Animals

This excerpt from Michael Mann's latest book looks at the Cambrian explosion, the Great Dying and how dinosaurs were able to take over thanks to changes to the climate 250 million years ago.

This parasitic worm crawls into the eyestalks of snails, takes over its brain then pulsates to make the mollusk look like a dancing caterpillar.

Fish smell is from degrading lipids and bacterial reactions that increase in potency over time.

The female orca was found far from her normal hunting ground with six whole sea otters in its stomach and one lodged between its oral cavity and the esophagus.

On an expedition in Hawaii, a remote underwater vehicle filmed a dumbo octopus swimming with its ear-like fins near the seafloor. The pale white creature is one of the deepest-dwelling octopuses on Earth.

From the opportunistic "have-a-go" approach of octopuses to "accessory males" that supply female anglerfish with a lifetime of sperm, author Jon Copley explores the sex lives of deep sea creatures.

Humpback whales may enjoy rolling around in seaweed as a form of play, but "kelping" could also help maintain their skin health by removing parasites and bacteria.

A new X-ray analysis of dinosaur feathers shows that their chemical structure is similar to that of modern bird feathers.

More orcas have died entangled in fishing gear in Alaska this year than in previous years, which may be linked to a "new behavior" where they feed in front of ascending fishing nets.

In the 1990s, a group of juvenile bull sharks were left stranded in a golf course pond in Australia, where they thrived for decades. Now scientists are trying to understand why.