Florida plays the unfortunate host to many invasive critters, from lionfish to Burmese pythons, but last week, officials announced that they had successfully eliminated a particularly slimy invader from the state: the formidable giant African land snail. The kicker is, giant African land snails (Lissachatina fulica) invaded Florida onceContinue Reading
The island-dwelling dinosaur may have been a dwarf. All hail “chief dragon”: The oldest meat-eating dinosaur ever discovered in the United Kingdom may sound monstrous, but the clawed predator was actually a pip-squeak, a new study finds. The chicken-size dinosaur lived in what is now Wales between 215 million andContinue Reading
Murder hornets are the largest hornets in the world. Murder hornets, also known as Asian giant hornets (Vespa mandarinia), are the world’s largest wasps. These hornets naturally occur in Asia, but humans have accidentally introduced them into North America where they pose a threat to native wildlife, as they killContinue Reading
Three otter attacks were reported in September alone. State authorities are searching for a group of violent river otters (Lutra canadensis) that have been mysteriously attacking adults, children and dogs in Anchorage, Alaska. Three otter attacks —including one which injured a child — were reported across the city in September,Continue Reading
The release of the butterfly brought four species to the island. An ecologist’s blunder led to the release of a “Russian doll” set of stomach-bursting parasites onto a remote Finnish island, a new study has revealed. Thirty years ago, when ecologist Ilkka Hanski introduced Glanville fritillary butterflies (Melitaea cinxia) ontoContinue Reading
An angel shark has never been filmed in this part of the world before. A young shark glides to the ocean floor, slaps the sandy ground with its head and disappears in a cloud of dust. A pause. A small fish swims by. And then… SNAP! The fish doesn’t knowContinue Reading
It was nearly 30 feet long. About 90 million years ago, a gigantic apex predator — a meat-eating dinosaur with serrated shark-like teeth — prowled what is now Uzbekistan, according to a new study of the behemoth’s jawbone. The 26-foot-long (8 meters) beast weighed 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms), making itContinue Reading
Climate change is not only a human problem; animals have to adapt to it as well. Some “warm-blooded” animals are shapeshifting and getting larger beaks, legs, and ears to better regulate their body temperatures as the planet gets hotter. Bird researcher Sara Ryding of Deakin University in Australia describes theseContinue Reading