Natural History

rainbows shimmer across the surface of the water in a swamp.

Natural Wonders: The Rainbow Swamps of the American South

Swamps and wetlands get a bad rap, and not...
giant sea scorpions

Giant Sea Scorpions Used to Roam Our Seas

Roughly 400 million years ago, scorpions the size of...
the Waitomo Glowworm Caves

Natural Wonders: The Waitomo Glowworm Caves

It's New Zealand in 1887. Two men push an...
lake nyos aerial

The 1986 Deadly Gas Blanket From Lake Nyos

It was a scene out of a horror movie....
dodo in natural environment

The Speedy Dodo: History’s Most Misunderstood Bird

The poster child of extinction is also one of...
Five images of the same solar flare across different wavelengths.

The Worst Solar Storm in History and What It Would Do Today

On the evening of Aug. 28, 1859, a telegraph...
A decorative carved ring on the wall of a ballcourt in the ancient Maya city of Chichen Itza

Ancient Maya Blessed Ball Courts with Hallucinogenic Plants

The ancient Maya often built large ball courts in...
an engraving of a rain of fish

Natural Wonders: When Animals Rain From the Sky

For almost as long as people have been writing...
woman standing in front of swirled rock formation

Oldest Trace of Earth’s Magnetic Field Discovered in ‘Beautiful, Weird’ Rocks

You’d be hard-pressed to find any force of nature...
morel mushrooms

How to Find Morel Mushrooms: Foraging 101

BY RACHELLE SCHRUTE   Few things get foragers excited like morel...
an enormous diamond

Hunting for the Birthplace of the World’s Rarest Diamonds

It’s hard to overstate the rarity of the Hope...
illustration of a gigantic snake near a crocodile

Largest Snake of All Time Was Longer than a T-Rex — But ‘Gentle’

Imagine a snake longer than a shipping container —...
Wisdom the albatross

Old But Bold: World’s Most Ancient Wild Bird Still Looking For Love

Pretty much any idea reality TV producers come up...
The Persian plateau

Human Migration From Africa Lingered in Persia For 20,000 Years

Humans left Africa between 70,000 and 60,000 years ago,...
A hybrid of an alligator gar and spotted gar.

New Research Proves Gars are the King of ‘Living Fossils’

Some animals remain unchanged by evolution over millions of...
drawing of plants with shrubby tops and narrow, twiggy trunks

Found: World’s Oldest Forest, Which Changed Life Forever

If you were hiking through the world’s oldest forest,...
desert

Exploration Mysteries: Lakes of the Badain Jaran Desert

A peculiar satellite image recently made the rounds on...
blue whale

Blue Whale Back on Top as Heaviest Animal Ever

Last year, the Blue Planet’s heaviest ever animal lost...

Amateurs Paleontologists Strike Jackpot: 400 Rare Ordovician Fossils

The Ordovician world was a watery one in which...
two chimps laughing

Monkey Business: Apes Joke All the Time, Apparently

Playing a joke on your buddy, sibling, or parent...
Researcher Olivia King with a newly discovered fossil.

Strange Dr. Seuss-Like Tree Discovered in Canadian Quarry

Weird, bushy, top-heavy tree fossils found in a Canadian...
whale bone alley

Natural Wonders: Whale Bone Alley

On Yttygran Island, just off the Chukotka Peninsula in...
Artist’s depiction of Eoneophron infernalis (top left), MOR 752 (bottom left), and Anzu wyliei (right) in the Hell Creek Formation.

New Dinosaur Marks Second ‘Chicken from Hell’

When Kyle Atkins-Weltman bought some fossils online for one...

Sign up for ExplorersWeb Emails