Skip to main content

Subscribe to Smithsonian magazine and get a FREE tote.

Weird Animals

Samples gathered at Wells Beach, shown here, revealed that the mysterious brown substance was made up of millions of bug carcasses.

Millions of Microscopic Fly Carcasses Left Dark Stains on People’s Feet at New England Beaches

The unusual event affected a 70-mile stretch of beaches from Massachusetts to Maine

A rotifer seen under a microscope.

New Research

Scientists Revive Tiny Animals That Spent 24,000 Years on Ice

These bdelloid rotifers survived for thousands of years in the Siberian permafrost and scientists want to find out how

An African elephant gives itself a dust bath by blasting dirt from its trunk.

New Research

Elephant Trunks Can Suck Water at 330 Miles Per Hour

A new study puts impressive numbers to some of the elephant trunk’s many feats

Giraffes are just as astonishing on the inside as they are to look at. Standing up to 19 feet tall, they require enormously high blood pressure to pump blood up to the head, yet they suffer few, if any, of the consequences that people with high blood pressure would.

The Cardiovascular Secrets of Giraffes

Because of their height, giraffes require scarily high blood pressures—yet they escape the massive health problems that plague humans with hypertension

Bats, whales, naked mole rats, elephants, albatrosses, certain dog breeds and a few other animals live unexpectedly long lives. Can scientists discover their secrets?

Why Scientists Are Studying the Genetic Tricks of the Longest-Lived Animals

Researchers are investigating how some species live unexpectedly long lives in order to pinpoint factors affecting human longevity.

The Irish elk, or Megaloceros giganteus, ranged across northern Eurasia from Siberia to Ireland and shed its giant antlers every year. It is on display in the David H. Koch Hall of Fossils—Deep Time at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Beyond Dinosaurs: The Secrets of Earth's Past

Biggest. Antlers. Ever. Meet the Irish Elk

On view at the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum, this specimen of the extinct species unlocks an evolutionary mystery

Freckles the lobster was kept in a fishtank with other lobsters at the restaurant until the Virginia Living Museum employees rescued him.

Virginia Museum Rescues ‘Freckles’ the Calico Lobster From the Dinner Menu

Most lobsters are brown, but about one in 30 million of the crustaceans are calico-colored

Just one section of a marine worm with a strange, branching body. This species usually lives inside the many-chambered body of a sea sponge

New Research

This Marine Worm Sprouts Hundreds of Butts—Each With Its Own Eyes and Brain

When it’s time to reproduce, each of the worm’s many rear ends will swim off to get fertilized

One of the cats from the experiment sits in a Kanisza square, which is four Pac-Man-like circles positioned to create four corners of a square.

Why Cats Love to Sit in Boxes—Even Fake Ones, According to Science

Scientists tested what the Internet has long known to be true: Our feline friends have an “if I fits, I sits” approach to picking the coziest spot

A beaver peers out of a Hancock live trap after being captured by Molly Alves, a biologist with the Tulalip Tribe in Washington.

Scientists Are Relocating Nuisance Beavers to Help Salmon

When the rodents are moved from backyards to wild areas, they make their new watersheds better for fish

The new species of toadlet, Brachycephalus rotenbergae, opens its mouth in a defensive posture.

Biologists Discover New Species of Glowing Pumpkin Toadlet

The bright orange amphibian, which shines green under UV light, is different from other pumpkin toadlets due to its appearance and call

A female dragon mantis with her forked pheromone gland protruding from her rear abdomen.

New Research

This Mantis Attracts Males With a Y-Shaped, Balloon-Like Pheromone Gland

Female dragon mantises attract mates in the dark by inflating a forked, translucent-green organ that researchers say also wiggles

The shark fossil is nearly seven feet long, with two 2.5-foot-long fin spines on its back.

New Research

New Mexico’s ‘Godzilla’ Shark Fossil Gets an Official Name

The prehistoric beast’s scientific name is Dracopristis hoffmanorum

The invasive jumping worm will thrash and snap its body when touched.

Highly Invasive Jumping Worms Have Spread to 15 States

The invertebrate depletes topsoil of nutrients and makes it difficult for fungi and plants to grow

The Indian jumping ant (Harpegnathos saltator).

New Research

This Ant Can Shrink and Regrow Its Brain

Indian jumping ants shrink their brains when they become their colony’s queen, but they can also grow the brain back if they quit the gig

A bearded dragon moves in for a close-up. The Australian lizards face threats from habitat loss and rising temperatures.

In a Warming World, Heat Interferes With Sex Determination in These Australian Lizards

Scientists have discovered how hot temperatures override chromosomes in bearded dragons

A viral video shows an octopus (not pictured) lashing out at an Australian tourist in shallow water.

A Very Angry Octopus Goes Viral After Lashing Out at an Australian Tourist

A video posted to social media captures the cephalopod’s arm-flinging attack

A study of ten narwhal tusks reveals how the animals are responding to a swiftly changing Arctic.

New Research

Study of Narwhal Tusks Reveals a Swiftly Changing Arctic

Chemical analysis of ten tusks shows shifting diets and increasing levels of mercury as climate change warms the polar region

Grasshoppers swarm a street light a few blocks from the Las Vegas Strip on July 26, 2019.

New Research

Las Vegas Was Inundated by 46 Million Grasshoppers on a Single Night in 2019

A new study says the horde of insects was drawn to the Vegas Strip by its famously bright lights

A newly emerged cicada from Brood X suns itself.

14 Fun Facts About Cicadas

Amazing details about the buzzing insects set to storm the United States this spring

Page 14 of 43