Nature

Magnificent as they are, most fossils are rather monochromatic, prompting paleontologists to go to great lengths to infer what color those ancient organisms might have been. Some exceptional fossils have preserved the pigment molecules in dinosaur feathers and scaly skin. But given the millions of years that separate us from the lives of those ancient

The building blocks of our brain cells may have begun to form back when our ancestors were still a blobby collection of animal cells oozing through the ocean’s shallows. Researchers from Spain and Germany have discovered characteristics of specialized secretory cells in simple animals called placozoans which could identify them as a prelude to neurons

Dinosaurs have a reputation for being the most terrifying prehistoric predators, but a newly discovered skull sheds light on a fearsome beast that dominated 40 million years before the first ‘terrible lizards’ walked the Earth. The 265-million-year-old fossil found in Brazil reveals the largest meat eater of its time, one that prowled the jungles searching

If you looked up 66 million years ago you might have seen, for a split second, a bright light as a mountain-sized asteroid burned through the atmosphere and smashed into Earth. It was springtime and the literal end of an era, the Mesozoic. If you somehow survived the initial impact, you would have witnessed the

A close look at a mix of old and newly discovered fossils indicates that an ancient species of photosynthesizing bacterium was among the first of its kind to make its home on dry land more than 400 million years ago. Characteristics of a microbe named Langiella scourfieldii place it into a category of cyanobacteria that

Something rather monstrous happens to the nematode Allodiplogaster sudhausi when reduced to snacking on boring old fungus. Scientists have discovered it develops a giant mouth and feasts on other worms, including those from its own family. This new form has been named the teratostomatous morph, with “teras” being an ancient Greek word for monster. Two

They lounge in hot tubs, have active sex lives, and sometimes, take joyrides. Macaques are living the life. Photographer Atsuyuki Ohshima captured a rare photo of one monkey’s cowboy behavior. The photo, taken on Japan’s Yakushima Island, is titled “Forest Rodeo.” Ohshima snapped the photo just after the monkey catapulted itself onto a sika deer,

For nearly fifty years, mathematicians have puzzled over a deceptively simple question: how small can you make a Möbius strip without it intersecting itself? Now, Richard Schwartz, a mathematician at Brown University, has proposed an elegant solution to this problem, which was originally posed by mathematicians Charles Weaver and Benjamin Halpern in 1977. In their

Mysterious lights appear to have been spotted in Morocco before a devastating earthquake hit last week – and scientists still can’t figure out what caused them. A 6.8-magnitude earthquake hit the High Atlas Mountains in Eastern Morocco on Friday. At least 2,900 people have died and about 5,500 are reported injured, Reuters said on Tuesday.

From their astute ability to read our emotions to their impressive language and number comprehension, canine powers of understanding continue to amaze. Now it seems they may also be able to listen to us in their sleep. A small pilot study of 13 dogs reveals dogs’ brains deep in the throes of slumber light up

As elephants wander the African savannah, they might keep in touch with relatives by calling out their individual ‘names’. Researchers have found evidence that wild savannah elephants in Kenya label each other with specific vocal sounds, which they then use to communicate. The research is not yet peer-reviewed, but if the results can be verified

At around 3,300 meters (2 miles) below the surface off the coast of Alaska, where the warm light of the Sun never penetrates, an NOAA Ocean Exploration remotely operated underwater vehicle came across a strange, golden orb. It was “tightly adhered” to a rock dotted with white sponges, measuring around 10 centimeters (4 inches) across

The most high-resolution map yet of the underlying geology beneath Earth’s Southern Hemisphere reveals something we previously never knew about: an ancient ocean floor that may wrap around the core. This thin but dense layer exists around 2,900 kilometers (1,800 miles) below the surface, according to a study published in April. That depth is where

Amidst remains of turtles and fish preserved in a southeastern China fossil bed, scientists have uncovered the skeleton of a dinosaur with curious bird-like features. Estimated to be roughly 30 million years older than any confirmed bird fossil, the finding could tell us a thing or two about the first critical steps into their evolution.

