 press release from the University of Queensland (UQ), Australian officials announced that the discovery was made at an ancient trackway near Ouray, Colorado. Measuring over 310 feet long, the trackway consists of around 130 footprints. The dinosaur that made the track was ... [Read More]