The latest nature news – current wildlife news & nature articles from around the world. New discoveries, animal stories, dinosaur stories, natural history articles and more.
The straight-tusked elephant was one of the largest land mammals that ever lived. The extinct species, which was significantly bigger than today’s African bush elephant (pictured above), lived alongside Neanderthals in prehistoric Germany, around 125,000 years ago.
A recent analysis of fossilized straight-tusked elephant bones reveals the relationship between the prehistoric species and its early human hunters.
Thor, the walrus who achieved celebrity status after visiting England in December, has recently been spotted closer to home. On Friday 24th February 2023, the wandering marine mammal turned up in Breiðdalsvík, a fishing town in East Iceland.
The remains of a new pterosaur species have been discovered in Bavaria, Germany. The prehistoric flying reptile, which has been given the name Balaenognathus maeuseri, lived during the Jurassic Period. Its distinctive, spatula-shaped bill contained at least 480 needle-like teeth, which were likely used to filter particles of food from water.
Read on for more information on the new species…
Recent research has found that dolphins have to “raise their voices” in response to heightened background noise. The findings add to existing evidence that anthropogenic noise – that is, sounds stemming from human activity – can be detrimental to ocean animals.
A mountain lion named P-22, who attained celebrity status after taking up residence in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park, recently had to be euthanized after sustaining injuries consistent with being hit by a car.
The recent discovery of a new dinosaur species, Daspletosaurus wilsoni, has helped scientists fill in the gaps in the evolutionary history of tyrannosaurid dinosaurs, settling decades of debate amongst paleontologists.
The fossilized remains of a car-sized, prehistoric sea turtle have recently been found in the Spanish Pyrenees.
The huge reptile is the largest-known sea turtle to have been found in Europe, its size rivaling that of giant sea turtles that swam in the shallow seas covering much of what is now North America during the Late Cretaceous Period.
(Photo above is of a leatherback sea turtle, the largest living sea turtle, which has a leathery shell similar to that of the newly-discovered species.)
Researchers have recorded a chimpanzee showing her mother a leaf simply for the sake of sharing, revealing that it’s not just humans who enjoy sharing things that they have found.
A recent study has found that platypus populations are becoming increasingly fragmented as man-made dams are restricting their movement, putting the unique Australian animal’s future under severe threat.
A giant sunfish discovered off the coast of Portugal’s Azores archipelago in the North Atlantic, is believed to be the world’s heaviest bony fish, weighing 2,744 kg (6049.49 lb).
(Photo above is of the closely-related ocean sunfish, Mola mola.)
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