Animals
We live on a planet with millions of species of animals -and a rich, diverse collection of known wildlife, and yet new species are being identified seemingly every day — both living and extinct.
Whether it’s the deadliest snakes, longest-living creatures or the history of the dinosaurs, at Live Science, our expert writers are here to help you understand Earth's incredible fauna — past and present — with the latest animal news, features and articles.
Editor's Picks
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'Closer than people think': Woolly mammoth 'de-extinction' is nearing reality — and we have no idea what happens next
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How did sharks become Earth's 'ultimate survivors'? Paleontologist John Long finds answers in new book 'The Secret History of Sharks'
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'The simplicity of life just hits you': Watch rare footage of critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla feeding her baby in the wild
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Latest about Animals
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Oldest tadpole on record was a Jurassic giant
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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From black cats to white spirit bears, 'superstitions, lore and myths can shape your subconscious' − biases that have real effects
By Elizabeth Carlen Published
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Babirusa: The prehistoric 'deer' pigs with huge antler teeth
By Lydia Smith Published
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Predatory birds from the Jurassic may have driven cicada evolution for millions of years
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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Polar bears are getting horrific injuries and huge 'ice balls' on their paws because of climate change, researchers say
By Sascha Pare Published
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Wild animals that experience trauma are half as likely to survive, study finds
By Xochitl Ortiz Ross Published
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'Truly primal': Watch Burmese python swallow deer whole in Florida Everglades by stretching its mouth to the absolute limit
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Explore Animals
Amphibians
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'It's risky for male frogs out there': Female frog drags and attempts to eat screaming male
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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'Lovely freak of nature': Mutant blue frog hops into wildlife sanctuary workshop
By Sascha Pare Published
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'Kermit the Frog' creature that lived 270 million years ago looked like a 'stout salamander' with 'cartoonish' grin
By Jennifer Nalewicki Published
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Why is a mushroom growing on a frog? Scientists don't know, but it sure looks weird
By Elise Poore Published
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Dinosaur-era frog found fossilized with belly full of eggs and was likely killed during mating
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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Annual cane toad kill-a-thon is about to start in Australia. Here's how to eliminate the pests humanely.
By Sascha Pare Published
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World's tiniest fanged frog with males that 'hug' their babies discovered
By Emma Bryce Published
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Paradoxical frog: The giant tadpole that turns into a little frog
By Megan Shersby Published
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Toxic pigment that causes red hair discovered in 10 million-year-old frog fossil
By Jennifer Nalewicki Published
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Arachnids
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Three remarkable spiders: A vegetarian, a vampire and a predator that uses 'pincer, fork and key'
By Ximena Nelson Published
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REFERENCE
Wolf spiders: Behavior, bites and other facts
By Jessie Szalay Last updated
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We now know why tarantulas are hairy — to stop army ants eating them alive
By Patrick Pester Published
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Brazilian wandering spiders: Bites & other facts
By Jessie Szalay Last updated
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Reference
Giant huntsman spider: The world's largest spider by leg span
By Jessie Szalay Last updated
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Reference
Brown recluse spiders: Facts, bites & symptoms
By Laura Geggel Last updated
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Giant, invasive Joro spiders with 6-foot webs could be poised to take over US cities, scientists warn
By Harry Baker Published
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Diving bell spider: The only aquatic arachnid that creates a web underwater to live in
By Megan Shersby Published
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Deadly male funnel-web spider 'Hercules' breaks record as biggest ever discovered
By Stephanie Pappas Published
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Birds
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Mice on remote island that eat albatrosses alive sentenced to death by 'bombing,' scientists decree
By Patrick Pester Published
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Meet 'small diver': One of the tiniest penguins ever discovered
By Patrick Pester Published
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Nearly half a million 'invasive' owls, including their hybrid offspring, to be killed by US
By Harry Baker Published
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Reference
12 of the biggest birds on Earth
By Scott Dutfield Last updated
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Crows can count out loud, startling study reveals
By Ben Turner Published
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32 of the most colorful birds on Earth
By Sascha Pare Published
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East Africa's Lake Nakuru almost doubled in size in 13 years — and that's bad news for flamingos
By Aidan Byrne Published
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World's oldest wild bird is 'actively courting' after losing long-term mate
By Sascha Pare Published
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Eleonora's falcon: The raptor that imprisons birds live by stripping their feathers and stuffing them in rocks
By Megan Shersby Published
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Cnidaria
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Watch 'spaghetti monster' with dozens of pink-tipped sausage legs swimming near Nazca Ridge
By Sascha Pare Published
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Otherworldly video captures rare jellyfish with a hitchhiker in its bell
By Elise Poore Published
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Newly discovered jellyfish is a 24-eyed weirdo related to the world's most venomous marine creature
By Sascha Pare Published
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Alien-like giant phantom jellyfish spotted in frigid waters off Antarctica
By Patrick Pester Published
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Thousands of cannonball jellyfish wash ashore after swarming North Carolina’s Outer Banks
By Jennifer Nalewicki Published
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Thousands of jellyfish swarm near Israel, mesmerizing images reveal
By Jamie Carter Published
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Largest crown jellyfish ever discovered is a blood red, saucer-like weirdo
By Brandon Specktor Published
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Scientists inserted disco 'strobe lights' into jellyfish to see how they function without brains
By Nicoletta Lanese Published
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Giant 'phantom jellyfish' that eats with mouth-arms spotted off California coast
By Ben Turner Published
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Crustaceans
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1-in-100 million 'cotton candy' lobster caught off New Hampshire alive and well at aquarium
By Tiffany Taylor Published
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'You can see its guts and things': Weird see-through crustacean with giant eyes discovered off the Bahamas
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Crabs keep evolving to go from the sea to the land — and back again
By Carys Matthews Published
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More than 10 billion snow crabs starved to death off the coast of Alaska. But why?
