Articles published in May 2025
Complete reference on the deathstalker scorpion: venom toxicity, chlorotoxin cancer research, habitat, size, lifespan, and the strange facts that make Leiurus quinquestriatus the world's most medically valuable arachnid.
Everything about the luna moth: size, habitat, caterpillar diet, bat-evading tails, life cycle, conservation, and the strange facts that make Actias luna one of North America's most haunting insects.
Everything about the European praying mantis: size, stereoscopic vision, raptorial strike, cannibalism, ootheca reproduction, diet, lifespan, and the strange facts that make Mantis religiosa one of the most specialised ambush predators on Earth.
Everything about the mosquito: size, habitat, biting biology, disease vectors, control programs, and the strange facts that make Culicidae the deadliest animal family on Earth.
Everything about the blue morpho butterfly: size, habitat, structural iridescence, diet, life cycle, cannibal caterpillars, conservation, and the strange facts that make Morpho peleides one of the most recognisable insects on Earth.
Everything about the European stag beetle: size, antler-like mandibles, oak and beech habitat, 3-7 year larval cycle, bloodless male fights, conservation, and the strange facts that make Lucanus cervus Europe's flagship saproxylic insect.
Everything about the red imported fire ant: size, venom, colony structure, mounds, rafting behaviour, invasion history, and the strange facts that make Solenopsis invicta one of the world's costliest invasive insects.
Everything about the thylacine or Tasmanian tiger: size, stripes, habitat, hunting, jaw gape, the 1936 extinction of Benjamin, de-extinction projects, and the strange facts that made Thylacinus cynocephalus the largest marsupial predator of modern times.
Everything about Mosasaurus: size, habitat, diet, discovery, reproduction, extinction, and the strange facts that made Mosasaurus hoffmannii the apex predator of the late Cretaceous oceans.
Everything about Meganeuropsis permiana: the 75-centimetre Early Permian griffinfly from Kansas, the largest insect ever known, its oxygen-fueled gigantism, anatomy, prey, and extinction before the dinosaurs.
Everything about the moa: size, habitat, diet, extinction, ancient DNA, and the strange facts that made Dinornithidae the only bird lineage with no wings at all and the dominant herbivore of prehistoric New Zealand.
Everything about the giant ground sloth: size, habitat, diet, claws, Darwin's Beagle fossils, Thomas Jefferson's Megalonyx paper, and why Megatherium americanum vanished 10,000 years ago.
Everything about ammonites: shell shape, suture patterns, size range, 340-million-year fossil record, closest living relatives, the K-Pg extinction that killed them, and the cultural legends that grew up around their spiral shells.
Everything about the dire wolf: size, habitat, diet, hunting, La Brea tar pit specimens, the 2021 Nature reclassification revealing it was not a true wolf, Colossal Biosciences' 2024 de-extinction claim, and the pop culture rise of Aenocyon dirus.
Everything about trilobites: their 270 million year Paleozoic run, three-lobed bodies, mineralised calcite eyes, 22,000 described species, defensive enrolment, and their disappearance in the end-Permian mass extinction.
Everything about Hallucigenia sparsa: the bizarre 508-million-year-old Cambrian lobopodian from the Burgess Shale, reconstructed upside-down and backwards for forty years and now recognised as an ancient cousin of velvet worms.
Everything about the velociraptor: real size, feathers, the sickle claw, the Fighting Dinosaurs fossil, hunting behaviour, and why the Jurassic Park version is nothing like the real Velociraptor mongoliensis.
Everything about the great blue heron: size, habitat, lightning-fast S-strike hunting, rookeries, powder down feathers, white morphs, and the strange facts that make Ardea herodias the largest heron in North America.
Everything about the common nightingale: size, habitat, song, migration, cultural history, and the strange facts that make Luscinia megarhynchos one of the most celebrated singers in the animal world.
Everything about the peregrine falcon: size, habitat, diet, hunting stoop, urban nesting, subspecies, DDT recovery, and the strange facts that make Falco peregrinus the fastest animal on Earth.
Everything about the gentoo penguin: size, habitat, diet, diving, breeding, pebble courtship gifts, conservation, and the strange facts that make Pygoscelis papua the fastest underwater penguin on Earth.
Everything about the scarlet macaw: size, habitat, diet, clay-lick behaviour, pair bonds, vocal learning, conservation, and the strange facts that make Ara macao one of the most iconic parrots in the Neotropics.
Everything about the great horned owl: size, habitat, diet, silent flight, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Bubo virginianus the most versatile nocturnal raptor in the Americas.
Everything about the barn swallow: size, habitat, diet, migration, nesting, tail-streamer biology, conservation, and the strange facts that make Hirundo rustica the most widespread swallow on Earth.
Everything about the bee hummingbird: size, Cuban habitat, diet, hovering flight, courtship, nest, conservation, and the strange facts that make Mellisuga helenae the smallest bird in the world.
Everything about the southern cassowary: size, habitat, dagger claws, the disputed bony casque, rainforest seed dispersal, parenting by males, conservation, and the strange facts that make Casuarius casuarius the world's most dangerous living bird.
Everything about the Eurasian magpie: size, habitat, diet, intelligence, mirror self-recognition, cache memory, funerals, and the strange facts that make Pica pica one of the smartest birds alive.
Everything about the inland taipan: size, habitat, diet, venom potency, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Oxyuranus microlepidotus the most venomous land snake on Earth.
Everything about the alligator snapping turtle: size, habitat, worm-like tongue lure, ambush hunting, diet, reproduction, lifespan, conservation status, and the strange facts that make Macrochelys temminckii the largest freshwater turtle in North America.
Everything about the green anaconda: size, habitat, hunting, breeding balls, reproduction, conservation, and the strange facts that make Eunectes murinus the heaviest snake on Earth.
Everything about the hellbender: the largest salamander in North America. Size, cold-stream habitat, cutaneous respiration, crayfish diet, male nest guarding, 55-year lifespan, and the Ozark subspecies conservation crisis.
