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In Cretaceous Brazil, a prehistoric mammal the size of a cougar or a large dog left telltale tracks on sand dunes.

Fossil Footprints in Brazil Hint at a Cougar-Size Mammal That Walked Among Dinosaurs. It’s Another Sign That Some Early Beasts Grew to Impressive Sizes After All

Don’t think of all Mesozoic mammals as meek and tiny—alongside the terrible lizards, some were giants in their own right

Riley Black

The four-color theorem is simple to state: Given a contiguous map, is it possible to color each region with one of four colors such that no neighboring regions share a color?

The Four-Color Theorem Has Haunted Mathematicians for Decades. It Just Got a Rare New Proof, but Some Still Long for a Simpler Solution

The Florida threadleaf sundew is endemic to just two counties in the state’s Panhandle, where it relies on the sandy margins of sinkhole lakes.

The World’s Newest Carnivorous Plant Is a Red Sundew That ‘Death Hugs’ Its Insect Prey. Its Survival Depends on a Rare and Disappearing Florida Habitat

Scientists have made some headway in understanding what lends blood its varied shades.

The Bloody Palette of the Animal Kingdom Goes Far Beyond Red. These Creatures Have Blood That Runs a Chilling Blue, Bright Green or Milky White

Bats navigate in the dark using echolocation. Scientists are piecing together how the animals understand the world through the mix of echoes that bounces back.

Bats Thrive in a Messy, Noisy World. These Four Discoveries Reveal How They Can Listen and Chatter Through the Din

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In Cretaceous Brazil, a prehistoric mammal the size of a cougar or a large dog left telltale tracks on sand dunes.

Fossil Footprints in Brazil Hint at a Cougar-Size Mammal That Walked Among Dinosaurs. It’s Another Sign That Some Early Beasts Grew to Impressive Sizes After All

Don’t think of all Mesozoic mammals as meek and tiny—alongside the terrible lizards, some were giants in their own right

A rabbit chews on blades of grass.  

Smithsonian Photo Contest Galleries

Hear, Hear to Long Ears: These 15 Furry Photos of Adorable Rabbits and Hares Will Have You Leaping for Leporidae

The images from Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest show the mammalian species and their twitching noses at their cutest

“It’s a national treasure,” says Sara Brown Aicher, a retired U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service biologist who spent 31 years at the refuge. “It is one of the last places like it.”

America’s Newest UNESCO World Heritage Site Is a Swamp—and That’s Exactly Why You Should Go

Georgia’s Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is one of the world’s rarest surviving wetland ecosystems. Its new global recognition reveals why protecting this landscape matters far beyond the American South

The four-color theorem is simple to state: Given a contiguous map, is it possible to color each region with one of four colors such that no neighboring regions share a color?

The Four-Color Theorem Has Haunted Mathematicians for Decades. It Just Got a Rare New Proof, but Some Still Long for a Simpler Solution

The famous problem asks whether a map can be filled in with only four colors such that the same color never borders itself. It has been solved with the help of computers, but some experts suggest an elusive, short answer is out there

Scientists have made some headway in understanding what lends blood its varied shades.

The Bloody Palette of the Animal Kingdom Goes Far Beyond Red. These Creatures Have Blood That Runs a Chilling Blue, Bright Green or Milky White

The hemoglobin in humans’ blood is not the standard for all critters—and one group of Antarctic fish are the only vertebrates to not have red blood cells at all

The Florida threadleaf sundew is endemic to just two counties in the state’s Panhandle, where it relies on the sandy margins of sinkhole lakes.

The World’s Newest Carnivorous Plant Is a Red Sundew That ‘Death Hugs’ Its Insect Prey. Its Survival Depends on a Rare and Disappearing Florida Habitat

Confined to hidden sinkhole lakes in the Panhandle, the Florida threadleaf sundew is both a discovery and a warning bell for a vanishing ecosystem that’s long been ignored

The head of a male turkey is distinguished by the colorful dewlap and caruncles on its neck.

Ben Franklin Wasn’t Serious When He Implied the Wild Turkey Would Be a ‘Respectable’ National Symbol … but He Wasn’t Wrong, Either

The birds strutted around North America for hundreds of thousands of years before hunters decimated their population. Credit its recovery to resourcefulness, a stubborn disposition and a little help

At his farm near Parma, Italy, Claudio Grossi offers a visual history of his miracle grain in photos, crackers and loaves.

An Italian Farmer Found Some Unknown Seeds in His Attic and, With Nothing to Lose, Planted Them. The Result Was Almost Biblical

When a seven-eared stem emerged from the ground, it seemed like a miracle. What Claudio Grossi had unearthed was an ancient grain that proved to be an answer to some modern problems

Bats navigate in the dark using echolocation. Scientists are piecing together how the animals understand the world through the mix of echoes that bounces back.

Bats Thrive in a Messy, Noisy World. These Four Discoveries Reveal How They Can Listen and Chatter Through the Din

From eavesdropping to echolocation tricks, science is giving us an inside look into how various bat species weaponize sound

Bison gather for a recent feeding in the forest.

Bison Used to Roam Eastern Europe Before They Neared Extinction. Now Researchers in Poland Want to Create a Suitable Home Where They Can Thrive

Once nearly extinct, wisent adapted to life in the Bialowieza Forest. Human intervention kept them from disappearing, and now humans are trying to return them to their true habitat

A female green turtle digs through sand to create a nest on Aldabra atoll.

Green Sea Turtles Are Making a Remarkable Comeback on the Remote Aldabra Atoll and Around the World. But Their Recovery Is Far From Complete

One year after the species was reclassified from “endangered” to “least concern,” green turtles in the western Indian Ocean exemplify that return—and the subtleties a global designation can miss

A total solar eclipse, as seen from the European Southern Observatory's La Silla Observatory in Chile in 2019

Were Two Ancient Chinese Astronomers Beheaded for Failing to Predict an Eclipse in 2134 B.C.E.? The Story May Be a Myth, but It Underscores the Real Risks of Interpreting Celestial Events

Experts say that an oft-circulated anecdote about two royal astronomers drunkenly failing to foresee an eclipse thousands of years ago contains hints of truth

After finding cold seeps on the seafloor of the Arctic Ocean, scientists collected samples of the sediment, which sometimes rested more than 1,000 feet below the surface.

The Race for Hydrogen Fuel Has Taken These Scientists to the Arctic Seafloor. But Can They Unlock Its Secrets Before It’s Too Late?

On challenging expeditions, researchers have collected deep-sea bacteria that naturally produce hydrogen, exploring and documenting an ancient ecosystem that may soon be altered forever

Dams block the flow of a river to hold water in a reservoir, which can be used for agriculture, recreation, household needs or industry. The flow of water through a dam can generate hydroelectric power. Aging dams are being dismantled across the country, restoring the natural flow to rivers.

Dam Removals Are Bringing Fish Back Across the Northeastern United States, Striking Down One Tiny Barrier at a Time

While the demolition of big dams in the West gets more attention, many of these often-obsolete obstructions are also coming out of northeastern streams and rivers—and herring are returning in droves

Colorful coral flourish in New Caledonia, a French territory off the east coast of Australia, near a cliff overlooking beautiful, clear waters.  

These 15 Photos Showcase the Intensely Brilliant Colors of Coral Reefs and the Creatures That Live Among Them

These images from the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest highlight the importance of the marine ecosystems and the many species they help sustain

A Bubble Barrier creates a diagonal line of whiter water in Amsterdam's Westerdok.

Could This Dutch Invention Help Tackle Plastic Pollution in America’s Waterways?

The Netherlands has had success with the Bubble Barrier, which pumps air bubbles from the bottom of a canal or river to direct plastic to the surface. Now, Lansing, Michigan, is looking to be the first to install the technology stateside

Tyrannosaurus rex’s image has seen major adjustments over the past century.

Five Discoveries That Changed Our Understanding of T. Rex Forever, From Warm Blood to Lips

Paleontologists are still unraveling the secrets of the world’s most famous dinosaur, such as its outward appearance or the way that it hunted. With each new finding, our view of the “tyrant lizard king” has gotten a little clearer—and sometimes has radically shifted

The user, if pregnant, will feel raised bumps on both sides of the flat lollipop—a reaction to hCG, a hormone that the body produces during pregnancy.

This Lollipop Could Help Blind Women Independently Detect Pregnancy

Design student Sneha Rao is developing Tact, an edible pregnancy test that allows people with vision impairment to feel its results on their tongues

Pottery fragments from Etowah in Georgia, where people of the Mississippian culture built large earthen mounds

Ancient Pottery Reveals the Earliest Known Traces of Chocolate East of the Mississippi, Painting a Picture of Connection in the Americas

A new archaeological discovery suggests that people in present-day Georgia have feasted with cacao for 1,000 years

A giant panda peers through the trees and gazes at the photographer at a nature reserve in China’s Qinling mountain range.

These 15 Adorable Photos of Pandas Will Make You Want to Visit the Zoo Immediately

Members of the fluffy and adorable but vulnerable species are often cared for in zoos and breeding centers around the world, and these snapshots may make you jealous of the caretakers’ jobs

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