Nature

Tyrannosaurus rex might not have been puckering up for a good ol’ snog, but the dinosaur‘s teeth were not exposed like a ‘gator’s; instead, they protected behind a pair of lizardy lips. That’s the result of work investigating the teeth and bones of reptiles and dinosaurs, present and past, finally resolving a long-standing debate in

It seems like Roald Dahl may have been onto something after all: if you hurt a plant, it screams. Well, sort of. Not in the same way you or I might scream. Rather, they emit popping or clicking noises in ultrasonic frequencies outside the range of human hearing that increase when the plant becomes stressed.

Giant African pouched rats are as clever as they are cute. Trained them to wear little backpacks, they can rescue people from disaster areas in return for a treat. They can also find landmines that need disarming, sniff out tuberculosis, and have even been recruited in the fight against wildlife poaching. So handy are these

All life on Earth depends on water, including us. Some of us consume water the old-fashioned way by drinking it with our mouths, others more creatively. Beetles can rehydrate themselves by opening their rectums and drinking trace amounts of water floating in the air. They can also reabsorb water from their poop, and their butts

If you look at where wombats deposit their poo, you realize they must be able to perform some surprising acrobatics. It has always amazed me to see wombat scats on top of grass tussocks or logs, because I’ve always wondered how the stocky creatures must have maneuvered themselves to put it there. It turns out

Bones found on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen suggest the ancient marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs roamed Earth’s oceans for much longer than we thought. Dated to 250 million years ago, the remains represent the oldest evidence of ichthyosaurs we’ve ever seen. Moreover, the species represented by the bones was already large and well-adapted

Humans might be the only species to sniffle and giggle through a romantic comedy, but there’s good reason to think many other animals also have some capacity to share emotions with their kindred. A new study led by researchers from the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência in Portugal has provided evidence of the chemical mechanisms behind

A new species of orchid with delicate, glass-like blooms has been discovered by Japanese scientists, who found the pink and white plant hiding in plain sight. Despite its presence in Japan’s parks and gardens, it took researchers at Kobe University a decade to confirm that the plant – dubbed the Spiranthes hachijoensis – was a

A flower’s ability to mimic the sexually attractive traits of pollinators to lure them to its nectar has long fascinated scientists. Flowers can’t buy glasses and a wig to create a disguise, so how they came to pull off such convincing dupes, using only an existing toolkit of DNA, is baffling. Orchids are the most

Octopus is a popular ingredient in many cuisines, with some 420,000 metric tons of this mollusc being caught worldwide each year. The rising global popularity of octopus has been attributed to the increasingly adventurous tastes of younger consumers, its nutritional benefits and the decline of traditional fish stocks such as cod. This helps explain why

Nobody writes an obituary for the last of a species dying alone in the wild. So, knowing precisely when to confirm an extinction comes down to a mix of clever sleuthing, mathematics, and no small amount of guesswork. On 7 September 1936, a thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) held captive in a small Hobart zoo became the

It’s all well and good to talk big about finding traces of life on Mars, but we also need to know where to look. Getting to Mars is hard – we want to make sure to make the best use of the opportunities available so as not to waste the trip. But there’s a lot

​There are few places on Earth as isolated as Trindade island, a volcanic outcrop a three- to four-day boat trip off the coast of Brazil. So geologist Fernanda Avelar Santos was startled to find an unsettling sign of human impact on the otherwise untouched landscape: rocks formed from the glut of plastic pollution floating in

A plant-eating dinosaur that once grazed the greenery in what is today northwest China could hold the title of the longest neck ever known, according to a new analysis of its fossilized bones. Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum was unearthed from fossil beds in northwest China in 1987 and named in 1993. Revisiting the fossil and comparing its

A large-scale animal study from 2021 revealed something interesting about yawning: Vertebrates with larger brains and more neurons tend to have longer-lasting yawns. Researchers collected data on 1,291 separate yawns from zoo trips and online videos, covering a total of 55 mammal species and 46 bird species. They found “robust positive correlations” between how long

It’s sometimes difficult to imagine how the planet we call home, with its megalopolis cities and serene farmlands, was once dominated by dinosaurs as big as buses and five-story buildings. But recent research has helped deepen our understanding of why dinosaurs prevailed: the answer may lie in their special bones, structured like Aero chocolate. Brazilian

