The Southern Tropical Andes, which comprises areas of Ecuador, Peru, and Bolivia, is one of the world's most biodiverse regions — especially when it comes to amphibians. The area is home to about 980 amphibian species, including over half of the 150-known glass frog species. Now, two new members of the tiny frogs have joined this ever-growing list....

The residents of New Orleans can't seem to catch a break from natural disasters. Just over a year after being battered by Hurricane Ida, the beautiful city has been hit by a powerful tornado. The twister, which boasted wind speeds of 160 mph, made landfall shortly before 8:00 pm local time on March 22, 2022....

February 13, 2022, marked the 25th anniversary of the Great LEGO Spill — the worst toy-related environmental disaster of all time. On this fateful day in 1997, the Tokio Express was battered by a massive, 28-foot rogue wave off the United Kingdom's southwestern coast. The force tilted the cargo ship — en route from Rotterdam to New York — by 60 degrees, causing it to drop 62 containers into the sea. One was filled with about 5 million colorful LEGO bricks!...

The Weddell Sea, an extension of the Southern Ocean off the coast of Antarctica, is known for its abundant wildlife. The 1,242-mile (2,000-km) bay's nutrient-rich waters are home to large populations of seals, penguins, and baleen whales. Now, researchers have uncovered a trove of 60 million icefish nests sprawled across 93 square miles (240 square kilometers) of the seafloor. The nurseries — each guarded by a ghoulish-looking adult — constitute the fish's largest-known breeding colony....

Chimaeras, or ghost sharks, have been around for millions of years. However, the elusive fish, which live at depths of up to 6,000 feet, are largely unknown to science. The lack of crucial information — like how long they live or how often they reproduce — makes it challenging to monitor and protect the 52 known ghost shark species. Now, a rare newborn chimaera, discovered off the coast of New Zealand, may help scientists better understand the mysterious deep-water creatures....

Ants are known to undergo extreme measures to save their own. Past studies have shown the industrious insects carrying wounded comrades back to the nest to heal and even exploding and sacrificing themselves to save their colonies from predators. Now, a team of young researchers in Panama has found an empathetic ant species that rapidly repair any damage to its host tree....

The season's first winter storm — which brought significant snowfall to the Washington, DC, area on January 3, 2022 — could not have come at a better time for the residents of the Smithsonian's National Zoo. With the park closed to visitors due to the inclement weather, the animals were able to welcome the New Year with several snow days all to themselves....

On November 13, 2021, diplomats from nearly 200 countries vowed to step up their efforts to slow global warming. The Glasgow Climate Pact, signed at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow, Scotland, was not as far-reaching as many had hoped. However, there was a clear consensus about the urgency to take action to prevent a catastrophic rise in global temperatures....

Tardigrades, or water bears, are virtually indestructible. The eight-legged microscopic animals can withstand extreme temperatures, survive without food for decades, and even exist in a vacuum in space. But, despite being around for over 500 million years, they rarely appear on the fossil record. Their miniature size and lack of hard tissue make it hard for them to fossilize. Even when they do get preserved, the tiny creatures are hard to spot and often get overlooked. Over the years, only two tardigrade fossils have been found. Now, a third specimen — one of a new tardigrade species — has joined this exclusive group....

Every October, families rush to pumpkin patches to pick out the perfect gourds. Some use them to carve spooky jack-o'-lanterns, while others place them outside their homes as decor. Unfortunately, the fascination with the colorful fruit fades once Halloween ends, and most pumpkins end up in the trash....

A ruptured undersea oil pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach, CA, has leaked thousands of gallons of oil into the Pacific Ocean, threatening fish and wildlife and causing numerous beach closures. The spill, caused by a 13-inch tear in a pipeline that transports crude oil from an offshore drilling platform to a pump station in Long Beach, CA, was first reported by locals on October 1, 2021. Experts are still trying to determine the amount of oil leaked before the pipeline was shut down on October 3, 2021. The estimates range anywhere from 25,000 gallons to 136,000 gallons....

Most seafood lovers — animal or human — would find it hard to resist a tasty shrimp morsel. However, not Kit, a mischievous sea otter that resides at California's Monterey Bay Aquarium. Rather than gulping down the tiny crustacean, Kit used it as a game piece to play what the aquarium officials dubbed "The Shrimp Game."...

