Scientists have gained new insight into the evolutionary development of brain and nervous system tissue, after examining fossilized brain tissue from a Cambrian sea creature that lived in modern-day Greenland half a billion years ago. The extinct species, Kerygmachela kierkegaardi, was a predator with a long, spiny tail and front appendages used to grab prey. At […] More
A baby snake that hatched 99 million years ago on an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean was found encased in amber. The snake, just 4 inches long, was discovered in a chunk of resin in what is now known as Myanmar. It was initially misidentified as a centipede and subsequently sold to […] More
Paper money does exist on Makira, a small island in the eastern Solomon Islands. But the people there don’t always count their fortunes in bills and change; on Makira, bat teeth are more valuable than money, and people hunt the creatures – mostly for food, but often, for their teeth. There are two species of […] More
One of the most breathtaking and incredible migrations on the planet is made by a creature you might not expect: the monarch butterfly. It is a sight to behold. Unable to survive the cold winters of North America, millions of these incredible butterflies travel 50-100 miles a day to reach the forests of central Mexico at […] More
Off the coast of Liberia lies an island inhabited solely by chimpanzees that were infected with a barrage of diseases and abandoned there by a testing lab. It sounds like the beginning of a movie, but there’s nothing fictional about this place. New visitors to “Monkey Island”—as it’s called by locals—are unwelcome. Apart from a […] More
Forget the reindeer decorations — folks in some parts of the world adorn their Christmas trees with spider ornaments, instead. The unusual arachnid ornaments are part of a centuries-old Eastern European Christmas tradition. The legend of the Christmas spider is believed to have originated in Ukraine, and according to Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, […] More
Christmas Island, a tiny Australian territory in the middle of the Indian Ocean, has a bit of a crab problem. An estimated 40 to 50 million Christmas Island crabs reside on this 52 square mile island. In comparison, the human population there is only about 2,000. Each year, these fire-engine red crustaceans make their way […] More
Early humans roamed the planet with a colossal shaggy rhinoceros that scientists have dubbed the “Siberian unicorn.” The so-called unicorn, officially known as Elasmotherium sibericum, was a large rhinoceros that wandered Eastern Europe and Central Asia from 2.6 million years ago until just around 39,000 years ago. The animals weighed a staggering 4 tons and were adorned […] More
The iconic tusked elephant may soon be a thing of the past, say researchers. Male African elephants’ tusks are smaller than in the past, and many females are missing them altogether due to years of intense poaching pressure. Because individuals with the largest tusks have been targeted by poachers for so long, their genetics are […] More
Sperm whales are so loud that their clicks are capable of killing a human within their vicinity, says one science and adventure journalist. James Nestor, an avid ocean-goer and author, claimed in a recent presentation that a fellow diver was swimming alongside a pod of sperm whales when one approached him out of curiosity. He put […] More
If you thought crocodiles were intimidating, you might be horrified to know that an aggressive, 9-ft-long crocodilian predator once patrolled its North American hunting grounds on hind legs, snacking on small mammals and reptiles. Carnufex carolinensis — also known as the “Carolina Butcher” — existed long before the dinosaurs rose to dominance, roughly 230 million years ago. The […] More
Wombats may have the most uniquely-shaped poo in the animal kingdom, and scientists have finally figured out why. Wombats, cousins of the koala, are the only animals to produce cube-shaped scat. They use their feces to communicate with each other through scent and mark territory by piling the pieces next to burrows or on logs […] More
