Wildlife

Attenborougharion rubicundus is one of more than a dozen species named after the legendary naturalist Sir David Attenborough.

Why Scientists Name Species

From the Beyonce fly to the David Attenborough possum, the names we bestow on animals have real conservation impacts

Creating a phylogeny of all bird life will help researchers map birds' evolutionary relationships and create conservation plans.

New Research

What We Can Learn From a New Bird Tree of Life

Sequencing the DNA of more than 10,000 birds could reveal how best to conserve our feathery friends—and when they evolved from dinosaurs

Liu Cun Yu, the director of the Beipiao Pterosaur Museum, poses in front of a full-scale model of a Moganopterus zhuiana, a species named after his wife.

The Great Chinese Dinosaur Boom

A gold rush of fossil-finding is turning China into the new epicenter of paleontology

The Carolina parakeet, so named for the region where it was discovered, was known for its “disagreeable screams” and great beauty.

Why Did the Carolina Parakeet Go Extinct?

It hasn't been seen for a century. But will the bird species ever fly again?

Fossil ostracods on a slide from the collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The science team behind the recent Nature paper relied heavily on this collection for their analysis.

What the Large Penises of Tiny Crustaceans Tell Us About Evolution

Massive male sex organs have their perks, but in the long run, a little modesty pays

In the minutes after giving birth, 15-year-old Calaya cradled her newborn in her arms.

First Infant Gorilla Born at the Zoo in Nine Years; Watch a Video of the Birth

Little Moke and his first-time mother Calaya are doing well

Everyone knows about shallow coral reefs like this one, which Shepherd captured during a decompression stop up from a mesophotic dive. Far fewer know about the deep reefs that lie just below them.

Illuminating the Ocean’s Teeming Twilight Zone, Before It Disappears

Like underwater islands, these deep reefs harbor countless creatures that scientists have never heard of, and many they never will

Cameras Catch Adorable Glimpse of Mountain Lion Family

Native Montanan Casey Anderson has stumbled across a family of mountain lions living in a nearby cave. He sets up cameras to get a closer look

This Mountain Lion Hides Her Kills in Abandoned Ranches

Adventurer Casey Anderson has tracked a female mountain lion to her unlikely den: an abandoned ranch close to his home

A flock of beluga whales in the Sea of Japan, off the coast of Russia.

New Research

How Culture Guides Belugas' Annual Odysseys Across the Arctic

Strong, multi-generational ties help the cetaceans make the same migrations year after year

“Tattooed Whale, 2016” by Tim Pitsiulak. Screen-print on Arches Cover Black.

Why Scientists Are Starting to Care About Cultures That Talk to Whales

Arctic people have been communicating with cetaceans for centuries. The rest of the world is finally listening in

Giant Panda cubs developing their tree-climbing skills at China’s Chengdu Panda Base

The Science Behind the Unbearably Cute IMAX Movie "Pandas"

Wild populations of these loveable fuzz-faced bears need help, and scientists are on the case

Watch a Man Snatch an Angry Cobra With His Bare Hands

How do you deal with a king cobra that's holed up in a busy village in India? If you’re Gowri Shankar, it’s a simple matter of snake by the tail

An x-ray of a Whiskered Prowfish (Neopataecus waterhousii), which has a "lachrymal saber." One species of waspfish features a saber that glows.

New Research

Why Did a Venomous Fish Evolve a Glowing Eye Spike?

A newly discovered “lachrymal saber” could illuminate relationships between an order of deadly fishes

Curasub commissioner/owner Adriaan Schrier and lead DROP scientist Carole Baldwin aboard the custom-built submersible.

How a Team of Submersible-Bound Scientists Redefined Reef Ecosystems

In tropical Curaçao, Smithsonian researchers are constantly confronting the unknown

A long-range autonomous underwater vehicle carrying an environmental sample processor cruises beneath the surface during field trials in Hawaii.

These Underwater Robots Offer a New Way to Sample Microbes From the Ocean

The health of forests of underwater plankton have a big impact on the environment, and oceanographers are just starting to understand it

A whale with water gushing out of its blowhole would not be smiling. It would be drowning.

How Children's Books Reveal Our Evolving Relationship With Whales

Storybooks feature a fair amount of factual errors—and those errors can be revealing

Zoo curator Bryan Amaral expects Spike will play nice with the other elephants. "For a bull elephant," he says, "Spike's a pretty amenable guy."

Meet Spike, the Affable Asian Bull Elephant Trucked Up From Florida to Join the National Zoo

With a new male elephant in the mix, zookeepers are hopeful babies will soon be on the way

Sir David Attenborough and His Crew Race to Film a Walking Shark

Step behind the scenes as Attenborough and his intrepid crew battle against the falling tide to capture footage of one of nature's most enigmatic creatures

Ali the Aardvark gets cozy as baby Winsol nurses at the Cincinnati Zoo. Ali is one of hundreds of animals whose milk samples are sent to the Smithsonian National Zoo’s milk repository for scientific research.

What Aardvark Milk Reveals about the Evolution of Lactation

Samples from the Smithsonian National Zoo’s Exotic Animal Milk Repository help scientists study the unifying trait of all mammals

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