Animal science

The next time an inquisitive four-year-old asks how many ants there are on Earth, you can be ready to fire back a specific number. Researchers in Germany now have an answer to that question, as well as a follow-up: how much do they all weigh combined?

A new study has shed light on why elephants, one of the biggest animals on the planet, paradoxically experience unusually low rates of cancer. The research found these remarkable mammals carry unique genetic variants that reduce their risk of tumors.

A new review article suggests insects have the capacity to experience pain. The research summarizes the latest behavioral and molecular science and concludes pain states in insects could have ethical implications for current farming practices.

Two new studies collected air samples from zoos and demonstrated the ability to identify a range of animals living there from their airborne DNA. This could eventually be used as a non-invasive way to track biodiversity.

Scientists have discovered fossils of a new species of aquatic reptile that may be the first giant animal that ever lived on Earth. Cymbospondylus youngorum is a new type of ichthyosaur dating back to the early stages of the Age of Dinosaurs.

It's been 3.5 billion years since life kicked off on this planet, but the animal kingdom continues to amaze. This year we've been treated to tool making cockatoos, self-decapitating sea slugs and a chameleon not much bigger than a fingernail.

Galapagos giant tortoises are some of the longest-living animals on Earth, but how do they pull off the feat? A new study has examined the genome of the species and found duplicate genes that may protect them from aging-related diseases like cancer.

Our mental images of the extinct thylacine, or Tasmanian tiger, are tinged in greyscale, since that’s the main way we’re used to seeing them. But now, one of the most famous videos of the animal, shot in 1933, has been professionally colorized in 4K.

Wild 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.

There are still plenty of utterly alien creatures left to find on Earth. Now a brand new horror has emerged from the depths of the ocean – meet Ophiojura, a “totally unique” type of animal with arms covered in hooks and eight sets of toothy jaws.

It’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.

Researchers have identified the oldest known fossils of primates, dating them to 65.9 million years ago. That’s just after one of Earth’s biggest mass extinction events, and it suggests that the ancestor of all primates lived alongside the dinosaurs.