500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. During this period of time, known as the Cambrian period, basically all life was in the water. The ocean was brimming with animals that looked pretty different from the ones we recognize today — including a group of predatory worms with a throat covered in teeth and spines.
Researchers thought these tiny terrors died out at the end of the Cambrian period. But a paper published recently in the journal Biology Letters showed examples of a new species of this worm in the fossil record 25 million years after scientists thought they'd vanished from the Earth. One of the authors of the paper, Karma Nanglu, tells us how this finding may change how scientists understand the boundaries of time.
Curious about other weird wonders of the ancient Earth? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
The Atlanta City Council approved a resolution at its Monday meeting authorizing the mayor to execute an agreement with Fulton County to resume providing animal control services.
Avian influenza is being detected in more dairy herds. Scientists are paying close attention to how the virus is changing and what that means for its pandemic potential.
When siblings share a womb, sex hormones from a male fetus can cause lasting changes in a female littermate. This effect exists for all kinds of mammals — perhaps humans too.
The Clifford family was as prepared as possible to welcome Terrance the octopus. But there was one thing they missed: she was pregnant. And then she laid a whole lot of eggs.
Experts say pets are unlikely to be impacted by the eclipse itself — but there are steps their humans should take to help them deal with the crowds, traffic and stress.
Sports brackets for baby animal names? Try your hand at Zoo Atlanta's "Rhino Naming Madness." The moniker for its new southern white rhino calf, born Christmas Eve, will be revealed April 11, 2024.
Tiny, black-capped chickadees have big memories. They stash food in hundreds to thousands of locations in the wild – and then come back to these stashes when other food sources are low. Now, researchers at Columbia University's Zuckerman Institute think neural activity that works like a barcode may be to thank for this impressive feat — and that it might be a clue for how memories work across species.
Curious about other animal behavior mysteries? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
Volunteers gathered at Jekyll Island’s South Beach to release dozens of endangered sea turtles back to water — the largest such release in Jekyll Island's recorded history.
Billions of cicadas will emerge this spring across eastern and southern states as two broods arrive simultaneously for the first time in more than 200 years.
A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposal to kill some 470,000 owls over 30 years to protect other owl species has prompted conservationists and animal welfare advocates to weigh the consequences.
Livestock in Texas, Kansas and Michigan are confirmed to have the virus, and herds in New Mexico and Idaho have also tested positive. Officials confirmed that one person in Texas also had bird flu.
Historic numbers of animals across the globe have become endangered or pushed to extinction. But some of these species sit in limbo — not definitively extinct yet missing from the scientific record. Rediscovering a "lost" species is not easy. It can require trips to remote areas and canvassing a large area in search of only a handful of animals. But new technology and stronger partnerships with local communities have helped these hidden, "uncharismatic" creatures come to light.
Have other scientific gray areas you want us to cover in a future episode? Email us at shortwave@npr.org!
Among the changes, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will reinstate a decades-old regulation that mandates blanket protections for species newly classified as threatened.
