Weird Animals

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

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.

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 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).

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.

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.

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

"Active sleep" only lasted 40 seconds but cycled after 30 to 40 minutes of "quiet sleep". These patterns are similar pattern to how mammals experience rapid eye movement (REM) sleep.

Like Humans and Mammals, Octopuses May Have Two Stages of Sleep

Scientists do not know if octopuses dream in color, but they do change color while sleeping

The head and the body of the sea slug Elysia marginata, a day after the animal decapitated itself.

Sea Slug's Decapitated Head Crawls Around Before Regrowing a Body

Researchers think that lopping off its own noggin could help the critter rid itself of parasites

C. elegans are roundworms that are about one millimeter long and commonly used in scientific experiments as model organisms.

These Worms Have No Eyes, but They Avoid the Color Blue

When a scientist noticed that blind nematodes avoid bacteria that make blue toxin, he wondered if they took color into account

Photos of the kitefin shark glowing in the dark.

Nearly Six-Foot-Long Glowing Shark Discovered in Deep Sea Off New Zealand

The kitefin shark is one of three species of glowing sharks described in a new paper

A male superb lyrebird

This Bird Mimics an Entire Flock to Woo Females

When mating, male lyrebirds reproduce a cacophony of calls usually reserved for when predator is nearby

An Ananteris balzani scorpion couple interlocked in their elaborate mating dance. The male (left) has lost the end of his tail, rendering him unable to defecate.

For Constipated Scorpions, Females Suffer Reproductively. Males, Not So Much.

After the arachnids drop their tails, poop backs up until it kills them, but before that it can affect pregnancy

New research finds that springhares, hopping rodents native to southern Africa, glow under UV light.

This Bouncing African Mammal Glows Under UV Light

Springhares are the latest in a flurry of furry creatures that scientists have discovered are biofluorescent

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