When strong hurricanes hit land, the uprooted trees, destroyed homes, and other devastation are highly visible. What happens in the marine environments where they churn water and disrupt sediment isn’t always as obvious. A vast array of marine life lives along the Florida peninsula, the US state where hurricanes make landfall most often. The Florida

Mathematicians delight in the beauty of math that so many of us don’t see. But nature is a wonderful realm in which to observe beauty born out of mathematical relationships. The natural world provides seemingly endless patterns underpinned by numbers – if we can recognize them. Luckily for us, a motley team of researchers has

In sediment samples from deep within the ocean, scientists have identified a mysterious and unique new species of marine bacteria that advances our understanding of deep-sea conditions and microbiology in general. A team in China grew the bacteria in the lab using sediment from a cold seep, a specific puddle of nutrient-rich liquid and mud

Biologists were stunned to find a mysterious cold-water shark thousands of miles away from its natural habitat, according to a recent marine study. A Greenland shark — the longest-living vertebrate on Earth — was discovered in the tropical Caribbean Sea. Researchers were tagging and temporarily catching tiger sharks off the coast of Belize when they

Mud cores drilled in Mississippi hold long-hidden clues about the origins of gigantic Antarctic ice sheets around 34 million years ago, new research shows. Earth was in the midst of a major transition at the time, shifting from the balmy Eocene Epoch to the cooler Oligocene. The planet had no permanent ice during the Eocene,

Back in 1867, in an effort to test his thoughts on the emerging science of thermodynamics, physicist James Clerk Maxwell imagined an intelligent ‘demon’ sorting molecules between two containers based on their energy. In 2023, a less diabolical version of Maxwell’s fictitious demon may have been found. According to a new study from researchers at

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.

Climate change has sharply boosted the risk of fast-spreading wildfires, according to a Californian study published Wednesday that offers lessons for prevention after recent disasters in Canada, Greece and Hawaii. Scientists at the Breakthrough Institute, a non-profit research centre, found that human-caused warming increased the frequency of “extreme” wildfires by 25 percent on average compared

Rumours that there are big cats in Britain stubbornly keep cropping up. The thought of a large predator lurking in the rural landscapes of Britain is an exciting one. The most recent widely published claim of a big black cat in the UK does actually show a photo of a big cat species, which can

Forecasters were closely watching Tropical Storm Idalia as it passed Cuba and headed toward exceptionally warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm was on track to intensify rapidly before making landfall on the Florida Panhandle, possibly as a major hurricane, on Wednesday, Aug. 30. Hurricane scientist Haiyan Jiang of Florida International University explained

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 recent study, for example, the noble false widow spider may habitually prey upon vertebrates, with known victims including lizards, bats, and now shrews. In fact,

Sea ice loss in Antarctica during 2022’s emperor penguin breeding season resulted in the complete failure of four out of the five breeding colonies in the Bellingshausen Sea. Satellite imagery shows none of the chicks from those sites survived. The devastating event is the first recorded widespread breeding failure of emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri); but,

At the Davidson Seamount, off the coast of California, a world of wonder lurks on the seafloor. There, in the shimmering warmth that seeps through from the volcano below, thousands of ‘pearl’ octopuses (Muusoctopus robustus) gather to mate, to nest, and to nurture their eggs to hatch. Discovered in 2018, the nursery is the most

A giraffe born without spots sounds like the plot of a children’s book – and actually is one – but this quirky coming-of-age story is also unfolding right now in real life. On the 31st of July, Brights Zoo in Tennessee welcomed a new baby giraffe without any spots to the world. Her coat is

In 2017, scientists announced a natural wonder. Some frogs glow at twilight, they found, with a fluorescent compound we hadn’t seen before in nature. At the time, it was not known how many species of frogs might emit this fluorescence. New research has undertaken to find out – and it’s many, many more than that

As if changing color isn’t impressive enough, hogfish can ‘see’ with their skin too. A new US study suggests this bizarre form of visualization is how the reef fish detect their own colors. “They appear to be watching their own color change,” says biologist Lori Schweikert, now at the University of North Carolina. “If you

New fossils found in China reveal marine reptiles from the Triassic Period were sifting tiny edibles from copious amounts of water long before modern whales made it cool. Analysis of the skulls of two recently discovered specimens of Hupehsuchus nanchangensis by researchers from China and the UK identified structures that allowed the animals to scoop

Parasites are understandably unpopular. Some cause horrible illnesses in their hosts, and even the less dangerous ones are often creepy or gross. While they can be monsters, parasites aren’t all bad. Many organisms benefit from species that survive by sucking the very life from others. Even their hosts might get a kickback or two. Now

Researchers have reported on what they’re calling the ‘Coliseum’ site of dinosaur tracks, a large and multi-layered rock formation in Denali National Park in Alaska that carries markings dating back some 70 million years. A team of US researchers has been exploring the site, which was first discovered in 2010 – and it contains a

An Australian TikTok celebrity has filmed a humpback whale doing a rare ‘headstand’ on the calm horizon. While paddling along in a transparent kayak, Brodie Moss says the tail of a whale suddenly pierced the ocean surface ahead of him. “My heart is beating so fast,” Moss says in the background of his video, shared

Researchers trawling the ocean near Antarctica uncovered a new species that looks haunting in photos — but named it after a fruit. The Antarctic strawberry feather star is a sea creature with 20 so-called “arms” — some bumpy, some feathery — and can altogether be up to eight inches long, Greg Rouse, a marine biology

They say you are what you eat, but in all likelihood, you are also what your mother ate and your grandmother ate before her. A new study on animal pregnancy adds to mounting evidence that a mother’s environment can impact her offspring’s metabolism in the long run. This intergenerational effect was first observed in 1909

Scientists have just probed into the last 150 million years of Earth’s geological history by analyzing the chemistry of microscopic pockets of water preserved in crystals of sea salt. By tracking the lithium content in marine halite – that’s rock salt with a marine origin – geochemists Mebrahtu Weldeghebriel of Princeton University and Binghamton University

Palaeontologists in Egypt have unearthed an extinct species of whale that lived 41 million years ago when whale ancestors were just completing their move from land to sea. The team has dubbed the species Tutcetus rayanensis after the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun and the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area in Egypt’s Fayoum Oasis where the type

An alarming report from the US Department of Agriculture predicts that by 2070, the nation’s forests will release substantially more carbon than they store. Forests in the US – bar those in Alaska – will no longer absorb 150 million metric tons of carbon a year within five decades, experts say. That carbon is equivalent

A research team in France found the Nile crocodile reacts to the distress cries of many different baby mammals, including humans. Their response is sensitive to specific acoustic details, which may help the predators gauge the severity of their prey’s distress before attacking. By playing recordings of crying bonobos (Pan paniscus), chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes), and

Traditionally known for being slow-moving tree-dwellers, it would be to easy to assume a sloth would come out second best with any predator while on the ground. A camera trap out in the Amazonian wilderness provided a rare front-row seat at just such a brawl, and the footage is surprising, showing a sloth actually fighting

As our planet continues to warm, the need for renewable energy is becoming increasingly urgent. Almost half of the UK’s electricity now comes from renewable sources. And solar accounts for one-fifth of the energy capacity installed since 2019. Solar farms are now a striking feature of the British landscape. But despite their growth, we’re still

A snake eating its own tail has been a symbol of infinity since ancient times. But seeing an illustration of this concept is nothing like witnessing the real-life horror. On rare occasions, mostly cataloged in captivity, a snake really can swallow its own tail. As the reptile guzzles back more and more of its body,

Scientists keep peeling back new layers of life on our planet like a seemingly endless onion. Most recently, aquanauts on board a vessel from the Schmidt Ocean Institute used an underwater robot to turn over slabs of volcanic crust in the deep, dark Pacific. Underneath the seafloor of this well-studied site, the international team of

The Dune books (and subsequent movies) are some of the most epic in all of sci-fi, and the iconic Shai-Hulid sandworms from Dune have now inspired the naming of a new species of ancient sea worm, the Shaihuludia shurikeni. The discovery was made in a geologic formation crossing northern Utah and southern Idaho, well known

In 1956, a teenage girl by the name of Tina Negus was summering in the United Kingdom’s Charnwood Forest with her family, when she noticed a curious imprint on an overhanging rock face. It looked like a fern. But as a budding geologist, Negus knew these 600 million year old rocks were too old to

A massive viper is wriggling through the forests of Africa right now that has a bite like no other. Its 5-centimeter-long (2 inches) retractable fangs are the largest of any snake on Earth, capable of taking down prey as large as an antelope. The Gaboon viper’s (Bitis gabonica) sheer size makes it a fearsome predator

“A diamond is forever.” That iconic slogan, coined for a highly successful advertising campaign in the 1940s, sold the gemstones as a symbol of eternal commitment and unity. But our new research, carried out by researchers in a variety of countries and published in Nature, suggests that diamonds may be a sign of break up