At the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea, just south of Greece, there is a lake. Complete with a delicate shoreline and an inviting deep blue surface, the L’Atalante basin looks almost like a lake on land. But this is an inhospitable place. Image: crimsonwoods_flickr
Read More
It was a sign of things to come. About 2.3 billion years ago, our primitive planet was an oxygen-poor world profoundly different from now – but then it briefly and mysteriously gained an oxygen-rich atmosphere. This so-called Lomagundi Event could have provided a fleeting opportunity for complex, animal-like creatures to evolve billions of years before the ancestors of all animals we know today appeared. Image: maxelman
Read More
The most primitive animals may have thrived in water that contained almost no oxygen. The finding suggests that the rise of animals could have created our modern, oxygen-rich oceans, rather than oxygen-rich oceans triggering the rise of animals. Image: Bill & Mark Bell
Read More
In some ways, the depths of the Earth’s crust are the final frontier for biologists. In these isolated ecosystems lurk organisms that defy many established biological rules. There are microbes that metabolise so slowly they may be millions of years old; bacteria that survive without benefiting from the sun’s energy; and animals that do what no animal should – live their entire lives without oxygen. Image: matthewvenn
Read More
Hyenas are famous for their loud laughs, but hyena groans may be an equally important facet of their vocal repertoire. The spotted hyena has a rich range of vocal calls, including loud whoops and giggles. But in intimate social situations, hyenas often groan softly to one another. Image: mape_s
Read More
Animal behavioural studies are blurring the boundaries between humans and animals, and challenging...
Read More
Meet the people who help in the response against livestock disease outbreaks. Read more…...
Read More
It used to be easy to separate man from beast. Then we realised animals, too, can experience sophisticated emotions and communicate through language. But there is one thing that is beyond even our closest relatives, chimpanzees – and that is the ability to be spiteful. Image: fwooper
Read More
