The houndshark species Mustelus lenticulatus Paul Caiger At least one shark species has a bark to go along with its bite. It can make clicking noises, scientists report, a first among an animal group once thought to be totally silent. During her doctoral research at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, Carolin Nieder, now…
Giraffes in the Tarangire ecosystem in Tanzania Monica Bond The beautiful mottled patterns of a giraffe’s coat work as more than camouflage – the size of the spots seems to be linked to how well the animals survive during unusual temperatures. Every giraffe has a unique array of spots. Patterns with larger and rounder spots…
Marshall (voiced by Dave King) finds the amazing Blue Angel mushroom Warner Bros. Discovery Common Side EffectsJoseph Bennett, Steve HelyChannel 4 (UK); Cartoon Network, Max (US) One of the best shows I watched last year was Scavengers Reign, a lushly animated sci-fi series about an interstellar cargo ship that crashes on a planet full of…
An image of the quasar 3C 186, taken by the Hubble Space Telescope NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center A rare collision between two supermassive black holes (SMBH) appears to have sent the resulting merger speeding through the universe, making it one of the fastest-moving black holes we have ever seen. Astronomers have long puzzled over…
African forest elephants Will Burrard-Lucas Night has fallen; an elephant mother and her calf walk through Nouabalé-Ndoki National Park, which covers more than 4000 square kilometres of rainforest in the northern Republic of the Congo. This remarkable photograph above of the critically endangered African forest elephants (Loxodonta cyclotis) was captured using a camera trap. The…
The Athena lander in low lunar orbit Intuitive Machines Intuitive Machines’s Athena lander has made it to the moon, but it seems to have fallen over. The lander is still working, but it isn’t yet clear which parts of its mission it will still be able to accomplish. The spacecraft launched on board a SpaceX…
A specimen of Sirenobethylus charybdis preserved in amber Qiong Wu An extraordinary extinct wasp found preserved in amber may have used its abdomen to grasp other insects like a Venus flytrap before laying its eggs on them. “It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before. It’s unlike any wasp or any other insect that is known…
The evolution of the anus may have driven the body plan of all advanced animals, including humans MattLphotography / Alamy The anus is a wildly successful innovation, but how did it evolve? A genetic analysis suggests it probably began as an opening used to release sperm that later fused with the gut – an example…
A cave orb spider blickwinkel/Alamy Spiders known for elaborate circular webs have altered their spinning style in dark spaces to create apparent tripwires for walking prey. Those that make circular webs are known as orb-weavers, and most of them trap mosquitoes, beetles and other flying insects in sticky spiral frame webs sparsely attached to outdoor…
Hanuman langurs have adapted their behaviour to thrive around human environments Ondrej Prosicky / Alamy A group of monkeys in India has developed a range of ingenious techniques to acquire food peacefully from devout tourists. Revered as holy at the Dakshineswar temple complex near Kolkata, Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus entellus) quietly grab visitors’ legs, tug on…
