Animals

Researchers have determined the cause of an unusual behavior in funnel weaving spiders that involves the females curling up as if they're dead before having sex.

Heavy rain in Australia has led to an influx in venomous spiders being washed into people's swimming pools. Species found include funnel-web spiders, the venom of which is so toxic it can kill a child in just 15 minutes.

Last year, scientists described a weird goblin shark in a scientific journal despite never setting eyes on it. Experts now question the review process that approved the study.

A pair of orcas off the coast of South Africa have been ripping open sharks and feasting on their livers for the last eight years. A great white shark that survived an attack by the serial killer brothers has now been identified through huge scars across its massive body.

An unnamed woman was bitten twice by a blue-ringed octopus, which contains one of the most dangerous neurotoxins on the planet, but she escaped relatively unharmed.

Poisonous and venomous animals can kill, but their toxins are delivered different ways.

This rare video, showing two megamouth sharks swimming off the coast of San Diego, is scientists' 'only knowledge' of the sharks' social lives.

Researchers in Russia recently dissected a mummified bison dating back to around 8,000 years ago. The remains are so well preserved that the team thinks the extinct animal could be cloned, but others disagree.

The real-life origins of a once-mythological wildcat called the "cat-fox" are finally coming to light thanks to recent genetics research.

Instead of drinking water through their mouths, beetles opt for a different approach by using their butts.

Fossils uncovered in Australia belong to a newfound species of extinct eagle that was big enough to pick up hobbit-size prey, like the fictional giant eagles in "The Lord of the Rings."

What had multiple eyes and a hard shell? A trilobite, that's what.

The wide-set eyes and exaggeratingly long teeth likely helped Thylacosmilus atrox become a successful hunter.

Which living and extinct animals have the strongest bite forces on record?

Dogs commonly tilt their heads, but is it a sign of intelligence, or does it mean something else entirely?

A fin whale with a deformed spine was recently spotted struggling to swim off the coast of Spain. Its back was likely broken during a vessel strike, experts say.

The fossilized remains of an ichthyosaur dating back to shortly after the Permian mass extinction suggest that the ancient sea monsters emerged before the catastrophic event.

From underwater wonders to spectacular landscapes, here are the winners from the 2022 World Nature Photography Awards.

A fossilized ankylosaur voice box reveals that these beasts may have sported a far more sophisticated vocal range than scientists originally thought.