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Meet Brookesia micra, the newly discovered world's smallest chameleon. This wee creature was discovered on an island off of Northern Madagascar, where a biological expedition found these tiny beasts snoozing in vegetation a mere four inches off the ground. Juvenile specimens of Brookesia micra are the size of a match head, whereas the adults can be eclipsed by a press-on nail. Explain the researchers of this miniature reptile:

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One of the big selling points of the Speedo Fastskin FSII was that it was developed using biomimetics, cribbing good design from nature. So how well does it compare to the actual sharks on which it was modelled? It turns out... not so great. More »
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Explanations for why zebras are stripey run a wide gamut: some say camouflage, or that it makes it hard to target individual members of the herd, or even that it's a cooling method. Well, add another one to the list, which at least has some experimentation behind it. More »
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While a huge amount of research has examined how plants and animals looked in the prehistoric past, we know extremely little about what these creatures would have sounded like (Dr. Alan Grant's 3D-printed raptor voice box in Jurassic Park 3 notwithstanding). But now, we finally have some idea of one noise that would have pierced the primeval woodlands 165 million years ago. More »
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Science is always good for an awesomely counter-intuitive finding, and this one has to be the mother of them all. Despite the fact that life itself originally came from the sea, the same can't be said of the ocean's current occupants. More »
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The human genome carries an average of 1% to 4% Neanderthal DNA, which means our ancient human ancestors must have interbred with our extinct evolutionary cousins. That raises an obvious next question: why did humans have sex with Neanderthals? More »
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After a hurricane wiped out all the lizard species on certain islands in the Bahamas, scientists re-populated the small islands with two lizards of each kind. They then sat back and watched how those lizards evolved to get an up-close look at the Founder Effect. More »
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Seriously. This map suggests that unless you live in California, a smattering of states out East, or a small handfull of other states sprinkled across the country, you're looking at a very grave problem when it comes to scientific illiteracy in your community's youth (and, presumably, its population in general). Come to think of it, this map should really concern you, no matter where you live. More »
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Brain size can vary tremendously between species. For instance, the average human head holds around three pounds of cerebral matter; your typical chimp, on the other hand, packs about a third of that. More »
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Male splitfins wriggle about the yellow streak on their tail as part of their mating dance. Females are attracted to the wriggling tail because it looks like their typical prey. There's only one problem: the females then forget to eat. More »
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Sexual cannibalism is a remarkably common mating habit among insects and arachnids — perhaps most famously, black widow spiders and preying mantises devour males after mating with them. There are a number of competing theories about why such a seemingly harmful trait would evolve. And now we've discovered one spider who evolved a way to escape sexual cannibalism, though not without sacrifice. The male Nephilengys malabarensis saves his head by detaching another part of his anatomy — the penis. Well, actually it's a palp, not a penis, but I digress. More »
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There are sound evolutionary reasons why we have two eyes and two ears. By why do we have two nostrils? Researchers at Stanford University have the answer - after doing a study that revealed the weird reason why we don't have one big hole in our nose. More »
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Scientists at the University of Missouri have made an incredible prehistoric discovery. A sizable skull fragment, recently uncovered after spending several years hidden away in storage, actually belonged to a gigantic species of ancient crocodile. This finding is unlike anything the researchers have ever seen. More »
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Whether you're laughing involuntarily at a joke, or smiling politely at a stranger's unfunny anecdote, your facial expressions play an important role in communicating with those around you. More »
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We're used to mice being small and elephants being big, but there's no reason they will stay that way forever. Elephants could become pipsqueaks and mice could get mammoth... and one of those will happen much faster than the other. More »
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It's a central tenet of evolution: Life must adapt to its surroundings or die. And the genome knows it. A new study published in the journal Nature shows that in more stressful surroundings, a yeast cell's genome actually gains or loses chromosomes, improving the cell's ability to mutate - and thus its adaptability. This mechanism could explain how some cancerous cells manage to survive the poisonous onslaught of chemotherapy. More »
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This month marks the 25th anniversary of the discovery of Mitochondrial Eve, a common ancestor of all humanity who helped rewrite the story of human evolution. In honor of this anniversary, we talked to the scientists who started it all. More »
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Bonobos look like tame versions of chimpanzees. They're much less aggressive than chimps, their features are softer and smaller than their cousins, and they famously have sex for pleasure. Basically bonobos are domesticated... except humans had nothing to do with it. More »
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This month marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the discovery of Mitochondrial Eve, the common ancestor of every human alive today. Here's everything you need to know about why the mother of humanity is so important. More »