By Sascha Pare Published
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'Hauntingly beautiful' image of a golden horseshoe crab wins wildlife photography competition
By Sascha Pare Published
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Hoff crab: The hairy-chested crustacean that farms bacteria on its hairs
By Megan Shersby Published
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Pom pom crab: The crustacean that uses anemones as boxing gloves
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Watch cannibal crab gobble up baby crablets in Australia in David Attenborough's 'Our Planet II'
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Why do animals keep evolving into crabs?
By Laurel Hamers Published
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Extinct Species
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Oldest tadpole on record was a Jurassic giant
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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Predatory birds from the Jurassic may have driven cicada evolution for millions of years
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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'It was clearly a human assault on the species': The fate of the great auk
By Alexander McNamara Published
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80 million-year-old dinosaur 'mini eggs' unearthed at Chinese construction site are the smallest ever found — and belong to a never-before-seen T. rex relative
By Harry Baker Published
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Half-a-billion-year-old 'marine Roomba' is earliest known asymmetrical animal
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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Most complete Tasmanian tiger genome yet pieced together from 110-year-old pickled head
By Sascha Pare Published
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Never-before-seen head of prehistoric, car-size 'millipede' solves evolutionary mystery
By Sierra Bouchér Published
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32,000-year-old mummified woolly rhino half-eaten by predators unearthed in Siberia
By Sascha Pare Published
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Pollen allergies drove woolly mammoths to extinction, study claims
By Sascha Pare Published
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Fish
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Stunning video shows sharks devouring sea urchins, spines and all
By Jeremy Day Published
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Alligator gar: The 'living fossil' that has barely evolved for 100 million years
By Melissa Hobson Published
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How did sharks become Earth's 'ultimate survivors'? Paleontologist John Long finds answers in new book 'The Secret History of Sharks'
By Patrick Pester Published
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Angular roughshark: The pig-faced shark that grunts when captured
By Lydia Smith Published
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Watch baby Japanese eel escape from stomach of predator in X-ray video
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Giant oarfish: The 'doomsday' fish of legend that supposedly foreshadows earthquakes
By Melissa Hobson Published
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A really big shark got gobbled up by another, massive shark in 1st known case of its kind
By Richard Pallardy Published
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Rare 'doomsday fish' said to bring earthquakes spotted in California days before LA quake
By Patrick Pester Published
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Pearlfish: The eel-like fish that lives up a sea cucumber's butt
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Insects
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Watch mesmerizing video of weird waves that 'shape life itself' inside a fly embryo
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Parasitic 'horror' wasp that bursts from a fly's abdomen like an 'Alien' xenomorph discovered in Mississippi backyard
By Patrick Pester Published
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Kamikaze termites blow themselves up with 'explosive' backpacks — and scientists just figured out how
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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These bacteria trigger a sex change in wasps — scientists finally know how
By Tiffany Taylor Published
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Panda ant: The wasps whose black and white females have giant stingers and parasitic babies
By Lydia Smith Published
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Ants perform life saving operations — the only animal other than humans known to do so
By Jacklin Kwan Published
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Butterflies cross Atlantic ocean on 2,600-mile non-stop flight never recorded in any insect before
By Ben Turner Published
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Scientists discovered the oldest termite mounds on Earth — and they're 34,000 years old
By Kristel Tjandra Published
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Cicada double brood event: What to expect as trillions of bugs emerge in Eastern US
By Carys Matthews Last updated
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Land Mammals
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Polar bears are getting horrific injuries and huge 'ice balls' on their paws because of climate change, researchers say
By Sascha Pare Published
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New DNA findings shed light on Tsavo's infamous man-eating lions
By Elise Poore Published
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Why do cats 'chatter'?
