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Weird Animals

Each by-the-wind sailor is made of a community of genetically identical organisms called "zooids" that perform different tasks.

Millions of Bright Blue Blobs Called ‘By-the-Wind Sailors’ Are Littering Beaches Along the West Coast

The strange creatures are washing up on shores across California, Oregon and Washington this spring—and making the coast smell especially fishy

Researchers don't know what drives whale gaping in humpback whales, but the observations posted to social media can help them identify context clues.

Humpback Whales Sometimes Hold Their Mouths Open for No Clear Reason. Tourists Are Helping Scientists Understand the Rare Behavior

A trove of photos and videos gathered from social media has helped researchers propose a few possible reasons for the seldom documented action, called “gaping,” including communication, jaw stretching and play

Remoras might dive into manta rays' rear ends when they're scared.

This Fish Hitches Rides in Manta Rays’ ‘Buttholes,’ According to New Research

Scientists suspect that the behavior could harm the manta rays, suggesting a complex relationship between remoras and their hosts that can sometimes be parasitic

Chonkers, a Steller sea lion, is much larger than his companions, California sea lions.

Chonkers the Massive Sea Lion Drew Crowds to San Francisco’s Famed Pier 39. Then, a New Chunky Showstopper Stole His Identity

The Steller sea lion was an unusual visitor to the pier, which typically hosts smaller California sea lions. However, he may have moved on days ago, during which time a humongous member of the area’s more common species tricked onlookers

Illustration of the giant ancient octopus

Cool Finds

This Bone-Crunching Octopus Was Nearly the Size of a Semitruck and May Have Feasted on Giant Reptiles 100 Million Years Ago

The massive invertebrates may have been top predators, according to an analysis of their fossilized jaws. The work suggests that ancient oceans weren’t completely ruled by spine-bearing creatures, as previously thought

Bruce is missing the top half of his beak. 

A Disabled Parrot in New Zealand Became Alpha Male Thanks to His Innovative Fighting Style

A kea parrot’s half-beak became an advantage instead of a disadvantage, researchers suggest in a new study

Entomologist Mark Moffett photographed cone ants climbing onto and cleaning harvester ants.

These Tiny Ants Crawled All Over Larger Ants and Licked Them Clean. Scientists Aren’t Sure How This Behavior Benefits Any of Them

After witnessing the interactions in an Arizona desert, a Smithsonian researcher suggests that the little ants picked off tasty treats and that the big ants got thoroughly groomed in hard-to-reach places

The researchers primarily studied California two-spot octopuses.

Octopus Sex Just Got Weirder. In Addition to Depositing Sperm, Males’ Specialized Mating Arm Can ‘Taste’ Female Hormones

The hectocotylus is both a reproductive organ and a sensory organ, a rare combination in animals, new research suggests

An artistic rendering shows the mysterious animal, which researchers now say was a nautilus relative, in its prehistoric environment.

This Fossil Held the World Record for the Earliest Known Octopus. Turns Out, It’s Not an Octopus After All

New research suggests the 300-million-year-old specimen is actually a relative of the nautilus

3D rendering of an Eciton hamatum subsoldier ant

These Stunningly Detailed 3D Images of Ants Showcase the Remarkable Diversity Across Their Many Species

Scientists used a game-changing technique to scan about 2,200 preserved specimens in just one week to create the Antscan database

Like Astrophage, the solar-radiation-eating microbes in Andy Weir’s novel Project Hail Mary, some sea slugs can derive energy from sunlight.

These Sea Slugs Can ‘Eat’ Sunlight—but They’re No Astrophage. Here’s How the ‘Project Hail Mary’ Antagonist Has a Real-Life Analogue in Earth’s Oceans

By snatching chloroplasts from algae, animals called sacoglossans produce their own energy through photosynthesis

An 1894 film of a falling cat

How Do Cats Always Land on Their Feet? Researchers Examined Feline Spines to Find Out

Scientists determined that the upper part of a cat’s spine is more flexible than the lower part

An illustration of a four-eyed myllokunmingid, a jawless fish that lived more than 500 million years ago

Cool Finds

The Earliest Known Vertebrates Had Four Eyes—and They Worked a Lot Like Ours Do, New Research Suggests

Two of those eyes may have evolved into a part of the brain called the pineal gland

Flat-headed cats are rarely observed in the wild, in part because of their nocturnal habits.

This Wild Cat Is Considered ‘Possibly Extinct’ in Thailand. Researchers Just Caught It on Camera for the First Time in About 30 Years

Findings from the largest-ever survey of endangered flat-headed cats may help change the species’ official conservation status in Thailand

Remoras hitch a ride on a humpback whale.

Watch Suckerfish Hitch a Wild Ride on Humpback Whales in Rare Video Footage

Suckerfish—also known as remoras—are harmless, but the whales didn’t seem to be fans of their hitchhiking

Tiny but mighty: Downy woodpeckers drill into trees with a force 20 to 30 times their body weight.

Downy Woodpeckers ‘Grunt’ as They Turn Their Bodies Into Hammers to Drill Into Trees

Researchers studied the combination of muscles and breaths that the tiny birds use as they strike trees with their beaks

More than 200 river dolphins died in Brazil's Lake Tefé in the fall of 2023, with water temperatures soaring as high as 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit, according to a new study.

Water Temperatures in Amazon Lakes Reached Hot Tub Levels in 2023, Killing Fish and Dolphins

Brazil’s Lake Tefé reached 105.8 degrees Fahrenheit during the severe drought and heat wave

Eastern hellbenders are known as "snot otters" because they're covered in a slimy, protective coating.

Scientists Are Releasing the Lovingly Nicknamed ‘Snot Otters’ Into Ohio Waterways in a Big Success for Conservation

Eastern hellbenders, the largest amphibians in North America, are in trouble, but conservationists are hard at work to help the wrinkled wonders survive

The giant structure—made up of thousands of individual funnel-shaped webs—spans over 1,000 square feet.

This Massive Web—Home to More Than 100,000 Spiders—Found in a Cave in Europe Could Be the World’s Largest

The cavern along the border of Greece and Albania is home to a terrifyingly high number of two species of arachnids that live together peacefully in complete darkness

While seaching for Ernest Shackleton's lost ship Endurance in 2019, researchers stumbled across clusters of indentations on the seafloor.

Researchers Found Hundreds of Mysterious Dimples on the Seafloor Near Antarctica. Now They Know What Creature Made Them

The indentations are nests of fish called yellowfin notie, and they are not randomly scattered—rather, they appear to have been arranged in distinct patterns

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