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Fernanda, the Fernandina Giant Tortoise was found in 2019 on an expedition. (Pictured here) The tortoises on Fernandina Island were thought to have gone extinct from volcanic eruptions.

Meet Fernanda, the Galápagos Tortoise Lost for Over a Century

Now that researchers have confirmed the animal belongs to the previously vanished species, conservationists are planning to search the islands for a mate

Researchers had previously theorized that the 61 people buried in the Jebel Sahaba Cemetery were the victims of a single battle or massacre. A new study suggests the remains actually belong to hunter-gatherers killed during a series of smaller raids.

Cool Finds

Did Climate Change Drive Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers in Sudan to War?

Some 13,400 years ago, rival communities in the Nile Valley likely clashed over scarce resources

Anonymous, Enslaved Men Digging Trenches, c. 1850

Confronting the Netherlands’ Role in the Brutal History of Slavery

A Rijksmuseum exhibition explores the legacy of colonialism and misleading nature of the term “Dutch Golden Age”

The World Health Organization has identified four variants of concern, named Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta, and six variants of interest.

Talking About Coronavirus Variants Just Got Easier With New Greek Letter Naming System

The move aims to remove the stigmatization of location-based names and reduce the confusion of scientific names

Firefighters in helicopters battle a 1,300 acre brush fire in Pacific Palisades on May 17. The California fire season started early this year.

United Nations Report Shows That Climate Change Is Accelerating

Scientists say there is a 90 percent chance that one of the next five years will be the hottest on record

A wild giant otter photographed in the Bermejo River in Argentina's El Impenetrable National Park. This is the first time the species has been seen in Argentina in more than 30 years.

Planet Positive

Giant River Otter Spotted in Argentina for First Time in Decades

The first wild sighting of the species in Argentina since the 1980s, this surprise offers hope to conservationists looking to bring the otters back

A curator's archival research identified a previously unattributed marble skull as a lost masterpiece by Bernini.

Cool Finds

‘Lost’ Marble Skull Sculpted by Baroque Artist Bernini Found Hidden in Plain Sight

Pope Alexander VII commissioned the work, which sat unidentified in Dresden for decades, as a reminder of mortality

Before the highway's construction, Claiborne Avenue was known for its towering oaks.

The Highway That Sparked the Demise of an Iconic Black Street in New Orleans

Claiborne Avenue was a center of commerce and culture—until a federal interstate cut it off from the rest of the city in the 1960s

Red-handed tamarins have greater vocal flexibility, using calls ranging from territorial long calls to chirps to trills to communicate, whereas pied tamarins use long whistle-like calls.

Red-Handed Tamarins Can Mimic Other Species’ Accents

The South American primates change their calls to communicate with other tamarin species living in shared territories

Passengers ride the New York City subway on May 24, 2021.

New Research

Thousands of Unknown Microbes Found in Subways Around the World

A team of more than 900 scientists and volunteers swabbed the surfaces of 60 public transit systems

Artist’s reconstruction of historic structures at the site of Netherton Cross, a 10th- or 11th-century religious sculpture that has since been relocated

Cool Finds

Scottish Archaeologists Discover Only Surviving Traces of Razed Medieval Town

An 18th-century duke seeking to transform his estate into parkland ordered the village of Netherton’s destruction

Individuals located in the Comoros Islands may have descended from the coelacanth population in Madagascar.

Madagascar May Be Stronghold for Ancient Fish With 420-Million-Year History

Fishermen from the island nation caught a number of rare coelacanths off the coast using gillnets

A close-up view of the Hartwell Memorial Window, a stained-glass panel likely designed by Agnes F. Northrop in 1917

Stunning Tiffany Stained Glass Debuts After 100 Years of Obscurity

The enormous, luminescent landscape spent nearly a century in Providence before its 2018 acquisition by the Art Institute of Chicago

Aussie Ark and other conservation groups collaborated to release 26 Tasmanian devils into a nature preserve north of Sydney. Their goal is to bring this species back to mainland Australia 3,000 years after they went locally extinct.

Tasmanian Devils Born on Mainland Australia Offer Hope for a Species at Risk of Extinction

Seven infant devils born inside an enclosed nature preserve represent a conservation milestone

Carle wrote and illustrated dozens of books over six decades.

Eric Carle, Author and Illustrator of ‘The Very Hungry Caterpillar,’ Dies at 91

The beloved story of a ravenous insect has sold 40 million copies and been translated into 60 languages

Highlights of the upcoming sale include this 1841 birthday note from Emily Brontë to her sister Anne.

Unseen Trove of Literary Treasures, From Emily Brontë’s Handwritten Poems to Robert Burns’ Musings, Up for Sale

Sotheby’s is set to auction a private collection of 500 manuscripts, first editions, letters and papers linked to famed British authors

This July 9, 2020, photograph shows a 14th-century bell tower peeking out of Lake Resia in northern Italy. The building—and the historic town it once stood in—were submerged in an artificial lake in 1950 to generate power for a nearby hydroelectric plant.

Submerged Italian Village Briefly Resurfaces After 70 Years Underwater

Construction work revealed the foundations of Curon, a historic alpine town, for the first time since 1950

The bubbles the anole lizards use may act as a "physical gill" that can pull oxygen from the water while accumulated carbon dioxide escapes into the water over the surface of the bubble in a process known as diffusion.

Diving Anole Lizards Use Bubbles to Breathe Underwater

Like a natural form of scuba gear, the semi-aquatic lizard can stay submerged underwater for up to 18 minutes using the clever trick

A health worker preserves mucosal swab samples at a Covid-19 testing center in New Delhi, India.

Scientists Are Creating a Blood Test to Measure Covid-19 Immunity

Once researchers determine a ‘correlate of protection,’ they will be able to measure immunity and develop new vaccines more quickly

Miscanthus is a type of grass that is often grown as a biofuel. Trials in the United Kingdom are now underway to explore the possibility of scaling up biofuel crops like Miscanthus grasses to see if they can help fight climate change by removing carbon from the atmosphere.

United Kingdom Begins Large-Scale Carbon Removal Trials

The $42 million project will test out five strategies for pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to fight climate change

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