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Researchers recently discovered that platypuses are the only known mammals with hollow melanosomes, a pigment-filled structure that gives hair, fur, skin, feathers and eyes their color. 

Platypus Hair Shares a Puzzling Feature With Bird Feathers, Adding to the Egg-Laying Mammal’s List of Unusual Characteristics

The species’ melanosomes—tiny, pigment-filled structures inside hair cells—are hollow, a trait never before seen in mammals

Finland snagged the top spot in this year's World Happiness Report, an annual survey of wellbeing in more than 140 countries.

New Research

Finland Is Named the Happiest Country in the World for the Ninth Year in a Row

The World Happiness Report is an annual ranking of wellbeing around the globe. This year’s report spotlighted the consequences of social media use

This year marks the fourth time the waterfalls have flowed in the past 15 years.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

These Mesmerizing Waterfalls Flow Only Every Few Years. See the Rare Marvel Now in Southwest Utah

Gunlock Reservoir has exceeded 105 percent of its capacity. As a result, water is spilling onto the red rock boulders below, creating an unusual natural phenomenon just in time for spring break

3D rendering of an Eciton hamatum subsoldier ant

These Stunningly Detailed 3D Images of Ants Showcase the Remarkable Diversity Across Their Many Species

Scientists used a game-changing technique to scan about 2,200 preserved specimens in just one week to create the Antscan database

Participants listened to pairs of mating calls made by numerous creatures, including male green treefrogs.

Humans and Animals Often Like the Same Mating Calls, Supporting a 150-Year-Old Observation by Charles Darwin

New research by Smithsonian scientists suggests that preferences for certain sounds might be evolutionarily conserved

This chrysoprase snuffbox belonged to Frederick II of Prussia.

These Historic Snuffboxes Associated With 18th-Century Monarchs Were Stolen in a Shocking Heist. Now, They’re Back on Public Display

In 2024, thieves made away with the intricately decorated boxes, which had been on display in Paris. Two of the boxes, which were later recovered, are now on view at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London

The cockapoo, a mix between the cocker spaniel and poodle, had the most behavioral problems of all analyzed crossbreeds compared to its purebred progenitor breeds.

Contrary to Popular Belief, Some Doodle Crossbred Dogs May Have More Behavioral Problems Than Their Purebred Parents

Pet owners often pick “designer dogs” because they think they’ll be easier to train and friendlier with kids than purebreeds. A new study suggests that’s not always the case

Researchers from the Relicta Foundation studied the site using deep-core drilling, geophysical surveys and lidar scans.

Cool Finds

Archaeologists Unearth Traces of a Mysterious Medieval City That Was Abandoned Under Puzzling Circumstances Hundreds of Years Ago

Found in a Polish forest, the town of Stolzenberg appears to have been built around the turn of the 14th century. Surveys revealed evidence of a town square, a main street and a moat

Ramses' wooden coffin is the centerpiece of the exhibition.

See Ramses II’s Intricately Decorated Coffin and Rare Treasures From His Reign at This New Immersive Exhibition

Now on display in London, “Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold” features 3,000-year-old artifacts alongside virtual reality experiences that transport museumgoers to the 13th century B.C.E.

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See the 2,500-Pound Bronze Bison as They Arrive at Their New, Permanent Place at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History

More than a century ago, the massive mammals actually grazed beside the Smithsonian Castle. As of today, two large sculptures continue that legacy as they flank the museum’s main entrance

The feathers belonged to birds from four large parrot species, according to researchers.

Humans May Have Transported Live Parrots Over the Andes Mountains Along Sophisticated Trade Routes Before the Rise of the Inca Empire

Archaeologists were puzzled when they found parrot feathers in a pre-Inca burial in coastal Peru. A new study suggests that the birds were captured in the wild and kept alive over lengthy journeys

The researchers used sound waves to levitate tiny glass spheres as part of their study. 

Scientists Make a Major Breakthrough in Solving a Hair-Raising Mystery About Static Electricity

The findings can help explain the physics behind phenomena like volcanic lightning

European hedgehog numbers are shrinking.

European Hedgehogs’ Hearing Might Be Attuned to Ultrasonic Sounds. The Discovery Could Help Scientists Save the Declining Species

Sound-based deterrents could help keep the animals away from fast-moving cars and dangerous landscaping equipment

Outside the Colosseum's southern wall, newly constructed marble slabs indicate where tall columns once supported two arcades.

At the Colosseum, New Marble Slabs Mark Where Towering Columns Stood Thousands of Years Ago

Crowds once mingled below two tall arcades supported by 164-foot-tall columns. But due to earthquakes and unstable foundations, these architectural elements collapsed long ago

John Constable, Golding Constable's Kitchen Garden, 1815

England’s ‘Constable Country’ Is Honoring the 250th Birthday of Its Namesake, Landscape Artist John Constable, With a Year of Exhibitions

Constable was born in the Suffolk village of East Bergholt on June 11, 1776. With “Constable 250,” nearby Ipswich honors the pastoral painter’s connections to his homeland, community, country and contemporary art

The entrance to the cellar was found beneath the golf course.

Cool Finds

A Groundskeeper Noticed a Sinkhole on a Golf Course. It Turned Out to Be a Wine Cellar Full of Empty Bottles, Untouched for More Than 100 Years

The cellar is located near the 13th hole of a course at the Davyhulme Park Golf Club in England. Staffers think it was previously part of a manor that was torn down in 1888

Two participants tried the device, which translates thoughts of specific finger movements into strokes on a virtual keyboard. 

An Experimental Brain Implant Allows People With Paralysis to Type Their Thoughts With Their Minds

One of the two participants wrote words up to a speed similar to an able-bodied person texting on a smartphone

The frieze takes inspiration from the Bayeux Tapestry, an 11th-century artwork depicting of the Norman conquest of England.

David Hockney Used an iPad to Create This Sprawling 295-Foot-Long Frieze Inspired by the 11th-Century Bayeux Tapestry

The artwork, which depicts the changing seasons in Normandy, is the centerpiece of “A Year in Normandie and Some Other Thoughts About Painting,” a new exhibition in London

Rats and other rodents have front teeth that grow continuously, so they gnaw to keep them healthy and in shape. 

Rodents Don’t Gnaw Just to Trim Their Teeth—It Also Feels Good, According to a New Study

The findings could help humans who grind their teeth or clench their jaws

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A Meteor Streaked Across the Morning Sky as a Dazzling ‘Fireball’ Before Exploding With a Thunderous Boom Above Ohio

A six-foot-wide, seven-ton asteroid caused the rare celestial spectacle

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