Biology

Mar 10th, 2026 - These tiny teeth prove that our earliest relatives moved across North America much faster than we thought. Sixty-six million years ago, a massive asteroid smashed into Earth. Life has undergone at least five mass extinctions in the last 500 million years, but this one particularly stands out. It wiped out all the non-avian dinosaurs and plunged the planet into a devastating ecological crisis. But out of the ashes of the Cretaceous period, a new cast of characters quickly emerged. Among these ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Scientists have discovered that a 7.2 million-year-old thigh bone from Bulgaria preserves unmistakable anatomical traits associated with upright walking in a very early human relative. The discovery pushes clear evidence of bipedal movement deeper into the past and places a critical chapter of human evolution in southeastern Europe. Bone from Azmaka Recovered from river-laid sediments near Chirpan in southern Bulgaria, the fossil preserves most of a right femur belonging ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - A small dinosaur that forces some big changes. "Terrible Lizards"—That's the literal translation of the term Dinosauria, coined by Sir Richard Owen in the 19th century to describe the colossal bones early paleontologists were unearthing. For a long time, the name made sense. The dinosaur lineage has provided us with some of the most truly terrifying animals to ever walk the planet. But we eventually learned that all birds are actually theropod dinosaurs. Looking at chickens, geese, or ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google In most mammals, a newborn spends almost all of its time with its mother. The mother feeds, protects, and guides the baby through the early stages of life. This pattern appears in many animals, from tiny land mammals to large marine mammals such as whales and dolphins. However, scientists sometimes observe another interesting behavior in social animals. Young animals may interact with adults that are not their parents. Scientists call this behavior allomaternal behavior. ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - How a collection of London pigeons and Galápagos mockingbirds provided the receipts for Darwin's biggest ideas. Nearly 200 years after Charles Darwin stepped off the HMS Beagle , his luggage is still giving up secrets. We often think of the story of how we came up with the theory of evolution by natural selection as an abstract "aha!" moment. But for Darwin, it was a gritty, material process. It was about jars, beetles, bones, and thousands of pages of notes. It turns out, the famed ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - By A team of researchers in one of Thailand's most biodiverse national parks lifted a single rock near their campsite and found a scorpion no one had ever formally described. It was barely an inch long, armed with slender speed-snap claws, covered in sensory hairs that detect the faintest shift in the air, and equipped with a full set of eight eyes. The species, Scorpiops krachana , may exist nowhere else on Earth. Zoologist Wasin Nawanetiwong and colleagues from and partner institutions were ... [Read More]

Mar 10th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google A new study suggests a major group of plant viruses was already circulating in wild Eurasian plants long before agriculture, long before global trade, and even before the last Ice Age.  The research focuses on tymoviruses, a family of viruses that now infect both wild plants and important crops.  The results hint that their evolutionary story stretches back tens of thousands of years – while their modern, worldwide spread looks much more recent and very ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - Birds of prey have always captured human curiosity, but few species have a story as dramatic and inspiring as the red kite. Recognized by its striking reddish feathers and distinctive forked tail, the red kite is not only visually impressive but also an important part of the natural ecosystem. Today, these birds can be seen gliding gracefully across parts of the United Kingdom and Europe, but their presence in the sky is the result of years of careful conservation and research. Understanding ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - Researchers discovered that a 215-million-year-old reptile started life on four legs and switched to two as an adult. When you picture an ancient crocodile from millions of years ago, you probably imagine a low-slung, scaly water predator waiting patiently to ambush its prey. But the deep history of the crocodile family tree is far more bizarre and, frankly, interesting. Crocodiles are often called "living fossils" because of their lineage dating back over 200 million years and their ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - Early spring sightings show colourful insect is a resident species for first time in decades, says conservation charity The large tortoiseshell – an elusive and enigmatic butterfly that became extinct in Britain in the last century – is a UK resident species once again, with a flurry of early spring sightings. Britain's list of native butterflies has increased to 60 with the return of the insect after individuals emerged from hibernation in woodlands in Kent, Sussex, Hampshire, ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - Follow Earth on Google Australian sea lions spend much of their lives searching the ocean floor for hidden prey. Hunting in the ocean is not easy, especially for young pups that must learn where to look and how to dive. For a long time, scientists believed sea lion pups mostly developed these skills by exploring on their own. New research now suggests that mothers may actively help pups learn how to find food. Researchers from the University of Adelaide and the South Australian Research and ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - Two severed killer whale fins found on a remote Russian island may point to a gruesome new behaviour never seen before: orcas actively hunting and eating their own kind. That's because each of the fins, a new study says, bears tooth marks from another killer whale. When Dr Olga Filatova , an associate professor at University of Southern Denmark, received the photos from her long-time collaborator Sergey Fomin, she was fairly certain what she was looking at. "When he found the first one, it was ... [Read More]

Mar 9th, 2026 - By Carlos Bocos uploaded photographs of a small marsupial to iNaturalist. Those images helped scientists confirm a species that had been classified as extinct for thousands of years — and earned Bocos a co-authorship on the published study. Two marsupial species in New Guinea, previously known only from fossil evidence and believed extinct for more than 7,000 years, have been confirmed alive. According to The Bishop Museum in Honolulu , which announced the discovery on Tuesday, Bocos ... [Read More]

Mar 8th, 2026 - Small size seems to have come before a change in diet for a tiny dinosaur lineage. Alvarezsaurids were mostly small-bodied theropods that paleontologists originally misinterpreted as early flightless birds, only to later recognize them as an ant-eating lineage of non-avian dinosaurs. For years, we suspected that Alvarezsaurids underwent a rare process of evolutionary miniaturization directly coupled to a diet of social insects like ants and termites. It was a tidy hypothesis: They got smaller ... [Read More]

Mar 8th, 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]

Mar 8th, 2026 - Decades after its release into the wild, a super-ageing, bone-crunching vulture called Balthazar reveals a major conservation success. In the autumn of 2025, wildlife experts in the French Alps made a surprising discovery: a frail, weakened bearded vulture found lying on the ground turned out to be Balthazar , a bird released under a conservation programme in 1988, who had vanished from observations. Having been presumed dead, at over 37 years old, he is in fact the oldest bearded vulture ever ... [Read More]