Odd Creatures News

January 3, 2026

Top Headlines

Scientists Turn Carrot Waste Into Protein People Prefer

Dec. 30, 2025 Scientists have discovered a clever way to turn carrot processing leftovers into a nutritious and surprisingly appealing protein. By growing edible fungi on carrot side streams, researchers produced fungal mycelium that can replace traditional ...

Zombie Worms Are Missing and Scientists Are Alarmed

Dec. 28, 2025 When researchers lowered whale bones into the deep ocean, they expected zombie worms to quickly move in. Instead, after 10 years, none appeared — an unsettling result tied to low-oxygen waters in the region. These worms play a key role in breaking ...

A New Way to Prevent Gum Disease Without Wiping Out Good Bacteria

Dec. 16, 2025 Scientists are uncovering a surprising way to influence bacteria—not by killing them, but by changing how they communicate. Researchers studying oral bacteria found that disrupting chemical signals used in bacterial “conversations” can shift ...

Scientists Uncover a Volcanic Trigger Behind the Black Death

Dec. 8, 2025 A newly analyzed set of climate data points to a major volcanic eruption that may have played a key role in the Black Death’s arrival. Cooling and crop failures across Europe pushed Italian states to bring in grain from the Black Sea. Those ...

Scientists Capture Flu Viruses Surfing Into Human Cells in Real Time

Dec. 4, 2025 Scientists have captured a never-before-seen, high-resolution look at influenza’s stealthy invasion of human cells, revealing that the cells aren’t just helpless victims. Using a groundbreaking imaging technique, researchers discovered that our ...

Tiny Yellowstone Quakes Ignite a Surge of Hidden Life Underground

Nov. 25, 2025 Researchers studying Yellowstone’s depths discovered that small earthquakes can recharge underground microbial life. The quakes exposed new rock and fluids, creating bursts of chemical energy that microbes can use. Both the water chemistry and the ...

This Engineered Fungus Cuts Emissions and Tastes Like Meat

Nov. 21, 2025 Scientists used CRISPR to boost the efficiency and digestibility of a fungus already known for its meatlike qualities. The modified strain grows protein far more quickly and with much less sugar while producing substantially fewer emissions. It also ...

Amazon Scorpion Venom Shows Stunning Power Against Breast Cancer

Nov. 18, 2025 Scientists are turning venom, radioisotopes, engineered proteins, and AI into powerful new tools against cancer. From Amazonian scorpions yielding molecules that kill breast cancer cells as effectively as chemotherapy, to improved fibrin sealants ...

Scientists Find a Surprising Link Between Lead and Human Evolution

Nov. 16, 2025 Researchers found that ancient hominids—including early humans—were exposed to lead throughout childhood, leaving chemical traces in fossil teeth. Experiments suggest this exposure may have driven genetic changes that strengthened ...

A Tiny Worm Just Revealed a Big Secret About Living Longer

Nov. 14, 2025 Scientists studying aging found that sensory inputs like touch and smell can cancel out the lifespan-boosting effects of dietary restriction by suppressing the key longevity gene fmo-2. When overactivated, the gene makes worms oddly indifferent to ...

Brain-like Learning Found in Bacterial Nanopores

Nov. 11, 2025 Scientists at EPFL have unraveled the mystery behind why biological nanopores, tiny molecular holes used in both nature and biotechnology, sometimes behave unpredictably. By experimenting with engineered versions of the bacterial pore aerolysin, ...

Sunflowers May Be the Future of "Vegan Meat"

Nov. 4, 2025 A collaboration between Brazilian and German researchers has led to a sunflower-based meat substitute that’s high in protein and minerals. The new ingredient, made from refined sunflower flour, delivers excellent nutritional value and a mild ...

Latest Headlines

updated 7:43am EST

Fossilized Bones Are Revealing Secrets from a Lost World

Jan. 3, 2026 Researchers have uncovered thousands of preserved metabolic molecules inside fossilized bones millions of years old, offering a surprising new window into prehistoric life. The findings reveal ...

This Strange Ancient Snake Was Hiding in a Museum for Decades

Dec. 31, 2025 A strange little snake fossil found on England’s south coast has finally revealed its secrets—more than 40 years after it was discovered. The newly named Paradoxophidion richardoweni lived around ...

Scientists Found a Hidden Clock Inside Dinosaur Eggshells

Dec. 21, 2025 Researchers have found that fossilized dinosaur eggshells contain a natural clock that can reveal when dinosaurs lived. The technique delivers surprisingly precise ages and could revolutionize how ...

This “mushroom” Is Not a Fungus, It’s a Bizarre Plant That Breaks All the Rules

Dec. 20, 2025 Balanophora is a plant that abandoned photosynthesis long ago and now lives entirely as a parasite on tree roots, hidden in dark forest undergrowth. ...

Ancient Oceans Were Ruled by Super Predators Unlike Anything Today

Dec. 19, 2025 Long before whales and sharks, enormous marine reptiles dominated the oceans with unmatched power. Scientists have reconstructed a 130-million-year-old marine ecosystem from Colombia and found ...