By Victoria Atkinson Published
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'The simplicity of life just hits you': Watch rare footage of critically endangered eastern lowland gorilla feeding her baby in the wild
By Hannah Osborne Published
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'All it takes is a predator to learn that children are easier prey': Why India's 'wolf' attacks may not be what they seem
By Patrick Pester Published
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How do cats squeeze through small spaces?
By Charles Q. Choi Last updated
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Wild gorillas in Gabon eat plants with antibacterial abilities against drug-resistant E. coli
By Olivia Ferrari Published
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Why do dogs' paws smell like Fritos?
By Jennifer Nalewicki Published
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Over 40% of pet cats play fetch — but scientists aren't quite sure why
By Skyler Ware Published
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Marine Mammals
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Mysterious sound coming from the Mariana Trench has finally been explained
By Harry Baker Published
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Sexually frustrated dolphin behind spate of attacks on humans off Japan
By Patrick Pester Published
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Boat-ramming orcas may be using yachts as target practice toys, scientists suggest
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Watch heartbreaking footage of humpback whale with missing tail in Washington state
By Elise Poore Published
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2 young orcas ram sailboat off northern France — 800 miles from 'attack' hotspot
By Sascha Pare Published
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Ultra-rare whale never seen alive washes up on on New Zealand beach — and scientists could now dissect it for the 1st time
By Harry Baker Published
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Rabid seals are attacking people in South Africa
By Sascha Pare Published
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Entire pod of 89 pilot whales dies on Scottish beach in freak mass stranding
By Sascha Pare Published
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Orcas are eating sharks in the Gulf of California — and it may be happening more than we think, experts say
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Mollusks
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Watch extremely rare footage of a bigfin squid 'walking' on long, spindly arms deep in the South Pacific
By Sascha Pare Published
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Pacific geoduck: The large, phallic clam that can live longer than 165 years
By Lydia Smith Published
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Never-before-seen vampire squid species discovered in twilight zone of South China Sea
By Richard Pallardy Published
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Rare video shows elusive deep-sea squid cradling her gigantic, translucent eggs
By Kristel Tjandra Published
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Elusive 'octopus squid' with world's largest biological lights attacks camera in striking new video
By Elise Poore Published
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Watch female octopus drag male around during sex in rare footage captured off Indonesian island
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Blue dragon: The deadly sea slug that steals venom from its prey
By Melissa Hobson Published
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Oldest known sex chromosome emerged 248 million years ago in an octopus ancestor
By Stephanie Pappas Published
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4 never-before-seen octopuses discovered in deep sea off Costa Rica
By Ashley Balzer Vigil Published
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Reptiles
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'Truly primal': Watch Burmese python swallow deer whole in Florida Everglades by stretching its mouth to the absolute limit
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Short-horned lizard: The inflatable 'horny toad' that squirts toxic blood from its eyes
By Lydia Smith Published
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'Scuba-diving' lizards breathe underwater by wearing air bubbles on their noses — just like in a cartoon
By Elise Poore Published
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4-foot snake vomits up 2 smaller snakes — and 1 was still alive
By Harry Baker Published
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Thorny devil: The spike-covered lizard that sucks water from sand through its skin
By Lydia Smith Published
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Giant snake eaten alive by another giant snake in 1st-of-its-kind encounter
By James Bonthron Published
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Crocodile 'fingerprints' may reveal Australia's deadly, hidden predators
By Hannah Osborne Published
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Cobras and their relatives evolved in Asia
By Richard Pallardy Published
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'If you can bench press a car, you are good to go': Inside the incredible bite-force of crocodiles
By Bill Schutt Published
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More about Animals
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'Truly primal': Watch Burmese python swallow deer whole in Florida Everglades by stretching its mouth to the absolute limit
By Hannah Osborne Published
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'It was clearly a human assault on the species': The fate of the great auk
By Alexander McNamara Published
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80 million-year-old dinosaur 'mini eggs' unearthed at Chinese construction site are the smallest ever found — and belong to a never-before-seen T. rex relative
By Harry Baker Published
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