Weird Animals

White giraffes found in Kenya

Two Rare White Giraffes Filmed in Kenya

The leucistic mother and baby were filmed by local rangers in August

A friendly Nauga.

How the Nauga and its Fictional Friends Helped Make Synthetic Fabric Cuddly

What started out as an advertising ploy turned into a low-key cultural phenomenon

Taxonomic vandalism can have disastrous consequences for wildlife conservation—but it could also impact human health. Shown here, an African spitting cobra poised to strike.

A Few Bad Scientists Are Threatening to Topple Taxonomy

Naming species forms the foundation of biology—but these rogue researchers are exposing the flaws in the system

It's a blob! It's a brain! It's a bryozoan!

Brain-like Blob Found in Canadian Pond

The rarely seen creature, which is a type of bryozoan, is comprised of thousands of tiny organisms

Scientists can study stress in these petite primates with simply a few strands of their hair.

Stress Is Killing These Teeny Lemurs, and The Story Is In Their Hair

Sampling the fur of Madagascar’s gray mouse lemurs reveal a bevy of environmental pressures

Male wolf spiders may have eight eyes, but they still can't tell whether the female they're mating with is dead or alive.

Whoa: Polygamous Wolf Spiders Have a Natural Form of Birth Control

Females have figured out how to get rid of unwanted sperm, allowing them to reap the benefits of multiple mates

Brilliantly White Moose Photographed in Sweden

It took a local politician three years to finally capture a video of the elusive ghostly creature

This bubble eye goldfish may or may not be drunk.

How Do Goldfish Survive Winter? They Make Alcohol

A mutant enzyme allows goldfish and carp to live in low oxygen ponds by turning toxic lactic acid into ethanol

A close-up of a camel spider's multifaceted mouthparts, taken in Namibia's Namib Desert.

Camel Spiders Are Fast, Furious and Horrifically Fascinating

Yet another mystery about these arachnids: Why are they so intent on mass-murdering ants?

An artist's illustration of Patagotitan mayorum, the latest and possibly most gargantuan in a series of recent giant dino finds.

Did Scientists Just Unveil the Biggest Dinosaur of All Time?

The jury's still out—but if you can get over the size contest, far more fascinating patterns about these giants emerge

How the Narwhal Got Its Tusk

According to Inuit storytelling tradition, the narwhal was once an evil stepmother, who wove her hair into a tusk

An arachnid in the trapdoor spider family, a group known for its snug and potentially even ocean-going burrows.

How One Brave Spider Floated Thousands of Miles to Colonize a New Continent

Improbably, new genetic analysis shows that trapdoor spiders may have ridden ocean currents from Africa to Australia

On Earth, creatures from sharks to snails to these coral polyps light up the darkness. Are glowing aliens really that far-fetched?

Could We See Glow-in-the-Dark Aliens From Earth?

Extraterrestrial life might make its own light to protect itself from harmful radiation

The Pleistocene world was filled with megafauna like woolly mammoths and saber-tooth cats. Did humans kill them all off?

Are Humans to Blame for the Disappearance of Earth’s Fantastic Beasts?

100,000 years ago, giant sloths, wombats and cave hyenas roamed the world. What drove them all extinct?

Ramazzottius varieornatus, a species of tardigrade, photographed with scanning electron microscope

Why Are Tardigrades the World's Hardiest Creature? DNA Offers Clues

They may be tiny, but don't let their stubby stature fool you

The fin of a blacktip shark glides through the waters in the Bahamas.

Ten Things We've Learned about Sharks Since Last Shark Week

In light of Shark Week 2017, here are some revelations about the fearsome fish we’ve made in the past year

Little does it know, but getting eaten by a great tit is the least of this grub's worries.

Meet the Supervillain Worm That Gets By With a Little Help From Its Friends

This deadly nematode and its sidekicks reveal the power of bacterial symbiosis

Here, wildebeest find themselves trapped by high cliffs while crossing the Mara River in Africa's Serengeti. Every year thousands of wildebeest die while crossing the river due to strong currents or crossing at dangerous sites.

The Upside of Rotting Carcasses

Large animals dying en masse are crucial to the the Serengeti—and they aren’t the only ones

Marianne Nyegaard poses next to a beached hoodwinker sunfish near Christchurch, New Zealand.

Found: New Species of Ocean Sunfish, the World’s Largest Bony Fish

After identifying genetic traces of the creature, one researcher spent years searching for the aquatic beast

The pale tiger found in Tamil Nadu

Stunning Images Capture Rare Pale Tiger in India

An unusual genetic combination likely led to the creature's exceptionally light coloration

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