A Flesh-Eating Fly Once Eradicated Is Moving Back Toward the U.S.

Dec. 18, 2025 California researchers are preparing for the possible return of the New World screwworm, a parasitic fly that feeds on living flesh and once devastated U.S. livestock. By monitoring traps 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 ...

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 ...

Researchers Find How Plants Survive Without Sunlight or Sex

Dec. 14, 2025 The study reveals how Balanophora plants function despite abandoning photosynthesis and, in some species, sexual reproduction. Their plastid genomes shrank dramatically in a shared ancestor, yet the ...

Scientists Finally Uncovered Why the Indus Valley Civilization Collapsed

Dec. 14, 2025 A series of century-scale droughts may have quietly reshaped one of the world’s earliest urban civilizations. New climate reconstructions show that the Indus Valley Civilization endured repeated ...

Male Bonobos Use Hidden Clues to Boost Mating Success

Dec. 14, 2025 Male bonobos have an impressive ability to detect when females are most fertile, even though the usual visual cues are unreliable. Researchers tracking wild bonobos in the Congo discovered that males ...

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 ...

Human Brains Light Up for Chimp Voices in a Way No One Expected

Dec. 10, 2025 Humans don’t just recognize each other’s voices—our brains also light up for the calls of chimpanzees, hinting at ancient communication roots shared with our closest primate relatives. ...

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 ...

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 ...

A Backwards Bible Map That Changed the World

Nov. 30, 2025 Five hundred years ago, a Bible accidentally printed with a backwards map of the Holy Land sparked a revolution in how people imagined geography, borders, and even nationhood. Despite the blunder, ...

New 3D Scan Reveals a Hidden Network of Moai Carvers on Easter Island

Nov. 30, 2025 A high-resolution 3D model of Rano Raraku shows that the moai were created in many distinct carving zones. Instead of a top-down system, the statues appear to have been produced by separate family ...

Fossils Reveal a Massive Shark That Ruled Australia in Dinosaur Times

Nov. 22, 2025 Around 115 million years ago, northern Australia’s seas hosted a colossal shark that rewrites what we thought we knew about early ocean predators. New fossil discoveries show that modern-type ...

AI Detects a Secret Lion Roar No One Knew Existed

Nov. 22, 2025 Scientists have uncovered a surprising second type of lion roar, using AI to decode vocal signatures with remarkable precision. This breakthrough sheds new light on how lions communicate and offers a ...

Scientists Reveal Kissing Began Millions of Years Before Humans

Nov. 21, 2025 Scientists have traced kissing back to early primates, suggesting it began long before humans evolved. Their analysis points to great apes and even Neanderthals sharing forms of kissing millions of ...

A Long-Nosed Chameleon Hid Its True Identity for 150 Years

Dec. 13, 2025 Scientists have discovered that Madagascar’s iconic Pinocchio chameleon is actually a distinct species now named Calumma pinocchio. DNA from both modern samples and centuries-old museum specimens ...

Scientists Recover 40,000-Year-Old Mammoth RNA Still Packed With Clues

Nov. 15, 2025 Researchers have sequenced the oldest RNA ever recovered, taken from a woolly mammoth frozen for nearly 40,000 years. The RNA reveals which genes were active in its tissues, offering a rare glimpse ...

Secret Underwater Language of Hawaiian Monk Seals Has 25 New Calls

Nov. 17, 2025 Scientists have revealed that Hawaiian monk seals produce far more underwater vocalizations than previously believed. Their newly discovered 25-call repertoire includes complex combinations and a ...

Tiny Bee With Devil Horns Discovered in Western Australia

Nov. 25, 2025 A horned native bee dubbed Megachile lucifer has been discovered in Western Australia’s Goldfields. Identified while surveying a rare wildflower, the species stood out with its unusual ...

Science Finally Solves a 700-Year-Old Royal Murder

Nov. 14, 2025 Genetic, isotopic, and forensic evidence has conclusively identified the remains of Duke Béla of Macsó and uncovered remarkable details about his life, ancestry, and violent death. The study ...

Killer Whales Perfect a Ruthless Trick to Hunt Great White Sharks

Nov. 3, 2025 In the Gulf of California, a pod of orcas known as Moctezuma’s pod has developed a chillingly precise technique for hunting young great white sharks — flipping them upside down to paralyze and ...

Scientists Teach Bacteria the Octopus’s Secret to Camouflage

Nov. 3, 2025 Researchers at UC San Diego have figured out how to get bacteria to produce xanthommatin, the pigment that lets octopuses and squids camouflage. By linking the pigment’s production to bacterial ...

This Tiny Bat Hunts Like a Lion, but Better

Nov. 1, 2025 Fringe-lipped bats from Panama hunt like miniature lions, using a “hang-and-wait” strategy to capture large, energy-rich prey. High-tech biologging revealed they spend most of their time ...

Life Found in a Place Scientists Thought Impossible

Nov. 9, 2025 Deep beneath the ocean, scientists uncovered thriving microbial life in one of Earth’s harshest environments—an area with a pH of 12, where survival seems nearly impossible. Using lipid ...