Articles published in March 2025
Everything about the Chinese mantis: size, habitat, diet, hunting, reproduction, the 1896 introduction to North America, hummingbird predation, and the strange facts that make Tenodera sinensis the largest mantis in North America.
Everything about the globe skimmer: size, habitat, migration, diet, reproduction, the 18,000 km multi-generational trans-oceanic migration, and the strange facts that make Pantala flavescens the most widespread and longest-migrating insect on Earth.
Everything about the painted lady butterfly: size, migration, diet, reproduction, habitat, and the strange facts that make Vanessa cardui the most widespread butterfly on Earth.
Everything about the rhinoceros beetle: size, curved horn combat, strength records, the Pacific coconut palm invasion, diet, lifecycle, and the strange facts that make Dynastinae one of the toughest and largest beetle groups on Earth.
Complete guide to the bumblebee (genus Bombus): 250 species, cold-climate physiology, buzz pollination, colony structure, puzzle-solving cognition, and the steep declines threatening these fuzzy pollinators worldwide.
Everything about the bullet ant: size, habitat, the world's most painful sting, poneratoxin venom, the Satere-Mawe glove initiation, colony life, and the strange facts that make Paraponera clavata the top entry on the Schmidt Pain Index.
Everything about the passenger pigeon: size, habitat, diet, nesting colonies, extinction timeline, and the strange facts that made Ectopistes migratorius go from the most abundant bird in North America to extinct in fifty years.
Everything about Basilosaurus: size, anatomy, hunting, bite force, vestigial hind legs, discovery, and the strange facts that made Basilosaurus cetoides one of the most extraordinary early whales ever found.
Everything about Arthropleura: the 2.6-metre Carboniferous millipede that was the largest land invertebrate ever, its anatomy, diet debate, oxygen-driven gigantism, and its extinction in the early Permian.
Everything about Haast's eagle: size, prey, hunting, evolution, Maori pouakai tradition, and the strange facts that made Hieraaetus moorei the largest eagle ever known and the only raptor confirmed to have preyed on humans.
Everything about the giant beaver: size, habitat, diet, 15 cm incisors, extinction, and the strange facts that make Castoroides ohioensis the bear-sized Ice Age rodent that did not build dams.
Everything about Cameroceras: the giant Ordovician nautiloid with a straight conical shell up to six metres long, apex predator of 470-million-year-old seas, its role in end-Ordovician extinction, anatomy, diet, and why it may be the largest mollusc ever.
Everything about the glyptodon: size, armoured shell, tail club, taxonomy as an armadillo relative, mammoth steppe context, Darwin's Beagle fossils, and the late Pleistocene extinction of Glyptodon reticulatus.
Everything about Pterodactylus antiquus: the first pterosaur ever described, its Late Jurassic Solnhofen habitat, 1-metre wingspan, fish diet, pycnofibre coat, and why the word 'pterodactyl' is a misleading catch-all for all pterosaurs.
Everything about Anomalocaris canadensis: the 515-million-year-old Cambrian apex predator from the Burgess Shale, misclassified as three separate animals for 99 years, and armed with 16,000-lens compound eyes and a radial-toothed circular mouth.
Everything about Triceratops: size, horns, frill, the 1,000-tooth battery, the Torosaurus debate, combat with T. rex, and the strange facts that make Triceratops horridus the most iconic ceratopsian of the Late Cretaceous.
Everything about the greater flamingo: pink pigmentation, filter-feeding biology, lek courtship dances, crop milk, salt-lake habitats, and the strange facts that define Phoenicopterus roseus.
Everything about the canary: taxonomy, wild origins in the Canary Islands, 200+ domestic breeds, song and vocal learning, the coal mine legacy, the neurogenesis discovery, and the strange facts that make Serinus canaria one of the most scientifically important small birds alive.
Everything about the harpy eagle: size, habitat, diet, hunting, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Harpia harpyja the most powerful raptor in the Americas.
Everything about the Adelie penguin: size, habitat, diet, pebble-gift courtship, long-distance colony walks, breeding, conservation, and the strange facts that make Pygoscelis adeliae the most abundant and most purely Antarctic penguin on Earth.
Everything about the kakapo: size, habitat, lek breeding, booming calls, diet, conservation, and the strange facts that make Strigops habroptila the world's only flightless parrot and one of the rarest birds on Earth.
Everything about the barn owl: size, habitat, diet, silent flight, extraordinary hearing, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Tyto alba the most widely distributed owl on Earth.
Everything about the bar-tailed godwit: the 13,560 km non-stop flight, Alaska to New Zealand migration, size, diet, breeding, and the strange facts that make Limosa lapponica the world record holder for non-stop bird flight.
Everything about Anna's hummingbird: Pacific Coast range, dive display, tail-feather squeak, structural pink gorget, winter torpor, diet, nesting, and the strange facts that make Calypte anna one of the most studied hummingbirds in North America.
Everything about the kiwi: size, habitat, the only bird with nostrils at the tip of its bill, enormous 20-percent-body-weight eggs, marrow-filled bones, nocturnal foraging, conservation, and the strange facts that make Apteryx New Zealand's national bird.
Everything about the New Caledonian crow: tool-making, cognition, hook-crafting from Pandanus leaves, chain-linked tool use, and the strange facts that make Corvus moneduloides the most sophisticated non-primate tool user on Earth.
Everything about the eastern brown snake: size, habitat, diet, venom potency, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Pseudonaja textilis the deadliest snake in Australia by human fatality count.
Everything about the painted turtle: size, habitat, subspecies, diet, reproduction, extreme cold tolerance, conservation, and the strange facts that make Chrysemys picta North America's most widespread turtle.
Everything about the reticulated python: size, habitat, diet, constriction, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Malayopython reticulatus the longest snake in the world.
Everything about the Chinese giant salamander: the largest amphibian on Earth, its infant-like cries, 170-million-year lineage, cutaneous respiration, farmed hybrid crisis, and the 2018 discovery that it is actually at least five cryptic species - most already lost from the wild.
Everything about the savannah monitor: size, habitat, burrowing and aestivation, insect-heavy diet, pet trade pressures, conservation, and the strange facts that make Varanus exanthematicus Africa's stocky ground-dwelling varanid.
