Elongated tubes, flat ribbons, and other “worm-like” body plans were so varied and abundant that a part of the Ediacaran is sometimes known as Wormworld. But in the end, the ancient Wormworld was ended by the actions of its very own worms.

420 million years ago, the forest floor of what's now New York was covered with a plant that didn’t look like a tree at all, except its roots were made of wood. Instead of looking up to learn about the evolution of trees, it turns out...

To figure out how Thrinaxodon and Broomistega became entombed together, scientists looked at the burrow itself, along with their fossilized bones. And it looks like their luck ran out, when a behavior that usually would’ve helped them...

Weasels have an extreme body plan that may push the boundaries of what’s metabolically possible. So when and how did this happen? Why'd the weasels get so skinny?

At TED2009, Tim Berners-Lee called for "raw data now" -- for governments, scientists and institutions to make their data openly available on the web. At TED University in 2010, he shows a few of the interesting results when the data gets...

What do beavers, termites, and prairie dogs have in common? They all change their environments! Last time we talked about how humans change their environments, but humans are animals and all animals change their environments just by...

Whether it’s for food, protection, or a little healthy grooming, a lot of animals of different species form some surprising mutualistic relationships in nature.

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AMERICAN BADGER...

Every 13 or 17 years, billions of cicadas emerge from the ground to molt, mate and die. Adult cicadas only live a few weeks above ground, but you'd be hard pressed to ignore them -- they are extremely loud! Rose Eveleth explains...

Also known as cercarial dermatitis, swimmer’s itch is more than just an annoying rash…

When living underground leaves them vulnerable to attack, burrowing owls have a trick up their sleeve—they’ve developed the ability to mimic rattlesnake sounds that scare off predators!

Waddling along the parched Australian earth, a female platypus is searching for fresh water. Over the past year, a severe drought turned rivers and streams to mere trickles. She barely survived and was unable to reproduce. Could the next...

Howcast -Learn the pros and cons of owning a dachshund from dog expert Julia Szabo in this Howcast video.

No other bird finds its food the way a New Zealand kiwi does.

No other bird finds its food the way a New Zealand kiwi does.

See how the "ecosystem engineers" build the burrows that the owls live in.

The more you learn about kiwis, the stranger these creatures seem.

The aardvark may be nature's hodgepodge, but all those striking features are there for a reason... and certainly come in handy.

See how the "ecosystem engineers" build the burrows that the owls live in.

Conservation specialists relocated a group of owls to an ecological preserve away from human development - but "phase 2" involves bringing in some California ground squirrels.

What has the ears of a donkey, the claws of a bear, and the tongue of an anteater? Meet Zola the aardvark, and learn what all of those different features are for.

No other bird finds its food the way a New Zealand kiwi does.

The aardvark may be nature's hodgepodge, but all those striking features are there for a reason... and certainly come in handy.

No other bird finds its food the way a New Zealand kiwi does.

The aardvark may be nature's hodgepodge, but all those striking features are there for a reason... and certainly come in handy.