Animals

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A kangaroo stands chest-deep in water.
Kangaroos might try to drown your dog. Here's why. Footage of a kangaroo attempting to drown a dog in a river in Australia went viral online, but this isn't the first time a marsupial has pulled this trick.
An orca attacks a whale, which is gushing blood from its mouth.
Orcas are learning terrifying new behaviors. Are they getting smarter? From sinking boats and feasting on shark livers to dining on whale tongue and tossing porpoises around for fun, orcas are displaying some fascinating — and sometimes terrifying — behaviors.
Monkey looks at himself in a handheld mirror
Which animals can recognize themselves in the mirror? Research on whether animals can recognize themselves in the mirror began in 1970 1 and just a handful of species have since passed the test ever since.

Latest about Animals

Close up image of a goosefishes round face, pointed lure, marble eyes and speckled skin

Watch this monstrous 'sea devil' goosefish walk along the bottom of the ocean off the Galapagos Islands

By Elise Poore published

Footage filmed 1,225 feet beneath the ocean surface shows a goosefish strolling along the seafloor before turning its bulbous head and bulging eyes straight at the camera.

Animals
A reconstruction of the biting structures of two newfound lamprey species.

Flesh-eating 'killer' lampreys that lived 160 million years ago unearthed in China

By Sascha Pare published

Scientists have described two lamprey fossils with "extensively toothed" mouths from the Jurassic period, shining a light on how this group has evolved into its modern forms since the Devonian.

Extinct Species
Jumping spider on the underside of a leaf with cordyceps fungus stalks growing out of its back

These 6 images show the moment when parasites burst from their hosts — and they're scary

By Elise Poore published

Watch as these gruesome parasites emerge from their hosts.

Animals
crow perched on the right side of a gravestone shaped like a cross

7 creatures associated with death

By Elise Poore published

From bats to hornbills, here are some animals that have historically been associated with death.

Animals
A grid showing the faces of multiple cats

Cats have nearly 300 facial expressions, including a 'play face' they share with humans

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

Researchers recorded hundreds of facial expressions in cats, finding they're not quite as aloof as previously thought.

Cats
a mammoth tusk in a shallow stream with mountains in the background

Girl discovers 100,000-year-old mammoth bones in Russian river while fishing with dad

By Richard Pallardy published

An 8-year-old girl discovered the bones of a woolly mammoth and a prehistoric bison after a landslide along the banks of a river in western Russia.

Extinct Species
An artist's drawing of a mosasaur.

Newly discovered Cretaceous sea monster named after world-ending Norse serpent

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

Paleontologists have described a new species of mosasaur with "angry eyebrows" that lived 80 million years ago.

Lizards
A Karelian bear dog is companion to a trained wolf in the forest.

Are dogs smarter than wolves?

By Kiley Price published

Dogs evolved from wolves, but is one smarter than the other?

Dogs
Darwin's hawkmoth (Xanthopan morgani praedicta) on flower, Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.

Wallace's sphinx moth: The long-tongued insect predicted by Darwin decades before it was discovered

By Megan Shersby published

Darwin and fellow naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace predicted the existence of Wallace's sphinx moth from an orchid with an extremely long nectar tube.

Animals
A view of Llullaillaco, a 22,000-foot-tall volcano on the border between Argentina and Chile.

22,000-foot volcano summit is home to Earth's highest-dwelling vertebrates, study confirms

By Sascha Pare published

Mummified mice found atop volcanoes in South America have long hinted that rodents forage on peaks as tall as 22,000 feet, but it turns out mice permanently live at these extreme heights.

Land Mammals
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