Cambrian fossils show oldest example of parasites in action By Mindy Weisberger Fossil brachiopods from China were crusted with parasites, which may have hijacked their hosts' feeding structures in order to steal their dinner.
Scientists capture the world's deepest octopus on video. And it's adorable. By Yasemin Saplakoglu The octopus was found miles beneath the ocean surface.
Last-known video of 'Tasmanian tiger' rediscovered By Laura Geggel Rediscovered footage of a thylacine taken in 1935 is the last-known recording of the marsupial, which went extinct in 1936.
Allosaurus cannibalized its own kind, grim new fossils reveal By Brandon Specktor Researchers studied bite marks on more than 2,000 dinosaur bones and found that some of them were cannibalized.
Meet Goliath, a Massive Tadpole as Long as Your Face By Mindy Weisberger A giant tadpole recently found in the wild is bigger than a can of Coke — and it's still growing.
Loon stabs bald eagle to death By Laura Geggel A loon stabbed a bald eagle in the heart, killing it. Here's why.
Why bats don't get sick from the viruses they carry, but humans can By Livia O. Loureiro Bats carry a lot of viruses, some of which make people sick. So why don't bats get sick from these pathogens?
Pollen-starved bumblebees bite 'half-moons' into plants to make them bloom By Nicoletta Lanese Scientists don't yet know when or how the behavior evolved.
300,000-year-old remains of towering elephant species discovered in Germany By Laura Geggel The elephant likely died of old age, and stone tools nearby indicate it was scavenged.
Cold War satellites tracked missiles ... and marmots? By Nicoletta Lanese The historic images could fill gaps in the ecological record.
Baby pygmy hippo born at San Diego Zoo, conquers the internet with cuteness By Mindy Weisberger A tiny and very tubby baby pygmy hippo that was recently born at the San Diego Zoo is the zoo's first successful pygmy hippo birth in more than 30 years.
High-speed video shows every second of a praying mantis's lethal strike By Mindy Weisberger Researchers captured slow motion video of praying mantis strikes, revealing what makes these insects such effective predators.
T. rex was a deadly 'power-walker' By Mindy Weisberger The long legs of big tyrannosaurs like T. rex were for marathon walking, not sprinting.
'First species discovered on Twitter' is a parasitic fungus that dines on millipede genitals By Brandon Specktor Researchers discovered a new species while looking at Twitter photos. They have named the parasite Troglomyces twitteri.
One of the world's smallest cats chirps like a wee bird, first-ever audio recording reveals By Mindy Weisberger The voice of a Chilean wild cat called a güiña, the smallest wild cat in the Western Hemisphere, was recently recorded for the first time — and it sounds like a cheeping bird.
First animal 'buckyballs' discovered in 80-million-year-old sea lillies By Mindy Weisberger Buckyballs are geometric shapes previously only seen in nature at the molecular scale. Scientists recently found them in marine animals dating to the Cretaceous.
Here's how to tell a 'murder hornet' from other nasty wasps By Rafi Letzter A new paper gathers images of invasive Vespa hornet species worldwide, and offers clues to help identify them.
Ancient 'shapeshifting vampire demon' anchovy had saber tooth and fangs By Laura Geggel An anchovy cousin had fang-like teeth on the bottom jaw and one giant saber tooth on the top.
Ice Age giant sloths died in a pit of their own poop By Mindy Weisberger Tens of thousands of years ago, a feces-contaminated wallow may have caused the deaths of nearly two dozen giant ground sloths.
These invasive 'comb jellies' cannibalize their own babies every year By Brandon Specktor Comb jellies in the Baltic Sea eat their own larvae when the local food supply runs out every summer.
