Animals, features and articles | Educational Science

Dec 14, 2023

Watch thousands of starlings perform an 'incredible ballet of life and death' in new murmuration footage

Breathtaking new stills and footage capture the beauty and acrobatic skills of tens of thousands of starlings as they swarm and sweep across dusk skies in Europe. The mesmerizing shots were taken by Danish photographer Søren Solkær, who has followed the majestic birds for six years across Europe. Starlings (Sturnus...

Dec 28, 2023

See 'incredible' photos of bird that is both male and female

Researchers have discovered an extraordinary, vibrantly colored tropical bird with female feathers down one side of its body and male feathers down the other. Female green honeycreepers (Chlorophanes spiza) typically have grassy green feathers, while the males are a brilliant blue. However, this individual was green on the left and...

Jan 20, 2024

Loggerhead shrike: The brutal 'butcherbird' that impales its prey on barbed wire

Name: Loggerhead shrike (Lanius ludovicianus) Where it lives: North America What it eats: Mainly invertebrates, but also small vertebrates including reptiles, amphibians, bats and birds. Why it's awesome: The loggerhead shrike is nicknamed the butcherbird thanks to its rather gruesome practice of impaling its prey on sharp thorns, twigs and...

Feb 3, 2024

Aldabra rail: The bird that came back from the dead by evolving twice

Name: Aldabra rail (Dryolimnas cuvieri aldabranus) Where it lives: Aldabra — a coral atoll off the southeast coast of Africa What it eats: Insects Why it's awesome: Lying off the southeast coast of Africa, north of Madagascar, the coral limestone islands of the Aldabra atoll are home to a humble...

Mar 13, 2024

Watch woodpecker evict starling that stole its nest by yanking it out with its beak

Remarkable footage captures the moment a red-headed woodpecker evicts a starling squatting in its nest by yanking it out of a tree trunk. Woodpeckers and starlings are cavity nesters, meaning they hollow out nesting holes rather than building them from scratch, but starlings often invade other birds' nests and harass...

Oct 18, 2021

Ancient dog-size sea scorpion unearthed in China

A 3.3 foot-long (1 meter) sea scorpion prowled the seas of what is now China some 435 million years ago, using its giant, spiny arms to ensnare prey. Palaeontologists recently discovered the remains of this scorpion (Terropterus xiushanensis), which was a eurypterid — an ancient arthropod closely related to modern...

Nov 16, 2021

Scorpions flood Egyptian villages after storm, sting and hospitalize hundreds

Scorpions that were flushed from their underground desert homes by recent storms have stung more than 500 people in the governorate of Aswan, in southern Egypt. Several days of hail, rainfall and flooding in the region displaced scorpions from their burrows and swept them into close contact with people, according...

Dec 6, 2021

More than 300 smuggled tarantulas, scorpions and giant cockroaches seized from luggage in Colombia

Hundreds of Colombian tarantulas, giant cockroaches and scorpions that were crammed into a suitcase and illegally bound for Europe were seized last week by authorities at El Dorado International Airport in Bogotá, Colombia. Airport police spotted the living cargo in luggage belonging to two German citizens who were leaving the...

Mar 31, 2022

'Berserker' geckos slam scorpions into oblivion before eating them, epic new footage shows

Geckos that are typically placid and mild-mannered become violent, head-shaking berserkers when subduing a scorpion meal, new research reveals. When a western banded gecko (Coleonyx variegatus) bites down on its scorpion prey, it repeatedly whips its head from side to side, slamming the scorpion into the ground over and over...

Jul 7, 2023

Male spider mites 'undress' females by pulling off their skin before copulating

When male spider mites are ready to mate, they strip off the skin of maturing females as part of a freakish mating ritual. Scientists in Austria uncovered the creepy act for the first time while studying spider mites, the dust speck-size relatives of arachnids such as spiders and scorpions, in...

Mar 23, 2015

In Photos: Giant Amphibian Ruled Ancient Rivers

Researchers have discovered a mass graveyard filled with the bones of a giant amphibian that lived between 220 million and 230 million years ago in what is today southern Portugal. Here's a look at the dig site, bones and what the creature would have looked like so long ago. Images...

Nov 19, 2015

'Flying' Tadpoles & Fleeing Fish Win Prestigious Photo Contest

What does the world look like to a tadpole? That's what one photographer recently asked before jumping into a canal to capture the baby amphibian's perspective on camera. The photo he took came out swimmingly, earning him first place in a photography competition hosted by the Royal Society, London. The...

Nov 3, 2016

Tadpoles Prefer Vegetarian Meals During Heat Waves

When it's just too darn hot, amphibian young adapt by changing their diet, weathering heat with vegetarian fare. In a new study, tadpoles representing three frog species were exposed to mock heat waves in the laboratory to test how amphibians in the wild might respond to warmer-than-average conditions due to...

Mar 30, 2017

Hind Sight: Blind Tadpoles See Via Eyes in Tails

If you've ever wished you had eyes on the back of your head, meet the amphibian with eyes on its butt: Researchers have enabled tadpoles to see through eyes grafted onto their tails. The project represents a promising step forward in the world of organ transplants and regenerative medicine, the...

May 15, 2017

To Avoid Being Eaten, Tadpoles Aren't Choosy About Escape Vehicle

Newborn poison frogs of Peru have quite an appetite. If left home alone in their hatching pool, the ravenous tadpoles will eat each other. To keep the tadpoles from gorging on their siblings, their doting father will carry them one at a time on his back and drop them in...