Biology

Jan 14th, 2026 - Decoded genome of meat in pup's stomach helps scientists build picture of what caused extinction of species Researchers have shed light on the final centuries of the woolly rhinoceros after studying a hairy lump of meat from the stomach of an ancient wolf cub that became mummified in the Siberian permafrost. The beautifully preserved remains of a two-month-old female wolf cub were discovered in 2011 near the village of Tumat in northeastern Siberia. The animal is thought to have died 14,400 ... [Read More]

Jan 14th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google In a rainforest in Panama, a baby hummingbird scared off a wasp by behaving like a poisonous caterpillar. That tiny bird, a white-necked jacobin ( Florisuga mellivora ), has given scientists the first clear record of caterpillar-style mimicry in a hummingbird. The chick measured only about one-inch long and hatched in a cup nest not far above the forest floor. A small international team watched this single nest in Soberanía National Park in early 2024, knowing they ... [Read More]

Jan 14th, 2026 - . But somehow, the teardrop isle is often forgotten by the dive community in favor of tropical nations sharing the same vast ocean. In Sri Lanka, adventurous divers can avoid the crowds at more popular locations – such as , It's important to match a dive site to your experience level, as many of Sri Lanka's best sites have strong, changeable currents. Those with less technical ability should avoid deep dives or sites with strong currents. Always dive within your limits – if unsure, ... [Read More]

Jan 14th, 2026 - An analysis of growth rings in the leg bones of 17 Tyrannosaurus rex individuals reveals that the dinosaurs matured much more slowly than previously thought, and adds to the evidence that they weren't all one species The largest-ever analysis of Tyrannosaurus rex fossils suggests the giant and fierce Cretaceous predator was a late bloomer, taking 35 to 40 years to reach maturity. The findings also further the debate about whether there were several T. rex species instead of just one and whether ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - Up to three out of four undescribed plant species are already threatened with extinction. Over the past year, scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the U.K., officially named 125 plants and 65 fungi. The new-to-science species include a parasitic fungus that turns Brazilian spiders into "zombies," a critically endangered orchid with blood-red markings from Ecuador's cloud forests, and a shrub named after the fire demon from the 2004 Hayao Miyazaki film  Howl's Moving Castle . ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - Lizards rewrote the rules of evolution by reinventing their body armor For more than a century, biologists assumed that the bony plates embedded in the skin of lizards – like natural chain mail – were an ancient feature that some lineages inherited and others later lost. But new evidence suggests this is completely wrong. In a new study from Museums Victoria Research Institute (MVRI), researchers have found that instead, most lizard bony plates – osteoderms – evolved ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - A study of the hearts of Greenland sharks has found that the long-lived deep-sea predator has massive accumulations of ageing markers, such as severe scarring, but this doesn't appear to affect their health or longevity Greenland sharks are thought to live between 250 and 500 years – but their hearts show signs of severe age-related disease even when the sharks are just 150 years old. Some parts of the shark's body, such as the eyes , seem impervious to ageing and to cancer , which might ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - Many marine animals around the world are vulnerable to commercial fisheries, and one of them is the silky sharks or Carcharhinus falciformis . The growing worry among experts about the species' survival led to a groundbreaking experiment. According to a study published in the journal Biological Conservation , researchers tracked 40 silky sharks from the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR) through SPOT tags. They used handlines baited with yellowfin tuna to lure the sharks to the surface to ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google For decades, archaeologists assumed that organized whale hunting began in the Arctic. But evidence preserved in museum collections along Brazil's southern coast points to a much older origin. Along Babitonga Bay in Santa Catarina, Indigenous coastal groups appear to have hunted large whales deliberately about 5,000 years ago. That pushes organized whaling back roughly a thousand years and reshapes how researchers understand early coastal life in South America. The clues ... [Read More]

Jan 13th, 2026 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . L ast Friday marked the major studio release of a graphic new horror movie Primate . In the film, a chimpanzee named Ben, who has been kept as a pet by a family in Hawaii, is bitten by a rabid mongoose, after which he suddenly transforms into a slasher-like villain. Ben stalks a group of teens in the family's cliffside home, targeting their faces, and leaving a trail of blood and gore in his wake. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. It's ... [Read More]

Jan 12th, 2026 - Discoveries in Jurassic rocks reveal that birds were adept fliers earlier than scientists realized. Some 150 million years ago, Europe was tropical — and mostly underwater. The entire continent was closer to the equator than it is today, and what is now Germany and its neighbouring countries was submerged under a shallow inland sea, dotted with islands. On one cluster of islands, there were unusual creatures that didn't fit in with the rest of the fauna. These were some of the earliest ... [Read More]

Jan 12th, 2026 - More than 500 million years ago, life wasn't the same. Life did not have a skeleton yet, at least not in sea sponges. In research published in " Science Advances ", a team of researchers documented the exploration of the ancestral line of sea sponges , one of the oldest animals on the planet. Starting from a timeline discrepancy, they noted that the sponges didn't always have skeletons. The great-great-great-grandpas of the present-day sponges were more like a jelly candy that was dissolved ... [Read More]

Jan 12th, 2026 - Reading time 2 minutes In a case of mistaken identity, fossils from two whales were disguised as the backbones of a woolly mammoth. The fossilized remains were kept at a museum for decades before closer investigations revealed the colossal error. The two epiphyseal plates were discovered in Alaska in 1951 and initially assumed to be the fossilized bones of a woolly mammoth. The remains had been stored in the archives at the University of Alaska Museum of the North for more than 70 years until a ... [Read More]

Jan 12th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A detailed survey of Dauan Island in Australia found three animal species that are new to science – two frogs and a gecko. Records show Dauan Island is about 1.4 square miles in size with a surface is built from piled granite rather than broad plains. Rain in the Torres Strait can trigger sudden choruses, and careful listening sometimes flags an unfamiliar call pattern. The survey was led by Conrad J. Hoskin, a terrestrial ecologist at James Cook University ( JCU ). ... [Read More]

Jan 10th, 2026 - Populations of endangered animals on Kangaroo Island have increased by 90 to 100 per cent in five years. The success of the program has surprised ecologists, who feared the impacts of the 2019-20 bushfires. A First Nations man says he wants to see more collaboration with conservationists to help restore the land. Vulnerable species on Kangaroo Island are bouncing back thanks to a 380-hectare "predator-free" enclosure erected by the Australian Wildlife Conservancy. was enclosed by a cat-proof ... [Read More]

Jan 9th, 2026 - Swimming at a crawl with cloudy eyes and mottled skin, the Greenland shark looks like it's seen better days. The shark's eyes were thought to be barely functional, as it spends most of its time in pitch black waters up to 3,000 metres deep.  And its unearthly look is often accentuated by the presence of tiny crustacean parasites hooked into the corneas of its eyes. But the Greenland shark ( in the chilly North Atlantic and Arctic waters, making it one of the longest-living vertebrates on ... [Read More]