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.
The end-Permian extinction devastated the oceans before dinosaurs existed. Its link to the Siberian Traps depends on not just immense lava volumes, but magma heating volatile-rich rock.
Aug 21, 2026
Dimetrodon lived in the Permian, before dinosaurs, and belonged to Synapsida, the same major evolutionary branch that later produced mammals.
Aug 21, 2026
A luxury fiber so rare that the animal producing it cannot be domesticated—and thrives only in the thin air of the highest Andes.
Aug 20, 2026
A species abandoned by climate change six thousand years ago still clings to existence in Earth's harshest landscape, waiting for a rescue that may never come.
Aug 20, 2026
A cemetery in upstate New York harbors more bees than people live in Manhattan—a discovery that could reshape how we think about pollinator habitat.
Aug 19, 2026
Spotted hyenas solved a two-rope cooperation task rapidly without being coached on the social rule, but solo familiarisation and task ecology make the chimpanzee comparison more specific than a general intelligence ranking.
Aug 18, 2026
Male lions can take food from lionesses, but their hardest-to-replace role is deterring takeovers that threaten resident males and dependent cubs.
Aug 18, 2026
The spotted hyena's proportionally large heart fits an endurance-hunting body, while the lion is built to shorten a chase. The comparison also exposes the scavenger myth.
Aug 18, 2026
A Namib field study recorded an oryx at 44°C while one instrumented hunter maintained thermal control. The result supports feasibility, not proof that persistence hunting drove human evolution.
Aug 17, 2026
The human nuchal ligament helps stabilize the head during running and leaves an indirect trace in early Homo skulls, but one feature cannot prove ancient behaviour.
Aug 16, 2026
Below about 150 metres, the Black Sea contains no oxygen at all. That chemistry is why a Greek merchant ship documented in 2018 by the Black Sea Maritime Archaeology Project sits upright on the seabed with its mast, rudder and rowing benches still intact after roughly 2,400 years.
Aug 16, 2026
Snailfish live nearly seven miles down in the Mariana Trench, under pressure of about 8 tons per square inch. Their skeletons are half-cartilage, their cells carry a molecule called TMAO that keeps water functional under crushing load, and they remain the deepest fish ever filmed.
Aug 16, 2026
Satellite-tagged juvenile godwit B6 remained airborne from Alaska to Tasmania for 11 days and one hour, while later track models place the distance between about 13,391 and 13,560 kilometres.
Aug 16, 2026
Ocean Census documented 1,121 candidate marine species in one year, but its rapid discovery status is distinct from a completed formal taxonomic description.
Aug 15, 2026
