Animals
We live on a planet with millions of species of animals -and a rich, diverse collection of known wildlife, and yet new species are being identified seemingly every day — both living and extinct.
Whether it’s the deadliest snakes, longest-living creatures or the history of the dinosaurs, at Live Science, our expert writers are here to help you understand Earth's incredible fauna — past and present — with the latest animal news, features and articles.
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Latest about Animals
Why do cats 'chatter'?
By Victoria Atkinson published
Some cats chatter, oftentimes when they see prey. But why?
Scientists accidentally find deep-sea 'jelly' creatures merged into 'single entity' after injury, revealing bizarre new behavior
By Harry Baker published
Researchers discovered that some comb jellies can fuse their bodies together when injured. The unique adaptation, which involves merging their nervous systems and stomachs, has never been seen in any other species.
Stunning video shows sharks devouring sea urchins, spines and all
By Jeremy Day published
Sharks easily consumed large, spiky sea urchins – sometimes in just a few gulps.
Alligator gar: The 'living fossil' that has barely evolved for 100 million years
By Melissa Hobson published
This living fossil can grow as large as an alligator, has two rows of needle-sharp teeth, and such strong armor that it survived predatory dinosaurs.
'The simplicity of life just hits you': Watch rare footage of critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla feeding her baby in the wild
By Hannah Osborne published
Filmmakers captured a mother eastern lowland gorilla nursing her infant for the PBS show "Silverback."
32,000-year-old mummified woolly rhino half-eaten by predators unearthed in Siberia
By Sascha Pare published
Researchers found the carcass in August 2020 in Russia's Sakha Republic, and the discovery has revealed a never-before-seen characteristic of woolly rhinos: a fatty hump on the animal's back.
Which animal can have the most babies at one time?
By Katherine Irving published
How many offspring an animal can have depends on many factors, such as whether they're aquatic and how they get around.
Siphonophores: The clonal colonies that can grow longer than a blue whale
By Lydia Smith published
Siphonophores are unusual animals made up of individual organisms called "zooids," which each have a distinct function — despite being genetically identical.
Watch extremely rare footage of a bigfin squid 'walking' on long, spindly arms deep in the South Pacific
By Sascha Pare published
While exploring the Tonga Trench in the Southwestern Pacific Ocean, researchers captured extremely rare footage of a Magnapinna squid with arms several times the length of its body.
Pollen allergies drove woolly mammoths to extinction, study claims
By Sascha Pare published
A boom in vegetation at the end of the last ice age may have created so much pollen, it blocked mammoths' sense of smell. A new study suggests this drove the beasts to extinction, but not everyone agrees.
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