The now-extinct giant beaver once lived from Florida to Alaska. It weighed as much as 100 kilograms, roughly the same as a small black bear.
Illustrated by Luke Dickey/Western University
Scientists studied the fossilized bones of giant beavers to understand what they ate and whether the species could keep up with environmental change.
Droplets rising from the Champagne vent on the ocean floor in the Mariana Islands. Fluids venting from the site contain dissolved carbon dioxide.
NOAA Ocean Explorer
Lowell D. Stott, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
Thousands of years ago, carbon gases trapped on the seafloor escaped, causing drastic warming that helped end the last ice age. A scientist says climate change could cause this process to repeat.
An artist’s impression of Siberian unicorns (Elasmotherium) walking in the steppe grass on a cloudy day.
Shutterstock/Elenarts
Why was one gene mutation that affects hair, teeth, sweat glands and breasts ubiquitous among ice age Arctic people? New research points to the advantage it provided for ancestors of Native Americans.
Bed bugs make us shudder and cringe. So arm yourself with the courage to learn about the biology and successes of Cimex lectularius – as well as the ways to get rid of it.
The pygmy right whale, Caperea marginata, at sea.
Robert Pitman
The last ice age locked atmospheric carbon dioxide into oceans, which has major implications for how the oceans and carbon dioxide may be linked in the future.
The Mt. Takeha volcano in west Antartica rises more than 2,000 metres above the surrounding ice sheet.
Wikimedia commons
In the wake of the collapse of Malta’s spectacular arch, which UK coastal features are under threat from the unrelenting forces of wind and water?
Hypothetical reconstruction of the largest extinct megapode, Progura gallinacea (right), with a modern Brush-turkey and a Grey Kangaroo.
Artwork by E. Shute, from photos by Tony Rudd, Kim Benson and Aaron Camens
Large birds once lived across Australia, only to become extinct around the time that giant marsupials and other megafauna died out during the Pleistocene “ice ages”.
Artist’s impression of waterfalls pouring over the original land bridge connecting England with France.
CREDIT: Imperial College London/Chase Stone
Could sea levels really rise by several metres this century. Probably not, although this century’s greenhouse emissions could potentially set the stage for large rises in centuries to come.