Earth’s largest known shark, Carcharocles megalodon, ruled the seas for more than 20 million years. The megalodon, which went extinct millions of years ago, was the largest shark ever to prowl the oceans and one of the largest fish on…
Twenty wriggling tawny sharks (Nebrius ferrugineus) were recently caught on video undulating on a beach on Mer Island, Australia. But why were the sharks shimmying in the sand? Though the sharks were gathered in shallow water, they weren’t stranded or…
Artist’s depiction of Gunakadeit joseeae. Scientists just discovered the remains of a weirdo sea creature with a “tweezer snout” that would have roamed the seas hundreds of millions of years ago. Known as thalattosaurs (“ocean lizard”), these reptiles measured up…
In today’s episode of our Life’s Little Mysteries podcast, we’ll take a closer look at one of the most puzzling animals on our planet, and one that you may share your home with: cats. Why do cats love boxes, why…
Members of the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club with Punxsutawney Phil. As the legend goes, if Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow on Feb. 2, six more weeks of winter weather lay ahead; no shadow indicates an early spring. Phil, a groundhog, has…
The newfound Araniella villanii is an orb-weaver spider, a group that uses math to spin their webs. A newly discovered neon-green spider that uses math to build its incredibly precise and consistent webs has just been named after the “Lady…
Humans have pumped about 2 trillion tons (1.8 trillion metric tons) of carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere since the start of the Industrial Revolution, and the ocean has absorbed about 25% of it. This glut of greenhouse gases not…
Life reconstruction of the bizarre Ambopteryx longibrachium, a small Jurassic dinosaur with membranous wings. The world’s most diminutive dinosaur is … a hummingbird! “Birds are just one lineage of dinosaurs that happened to survive to the present,” said Julia Clarke, a…
After getting tangled in a fishing net, this green turtle was brought in for rehabilitation. The phrase “what goes in … must come out” took on a literal meaning for a green turtle that had gobbled up human trash, only…
Our reporter describes the ongoing catastrophe of record bushfires on Australia’s wildlife. 3 p.m. (New Zealand time), January 5 This is the day of the tangerine sky. It is midsummer, mid-afternoon, and the sky above Auckland, New Zealand, has turned…
What the heck is happening in this dream? You jolt awake in the middle of the night, your heart pounding. It takes you a moment to realize that, no, you didn’t just rush out for a job interview wearing nothing…
The Taal volcano eruption in the Philippines this week sent ash plumes 9 miles (14 kilometers) into the air, new satellite imagery shows. Located on Luzon Island, the Taal volcano began to erupt around 5:30 p.m. local time on…