A rare 280 million-year-old fossil resembling a lizard-like creature is mostly just a carved rock painted black, a new analysis reveals. The Permian fossil, discovered in the Italian Alps in 1931 and named Tridentinosaurus antiquus, is shaped like a lizard and has a dark coloration, which researchers thought was preserved...

Paleontologists in Morocco have discovered the fossilized remains of a huge, never-before-seen species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth. The reptile was around 26 feet (8 meters) long — about the same length as an orca — and hunted in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of what is now...

A weird extinct whale with a plump body and tiny limbs isn't the heaviest animal to ever live after all, a new study has claimed, bringing with it a whale of a debate. Last year, a team of researchers unveiled Perucetus colossus, a 39-million-year-old whale from Peru with an estimated...

A rare piece of amber has preserved the mating behavior of 38 million-year-old termites, researchers have revealed. The amber, or fossilized tree resin, holds the oldest and only described pair of Electrotermes affinis termites and reveals that these long-extinct insects likely engaged in the same mating behavior as termites that...

Like creepy stalkers, cleaner shrimp won't share their partner with anyone else. When placed in groups of more than two, the creatures attack in the dark of night, killing off the competition. We enlarged the group size to triplets and quartets, and we observed the molting cycle and the interactions...

Scientists doing their first exploring of deep-sea vents in the Antarctic have uncovered a world unlike anything found around other hydrothermal vents, one populated by new species of anemones, predatory sea stars, and piles of hairy-chested yeti crabs. It was almost like a sight from another planet, said expedition leader...

Scientists on an expedition to sample a deep-sea trench got a surprise when their traps brought back seven giant crustaceans glimpsed only a handful of times in human history. The supergiant amphipods are more than 20 times larger than their typical crustacean relatives, which are generally less than a half-inch...

Some crayfish fake out their opponents with their gigantic right claws, suggests new research showing that these big claws aren't always as strong as they should be for their size. The slender crayfish, Cherax dispar, fights with other males over territory. They start these bouts of aggression by assessing each...

Four new species of crab that sport some wild colors have been discovered near the Philippine island of Palawan. The newfound species are threatened by mining activities in the region, which is one of the world's major biodiversity hotspots, its discoverers said. About half of the species that live on...

Aspiring marine biologists recently got a taste of the joys (and the occasional discomfort) of real fieldwork during an annual horseshoe crab census in Delaware. Freshmen in the University of Delaware's first class of marine science majors fanned out across beaches in Delaware Bay in mid-May to count the throngs...

Mantis Shrimp (Image credit: Jenny/Wikimedia Commons)The colorful mantis shrimp Gonodactylus smithii. Researchers compare mantis shrimp to heavily armored caterpillars. Peacock Mantis Shrimp (Image credit: S. Baron)The peacock mantis shrimp Odontodactylus scyllarus from the Indo-Pacific boasts strong, hammer-like claws. Peacock Mantis (Image credit: Chris K Horne, Shutterstock)Peacock mantis shrimp are solitary...

If sea creatures were Marvel comic book characters, the peacock mantis shrimp would be Thor. These colorful crustaceans have a hammerlike claw that can smash prey with the acceleration of a 0.22-caliber bullet — not unlike the superhero's mythological weapon. Now, a new study reveals the secrets behind the strength...

A new species of crustacean has been discovered in the underwater mountains off the northwest coast of Spain, scientists recently announced. The squat lobster is orange and a little over 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. Squat lobsters are more closely related to porcelain and hermit crabs than true lobsters. It...

Three critically endangered insects called Lord Howe Island stick insects, also known as tree lobsters, have been hatched at the San Diego Zoo for the first time. The species was thought to be extinct after 1920, when the last known wild tree lobsters were devoured by rats on their native...

The late Jamaican musician Bob Marley has joined the I have a species named after me club, as a parasitic crustacean has been donned Gnathia marleyi, researchers announced today (July 10). This blood feeder infests certain fish that live among the coral reefs of the shallow eastern Caribbean Sea. I...