Biology

Nov 7th, 2025 - By With their surgical nibbles, these large, semi-aquatic, buck-toothed rodents have emerged as crucial helpers for ecologists restoring degraded wetlands across the Great Lakes. They are not the well-known, dam-building beavers but can often be found in the same marshy ecosystems. Muskrats - which are more closely related to voles and hamsters - love to eat and build their lodges out of invasive cattails. "One of the first things that happens is the cattail comes in, outcompetes the very ... [Read More]

Nov 7th, 2025 - On October 22, 2024, Yellowstone's celebrity grizzly bear Grizzly 399 slammed into a speeding car and died on the spot. Nicknamed "Taylor Swift of Grizzlies" and "Queen of the Teton, Grizzly 399 was a 29-year-old matriarch who raised 18 healthy cubs all by herself, per PBS . Soon after her death, one of her cubs, named "Spirit," fled away from the park and was never seen again. It is very unlikely that Spirit survived the harsh winter season. On Reddit , the  park's visitors flooded the ... [Read More]

Nov 7th, 2025 - During a day at the beach, it's common to see people walking up and down the shore collecting seashells. As a paleontologist and marine ecologist , we look at shells a bit differently than the average beachcomber. Most people dig up shells in the sand and see beautiful color patterns or unusual shapes. But we tend to focus on how old these shells are and what they tell us about the habitat they come from. You may be surprised to learn that the translucent spiral shell you plucked from the sand ... [Read More]

Nov 7th, 2025 - Another stunning species is headed towards its doom. The extreme climatic conditions of the Amazonian lakes have become a slow poison for their inhabitants. A recent study has discovered that the extreme warming of Amazon lakes is resulting in mass die-offs of pink dolphins . No rainfall and high heat have resulted in decreased water levels that are as hot as a sauna bath. Some of the lakes have exceeded 40°C or 104°F, a temperature not suitable for the river dolphins and fish. ... [Read More]

Nov 6th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google In Montana, two dinosaurs died mid-battle. One was a  Triceratops . The other, a smaller predator, was long believed to be a teenage  Tyrannosaurus rex . For years, that assumption shaped textbooks, documentaries, and museum displays. Now, that long-held belief has crumbled. Recent research confirms that the smaller dinosaur wasn't a young  T. rex  at all. It was a fully grown  Nanotyrannus lancensis . That single revelation has rewritten a major ... [Read More]

Nov 6th, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . T hough their wriggling, oozing forms may provoke a shudder, worms seem like uniquely fragile creatures—prone to getting flattened underfoot, flash-dried on a sidewalk, or crushed in the beaks of the early birds that patrol the dawn. And yet, scientists have recently discovered one species of worm that would inspire the envy of any survivalist: It endured multiple mass extinction events across a half billion years without ever changing its ... [Read More]

Nov 5th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Great white sharks have always sat near the top of the food chain. But in the waters of the Gulf of California, a team of apex predators is shaking things up. A pod of killer whales has been filmed hunting and killing juvenile great white sharks, and then eating just one body part – the liver. This isn't random violence or chaos in the sea. It's a coordinated strategy with precision and purpose. And it could signal a shift in how these powerful predators interact in ... [Read More]

Nov 5th, 2025 - Yellowstone National Park could be swarming with wolves again, all thanks to artificial intelligence. It seems that the researchers have hit the bullseye with their new approach to conservation or revival. The national park once inhabited a large population of wild gray wolves . Although Yellowstone – the first national park of the U.S – was established in 1872, the existence of the wolf species in that region dates back thousands of years. However, increased hunting activities in ... [Read More]

Nov 5th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google Early humans weren't always hunters – sometimes, they were the hunted. A new study using artificial intelligence has traced the marks on two-million-year-old Homo habilis fossils back to an unexpected predator: leopards. The researchers applied a machine-learning method to analyze tooth impressions on bones from Tanzania's Olduvai Gorge, one of the most famous sites in human evolution. The results show that early members of our genus were still prey in parts of East ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - A dedicated organ grows the fungus, which deters parasitic wasps. Many insect species hear using tympanal organs, membranes roughly resembling our eardrums but located on their legs. Grasshoppers, mantises, and moths all have them, and for decades, we thought that female stinkbugs of the Dinidoridae family have them, too, although located a bit unusually on their hind rather than front legs. Suspecting that they use their hind leg tympanal organs to listen to male courtship songs, a team of ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - Follow Earth on Google A pipistrelle from Bioko Island in Equatorial Guinea has pushed the global bat species tally to 1,500 – a clear sign that cataloging life on Earth still has a long way to go. Scientists confirmed its status this year and assigned it a formal scientific name – Pipistrellus etula . The new species, Pipistrellus etula , and it belongs to a family of tiny, insect eating bats . The animal was found on the forested flanks of island volcanoes and appears tied to high ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . I n 2006, a curious specimen was unearthed in the fossil-dense Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana—what appeared to be a small Tyrannosaurus rex locked in battle with a Triceratops. Dubbed the "dueling dinosaurs," these fossilized skeletons eventually landed at the North Carolina Museum of Natural History in Raleigh, North Carolina, where they would help end another battle that's been raging in the dinosaur research community. Nautilus ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - The latest underwater mission has paved a new way for discoveries. Traditional methods like fish nets, underwater cameras were unable to scour unexplored areas, a gap that the recent study, led by Loïc Sanchez, tried to fill. The study used traces of genetic material in seawater, and the findings were surprising. The result proved the existence of many marine species that were once presumed to be extinct or missing. This discovery made scientists realize the lack of knowledge about ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - An urgent warning has been issued to the public after several Portuguese Man O' War, also nicknamed "Floating Terrors," were discovered on a popular Welsh beach. The Port Talbot Coastguard confirmed sightings at Aberavon Beach and urged visitors to remain cautious and avoid contact as reported by The Sun. Similar reports have recently emerged from the coasts of Pembrokeshire, Gwynedd, and Anglesey, prompting growing concern among local authorities. Officials emphasised that even though these ... [Read More]

Nov 4th, 2025 - Reading time 2 minutes Golden oyster mushrooms arrived in the United States in the early 2010s. The canary-colored, fluffy mushrooms have since gained popularity as an aesthetically pleasing, tasty addition to numerous recipes—sold in grocery stores, farmers markets, and, more recently, as staple grow-your-own kits for casual gardeners. But these foreign mushrooms—native to the hardwood forests of East Asia and Russia—come with "great responsibility when growing," according to ... [Read More]

Nov 3rd, 2025 - A fossil canine in Brazil reveals a vanished world of saber-toothed killers It's a small, weathered tooth—nothing flashy at first glance. But the scientists who found it buried in Brazil's Tremembé Formation know better. This single canine belonged to a predator that once hunted in South America's ancient wetlands, long before the arrival of modern carnivores. This fossil, described in a study published in the Revista Brasileira de Paleontologia by Caio César Rangel and ... [Read More]