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Discoveries

After seeing a picture of the stick insect on social media, the researchers spent days trying to find and collect it for further research.

Gigantic ‘Walking Stick’ Discovered in Australia Might Be the Continent’s Heaviest Insect

Scientists identified the elusive new species from a female found in a high-altitude rainforest’s canopy

The new species lives in the tropical and subtropical waters of the Atlantic, from the eastern United States down to Brazil.

Scientists Identify a New Manta Ray Species, Just the Third Known in the World

Meet Mobula yarae, a large marine creature that lives along the coast in the Atlantic Ocean

The leaf-toed gecko has been rediscovered on Rábida Island in the Galápagos.

Small, Secretive Gecko Rediscovered in the Galápagos After Scientists Eliminate Invasive Rats

Researchers thought leaf-toed geckos were locally extinct on Rábida Island, so they were thrilled to find several of the lizards alive and well during 2019 and 2021 expeditions

Researchers found fragments of fossils representing prehistoric mollusks, crustaceans and worms among rocks at the Grand Canyon.

Trove of Fossils Uncovered in the Grand Canyon Offers a Rare Glimpse Into Cambrian Life, With Toothy Worms and Slug-Like Mollusks

Rocks found along the Colorado River in Arizona turned out to contain fossilized fragments of soft-bodied creatures, suggesting the site may have been an “evolutionary hotbed”

The Earl of Chatham, previously a Royal Navy vessel called the HMS Hind, was discovered in February 2024 on the shores of Sanday.

America's 250th Anniversary

A Boy Found a Shipwreck on a Scottish Beach. It Turned Out to Be a 250-Year-Old Warship From the American Revolution

The HMS “Hind,” later renamed the “Earl of Chatham,” was a frigate in the British Royal Navy before it was repurposed as a whaling vessel

Researchers used a laser to superheat a sample of gold past its theoretical limit and directly measured its temperature.

Physicists Superheated Gold to Hotter Than the Sun’s Surface and Disproved a 40-Year-Old Idea

A thin piece of gold reached 33,740 degrees Fahrenheit, which is more than 14 times higher than its melting point, by being rapidly heated—and it didn’t melt

The Barbados threadsnake is just three to four inches long and about the same width as a strand of spaghetti. Pictured here in 2006, the species was officially described in 2008.

Scientists Feared the World’s Smallest Snake Had Gone Extinct. They Just Found It Again

When fully grown, the Barbados threadsnake is only three to four inches long—shorter than many earthworms

The destroyer was commissioned in 1942 and used in the Guadalcanal campaign.

Underwater Archaeologists Capture Photos of Japanese Warship That Hasn’t Been Seen Since It Sank During World War II

The “Teruzuki” was a Japanese Navy destroyer that sank near the Solomon Islands on December 12, 1942. Eight decades later, researchers have identified the wreckage in the Pacific

Scientists observed the faint companion star, shown in blue, by using a speckle imager mounted on the Gemini North telescope in Hawaii to capture several short exposures.

Astronomers Say They’ve Finally Spotted Betelgeuse’s Companion Star, Long Predicted to Exist but Never Seen

The discovery, if confirmed, could explain Betelgeuse’s mysterious six-year oscillations in brightness

Researchers found scrape marks on a slope at Dinosaur Ridge, a fossil-rich site west of Denver.

Dinosaurs Gathered to Perform Mating Dances With Kicks and Spins at This Site in Colorado—and You Can Go See It for Yourself

Paleontologists have discovered what appears to be one of the largest dinosaur courtship arenas in the world, just 15 miles west of Denver

Researchers working in the Peruvian Amazon have discovered an unusual partnership between the ocelot (left) and opossum (right).

Video Reveals an Unlikely Bond Between Ocelots and Opossums in the Amazon, Walking Together Like ‘Old Friends’

Researchers captured the footage by surprise, with cameras initially set up to record bird behavior

Scientists found a partial dinosaur vertebra inside a geological core sample that measures just 2.5 inches in diameter.

‘Nothing Short of Magical’: Scientists Discover a Dinosaur Bone Nearly 800 Feet Beneath a Parking Lot at a Denver Museum

The partial vertebra appeared inside a 2.5-inch-diameter column of rock that researchers drilled, earning the title of the oldest and deepest dinosaur fossil found in Denver

The structure and stamps on the base of the anchor helped researchers confirm the bow belonged to the USS New Orleans. The words "Navy Yard" are still visible through the marine growth.

Lost Bow of American Warship Found Eight Decades After It Was Blown Off by a Japanese Torpedo in World War II

After the attack, crews sailed the USS “New Orleans” backward for more than 1,000 miles across the Pacific. Since then, the location of the vessel’s bow has been a mystery

The comet 3I/ATLAS moves against a backdrop of stars. The ATLAS survey telescope in Rio Hurtado, Chile, was the first to report that the object came from interstellar space.

A Rare Interstellar Object Is Blazing Through Our Solar System, Marking Only the Third Cosmic Visitor on Record

The comet follows just two other deep space objects documented by astronomers in 2017 and 2019

Jose Aliaga, an archaeologist with the gas company Cálidda, excavates the mummy in Lima, Peru.

Gas Workers Digging Beneath the Streets of Lima Stumble Upon 1,000-Year-Old Mummy With Dark Brown Hair

The burial belonged to a child who may have lived among fishermen from the Chancay culture, which thrived in Peru before the rise of the Inca Empire

Two killer whales "allokelping" with a kelp stem between them

These Killer Whales Make Tools From Kelp to Massage Each Other in a Newly Discovered Grooming Behavior

Dubbed “allokelping,” it might be a unique cultural phenomenon that’s as endangered as the orca population itself

In this image, light from the star TWA 7 has been subtracted. The potential exoplanet TWA 7 b is the orange circle within the blue debris disk.

The James Webb Space Telescope Reveals Its First Direct Image Discovery of an Exoplanet

Researchers identified the likely planetary candidate’s infrared light after blocking out its host star’s overwhelming glare

Salvage archaeologists clean the mosaic floor's elaborate centerpiece.

Cool Finds

See a Vibrant, Colorful Mosaic Discovered at an Ancient Roman Settlement in France

Perched on a hill overlooking the town of Alès, the site, which was salvaged before construction on modern houses began, also boasts advanced architecture

A French woman from Guadeloupe is the only known person in the world with the "Gwada negative" blood type.

Doctors Detected a Mysterious Antibody in a French Woman’s Body. It Turned Out to Be a Brand New Blood Type

Called “Gwada negative,” it marks the discovery of the 48th known blood group system in humans

This image of the the Trifid nebula (top) and the Lagoon nebula (bottom) was put together from 678 separate images taken over seven hours of observations.

See the First Breathtaking Images Captured by the Powerful New Telescope at the Rubin Observatory

Featuring never-before-seen views of galaxies and more than 2,100 newly discovered asteroids, the observations are only a taste of what to expect from the telescope’s upcoming decade-long survey

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