At dusk in late September and early October, The Wadden Sea National Park on the West Coast of Denmark hosts one of nature’s wildest and most intriguing displays of avian acrobatics. In what’s known, somewhat ominously, as the “The Black Sun” (Sort Sol in Danish), droves of migrating starlings perform seemingly coordinated acts of aerial
THE NATURAL WORLD is not always a calm place. Every day, animals from the ocean floor to the highest treetops struggle to live, breed, and eat. Their existential endeavors make many of our modern stressors seem placid by comparison. But we still seek out signs of serenity in the wild—and if we press the camera
A tiny frog with an impressive snout has been discovered in the Peruvian Amazon, scientists reported this week. The frog makes its home in the basin of the Putumayo River, which runs through Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Brazil. Researchers found the new species during a 2019 expedition to learn more about the basin’s mysterious amphibian
Like many wormy discoveries, this one started with murder. In 2019, a parasitology lab at the University of California, Riverside, was tipped off by a breeder whose tarantulas were ravaged by a mysterious infection. Side effects included “lethargy, anorexia, and tip-toe behavior,” along with “a white discharge in the oral cavities,” according to the researchers’
The tiny, mighty tardigrade can tough out the most extreme environments, surviving in oceans, Antarctic glaciers, lava fields, sand dunes, and, more famously, space. Fondly known as “water bears,” “moss piglets,” and “hardy tardies,” these millimeter-long invertebrates have been found in nearly every habitat on Earth, even nestling in mossy beds or the damp soil
With their pillowy bodies and proclivity for damp or wet environments, tardigrades have earned the nickname “water bears.” The microscopic eight-legged animals are resilient and adaptable, able to navigate and survive in almost any habitat. And while scientists have known about these unique little creatures since the 18th century, new research finally provides a closer
Tyrannosaurus rex, whose name translates to the tyrant lizard king, has long charmed the public as the star dinosaur in the Jurassic Park series. But the scene-stealing dino is stealing the spotlight again—this time, in a drama over how it should be classified. A controversial new study published in the journal Evolutionary Biology suggests that
While writing of their 19th-century voyages to document the world’s biodiversity, European naturalists like Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace were struck by the appearance of the plants and animals they encountered in the tropics. “The new organisms that they were observing were, to their eyes at least, incredibly rich and varied in color,” says
Movies like Jurassic Park may give the impression that we know everything about dinosaurs, including how they used to walk or run. But it’s actually incredibly difficult to figure out how extinct creatures moved their bodies. Now, a fruitful combination of computational biomechanics and so-called “predictive simulation” are helping fill in these locomotive knowledge gaps.
YOU’VE LIKELY BEEN TOLD that a packrat is a thief. A selfish collector. A taker of things in the night. Common wisdom holds that this long-tailed rodent will snatch your diamond rings and gold watches, your loose change and car keys, and hoard them in glistening stockpiles like some miniature, beady-eyed dragon. Some of that
