Wildlife

Baby panda

Cute Baby Animals You Have to See This Spring

Check out what's new at the zoo

Atopodentatus used its odd-shaped head to vacuum up food from the sea floor hundreds of millions of years ago.

Weirdo Ancient Marine Reptile Had a Vacuum-Shaped Head

Animal probably slurped up plant material from the seafloor

Trachymolgus purpureus

Enjoy Face Time with Seven of Earth's 3 to 5 Million Mite Species

A Smithsonian collection of some one million species of mites is receiving its up close and personal

Important information about a cheetah can be found in its feces.

A Fecal Pellet’s Worth A Thousand Words

Scientists can learn a surprising amount about an animal just by analyzing its poop

This Bug Wears Its Victims' Carcasses as Camouflage

The assassin bug is one of the most cunning predators in the micro world, gluing the exoskeletons of its prey to its back as camouflage

How do we measure a bird's IQ?

Describing Someone as “Birdbrained” Is Misguided, Unless You’re Talking About Emus

A new book about birds explores how birds think

"Science fiction is so important to our culture, because it allows us to dream," said Jim Green, director of NASA's planetary science division, at the "Future is Here" festival.

Future Is Here Festival

The Future Is Here Festival Considers Extraterrestrial Life and the Essence of Humanity

In the festival's final day, speakers turn to the cosmos and our place within it

Woolly mammoths were mixing it up with other mammoths in North America, new research shows.

North American Mammoths May Have Been a Single Species

Woolly mammoths and other varieties may have been intermingling, DNA analyses show

This Is the Closest Thing to a Dragon You'll Ever See

Draco lizards use specialized sideflaps to launch themselves into the air while evading predators

Black widows’ red hourglass tells birds to back off but is almost invisible to insects.

The Deadly Cunning of the Black Widow's Color Scheme

Why did the spider evolve to have that crimson hourglass on its back?

A study of baboons found that have an easy life when young can pay off years into the future.

For Baboons, a Tough Childhood Can Lead to a Short Life

Primates that grow up under tough conditions don’t live as long as those that have it easy

A giant mouse feeds on a dead seabird chick.

A Steady Diet of Seabird Chicks Makes Island Mice Huge

With no predators or competition, rodents can eat baby birds alive

The scimitar-horned oryx was declared extinct in the wild in 2000.

Rewilding the African Scimitar-Horned Oryx

In a historic first, an animal that went extinct in the African wild is reintroduced, giving hope for many endangered species

The footprints of ankylosaurs and other 122-million-year-old dinosaurs are preserved outside Moab, Utah.

Paleontologists Unveil Dinosaur Stomping Ground in Utah

Visitors can view ghostly footprints that record prehistoric steps in pale blue stone

How the Fastest Animal on Earth Attacks Its Prey

When hunting, the Peregrine falcon will fly to great heights, then dive bomb its prey

In a new book The Naturalist, the Smithsonian's Darrin Lunde draws on Teddy Roosevelt's diaries and expedition journals to tell the story of the 26th president as a prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer and ardent conservationist.

Teddy Roosevelt's Epic (But Strangely Altruistic) Hunt for a White Rhino

In a new book, a Smithsonian naturalist tells the gritty, controversial tale of how one of America’s presidents felled a threatened species

Age of Humans

Lemur Extinctions Are Harmful to Madagascar's Plant Life, Too

Plants and trees that once relied on a particular species of lemur to spread their seeds may also be headed for extinction.

Here's What Bat Echolocation Sounds Like, Slowed Down

Bats use a perceptual system called echolocation that allows them to produce high pitch sounds that bounce off nearby objects and living things

The Anna’s hummingbird is one of many species of birds that attract females with sounds generated by their feathers.

These Birds Can Sing Using Only Their Feathers

When feathers meet air in just the right way, birds can create distinctive sounds

The Chilarchaea quellon trap-jaw spider can snap its long chelicerae shut in about a quarter of a millisecond.

Tiny Spiders Are the Fastest Known on Earth

Some trap-jaw spiders can snap their mouths shut with incredible force—in less than a millisecond

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