What do birds, crocodiles, and dinosaurs have in common? They’re all part of a group of animals called archosauromorpha and they typically reproduce by laying eggs. But not so with their relative: an ancient marine reptile known as Dinocephalosaurus. The Loch Ness monster look-alike grew to a length of about 13 feet, with its long neck […] More
The Congo River in Africa is home to some of the largest and most extreme rapids in the world, and scientists say the turbulence is so powerful that it’s forced entirely new fish species to form. According to research published in the journal Molecular Ecology, the rapids essentially cut off populations of fish from each […] More
Twitter A mysterious hairy-looking sea creature washed ashore on an island in the Philippines, puzzling locals and the internet at large. The massive, unidentified blob measured about 20 feet in length and weighed more than 4000 pounds, according to National Geographic. But while some speculated that the strange creature might be a newly discovered species, […] More
Talk about a sneak attack! Some rove beetles have changed their body shape and chemical structure to look like army ants so they can infiltrate the colony and get close enough to eat their young. The beetles have adapted long ant-like legs and a narrower waist to seamlessly blend in with their prey. A human […] More
Meet the lionfish: the attractive, but deadly predator that’s terrorizing oceans and decimating ecosystems. Native to the Indian and Pacific oceans, lionfish have now made themselves at home throughout the Atlantic, from the eastern United States to the Caribbean, and more recently the Mediterranean Sea. They’ve proven remarkably persistent, multiplying in droves and wiping out […] More
Are animal lives more important than human ones? One park in India seems to think so. Officials at the Kaziranga National Park in India have been accused of torturing and killing poachers and local villagers in an effort to protect the country’s vulnerable rhinoceros population, according to a report by the BBC. The report, which […] More
Armed with powerful lasers, scientists recently uncovered new details about bird-like dinosaurs that roamed the earth 160 million years ago. A study published in Nature Communications outlines how the researchers used a new laser technique to examine fossils of small, feathered dinosaurs called Anchiornis, uncovering details such as soft tissues and foot scales similar to those […] More
Image: Science Magazine via YouTube Locals in Brazil recently discovered an extremely rare boa that hasn’t been seen alive for more than half a century. The Cropan’s boa (scientific name: Corallus cropanii) is confined to an area of about 115 square miles near Brazil’s devastated Atlantic Forest, according to the IUCN, which lists the snake […] More
You don’t have to look very hard to find an abundance of colorful creatures in nature, but this is new. Photos of not one, but two bright orange alligators have been making the rounds on the Internet recently. The first was spotted in Hanahan, South Carolina, and then a few weeks later, another was seen […] More
You might want to think twice before visiting a tiger park on your next vacation. Thousands of tigers are being exploited for entertainment and profit at “tiger farms” masquerading as sanctuaries and zoos across Asia. Numerous investigations have revealed that the farms are little more than livestock facilities that breed tigers and sell their parts. […] More
The rusty-patched bumblebee was recently the first bee in the Continental United States to be listed as an endangered species, and scientists might have found one reason why: a parasitic fungus is literally making the males too fat to mate. Once ingested, the fungus (Nosema bombi) swells in the bumblebee’s tissues until the bee gets so […] More
Researchers in the Bahamas discovered a surprisingly well-preserved specimen of an extinct giant tortoise that died about 1,000 years ago. The tortoise species, named Chelonoidis alburyorum, is related to the Chaco tortoise from South America and the endangered giant tortoise which is found only on the Galapagos Islands. Caribbean giant tortoises, like this one, became […] More
