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In 2010, a group of scientists went on an expedition into the Abanda caves in the rainforest of Gabon. Among the many creatures they found there—bats, snakes, moths, spiders, crickets, scorpions and other insects and arachnids—there was a surprise: An ora
The oldest known trees are thousands of years old. The ancient plants have witnessed the rise and fall of multiple civilizations.
Geckos and shrubs and sharks, oh my! 2013 was a big year for new species. Scientists found hundreds of them this year. Here are some of our favorites.
There’s only one thing in this world shaped like an egg. Not exactly spherical, not exactly an oval, it’s kind of hard to describe what an egg looks like. “Asymmetric tapered oval”? Sure, why not.
Sure, you know that bees pollinate our crops and give us honey. But there's so much more to these buzzing insects than that.
A phenomenon called pareidolia is what makes us interpret random stimuli as something meaningful. Here are 8 fantastic examples of the phenomenon in nature.
Plants, dirt, and even rocks are more dangerous than you probably imagined.
They say life isn't about the destination, but the journey—and that also seems to be true about these amazing staircases.
There are currently 981 sites on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, and 17 of them are in Canada. Here's a little bit more about them.
Tall tales don't get much taller than America's most beloved lumberjack, Paul Bunyan. Here are 11 natural wonders he's said to have constructed.
When I saw the Caribbean Sea in person for the first time, my eyes metaphorically popped out of my head. As a kid who grew up in South Jersey, I was used to the dirty, almost brown, kinda-sorta blue color of the coastal Atlantic Ocean. But this was differ
Depending on who you ask, ingested creepy crawlies can vary from three, to eight, and even zero.
Talk about "singing for your supper": New research shows that fairy-wren chicks have to sing a specific song to their mother or she will refuse to feed them.
Some people can be pretty terrible to animals—but most people will try to help cuddly (and not-so-cuddly) creatures when they can. Here are some of the most incredible videos of people saving animals.
No matter how things look from the ground, these events look drastically different, even surprisingly peaceful, from above.
While brain surgery has become a fairly common procedure with humans, it is still very rarely used on animal patients, who have drastically different anatomies than we do.
In 2008, an international team of scientists was trudging through the forests of Vietnam’s Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park when they found a frog they didn’t recognize. Actually, no one recognized it, at least not formally. It was new to science and the speci
Dan Lewis runs the popular daily newsletter Now I Know ("Learn Something New Every Day, By Email"). We've invited him to share some of his stories on mental_floss this week.
Though they're delightfully adorable, Tasmanian devils don't have a reputation for being sweet and cuddly (just look at that Taz on Looney Tunes!). But according to a new study, evolving to be less ferocious might be the only thing that could keep them fr
New Madrid seismic zone. Red circles identify earthquakes that occurred between 1974 and 2002 with magnitudes 2.5 and larger. Green circles denote earthquakes that occurred before 1974. The larger the circle, the larger the earthquake. Source: USGS In 18
In the wild, giant panda mating occurs just as nature specials would have you believe. There’s intense competition for each female, and the dominant male will mate with her several times to ensure success. And that strategy works: Wild female pandas gener