Zoology News

February 6, 2026

Top Headlines

Endangered Sea Turtles Hear Ship Noise Loud and Clear

Feb. 5, 2026 Kemp’s ridley sea turtles, one of the most endangered sea turtle species on Earth, live in some of the noisiest waters on the planet, right alongside major shipping routes. New research reveals that these turtles are especially sensitive to ...

This Unexpected Plant Discovery Could Change How Drugs Are Made

Feb. 3, 2026 Plants make chemical weapons to protect themselves, and many of these compounds have become vital to human medicine. Researchers found that one powerful plant chemical is produced using a gene that looks surprisingly bacterial. This suggests plants ...

Even Remote Pacific Fish Are Full of Microplastics

Feb. 3, 2026 Even in some of the most isolated corners of the Pacific, plastic pollution has quietly worked its way into the food web. A large analysis of fish caught around Fiji, Tonga, Tuvalu, and Vanuatu found that roughly one in three contained ...

This AI App Can Tell Which Dinosaur Made a Footprint

Feb. 1, 2026 Dinosaur footprints have always been mysterious, but a new AI app is cracking their secrets. DinoTracker analyzes photos of fossil tracks and predicts which dinosaur made them, with accuracy rivaling human experts. Along the way, it uncovered ...

A Hidden Bat Virus Is Infecting Humans

Feb. 1, 2026 Researchers in Bangladesh have identified a bat-borne virus, Pteropine orthoreovirus, in patients who were initially suspected of having Nipah virus but tested negative. All had recently consumed raw date-palm sap, a known pathway for bat-related ...

A Fish That Ages in Months Reveals How Kidneys Grow Old

Jan. 30, 2026 A fast-aging fish is giving scientists a rare, accelerated look at how kidneys grow old—and how a common drug may slow that process down. Researchers found that SGLT2 inhibitors, widely used to treat diabetes and heart disease, preserved kidney ...

This Small Soil Upgrade Cut Locust Damage and Doubled Yields

Jan. 24, 2026 Locust swarms can wipe out crops across entire regions, threatening food supplies and livelihoods. Now, scientists working with farmers in Senegal have shown that improving soil health can dramatically reduce locust damage. By enriching soil with ...

Forest Loss Is Driving Mosquitoes’ Thirst for Human Blood

Jan. 15, 2026 In the rapidly disappearing Atlantic Forest, mosquitoes are adapting to a human-dominated landscape. Scientists found that many species now prefer feeding on people rather than the forest’s diverse wildlife. This behavior dramatically raises the ...

The Oxygen You Breathe Depends on a Tiny Ocean Ingredient

Jan. 12, 2026 Microscopic ocean algae produce a huge share of Earth’s oxygen—but they need iron to do it. New field research shows that when iron is scarce, phytoplankton waste energy and photosynthesis falters. Climate-driven changes may reduce iron delivery ...

Coral Reefs Could Feed Millions If We Let Them Rebuild

Jan. 4, 2026 Overfished coral reefs are producing far less food than they could. Researchers found that letting reef fish populations recover could boost sustainable fish yields by nearly 50%, creating millions of extra meals each year. Countries with high ...

We Are Living in a Golden Age of Species Discovery

Dec. 24, 2025 The search for life on Earth is speeding up, not slowing down. Scientists are now identifying more than 16,000 new species each year, revealing far more biodiversity than expected across animals, plants, fungi, and beyond. Many species remain ...

This Fish-inspired Filter Removes over 99% of Microplastics

Dec. 22, 2025 Washing machines release massive amounts of microplastics into the environment, mostly from worn clothing fibers. Researchers at the University of Bonn have developed a new, fish-inspired filter that removes over 99% of these particles without ...

Latest Headlines

updated 1:12pm EST

The Genetic Turning Point That Made Backbones Possible

Feb. 4, 2026 Scientists have uncovered a surprising genetic shift that may explain how animals with backbones—from fish and frogs to humans—became so complex. By comparing sea squirts, lampreys, and frogs, ...

