Desert ants zigzag around the searing sand at high speed but they always manage to find their way home. A new book explains their amazing abilities

A fossil of a predatory reptile from the dinosaur era is missing the front of its jaws, suggesting it was attacked by a rival that bit them off

This pink manta ray, nicknamed Clouseau, has resurfaced off Australia’s coast. No one knows why it has a bubble-gum pink underside or if there are others out there

Some bacteria sacrifice themselves when their colony is attacked by rivals, to save their relatives and make sure their shared genes are passed on

Brazil’s yellow cururu toads eat scorpions, and they can survive five times the dose of scorpion venom that would kill a mouse – the same as 10 stings

A new species of dinosaur has been named from a skull measuring only 1.4 centimetres across. The dinosaur was smaller than any living bird today

Genetic analysis suggests all Arabica coffee plants are descended from a single common ancestor, and this lack of genetic diversity makes them vulnerable to extinction

The plot of sci-fi movie Little Joe may sound like it plays to powerful 1990s anti-GM fears but bigger issues like human freedom may really be at stake

Book Wildhood explores the idea that penguins, hyenas, whales and wolves all experience a similar period of adolescence and what this could mean for all animals

A 2000-year-old skeleton found in Spain belonged to a lapdog that may have been born thousands of kilometres to the east and traded during Roman times

The highest dwelling mammal – a mouse – has been discovered at 6700 metres above sea level, where conditions are so harsh they have been compared to Mars

Penguins are the first seabirds we have recorded making sounds under water – they may be calling out for help when they hunt or making noise to disorient their prey

We love to hate wasps, but they pollinate flowers, kill off pests and their venom might even help us treat cancer

When a large asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, it sent huge curtains of dust flying tens of kilometres up into the air that quickly covered the planet

Climate change is leading to lower numbers of marine life towards the equator – including mammals, birds, fish and plankton – while populations nearer the poles increase

A new dinosaur species related to velociraptors has been found in New Mexico, and its claws were larger and stronger than average

The fossilised remains of the food found in one of the few remaining coastal Neanderthal sites in Europe show they ate plenty of seafood, fish and nuts

Finding out how flight evolved or animals moved onto land is all about a collision of palaeontology and genetics, argue two new books

A shrimp-like creature found 6 kilometres down in the Pacific Ocean’s deepest trench has been named Eurythenes plasticus after the microplastics found in its gut

Tropical seas are ecological hotspots where predators should be active and easy to catch – but 50 years of data shows sharks are easier to catch in cooler seas

Bottlenose dolphins in Shark Bay, Australia, form alliances and coordinate the timing of their clicking noises to attract females and deter other males

A 99-million-year-old skull recently discovered in amber might actually belong to a lizard, rather than a tiny bird-like dinosaur as first thought

Plant-eating cave bears vanished when ice spread across Europe – maybe because their large sinuses prevented them chewing meat to adapt to the new conditions

Many great ape species are already in a precarious situation because of their dwindling numbers. Now they may also be at risk from the coronavirus pandemic

The age of a whale shark can be determined by dating the rings of growth in their cartilage, a method that has confirmed that these animals can live for at least 50 years

Soil’s earthy smell comes from chemicals produced by bacteria called Streptomyces, which use the odour to attract springtails to help disperse their spores

Ethereal photos of life’s building blocks, Earth’s toughest creature and a close-up of a gem win Olympus Global Image of the Year Life Science Light Microscopy Award regional prizes

Two lineages of ancient monkey migrated from Africa to South America more than 30 million years ago. But we’re not sure which ones got there first

Move over Martians, Earth has already been invaded by little green aliens, but how did parakeets become one of the most successful invasive species ever?

Pale spear-nosed bats can learn to alter their calls to mimic different sounds – a rare skill that could help us understand the biology of human speech and language

The first living organisms had to make essential carbon-based chemicals, and they may have done it by harnessing the chemical power of metals like nickel

Most molecules exist in mirror-image forms, and yet life prefers one over the other. How this bias began and why it persisted is one of the most baffling questions in biology – but now we have an answer

Male ring-tailed lemurs rub their wrists to release a sweet, fruity smell that may be the first evidence of sex pheromones identified in primates

An alligator carcass dropped in the deep ocean reveals the bizarre ecosystems of the seabed - including zombie worms that fed on prehistoric reptiles

An aerial view of crabeater seals in Antarctica, mating damselflies and a twilight rocket launch were among the most lauded entries to the inaugural Nature TTL Photographer of the Year award

Jane Goodall has tirelessly fought for a better world for humans and wildlife, and with covid-19 we must stay positive, she says 

Dingoes have been persecuted in Australia for centuries for killing livestock, but protecting them could benefit the environment and aid recovery from the devastating fires

Humans, chimpanzees, gorillas and bats have evolved to be good at metabolising alcohol, according to a study that suggests many mammals can get drunk

A well-preserved fossilised tail from Spinosaurus suggests this massive dinosaur may have been able to propel itself and hunt for prey in the water

Vampire bats are social creatures that build relationships through grooming and food-sharing, but when they feel ill, they self-isolate and call out for contact far less

Apollo 11, Take Your Pills, Pandemic: How to prevent an outbreak, and Icarus are all great documentaries available to stream at the moment

For years, the oldest turtle fossils we could find had fully formed shells. Now, more primitive fossils are revealing the strange tale of how turtle shells evolved

The Tully Monster is a famously odd 300-million-year-old fossil that looks like an alien, but a new analysis suggests it was a backboned animal like a hagfish or lamprey

For orangutans, scratching is contagious – but unexpectedly, the behaviour is transmitted more between individuals that do not know each other well

Sara Pauly is not one of those small business owners scrambling to fill out paperwork for part of the more than $350 billion in government aid available through the Paycheck Protection Program or the...

Investors withdrew record amounts of money from bond and equity funds in March while money market funds showed record inflows, as the prospect of a massive economic downturn due to coronavirus...

(This Apr 9 story corrects spelling and title of Joyce Maroney, founder and executive director of the Workforce Institute at Kronos, in paragraphs 16 and 23.)

After closing their doors to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, many small businesses face an uncertain future following government-ordered lockdowns.

In what now seems like a galaxy far, far away, Republican lawmakers routinely talked up the idea of raising the Medicare eligibility age from 65 to 67. In fact, we were in that galaxy just three...

If you got your stimulus payment this week from the IRS and it is still in your account, are you afraid to spend it?