Lake Mercer, a subglacial lake deep below the Antarctic Ice, sat untouched by humans for millennia – until now. Scientists accidentally discovered the lake in 2007, when they were examining satellite imagery of Antarctica’s ice sheet. Then on December 26, 2018, they finally reached it. To explore the 50-foot-deep subglacial lake, researchers from a project called SALSA

Unless you live in the tropical rainforests of South or Central America, most of the sloths you’ll encounter will be two-toed sloths (Choloepus sp.). This is because they are able to eat quite a varied diet and are therefore relatively easy to keep in captivity. Their relatives, the three-toed sloths (Bradypus sp.), on the other

There really isn’t a whole lot you can do to avoid being eaten when you’re trapped inside an egg and your parents are nowhere to be found. Still, the embryo of the pharaoh cuttlefish (Sepia pharaonis) gives it everything it’s got. Researchers have found that when faced with a common predator, the unborn cephalopod does

The flowers are listening, according to new research – well, in a sense, at least. Scientists have found evidence that plants can actually hear the buzz of passing bees and produce sweeter nectar in response to entice the flying insects in. And flowers are technically their ‘ears’. Based on observations of evening primroses (Oenothera drummondii), the

Sometimes we don’t know what’s weirder: nature’s strange creations or the ridiculous names we humans give them. That is certainly the case with the Sarcastic Fringehead (Neoclinus blanchardi). If you happen to spy one skulking away in whatever shell, rocky crevice or piece of rubbish they can find, they’re typically seen as a dull brown

A frog by the name of Romeo, thought to be the last of his species, is no longer fortune’s fool. Defying the stars, this lonely amphibious bachelor has at last found his Juliet. Known as the world’s loneliest frog, for ten years Romeo has burned, he has pined, but he has not perished. His story

Like a brain, an ant colony operates without central control. Each is a set of interacting individuals, either neurons or ants, using simple chemical interactions that in the aggregate generate their behaviour. People use their brains to remember. Can ant colonies do that? This question leads to another question: what is memory? For people, memory

Nature is filled with astonishing and sometimes terrifying phenomena. Case in point: this footage of spiders seemingly raining from the sky. Filmed in Minas Gerais in southern Brazil, these spiders are Parawixia bistriata, a rare ‘social’ spider that works together to build giant, fine webs up high. And contrary to how it might look, don’t worry,

To properly navigate across the face of our planet, we need to use guidance from its magnetic field. And for that, we need to keep an accurate track of what that field is doing. With that in mind, every five years scientists refresh a standardised model of the detailed wiggles and warps of Earth’s magnetic

We usually think of whales as serene, gentle creatures, but a new study on an ancient species paints a different picture. Around 35 million years ago, in the late Eocene, a giant whale roamed the oceans, feasting on large fish and, the new evidence suggests, other smaller whales. Yikes. Discovered in 2010, this 15 metre

When we look at the way an object moves, humans are able to use this context to infer weight – whether it is light or heavy. Now, New Caledonian crows have demonstrated the same skill – accurately gauging the weight of an object based on how it moves in a breeze. They could be the

What makes a species monogamous? New research has uncovered evidence of a universal genetic code that underlies monogamy in vertebrates. For hundreds of millions of years, animals have been ‘doing it’. But not all of these wild hook-ups represented the same thing – even to animals that look incredibly similar. Some species, like the furry little prairie

As we try to monitor and manage the delicate balance of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, we’re beginning to realise that we have a lot to learn about the contributing factors involved. Case in point: we just found out that leaf-cutter ants create tiny little ‘factories’ in the jungle, with air vents that push out

The Cordillera del Cóndor between Ecuador and Peru is positively lush with life, but due to the mountain range’s inaccessibility and decades of border disputes, it’s only been in recent years that scientists have been able to get there to check it all out. They have been making absolutely amazing discoveries – the most recent

In the depths of the Pacific Ocean, where the water runs cold dark and cold, temperatures are continuing to fall – and it’s all because of a period of significant cooling that began in the 16th century. Although global ocean surface temperatures are on the rise, it seems the message hasn’t gotten through to the

Scientists have fixed a natural flaw in photosynthesis, and as a result have boosted plant productivity by an incredible 40 percent compared to wild relatives. Photosynthesis is the chemical reaction that lets plants turn sunlight and carbon dioxide into food, and this new hack could result in enough calories to help feed another 200 million people