This Strange Little Dinosaur Is Forcing a Rethink of Evolution

Feb. 3, 2026 A newly identified tiny dinosaur, Foskeia pelendonum, is shaking up long-held ideas about how plant-eating dinosaurs evolved. Though fully grown adults were remarkably small and lightweight, their ...

Baby Dinosaurs Were the Backbone of the Jurassic Food Chain

Feb. 1, 2026 Despite growing into the largest animals ever to walk on land, sauropods began life small, exposed, and alone. Fossil evidence suggests their babies were frequently eaten by multiple predators, ...

How Gene Loss and Monogamy Built Termite Mega Societies

Jan. 31, 2026 Termites did not evolve complex societies by adding new genetic features. Instead, scientists found that they became more social by shedding genes tied to competition and independence. A shift to ...

Gray Wolves Are Hunting Sea Otters and No One Knows How

Jan. 30, 2026 On a remote Alaskan island, gray wolves are rewriting the rulebook by hunting sea otters — a behavior few scientists ever expected to see. Researchers are now uncovering how these coastal wolves ...

This Spider’s “pearl Necklace” Was Living Parasites

Jan. 28, 2026 What looked like a pearl necklace on a tiny spider turned out to be parasitic mite larvae. Scientists identified the mites as a new species, marking the first record of its family in Brazil. The ...

Scientists Finally Explain Earth’s Strangest Fossils

Jan. 27, 2026 The Ediacara Biota are some of the strangest fossils ever found—soft-bodied organisms preserved in remarkable detail where preservation shouldn’t be possible. Scientists now think their survival ...

Scientists Ranked Monogamy Across Mammals and Humans Stand out

Jan. 22, 2026 A new study suggests humans belong in an elite “league of monogamy,” ranking closer to beavers and meerkats than to chimpanzees. By comparing full and half siblings across species and human ...

Life’s Chemistry May Begin in the Cold Darkness of Space

Jan. 21, 2026 New experiments reveal that protein precursors can form naturally in deep space under extreme cold and radiation. Scientists found that simple amino acids bond into peptides on interstellar dust, ...

A 250-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals the Origins of Mammal Hearing

Jan. 19, 2026 Sensitive hearing may have evolved in mammal ancestors far earlier than scientists once believed. By modeling how sound moved through the skull of Thrinaxodon, a 250-million-year-old mammal ...

How the Frog Meat Trade Helped Spread a Deadly Fungus Worldwide

Jan. 19, 2026 A deadly fungus that has wiped out hundreds of amphibian species worldwide may have started its global journey in Brazil. Genetic evidence and trade data suggest the fungus hitchhiked across the ...

A Hidden Chemical War Is Unfolding Inside Spruce Trees

Jan. 1, 2026 Spruce bark beetles don’t just tolerate their host tree’s chemical defenses—they actively reshape them into stronger antifungal protections. These stolen defenses help shield the beetles from ...

Why Evolution Rewarded Ants That Sacrificed Protection

Dec. 22, 2025 Some ants thrive by choosing numbers over strength. Instead of heavily protecting each worker, they invest fewer resources in individual armor and produce far more ants. Larger colonies then ...

Scientists Replayed Evolution and Found a Surprise

Dec. 30, 2025 Environmental change doesn’t affect evolution in a single, predictable way. In large-scale computer simulations, scientists discovered that some fluctuating conditions help populations evolve ...

From Biting Flies to Feathered Dinosaurs, Scientists Reveal 70 New Species

Dec. 19, 2025 Researchers announced over 70 new species in a single year, including bizarre insects, ancient dinosaurs, rare mammals, and deep-river fish. Many were found not in the wild, but in museum ...