When some curious summer campers at the Hamilton Junior Naturalist Club (Junats) set out on an expedition to Kawhia Harbour on New Zealand's North Island, they were just hoping to find some small crustacean fossils. Instead, they discovered a well-preserved skeleton of a new species of a giant penguin that inhabited the area between 27 to 30 million years ago....

La Palma, one of Spain's Canary Islands, has been feeling the wrath of the Cumbre Vieja volcano since September 19, 2021. The explosive volcano, which came to life shortly after 3:00 pm local time, has been spewing out large amounts of molten lava, sometimes up to 20 feet (6 meters) high. The slow-moving rivers of magma have destroyed nearly 400 homes, buried dozens of kilometers of roads, and consumed hundreds of acres of farmland....

The school day had just ended at Isaac Dickson Elementary School in Asheville, North Carolina. Most students had left, and the ones in the school's "supervised homework help" program were inside the campus. Fifth-grade teacher Betsie Stockslager Emry was also heading home when she noticed two playful black bears entering the empty playground. What happened next will bring a smile to your face....

The Sequoia National Park in California's southern Sierra Nevada mountains is best known for its namesake giant sequoias. The park boasts 40 groves of the massive trees, which occur naturally only on its western slopes. But the most beloved is the Giant Forest, a collection of 2000 trees that includes half of the Earth's largest and longest-living trees. This past weekend, the ancient wonders came dangerously close to being scorched by the KNP Complex Fire. But thanks to quick-thinking firefighters, the precious grove has been saved....

After years of intense public pushback, the now-shuttered Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus finally announced the retirement of their Asian elephant performers in 2016. While the decision was a resounding victory for animal lovers and activists, it raised a new issue. The mighty pachyderms were raised in captivity and lacked the skills to survive in the wild. Now, thanks to Florida-based White Oak Conservation, the animals have a new home — one where they can roam freely....

The western false asphodel — an herb-like plant found in abundance along North America's West Coast — has been known to science since 1879. But it is only recently that researchers from the University of British Columbia discovered the innocent-looking plant's penchant for insects. The finding is particularly exciting given that this is the first new predatory plant to be discovered in 20 years....

The Henan Province in central China is a treasure trove of dinosaur eggs. However, the odd-looking black orb with a blue tint, presented to Fenglu Han and Haishui Jiang by a farmer in 2018, was unlike any dinosaur egg the experts had encountered before. The paleontologists from the China University of Geosciences initially thought the egg might belong to a new species of the prehistoric giants....

The 2021 Atlantic hurricane season began with a bang for the residents of Louisiana. On August 29, 2021, the Gulf Coast state was battered by Hurricane Ida, a powerful Category 4 storm that officials believe was the strongest to hit the area in 165 years. To make matters worse, Ida arrived on the sixteenth anniversary of the devastating Hurricane Katrina and made landfall twice....

Clothing made from synthetic materials, such as polyester and nylon, has many positive attributes. It is cheap to produce, lasts for a long time, and is comfortable to wear. However, the fabric, made from petroleum, has one major downside. The tiny polymer strands — or what we call lint — that shed from the textiles during each laundry cycle are big contributors to plastic pollution. Now, some scientists from Lithuania have found a way to recycle the textile waste into clean energy....

On August 8, 2021, the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its first assessment of climate science since 2013. The news was not good. The report stated that this past decade was the hottest in 125,000 years and that the atmospheric carbon levels are the highest in at least 2 million years. Glaciers are melting faster than any time in over 2,000 years, and ocean levels are rising at twice the rate since 2006....

Antarctica is surrounded by icebergs. However, the finger-shaped chunk of ice that recently broke loose from the western side of the Ronne Ice Shelf — one of the world's most extensive ice platforms — is worthy of a mention. Measuring approximately 105 miles (170 km) long and 15 miles (25 km) wide, it boasts a surface area of 1,660 sq miles (4,300 sq km) and is currently the world's largest iceberg....

When Jennifer Johnson and her team embarked on their annual quest to survey the sturgeon population in the Detroit River in mid-April 2021, they had fully expected to find some super-sized specimens. However, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists had never anticipated luring in the granddaddy of all sturgeons — a massive, 240-pound, 6-foot, 10-inch long fish that they estimate is at least a century old!...