The secret behind the ghost catfish’s iridescent twinkle has been uncovered by a team of scientists. Kryptopterus vitreolus casts ethereal, flickering rainbows along its flanks when it shimmies through water. This eye-catching sheen within its otherwise glass-like body makes the Thai native a popular choice among aquarium owners worldwide. It also caught the attention of

For billions of years, viruses and bacteria have been locked in a never-ending arm’s race, and it has caused one predator to evolve “a monster of a tail”. The unique bacteria-devouring virus, or bacteriophage, is officially named P74-26, though it’s more colloquially known as the ‘Rapunzel’ virus. Like the absurdly long locks of the fairytale

An adult bear recovered from the Siberian permafrost in the Lyakhovsky Islands in 2020 is not, as originally thought, around 30,000 years old. In fact, its age is more in the region of 3,500 years old. That’s the verdict of researchers from the North-Eastern Federal University in Russia, who carried out a new necropsy of

We all had to make adjustments as the coronavirus pandemic unfolded – even zoo animals who were suddenly not seeing crowds of visitors pass by every single day. In a study published last year, researchers discovered how primates reacted to that shift, looking at the behavior of bonobos, chimpanzees, western lowland gorillas, and olive baboons,

Dog ownership is a lot of furry companionship, tail wags and chasing balls, and ample unconditional love. However, some dog owners are also managing canine pals struggling with mental illness. A newly published study in PLOS One has examined the brain scans of anxious and non-anxious dogs, and correlated them with behavior. The research team

A massive 40-ton fin whale swimming off the coast of Valencia in Spain has been filmed with a severe bend in its 17-meter-long body (56 feet) in what appears to be a pronounced case of scoliosis. At first, when the skipper of a local boat caught sight of the poor creature from afar, it seemed

Researchers have revealed the first aerial footage of the massive iceberg that broke free from an Antarctic ice shelf in January. Designated A81, the Greater-London-sized chunk of ice had finally calved from Antarctica’s Brunt Ice shelf a decade after the first cracks appeared, joining other glacier fragments floating in the Weddell Sea. This is the

Humans aren’t the only primate messing around with their state of mind for fun. Footage online appears to show gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans deliberately spinning themselves around to get dizzy with it. While few of these animals were filmed in the wild, the findings suggest our primate relatives may have a similar proclivity for

There was a critical point early in Earth’s history when chemical reactions among the mix of organic molecules began to be powered from within, forming something we might start to think of as biological. Just what this first metabolic reaction might have looked like remains an area of speculation. It had to have been simple

The Greek historian Herodotus reported over 2,000 years ago on a misguided forbidden experiment in which two children were prevented from hearing human speech so that a king could discover the true, unlearned language of human beings. Scientists now know that human language requires social learning and interaction with other people, a property shared with

In the Wasatch Mountains of the western US on the slopes above a spring-fed lake, there dwells a single giant organism that provides an entire ecosystem on which plants and animals have relied for thousands of years. Found in my home state of Utah, “Pando” is a 106-acre stand of quaking aspen clones. Although it

The cloudy material that drifts from chimney-like vents in the ocean floor could harbor microscopic lifeforms scientists never even knew existed. The ridges of the ocean seabed are littered with fissures called hydrothermal vents that spew hot, deep-Earth fluids containing hydrogen sulfides, methane, and hydrogen out into the ocean. Around the warm periphery of these

We’ve got a curious case of mistaken identity to report. Fossils previously believed to have been left by prehistoric tentacle-bearing aquatic invertebrates called Bryozoans may in fact have been created by a different source: seaweed. That’s the conclusion of a new study of the 500 million-year-old remains, which took a fresh look at Protomelission gateshousei

Alcohol distilled from the heart of the agave succulent is often packaged with what many people would consider an icky curiosity. Floating within some mezcal bottles is a worm-like baby insect. Since its addition to the traditional Mexican drink in around the 1940s, the taxonomic identity of the alcoholic-soaked grub we dare not consume has

From cake mixes and candy to cereal and ice cream, artificial flavorings like vanilla, strawberry, and raspberry can be found in a wide range of processed foods. The FDA doesn’t require listing all the ingredients in these additives, which leaves a lot open to interpretation and misunderstanding. For example, in recent years, a claim began

More than 47 million years ago, giant carnivorous ants swarmed the prehistoric forest floors of North America looking for prey. ‘Giant’ is no exaggeration either. Some ancient colonies that lived in what is now the state of Wyoming were ruled by queens the size of hummingbirds. Those aren’t even the biggest ants to ever stride