Fewer Offspring, Longer Life: The Hidden Rule of Mammal Aging

Jan. 16, 2026 A large international study reveals that mammals tend to live longer when reproduction is suppressed. On average, lifespan increases by about 10 percent, though the reasons differ for males and ...

Giant Sea Monsters Lived in Rivers at the End of the Dinosaur Age

Dec. 15, 2025 Giant mosasaurs, once thought to be strictly ocean-dwelling predators, may have spent their final chapter prowling freshwater rivers alongside dinosaurs and crocodiles. A massive tooth found in North ...

A Never-Before-Seen Creature Has Been Found in the Great Salt Lake

Jan. 10, 2026 Scientists have identified a brand-new species of worm living in the Great Salt Lake, marking only the third known animal group able to survive its extreme salinity. The species, named ...

A Silent Ocean Pandemic Is Wiping out Sea Urchins Worldwide

Dec. 12, 2025 A sudden, unexplained mass die-off is decimating sea urchins around the world, including catastrophic losses in the Canary Islands. Key reef-grazing species are reaching historic lows, and their ...

New Fossils in Qatar Reveal a Tiny Sea Cow Hidden for 21 Million Years

Dec. 12, 2025 Fossils from Qatar have revealed a small, newly identified sea cow species that lived in the Arabian Gulf more than 20 million years ago. The site contains the densest known collection of fossil sea ...

This Rare Bone Finally Settles the Nanotyrannus Mystery

Dec. 9, 2025 Scientists have confirmed that Nanotyrannus was a mature species, not a young T. rex. A microscopic look at its hyoid bone provided the key evidence, matching growth signals seen in known T. rex ...

Hornet-Eating Frog Shows Remarkable Venom Resistance

Dec. 4, 2025 Experiments reveal that pond frogs can eat highly venomous hornets without suffering noticeable damage, even after repeated stings. Most frogs successfully consumed hornets, including the notorious ...

Doomed Ants Send a Final Scent to Save Their Colony

Dec. 3, 2025 Ant pupae that are fatally sick don’t hide their condition; instead, they release a special scent that warns the rest of the colony. This signal prompts worker ants to open the pupae’s cocoons ...

Early Earth’s Sky May Have Created the First Ingredients for Life

Dec. 3, 2025 Researchers recreated conditions from billions of years ago and found that Earth’s young atmosphere could make key molecules linked to life. These sulfur-rich compounds, including certain amino ...

Scientists Discover Why Anacondas Stayed Giants for 12 Million Years

Dec. 3, 2025 Ancient anaconda fossils show that the snakes became giants soon after emerging in Miocene South America. Their size has stayed stable for over 12 million years, even though other huge reptiles went ...

A Tiny Ocean Worm Just Revealed a Big Secret About How Eyes Evolve

Dec. 2, 2025 Scientists found that adult bristleworm eyes grow continuously thanks to a rim of neural stem cells similar to those in vertebrate eyes. This growth is surprisingly regulated by environmental light ...

Bird Flu’s Surprising Heat Tolerance Has Scientists Worried

Nov. 28, 2025 Researchers discovered why bird flu can survive temperatures that stop human flu in its tracks. A key gene, PB1, gives avian viruses the ability to replicate even at fever-level heat. Mice ...

Fossil Brain Scans Show Pterosaurs Evolved Flight in a Flash

Dec. 9, 2025 Ancient pterosaurs may have taken to the skies far earlier and more explosively than birds, evolving flight at their very origin despite having relatively small brains. Using advanced CT imaging, ...

Ancient Wolves Could Only Have Reached This Island by Boat

Dec. 29, 2025 Scientists have uncovered ancient wolf remains on a small Baltic island where wolves could only have been brought by humans. These animals weren’t dogs, but true wolves that ate the same marine ...

Why Consciousness Exists at All

Dec. 15, 2025 Consciousness evolved in stages, starting with basic survival responses like pain and alarm, then expanding into focused awareness and self-reflection. These layers help organisms avoid danger, learn ...