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Nature

A brown bear standing in a rushing river with a fish in its mouth, with a waterfall in the background.
Nature

Across the U.S., Removing Old Dams Is Helping Fish Swim Home

More than 2,300 dams have been taken out since 1912, and fish such as herring are returning in the Northeast.

A large museum hall filled with various dinosaur skeletons on display.
Nature

A Tiny Swimming Hunter From the Jurassic Helps Explain How Mammals Evolved

The 165-million-year-old fossil of Megacauda sungei has a soft palate that lets an animal swallow and breathe.

A satellite image from Sentinel-3 of South Georgia island showing snow-covered mountains surrounded by deep blue ocean water and bright turquoise phytoplankton blooms.
Nature

Europe's New Sentinel-3C Satellite Sends Back Its First Images of Earth

Two weeks after launch, the satellite showed the snowy Alps, frozen Arctic islands and turquoise Caribbean waters.

A landscape of ancient, weathered rock formations under a blue sky with clouds.
Nature

Ancient Rocks Reveal How Earth Kept Its Oxygen for Billions of Years

Scientists say a cycle in the oceans that recycled the nutrient phosphorus may be the answer.

An octopus nestled among rocks in its natural habitat, displaying its textured skin and tentacles with suckers.
Nature

A DNA Reshuffle Long Ago May Explain Octopus Intelligence

University of Vienna scientists say the way DNA is folded may have helped octopuses, squid and cuttlefish get smart.

A landscape view of the Australian red outback covered in blooming pink and orange wildflowers and sparse vegetation.
Nature

NASA Satellites Show Australia's Red Outback Covered in Wildflowers

Heavy rain has turned a dry region of Western Australia into a colorful carpet of blooms.

A close-up of several white button mushrooms, some whole and some sliced, on a dark surface.
Nature

Why a Mushroom Disease Has Been Hard to Stop for 100 Years

University of Florida scientists found it involves more than 17 kinds of harmful bacteria, not just one.

A clear view of the moon against a black background.
Nature

An Astronaut Photographs a Patch of Madagascar That Looks Like the Moon's Bright Highlands

The pale rock, called anorthosite, is common on the Moon and is at least 600 million years old on Earth.

A microscopic view of a tiny creature, representing a pond organism.
Nature

A Tiny Pond Creature Reads DNA With Different Rules

Scientists testing a new method found a protist that breaks a rule once thought to apply almost everywhere.

A close-up of a delicate, star-shaped pink coral organism attached to a dark rock underwater.
Nature

Scientists Name a New Golden Coral After Tolkien's Elvish Language

The bright yellow, tree-shaped coral off Costa Rica was so unusual that it needed its own new family.

Close-up of a mounted Tyrannosaurus rex fossil skull and jaws.
Nature

Five Discoveries That Changed How We See T. rex

Scientists once pictured a slow, tail-dragging monster, and today they think it was hot-blooded and maybe feathery.

A pile of raw cocoa beans on a wooden surface
Nature

Ancient Pottery Shows Chocolate Reached Georgia About 1,000 Years Ago

Scientists found traces of cacao on pottery near the Etowah Indian Mounds, the earliest known east of the Mississippi River.

A close-up view of natural, fibrous rope, resembling the materials used in the Stone Age.
Nature

Archaeologists Piece Together the "Invisible" Rope and String of the Stone Age

Fibers rarely survive, but a mammoth-ivory tool from Germany shows early humans could make strong rope.