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Mammals

Move Over, Madagascar: This Island Has the World’s Greatest Concentration of Unique Mammals

The majority of them are found nowhere else on Earth, making Luzon a biological treasure trove

Two skulls belonging to extinct marine mammal herbivores used in the new study, both from the Smithsonian's collections.

When Did Today’s Whales Get So Big?

More recently than you might think, say scientists who scoured the fossil record

Expanding human populations in India have pushed tigers into small, isolated habitats—and resulted in some unusual behaviors.

Anthropocene

Sorry, Tiger Dudes: Your Ladies Are Faking It

India’s tigresses may be feigning interest in sex as the result of shrinking habitat and overlapping territories

Jayson Mesman and his truffle hunting dog Samson hard at work at The Truffle Farm.

These Adorable Rescue Dogs Lead Truffle Hunting Tours in Australia’s Majura Valley

An Australian farmer trains these abandoned canines to sleuth out a gourmet delicacy

New Research

Mammals May Have Dinosaurs to Thank for Their Night Vision

Mammals most likely developed a new pathway to night vision to avoid the jaws of dinos and other daytime predators

Co-author in the new study, Nick Longrich from the Milner Centre for Evolution at Bath University, poses with some mammal specimens.

New Research

The Event that Wiped out Dinosaurs Also Nearly Did in the Mammals

New estimates suggest a measly seven percent of mammals survived the extinction

African dogs, it turns out, make some of the best dads in the mammal world.

Rare ‘Family Guy’ Mammal Dads Give Us All Something to Strive For

Let’s give a Father’s Day shout-out to mammal dads who put family first—and benefit themselves as well

Why Do Humans Have Canine Teeth and More Questions From Our Readers

You asked, we answered

Trending Today

The Bison Is Now the Official Mammal of the United States

The big beasts are the first official mammals recognized by the federal government

A giant mouse feeds on a dead seabird chick.

A Steady Diet of Seabird Chicks Makes Island Mice Huge

With no predators or competition, rodents can eat baby birds alive

In a new book The Naturalist, the Smithsonian's Darrin Lunde draws on Teddy Roosevelt's diaries and expedition journals to tell the story of the 26th president as a prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer and ardent conservationist.

Teddy Roosevelt’s Epic (But Strangely Altruistic) Hunt for a White Rhino

In a new book, a Smithsonian naturalist tells the gritty, controversial tale of how one of America’s presidents felled a threatened species

New Research

Prairie Dogs: The Fiercest Killers in the West

New study reveals white-tailed prairie dogs attack and kill ground squirrels with no provocation

Beluga whales blow bubbles.

Why Do Beluga Whales Blow Bubbles?

The animal’s whimsical pastime offers insight into the mammalian brain

OSU archaeologist Loren Davis alongside the bones uncovered underneath the end zone.

Trending Today

Construction Crews Discover Mammoth Bones Beneath an Oregon Football Stadium

10,000-year-old bones were hiding just ten feet beneath the endzone

The mammoth nursery turned graveyard was declared a National Monument in July 2015.

What Killed the Mammoths of Waco?

Sixty-six thousand years ago, this national monument was the site of a deadly catastrophe

Researcher Julien Louys holds the jaw bone of an ancient giant rat species discovered in East Timor (left) and the same bone from a modern rat (right)

New Research

Fossils Show Ancient Rats Were the Size of a Small Dog

And our ancient ancestors likely ate them

New Research

Weak Skeletons May Have Spelled the End for Mammoths

New results suggest that weak bones made the beasts more susceptible to human hunters

Scientists gather around the Yuka mammoth, which was so well-preserved in the permafrost its brain was mostly intact

Cool Finds

Ice Age Cave Lion Cubs and a Look Back at Permafrost Mummies

A recent find in Siberia is the latest on a list of well-preserved Ice Age mammals

The team had a single day to uncover the massive mammoth's skeleton.

Cool Finds

Michigan Farmer Stumbles on a Mammoth Skeleton

Paleontologists excavated the skeleton, prying the bones from the dark muck of the field

The fossils, encased in rock and sediment, were collected from marine rocks that date to around six million years ago before the Isthmus of Panama formed and a seaway connected the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

New Species of Ancient Dolphin Shows How the Animals Moved From Seas to Rivers

The newly discovered fossil gives scientists a fresh glimpse into the evolution of ocean life

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