Animals

At night, it’s not unusual to find a hoard of moths and other insects circling around a porch light or street lamp — but their reasons for being there are likely quite different from what most people assume, new research has found.

By Ayurella Horn-Muller, CNN (CNN) — Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Ever since, evidence of these ancient plant sentinels has been in short supply. Now, a new discovery of uniquely 3D tree fossils has opened a window into what the world was like when the planet’s early forests

A six-legged dog found abandoned in a supermarket car park in Wales has undergone surgery to remove her extra limbs.

Megalodons, the huge prehistoric sharks depicted in movies such as “The Meg,” had more slender bodies than was previously thought, according to a new study.

On the edge of a dark, suburban park in Brisbane, teams of volunteer toad-catchers gather around Gary King as he shoves another squirming specimen into a cooler box.

The world’s “oldest ever dog” Bobi, who died in October reportedly aged 31, has provisionally lost his title as Guinness World Records (GWR) investigates his age, a spokesperson for the company told CNN on Tuesday.

The largest ape on record stood almost 10 feet tall (3 meters) and weighed nearly twice as much as a gorilla.

Dinosaurs are all around us, figuratively and literally speaking.

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — Long before the first sharks appeared, large predator worms were the “terror beasts” of the seas more than 500 million years ago, according to new research. Scientists discovered fossils of the previously unknown worm species during expeditions in North Greenland, uncovering what they believe to be some of the

The art of nodding off appears to have been mastered by breeding chinstrap penguins, who take more than 10,000 naps a day, with each nap lasting an average of four seconds, according to a new study.

Conservationists have discovered two kiwi chicks in Wellington, the first wild births recorded for the bird in the New Zealand capital in over 150 years.

CNN Words by Gabrielle Jones; video by Jo Munnik, CNN (CNN) — Off the coast of South Africa lies the Great African Sea Forest, home to one of the most biodiverse marine environments on the planet. Many types of life live within the waters including fish, octopus, sea slugs, large amounts of kelp, and sharks

By Taylor Nicioli, CNN (CNN) — Of all 14,669 varieties of plants and animals found in Europe that were registered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species by the end of 2020, one-fifth of them face the risk of extinction, a new analysis has found. Researchers also determined the largest threat associated

By Katie Hunt, CNN (CNN) — The cause of mysterious mass deaths of African elephants has finally been unraveled — and scientists who authored a new report say that the outbreaks could be more likely to occur amid conditions created by the ongoing climate crisis. Thirty-five African elephants in northwestern Zimbabwe dropped dead under baffling

By Ashley Strickland, CNN (CNN) — The heads of most animals are easily identifiable, but scientists haven’t been able to say the same for sea stars until now. A starfish has five identical arms with a layer of “tube feet” beneath them that can help the marine creature move along the seafloor, causing naturalists to

A “mesmerizing” electric blue tarantula species has been discovered in Thailand, according to new research.

Hundreds of millions of years ago, jawless fishes swam Earth’s seas, their brains protected on the outside by armored skin, and on the inside by plates made of cartilage.

By Jessie Yeung, CNN (CNN) — The dramatic ocean saga that led to three men being rescued this week from a sinking inflatable catamaran off the Australian coast has been pinned on an unusual culprit: a small, cigar-shaped shark that leaves such perfectly round wounds it’s called the cookiecutter. The sailors, two Russians and one