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Hemiscyllium dudgeonae, male paratype, Nubwageta, Milne Bay province, Papua New Guinea. Image credit: M.V. Erdmann.

New Species of Walking Shark Discovered off Papua New Guinea

Jun 16, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists have identified a new species of the shark genus Hemiscyllium in the waters of eastern Papua New Guinea, expanding a remarkable group...

An artist’s impression of a group of Gigantopithecus blacki within a forest in southern China. Image credit: Garcia / Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University.

Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki

Jun 15, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Deep inside a limestone cave in southern China, paleontologists have uncovered an assemblage of thirteen fossilized teeth belonging to Gigantopithecus...

This Webb image shows the little red dot GLIMPSE-17775, which is located behind the galaxy cluster Abell S1063. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Vasily Kokorev, UT Austin / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Webb Delivers Strongest-Ever Case for ‘Black Hole Stars’ Lurking in Early Universe

Jun 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For several years, astronomers have been puzzling over a peculiar population of objects discovered by the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope —...

Paludocyon moyasolai. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain

Jun 11, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of amphicyonid — the extinct family of carnivorous mammals popularly known as bear-dogs...

The short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis) from a trap camera in Bolivia. Image credit: G. Ayala & M.E Viscarra.

Amazon’s Elusive Short-Eared Dog May Be More Common than Researchers Once Thought

Jun 11, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Hundreds of camera-trap records from Bolivia and Peru suggest the short-eared dog (Atelocynus microtis), one of the world’s least-known canids and one...

This image of a dwarf gray fox (Urocyon sp.) was captured on the island of Cozumel, Mexico: an adult male is shown partially concealed behind foliage before capture by the Fundación de Parques y Museos de Cozumel on September 14, 2023; this represents the first photograph ever taken of the species on the island and the first reported sighting since 2001. Image credit: Rafael Chacón.

Scientists Capture First-Ever Images of Cozumel Dwarf Fox

Jun 11, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Researchers have obtained the first-ever photographs of the Cozumel dwarf fox (Urocyon sp.), an elusive dwarf fox living on the Caribbean island of Cozumel,...

Cave lions painted in the Chauvet Cave, France.

Study: Cave Lions were Distinct Species that Occasionally Bred with Ancestors of Today’s Lions

Jun 10, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

The extinct Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and today’s African and Asian lions (Panthera leo) belong to separate evolutionary lineages that diverged...

An artist’s impression of Patagoniaemys aeschyli. Image credit: Nawel Vazquez / Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ / CONICET.

Fossil Discovery in Patagonia Reveals New Species of Horned Turtle

Jun 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian age, just...

The cheerful fantail (Rhipidura laguceria) in November 2022. Image credit: James A. Eaton.

Ornithologists Describe New Bird Species from Remote Indonesian Islands

Jun 8, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A small songbird inhabiting the Babar Islands, in the Banda Sea, Indonesia, has been identified as a new species after a duo of researchers discovered...

This image shows the evidence for the wind blowing away from Sagittarius A*: the white dot in the center of the image shows the supermassive black hole; in orange is data from ALMA, mapping the location of cold gas composed of carbon monoxide in the image; in blue is X-ray data from Chandra; a large cone-shaped cavity, visible as an absence of cold gas in the ALMA data, is filled by hot X-ray-emitting gas in the Chandra data. Image credit: NASA / CXC / UMass / Wang et al. / ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Longmore et al. / Minniti et al.

Astronomers Finally Find Milky Way’s Missing Black Hole Wind

Jun 8, 2026 by News Staff

After a 50-year search, astronomers have uncovered evidence that Sagittarius A* — the 4.3-million-solar-mass black hole that resides at the center...

The Heaven Sword tree. Image credit: Chia-Chun Hsu et al., doi: 10.3389/ffgc.2026.1746112.

After Decade-Long Hunt, Scientists Find East Asia’s Tallest Tree

Jun 5, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Deep in the mountains of northern Taiwan, a towering Taiwania cryptomerioides — a large coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae whose...

Paleoartistic reconstruction of the environment in the surrounding of Camp dels Ninots maar lake during the Early Pliocene. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Half-Ton Cattle Relatives Roamed Europe 4 Million Years Ago

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

Near-complete bovine skeletons unearthed the Early Pliocene site of Camp dels Ninots in northeastern Spain reveal that the ancestors of today’s buffalo...

Jian changmaensis (left) attacks the early bird Gansus yumenensis (right) in what is now the Changma Basin of northwestern China approximately 120 million years ago. Image credit: Lewis LaRosa / Jão Canola.

New Microraptorine Dinosaur Discovered in China

Jun 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Jian changmaensis is the first non-avian dinosaur found at a paleontological site that has yielded more than 100 specimens of Early Cretaceous birds. Jian...

Praearcturus gigas. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Giant Scorpions Ruled Ancient Britain during Devonian Period

Jun 4, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists have confirmed that Praearcturus gigas, a creature that prowled shallow waters during the Devonian period, 415 million years ago, is the...

Reconstruction of the Early Cambrian seafloor, depicting colonies of Protomelission gatehousei and Dayingomelission hexaclitia living among archaeocyath reefs in shallow seas approximately 520 million years ago. Image credit: Zhifei Zhang.

Complex Colonial Life Was Already Thriving during Cambrian Explosion

Jun 3, 2026 by News Staff

Tiny colonial animals called bryozoans were long thought to have appeared tens of millions of years after the Cambrian explosion. Extraordinary fossils...

Euplotes gigatrox. Image credit: Ben Larson & Samuel Lord.

When Food Runs Short, This Single-Celled Organism Turns into Giant Cannibal to Survive

Jun 3, 2026 by News Staff

Euplotes gigatrox, a new species of ciliate collected from a seawater filtration system on the Caribbean Island of Curaçao, can transform into a cannibalistic...

Reconstruction of the Santa María Amajac paleolake during the Late Pliocene; the paleobiodiveristy of the paleolake included microvertebrates such as the ambystomatid salamander Ambystoma quetzalcoatli, Paleocharacodon guzmanae and Goodea-like fishes, anurans and numerous species of terrestrial and aquatic plants such as Nymphaea sp., Scirpus sp., Typha sp. Image credit: Diana Guzmán-Madrid.

New Species of Fossil Axolotl Unearthed in Mexico

Jun 1, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have identified a new species of the axolotl genus Ambystoma from several fossilized specimens found deep in the rocky outcrops of the...

Hubble captured this image of 3I/ATLAS on July 21, 2025, when the comet was 446 million km (277 million miles) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / David Jewitt, UCLA / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

Webb Detects Methane on Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Jun 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using the spectral data from the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) onboard the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have detected methane...

Lisowski et al. used physical, morphological, functional, and genomic assays to identify the presence of superparamagnetic macrophages in the liver of homing pigeons (Columba livia domestica). Image credit: Spanishguitar101 / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pigeons May Sense Earth’s Magnetic Field Using Superparamagnetic Immune Cells in Their Livers

Jun 1, 2026 by Natali Anderson

An international research team led by scientists from the University of Bonn, the University Hospital Bonn and the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior...