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Australia

Baby wombat and mother on Maria Island.

Trending Today

You Can Visit This Australian Island, but Only if You Pledge to Skip the Wombat Selfie

The marsupials on Maria Island are so docile, tourism officials are asking the public to stop getting so close

A cane toad (Rhinella marina) at Fogg Dam Conservation Reserve, Northern Territory, Australia.

See Ten Lusty Cane Toads Latch Onto a Powerless Python

The toads, which are invasive in Australia, have been known to try and mate with everything from human hands to rotting mangoes

Prior to the new study, only one ancient individual's DNA had been retrieved: a person of aboriginal descent from the Willandra Lakes region seen here.

DNA Can Help Repatriate the Remains of Aboriginal Australians

A new study was able to match genetic material of ancient remains to the DNA of living Aboriginal communities

Cool Finds

Here’s How That Cow Got So Large

The sad fact is most steers are slaughtered before they reach their full, awesome size, making the Aussie bovine more lucky than freakish

The marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) stalked Australian forests tens of thousands of years ago.

How a Changing Climate May Have Killed Off the Marsupial Lion

The fearsome predator, related to koalas and wombats, ruled the wilds of Australia until the loss of its habitat helped drive it to extinction

New Research

Why Wombats Make Cube-Shaped Poos

New research shows differences in elasticity in the intestines shapes the poo as it moves through

A platypus living in the most contaminated site could be routinely exposed to up to half of an adult human’s daily dose of antidepressants

Australian Rivers Are Contaminated With Pharmaceuticals. That’s Bad News For Platypuses, Study Says

The team found evidence of human medications in every insect tested, including those from national park previously believed to be free of contaminants

Australia is on Track to Eliminate Cervical Cancer

A new study predicts that by 2028, there will be fewer than four new cervical cancer cases per 100,000 Australian women

New Research

People Braved Australia’s Western Desert Roughly 45,000 Years Ago

Newly dated artifacts from a rock shelter show humans were in the inhospitable Little Sandy Desert at least 10,000 years earlier than previously thought

New Research

How Much Plastic Does It Take To Kill a Sea Turtle?

A new study suggests one piece of plastic has a 22 percent chance of killing a turtle that eats it, and 14 pieces will kill half

RangerBot is an autonomous underwater vehicle designed to identify and kill crown-of-thorns starfish by lethal injection.

Sea-Star Murdering Robots Are Deployed in the Great Barrier Reef

The RangerBot is a new line of defense against coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish

Captain James Cook set out on a voyage across the Pacific 250 years ago, seemingly on a scientific voyage. But he carried secret instructions from the Navy with him as well.

Captain Cook’s 1768 Voyage to the South Pacific Included a Secret Mission

The explorer traveled to Tahiti under the auspices of science 250 years ago, but his secret orders were to continue Britain’s colonial project

Archaeologists unearthed the rotting teeth during construction of a new metro line in Melbourne, Australia

Cool Finds

Archaeological Dig at Australian Metro Station Unearths 1,000 Human Teeth

A local dentist probably flushed the molars down the toilet or discarded them with his trash

The pores visible on the underside of this shark's snout are electrical field-sensitive ampullae of Lorenzini.

New Research

Magnets Help Keep Sharks Out of Fish Traps

Adding cheap magnets to the traps reduced shark and ray bycatch by a third and increased fish hauls by just as much, according to a new study

Darwin, described by caretakers as a bit "goofy," befriended even the Zoo's cassowary, widely considered one of the world's most dangerous birds.

The National Zoo’s Beloved, Aging Emu Has Died

Darwin delighted zoo patrons for 21 years with his clever antics and charisma

New Research

Birds Can Learn “Foreign” Languages to Stay Safe

The superb fairywren was able to learn a new alarm call just by listening to the warnings of other species

An Australian City Beats Dengue Fever Using Special Mosquitoes

There has not been a case of the disease in Townsville for four years after the release of insects carrying a naturally occurring bacteria

Can Scientists Save an Endangered Marsupial by Breeding Out Its Taste for Poisonous Toads?

Some northern quolls do not eat deadly cane toads. New research suggests their aversion is an inherited trait

New Research

Pink Was the First Color of Life on Earth

Researchers have found bright pink pigments in 1.1 billion year old fossils of cyanobacteria drilled in West Africa

A black eastern quoll with white spots decked out with its GPS collar.

Endangered Eastern Quolls Are Born on Mainland Australia for the First Time in 50 Years

Three of the feisty marsupials, which had been reintroduced to the wild, were found with joeys in their pouches

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