The bright, white tail feathers of the otherwise inconspicuous Eurasian woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) are the most reflective on record. An international team of researchers found that the woodcock’s white patches reflected up to 55 percent of light, making their feathers around 30 percent more reflective than any other bird previously measured. Woodcocks are mottled brown

Scientists have carefully simulated conditions on Earth in the earliest part of its history, some 4.6 billion years ago, hoping to unlock a greater understanding of how amino acids brought the first ingredients for life into being. Together, amino acids form proteins that play many vital roles in organisms. This new study was designed to

Most spiders pose very little danger to humans, including the notorious noble false widow (Steatoda nobilis). But the half-inch predator does punch surprisingly far above its weight. According to a new study, for example, the noble false widow spider may habitually prey upon vertebrates, with known victims including lizards, bats, and now shrews. In fact,

An infamous pair of adult male orca whales in South Africa killed 17 sharks in “one sitting,” according to marine biologists. The team at Marine Dynamics Conservation Trust has been tracking the two whales, named Port and Starboard, who are known to prey on several species of sharks. They found the orcas “repeatedly diving down

Take a look at Earth from far off in space, you’d notice it looks uniformly bright. Considering the Southern Hemisphere’s disproportionate expanse of dark ocean waters should reflect back less sunlight, this isn’t what we might expect down here on the surface. It’s a mystery that’s been of interest to scientists since the early 1970s,

Earth’s surface is the “living skin” of our planet – it connects the physical, chemical, and biological systems. Over geological time, landscapes change as this surface evolves, regulating the carbon cycle and nutrient circulation as rivers carry sediment into the oceans. All these interactions have far-reaching effects on ecosystems and biodiversity – the many living

The spectacular, hexagonal shapes texturing salt deserts such as the Badwater Basin in Death Valley, California, and Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia have long mystified travelers and scientists alike. Considered by some to be the result of cracks forming as the briny surface dries out or pushes against itself as the salt precipitates and expands,

One of Kim Kardashian’s trademarks is her vocal fry, a creaky voice affectation that studies have suggested is deeply polarizing for humans. But a new study has found that actors and celebrities aren’t the only ones to use voice modulation to impress – toothed whales like dolphins, orcas, and sperm whales, are also able to

In a prehistoric forest, some 80 million years ago, a stocky, 5-meter-long armored dinosaur with a spiky back ambles about on four short legs, slowly chewing on a snack of plant material. After it swallows, the flap of skin in its throat that blocks its voice box flips back open, allowing the dinosaur to take

A new study outlines an incredible feat of projectile peeing discovered in an insect named for its quick-draw delivery of waste. The tiny glassy-winged sharpshooter (Homalodisca vitripennis) is able to urinate at a velocity that’s staggering for its 12 millimeter (half inch) body, flinging a bead of liquid at speeds of around 30 centimeters per

An unusual whale feeding technique only recorded for the first time in 2011 may have been around for at least two thousand years, according to researchers from Flinders University in Australia. Though whales have been seen feeding, breathing, and breaching the ocean surface for as long as humans have gazed at the sea, their depictions

Dinosaur fossils featuring arms with a suspect bend at the elbow and wrist could hint at the presence of an unpreserved tendon that underpins all modern avian flight. If researchers at the University of Tokyo are right, that posture could provide clues on the pathway Earth’s flying vertebrates followed to take to the skies. The

In HBO’s post-apocalyptic drama The Last of Us, human civilization has fallen in the face of a fungal takeover triggered by climate change. The show’s opening credits and creature designs are inspired by the slime mold Physarum polycephalum. But while the show’s “infected” (i.e. zombies) are meant to be victims of a fungal pandemic, slime

The demilitarized zone (DMZ) between North and South Korea is currently no place for people – which is exactly why, 70 years after the Korean War armistice, rare flora and fauna have flourished on the untouched strip of land. To mark the 70th anniversary of the end of active hostilities between North and South Korea,

In a scientific first, researchers have recorded brain activity from living octopuses moving freely and blithely going about their octopus business. This remarkable feat was accomplished by implanting electrodes into the animals’ brains and data loggers under the skin that could record 12 hours of brain activity. What precisely the recordings mean has yet to

A female orca appeared to have adopted or abducted a baby pilot whale in the first known case of its kind, scientists say. The orca, known as “Sædís,” was first observed swimming with the pilot whale calf in August 2021 in western Iceland. Scientists observed that Sædís was not simply accompanying the calf but was