Life
Diplodocus fossils discovered in Spain challenge North America-only theory
The discovery challenges a century-old assumption that one of Earth's most iconic dinosaurs never left North America.
Sep 19, 2026
A Science Blog column
Natural History
Nature and ecology
Natural History is Science Blog's desk for the living world. Animals, evolution, and ecology, reported from the field science and the papers rather than the press releases.
Earth & Environment
Scientists grew living plants from fruit a ground squirrel buried 32,000 years ago
Scientists resurrected plants from fruit frozen for 32,000 years—and the flowers that bloomed looked strikingly different from their living descendants.
Sep 19, 2026
Earth & Environment
Icebreaker had to rescue its own instrument from frozen Arctic seas
On a 2017 cruise off northeastern Greenland, the icebreaker Polarstern had to circle back and break a path to a sea-floor sensor that Arctic ice had quietly sealed under a solid white lid.
Sep 18, 2026
Earth & Environment
Temperature swings nearly three degrees in the same neighborhood
Across one South Tacoma neighborhood, simultaneous temperatures differed by 2.57°C on average, while nearby tree canopy was associated with cooler locations.
Sep 18, 2026
Life
In 1949, five cats were put ashore on sub-Antarctic Marion Island to control mice that sealers had left behind, but their descendants went…
A well-intentioned introduction of five cats to control mice instead unleashed an ecological catastrophe that would take forty years and thousands of hours to partially reverse.
Sep 17, 2026
Earth & Environment
A gardener's slug fix became Scotland's million-pound ecological crisis
A well-meaning gardener's slug solution became an island's ecological catastrophe, forcing Scotland to spend millions to undo forty years of unintended consequences.
Sep 17, 2026
Life
Government stocked islands with foxes to harvest fur, then spent decades trying to save the birds
A wildlife refuge created to protect seabirds became the perfect hunting ground for an industry the government itself had engineered.
Sep 17, 2026
Earth & Environment
One electrical tower hosted nine white stork nests, straining Spain's power grid protection efforts
A handful of electrical towers became magnets for nesting storks, forcing Spanish grid operators into an uncomfortable choice between maintaining infrastructure and protecting a species that had nearly vanished from the continent.
Sep 17, 2026
Life
More than one in three sharks and rays now face extinction threat
The latest global reassessment covered 1,199 sharks, rays and chimaeras: 32.6 percent directly qualified as threatened, rising to an estimated 37.5 percent when Data Deficient species are accounted for.
Sep 16, 2026
Earth & Environment
Clerical error at wildlife sanctuary triggered three-decade battle to eradicate invasive ducks
A clerical mistake at a British wildlife sanctuary sparked a three-decade battle to eradicate an invasive species that nearly succeeded before nearly vanishing.
Sep 16, 2026
Life
Decades of turtle tracking reveal ocean stress is stretching breeding cycles
It is the first evidence of a long-term stretching in sea turtle breeding intervals, and the authors' most parsimonious reading is that foraging conditions have deteriorated, though they cannot yet say how much of it is crowding and how much a warming ocean.
Sep 16, 2026
Life
Escaped Florida fish farm catfish learned to walk across land
A tropical fish that mastered land travel found the perfect escape route: Florida's sprawling canal system.
Sep 16, 2026
Life
Screwworm larvae burrow into living flesh, turning tiny wounds into infestations
New World screwworm is an obligate parasite whose larvae invade living tissue. Its tiny entry wounds, rapid life cycle and unusual vulnerability to sterile males explain both the danger and control.
Sep 16, 2026
Life
Ancient dinosaur dung preserves feathers from 66 million years ago
A Hell Creek theropod coprolite preserved an exposed flight feather, additional hidden feathers, bird bones and fish scales, recording anatomy and a food chain in one fossil.
Sep 15, 2026