Biology

Jan 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google In London, the Natural History Museum released its 2025 list of newly described species, formally adding 262 plants and animals into the scientific record. A species name gives researchers a shared label for comparing specimens, tracking threats, and debating what counts as distinct. Curators at the Natural History Museum ( NHM ) maintain reference collections that let them test whether a find matches a known species. That work at the Natural History Museum documents ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Virunga park ranger says babies are well cared for by mother Mafuko but high infant mortality makes first weeks critical I t was noon by the time Jacques Katutu first saw the newborn mountain gorillas. Cradled in the arms of their mother, Mafuko, the tiny twins clung to her body for warmth in the forest clearing in Virunga national park, in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Katutu, head of gorilla monitoring in Virunga, has seen dozens of newborns in his 15 years as a ranger. But, ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Mushrooms that long looked the same across forests in Europe and North America turn out not to be the same at all. DNA and molecular analysis shows they are three different species. By separating the three, quietly distinct fungi that had been bundled together for decades, researchers correct records that shape how biodiversity is counted and protected. Mushroom species fool experts The newly separated fungi all belong to the Xerampelinae , a small group within the ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Ancient DNA from cave mummies offers a genetic roadmap for rewilding Saudi Arabia's deserts. In the dry, sun-baked expanse of northern Saudi Arabia, there are holes in the earth that lead to another world. For millennia, these underground caverns have sat in silence, protected from the scorching heat above. In 2022, researchers rappelled into one of these sinkholes — a 50-foot (15-meter) drop into the dark — expecting to find perhaps a few bats or insects. Instead, they found a ... [Read More]

Jan 17th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Female moths don't rely on sight or smell alone. They can also hear stressed plants. Scientists found that these insects detect ultrasonic clicks from plants under drought stress and use them when choosing egg-laying sites. Plants emit airborne ultrasonic sounds when stressed. These vibrations, previously thought to be undetectable by animals, can travel through the air. The Egyptian cotton leafworm moth,  Spodoptera littoralis , hears these sounds. This species has ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2026 - You can now listen to Fox News articles! A mama turtle has impressed researchers after making a rare 7,000-mile journey in seven months, swimming from the warm waters of Panama to the North Atlantic before returning to Florida. Riptide, a female leatherback turtle from the Caribbean , was tagged and released off the coast of Panama on May 22.  Since then, Sea Turtle Conservancy, an organization based in Gainesville, Florida, has been tracking the turtle's long and impressive journey.  ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2026 - Sharks are the most feared predators in the sea, and their survival hinges on fearsome teeth that regrow throughout their lives. But changes in the ocean's chemistry could put those weapons at risk. That is the takeaway from a study performed by a group of German scientists who tested the effects of a more acidic ocean on sharks' teeth. Scientists have linked human activities including the burning of coal, oil and gas to the ongoing acidification of the ocean. As oceans become increasingly ... [Read More]

Jan 16th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Tyrannosaurus rex has long been portrayed as a monster that rocketed to adulthood, hitting peak size in its twenties.  A new analysis paints a different picture. It suggests these predators kept growing for roughly four decades, taking far longer to reach their full bulk than scientists once thought. The study reexamines growth evidence from 17 tyrannosaur leg-bone fossils, from small juveniles to giant adults.  The team combined new ways of spotting hidden ... [Read More]

Jan 15th, 2026 - By Bob Timmons, The Minnesota Star Tribune MINNEAPOLIS - Year to year, birders document what they see perching or passing through northeast Minnesota's Sax-Zim Bog. Now, what's heard at the popular birding destination might give an even clearer picture of the winged life drawn to its boreal bog landscape. The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog has set up a listening device at its welcome center - the first of many similar types to be installed this year around the bog's 25,000 acres - that captures bird ... [Read More]

Jan 15th, 2026 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . W hat female mosquitoes choose to feed on has a bearing on human health, since they transmit pathogens from one host to another. In theory, mosquitoes can take their blood meals from any vertebrate, but in practice, they may favor certain hosts based on smell, body heat, or simply availability. Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. A new study published in Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution shows that mosquitoes along the east coast of ... [Read More]

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 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 - 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 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 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]