It's been a good 3.5 billion years or so since life kicked off on this planet, but each lap of the Sun still brings fresh wonders from the animal kingdom to light. This year we've been treated to tool-making cockatoos, self-decapitating sea slugs and a record-breaking chameleon not much bigger than a fingernail. Here's ten of our favorite animal-related science stories from 2021.
Amazing animals 2021
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![The newly discovered Nano-Chameleon (Brookesia nana) is the smallest known reptile in the world]()
January 31, 2021A tiny new species of chameleon has been discovered, and it may be the smallest reptile in the world. Known as Brookesia nana, or the nano-chameleon, the petite species can perch on a fingertip and may have the smallest adult males of any vertebrate. -
![A new species of millipede, Eumillipes persephone, which has up to 1,306 legs – the most of any animal ever known]()
December 16, 2021Millipedes are frauds – despite their name being Latin for “thousand feet,” they usually only have a few hundred. But a newly discovered species is the first to earn its name with well over 1,000 legs, far more than any other creature on the planet. -
![A Goffin's cockatoo crafting one of three tools to help it crack into fruit]()
September 07, 2021Wild cockatoos have been seen making sets of tools, each with their own design and purpose, and using them in a specific order to crack into fruit. This behavior places them in an exclusive club that previously only included humans and some primates. -
!["Ninja Prairie Dog!" (Bald eagle, Hygiene, CO)]()
September 04, 2021We're big fans of the annual Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards – this contest always gives us a smile, and it's a good-hearted organization focused on conservation. Now the finalists have been announced for 2021 – here are our favorites from the crop. -
![Scientists have managed to track the movements of an individual mammoth over his lifetime]()
August 12, 2021Scientists have tracked the entire life of a mammoth that lived 17,000 years ago, right down to the week. By studying the isotopes in different parts of its tusk, the team figured out where in Alaska it was at any given point in its 28-year life. -
![Bdelloid rotifers can survive being frozen for long periods by entering a state called cryptobiosis]()
June 07, 2021Scientists have revived microscopic animals that had been frozen in the Siberian permafrost for 24,000 years. The Bdelloid rotifers, or “wheel animals,” went right back to moving, eating and reproducing like the Ice Age was only yesterday. -
![Scientists have tested the survivability of tardigrades in high impacts]()
May 20, 2021Tardigrades are some of the toughest known lifeforms, and it’s been proposed they could seed life through asteroid impacts. Now, researchers have tested the hypothesis by firing tardigrades from a gun into sand, and checking how well they survived. -
![The head and body of a sacoglossan sea slug, one day after they separated. We hear it was an amicable split]()
March 08, 2021It’s normally a leg here or a tail there, but scientists have now discovered one of the most extreme examples of limb regeneration ever seen in an animal – sea slugs that voluntarily detach their own heads and then regrow an entire body from it. -
![Scientists may have discovered new evidence explaining the cellular mechanism for how birds and other animals can navigate using the Earth's magnetic field]()
January 06, 2021Exactly how some animals, such as birds, can detect magnetic fields remains a mystery. Now researchers in Japan may have found a crucial piece of the puzzle, making the first direct observations of live, unaltered cells responding to magnetic fields. -
![The review of more than 300 scientific studies concluded several types of invertebrates should be classified as sentient animals]()
November 24, 2021An animal welfare bill in the UK will now include crabs, octopus, and lobsters after a review concluded they should be considered sentient beings. The review found strong evidence these invertebrates are capable of feelings such as pain and distress.