On Dec. 22 at 9:03 pm local time, a 64-hectare (158-acre) chunk of Anak Krakatau volcano, in Indonesia, slid into the ocean following an eruption. This landslide created a tsunami that struck coastal regions in Java and Sumatra, killing at least 426 people and injuring 7,202. Satellite data and helicopter footage taken on Dec. 23

Nathaniel ‘Coyote’ Peterson knows his stings. From scorpions to bullet ants, the YouTube celebrity endures intense pain in the name of education, if not a few million clicks. But recently he discovered a new contender for the most agonising of insect weapons, and it’s not one he’d expected. Peterson’s channel Brave Wilderness currently has close

Anyone who’s seen a gecko will likely know they can climb walls. But these common lizards can also run across water nearly as fast as they can move on solid ground. Yet while we know how geckos scale smooth vertical surfaces using countless tiny hairs on their feet called setae, how they manage to avoid

The name says it all, really. With the exception of some orange hairs in the rear, the black mantled howler monkey (Alouatta palliata) is predominantly covered in – you guessed it – pitch black fur. This is true for all the black howler monkeys in the forests of Central America and the north of South

A relaxed-looking juvenile Hawaiian monk seal lounges near a sandy white beach on some green foliage. Its eyes are half-closed, and it has a serene expression on its face. But the seal’s calm demeanor is surprising. Why? Well, there’s a long, black-and-white eel dangling from its right nostril. “It’s just so shocking,” Claire Simeone, a

She squeaks in ultrasound, “I love you”. He chirrups back “Right back at ya’, sweetheart”. It’s all in the dulcet tones of California mice, but the meaning is clear. Then one of them spends time with another mouse spouse. Later, partners reunited, there’s tension. Somebody barks. A high pitched roar. They’ll make up later, but

Salamanders are, by their very nature, slippery creatures. Perhaps none so slippery as the mysterious ‘leopard eel’ – an amphibian spotted intermittently in the waters of Florida over the last few decades that somehow managed to elude scientific study. Until now, that is. Ecologist Sean Graham of Sul Ross State University in Texas and colleagues

We’re now increasingly aware of the microplastic fragments polluting our oceans, but a new study shows just how quickly these tiny particles can find their way into marine life – it takes a mere six hours for billions of pieces of material to spread inside aquatic animals. The unfortunate critters involved in the research were

You only wish you could be this fabulous millions of years after you die. Precious stones recovered from the opal fields of Australia have turned out not just to be opalised fossils – but the opalised fossils of a dinosaur previously unknown to palaeontology. It’s called Weewarrasaurus pobeni – named for the Wee Warra opal

Freezing temperatures and industrial activity may sound like a recipe for disaster, but sometimes, beautiful things come from strange places. In the frigid cold of winter, two industrial power plants on the outskirts of a small town in Nebraska have caused a rare and unusual weather event. For more than a day, residents living downwind

Jumping spiders are already among the most adorable members of the arachnid order, but we’re ready to give them the prize, officially. A species of ant-mimicking jumping spider has just been found suckling its babies on milk. You know what else does that? Kitties. Doggos. Mousies. But Toxeus magnus is much more diligent than mouse

If classic monster movies and old science experiments are to be believed, life begins with a spark. Not everybody is convinced by this kind of origin story, so the search continues for sources of energy capable of transforming a prebiotic soup into a life-generating dish. Maybe the secret ingredient isn’t anything more shocking than a

The outer layer of the Earth, the solid crust we walk on, is made up of broken pieces, much like the shell of a broken egg. These pieces, the tectonic plates, move around the planet at speeds of a few centimetres per year. Every so often they come together and combine into a supercontinent, which

This week, a Holstein by the name of Knickers captured the heart of the Internet by standing horns and shoulders above a herd of cattle on a farm in Australia. And there’s no arguing that the lad is large. At the shoulder, Knickers stands a mighty 6’4″ (193 centimetres), which means he’s two inches taller

In the land down under, sticking out in a crowd is rarely a good thing. Australians have a habit of cutting “tall poppies” down to size, frowning on those overachievers who are too big for their own boots. An exception has been made for Knickers the giant cow, long may he reign. Right now, Knickers is

Could nature’s smallest organisms help us to combat rising CO2 levels and even oil spills? Strange as it might seem, the answer might be yes, with research into newly discovered deep-sea microbes suggesting these tiny critters possess a keen appetite for pollutants. The microbes – collected in the Gulf of California, around 2,000 metres (6,562

