Nature & Wildlife
Because it’s so automatic, hearing is a sense that is often taken for granted. However, it’s a crucial sensory system for humans and other animals, acting as a primary tool for survival by detecting threats, locating food and enabling communication, often functioning even in darkness or over long distances.
Nature & Wildlife
From birds to flowers, the majority of the Earth’s species stem from a few evolutionary “explosions,” where new habitats or traits sparked rapid diversification. These bursts, in fact, explain most of the planet’s biodiversity. Some of those new habitats were ignited by glaciers.
Nature & Wildlife
I grew up in the Midwest. That means that as a child, as the joke goes, I had to decide on a Halloween costume that could incorporate my winter coat.
Conservation
Around the world, the variety of living things—defined as biodiversity—is declining, as increasing numbers of species face the risk of extinction.
Nature & Wildlife
Captivating remnants of ancient times, fossils offer a window into Earth’s history and the evolution of life. They document the past, providing clues about extinct species, vanished environments and the processes that shaped our planet.
Nature & Wildlife
Our national parks protect some of our nation’s most cherished, iconic and native wildlife species, such as the brown bears of Katmai National Park and the bison—America’s national mammal—of Yellowstone National Park. But, according to some, there’s a dark side to that safety.
Videos
Close your eyes and picture a vivid green, lush rain forest that’s teeming with life. If I asked you where you imagined you were, your answer would probably be something like the Amazon or Costa Rica. But not too long ago—geologically speaking—your reply could have been the Arctic.
Nature & Wildlife
When you look at the immense footprints humans have left on this planet, it might lead you to conclude that we’ve trod, explored and exploited almost every inch of it; that there is nothing truly unknown or wild remaining. That’s why getting new evidence to the contrary is so hopeful and inspiring.
Conservation
One hundred years ago this year, the last passenger pigeon on Earth died in the Cincinnati Zoo. A female named Martha, she has now become an icon for species extinction.
News & More
Two very old whales are telling us a fascinating story. They are fossils—a male and a pregnant female—that were discovered in Pakistan in 2000 and 2004. Researchers say that these 47.5-million-year-old cetaceans are beginning to reveal that, without a doubt, our modern whales originated from terrestrial ancestors.
