Snakes have a supercharged evolutionary clock that enables them to adapt at far faster rates than other reptiles, scientists have discovered. This ability has helped them become evolutionary "winners" and spread across the planet."Snakes...
A deep-sea expedition off the coast of Chile has uncovered a treasure trove of scientific wonders, including more than 100 previously unknown marine species and a handful of never-before-seen underwater mountains — the largest...
The green anaconda has long been considered one of the Amazon's most formidable and mysterious animals. Our new research upends scientific understanding of this magnificent creature, revealing it is actually two...
In a bizarre, never-before-seen case, a live frog was found in India with a mushroom growing from its skin, leaving scientists puzzled.The frog — identified as Rao's intermediate golden-backed frog (Hylarana intermedia) —...
66 million years ago, the last dinosaurs vanished from Earth. We're still trying to understand why. New fossils of abelisaurs — distant relatives of the tyrannosaurs — from north Africa suggest that African...
An eerie image captures whale skeletons resting in their watery grave after being killed by hunters off Greenland. The whales had been taken to shore, stripped of the skin, blubber and meat, before being dragged back into the sea....
Giant, invasive Jorō spiders have spread across several U.S. states during the last decade. Now, scientists have discovered these palm-size critters are potentially much more tolerant to living in cities than other species and...
Name: Honduran white bat (Ectophylla alba)Where it lives: Lowland rainforests of Central AmericaWhat it eats: FigsWhy it is awesome:With fluffy white fur, a large yellow nose and ears, and weighing just 0.02 pound (9 grams), the Honduran...
A rare 280 million-year-old fossil resembling a lizard-like creature is mostly just a carved rock painted black, a new analysis reveals.The Permian fossil, discovered in the Italian Alps in 1931 and named Tridentinosaurus antiquus,...
Mesmerizing footage has captured a weird bioluminescent worm undulating through the twilight zone.Researchers from the Schmidt Ocean Institute spotted the deep-sea worm off the coast of Chile during a research cruise exploring seamounts...
The saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) has the highest bite force of any animal alive today. (Image credit: DianaLynne via Getty Images)Tyrannosaurus rex and megalodon are repeat science fiction stars for a reason: Their bites...
Ask anyone what the fastest animal on Earth is, and they'll probably say the cheetah. But the focus on the speedy feline has stolen attention from other species that go much faster — some three or more times faster than the cheetah....
A heart-wrenching image captures a young polar bear napping on the melting scraps of a tiny, drifting iceberg.British amateur photographer Nima Sarikhani captured the scene off the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, which sits deep...
Kangaroos perceive dogs as a threat because they closely resemble dingoes, one of their native predators. (Image credit: John and Tristia Lakey/Lakey Farm)Mick Moloney was walking on the banks of the Murray River in northwestern Victoria,...
Captain Robert Falcon Scott witnessed an extraordinary scene during his ill-fated Antarctic expedition when, on Jan. 5, 1911, his photographer Herbert Ponting ran to the edge of an ice floe to photograph a group of orcas that had taken...
They hiss, they slither and unfortunately for humans and unsuspecting prey, they bite. Venomous snakes bite about 5.4 million people every year, resulting in between 81,000 and 138,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization. Their...
The longest-living animals are equipped with traits to hold off, and sometimes even stop or reverse, the aging process. While humans may have an "absolute limit" of 150 years, this is just a blink of an eye compared with the centuries...
Dinosaurs were a successful group of animals that emerged between 240 million and 230 million years ago and came to rule the world until about 66 million years ago, when a giant asteroid slammed into Earth. During that time, dinosaurs...
A living fossil is a species that hasn’t evolved significantly for millions of years and closely resembles ancestors found in the fossil record. Charles Darwin coined the term "living fossil" in 1859 to describe living species...
Dinosaurs have left a wealth of information behind in their fossils, including how they defended themselves, what they ate and sometimes even how they died. But when these beasts bit the dust, did they leave any clues behind about...
Orcas (Orcinus orca) are apex predators that can take on prey much larger than themselves. (Image credit: The Asahi Shimbun Premium via Getty Images)In March 2019, researchers off the coast of southwestern Australia witnessed a gruesome...