Spider silk is well known as one of the strongest natural materials in existence, but now scientists have a better understanding of why – and it’s all to do with the old adage of strength in numbers. Through an atomic force microscope trained on the silk of a brown recluse spider (Loxosceles reclusa) – which essentially

Scientists have an imprecise understanding of the obscure phenomenon of mass whale strandings, when large numbers of the marine mammals suddenly beach themselves – often their final acts. There are, of course, many reasons a whale would find itself on a beach: illness or injury that leaves them at the mercy of ocean currents and

It didn’t look much like the dainty unicorns of myth and legend, but the extinct unicorn of Siberia is even more entrancing for palaeontologists. Now, for the first time, scientists have analysed its DNA – and realised everyone had been wrong about the mysterious beast. The ancient rhinoceros didn’t die off 200,000 years ago, before

Before the dinosaurs we’re mostly familiar with, there was a group of smaller ancestors that we know very little about. But now archaeologists have discovered three new well-preserved skeletons in Brazil, and it’s teaching us more about this particular branch of the dino family tree. The skeletons fit into a new dinosaur species that’s been

The willow warbler is not one to stop and smell the flowers. Weighing in at a mere 10 grams (3.5 ounces), this restless little songbird regularly traverses multiple continents, flying thousands of kilometres and taking remarkably few breaks. In fact, researchers in Sweden have now determined this epic trek by the Siberian willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus yakutensis) constitutes the

Penises come in many shapes and sizes in the animal kingdom. But usually they’re only ever found on the sperm-owner of a species.  In the strange case of a tribe of cave-dwelling winged insects found in Africa and Brazil though, it’s the egg-laying females who grow a phallus – albeit, not one that ejaculates sperm,

Some corners of the internet are in a bit of a tizzy after a Texas resident allegedly discovered a writhing, brain-like mass of worms in a puddle following several days of rainfall. According to Pen News Agency, which seems to supply content primarily to, ahem, British tabloids with a spotty track record when it comes

There’s a forest in Massachusetts that for nearly 30 years has hosted the world’s longest running soil-warming experiment, measuring how hotter temperatures impact the tiny life-forms that live in the dirt. With the way climate change is going, you could say the future itself is buried in that heated dirt. But our unknown tomorrows aren’t

A five-year long investigation into the criminal trade of tiger parts in Czechia culminated in the discovery of a horrific animal slaughterhouse in Prague, and shows illegal trafficking in big cats isn’t just a problem in Asia. Back in July, inspectors with the Czech Environmental Inspectorate (CEI) led over 200 police and customs officers in

A fisherman has shared a video of a surprise drawn up from the depths of the ocean. Included in the catch from a deep-sea trawling expedition was a sight most people never see in the wild: a wriggling worm that lives in the deep, dark ocean, where little light penetrates. The footage was shared on

The Australian wombat has one of nature’s most bizarre superpowers. This pudgy, bear-like marsupial is the only animal we know of that can produce cube-shaped poos. These unique droppings have long been a biological mystery, although biologists have partially attributed the shape to the incredible dryness of wombat poop. But now we have a new

If you want to design something right, look to nature for inspiration – that’s the message from scientists who have produced a new type of brush, based on a detailed analysis of a cat’s tongue and its ultra-effective grooming capabilities. In particular, the team looked at certain types of papillae on the tongues of cats,

One of the largest and strangest engineered structures on Earth is almost completely hidden from the world, unless you know where to look. Buried in the Caatinga vegetation of northeastern Brazil, scientists have uncovered the true scale of a vast array of some 200 million termite mounds covering an area the size of Great Britain.

The Earth is wonderfully weird. From tiny puddle-dwelling creatures that can survive in outer space to a paint so dark that your eyes can’t actually even see it, Earth is filled with plenty of strange and incredible things – both natural and made by us. Here are a handful of things on this planet that

Microscopic organisms found in dirt collected from a hike through Nova Scotia mean we’re going to have to add another branch to the tree of life. The strange organisms simply don’t fit into the plant kingdom, the animal kingdom, or any other kingdom we’ve classified up until now. The tiny critters in question represent two

From the video, the amorphous blob seems to stretch on for a mile as it snakes through the water, dwarfing the two divers who surround it. For 48-year-old videographer Steve Hathaway, the October 25 sighting near a small, volcanic island about 30 miles (48 kilometres) off New Zealand’s northernmost point put an end to a