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Scientists have found a way to uncover feathered dinosaurs' true colors, and one of the first creatures to come under inspection is none other than Archaeopteryx — an iconic but mysterious theropod believed by many to be the "missing link" between dinosaurs and birds. More »
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This skull once belonged to somebody's pet, over 33,000 years ago. It's one of the earliest known examples of the domestication of dogs — and it might actually mean modern dogs aren't all related to each other after all. More »
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A new study purports to use evolutionary psychology to explain why men fall asleep after sex, and what it actually means. The study is being widely reported as proving that men only fall asleep after sex to avoid giving affection or commitment to their female partners. Or maybe it proves that men who fall asleep after sex really are in love, after all. More »
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The United States has long been recognized as one of the most scientifically productive countries on Earth. But when you're discussing progress, where you've been is not nearly as important as More »
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To adapt to their eternally dark surroundings, Mexican cavefish have gone blind, lost their pigment, and changed their sleep cycle. You can see one in the photo up top. Here's the weird thing though...all those fish are the same species. More »
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Are you big on science and science communication? If you are, do yourself favor and check out ScienceOnline2012 (or scio12 to those in the know), the sixth annual international meeting on science and the internet. More »
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Picture a pigeon: gray body, iridescent neck feathers, probably pecking away at trash on a city sidewalk. But there are actually more than 350 different breeds of pigeon, and many of them look nothing like the familiar city pest. A new study examines the physical and genetic differences between the pigeon breeds, to come to some interesting conclusions about how appearance relates to genetics. More »
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Proving once again they deserve the title "most metal of all living animals", Boa constrictors know when to stop squeezing around their prey — because they can feel their victim's heart stop. The constricting method of subduing prey is a relatively costly one in terms of energy, so it behooves snakes to know as soon as possible when to stop. More »
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Much like bees, dung beetles have a habit of shaking their groove thangs while undertaking that important task of rolling around balls of poop. When they form the ball, they crawl on top of it, and "rotate around their vertical axis". More »
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As a last-ditch effort to distract predators and escape, some animals will remove a limb or organ from their body. Geckos take this already hardcore survival strategy to insane new levels — their tails effectively remain alive long after amputation. More »
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The fossils were lost, and nobody even knew it. For ages, a stockpile of over 300 specimens — including several collected by Charles Darwin on his historic Voyage of the Beagle — has been changing hands throughout England, hidden away inside a nondescript cabinet. More »
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The latest Symphony of Science track is out, and it is a doozy. Listen to David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Bill Nye get their rave on for evolution. Who knew synths intermingled with amoebas on the Tree of Life? Hat tip to Krakenstein2! More »
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Every year, Edge.org poses a question to a hand-picked group of the world's "most complex and sophisticated minds." Then they publish the responses. More »
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Climate change might turn lizards into geniuses, but fish won't be quite so lucky. All the billions of tons of carbon dioxide that enters the oceans each year is like alcohol for fish, turning them into risk-taking idiots. More »
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Millions of years ago, Europe was a vast savanna full of giraffes, elephants, and rhinos. There was also at least one hominid ape, according to a fossilized tooth recently discovered in Bulgaria. Meet the latest complication in our evolutionary story. More »
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Between political disagreements, economic instability, and climate troubles, you might assume every newspaper is full of bad news. Weirdly enough, the exact opposite is true. No matter what's going on in the real world, English is a perversely positive language. More »
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New World Monkeys are the strangest-looking primates on Earth — and they all look nothing like each other, from the bald-headed, demon-like Uakari to the lion-maned golden marmoset to the massively mustachioed emperor tamarin up top. What's behind this insane variety? More »
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When many people hear the word "biodiversity," they immediately think of tropical rainforests, or coral reefs; but as this picture demonstrates, biodiversity is a concept that ought to be more closely associated with the ocean floor, as well. More »
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When Charles Darwin visited the remote Galápagos archipelago in 1835, the observations he made of the islands' various species of long-lived tortoises would play a pivotal role in helping inform his theory of evolution. More »
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This one goes out to all the chordates in the house. The Rap Guide to Evolution is a musical tour through natural selection, DNA, and all the various processes that have made the world such a hotbed of biodiversity. These may be the only rap videos you see today that namecheck Watson and Crick. More »
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The genus Pheidole covers a truly bewildering array of ants — but out of this thousand species, only a handful produce the incredible "supersoldier" ant, a wartime caste marked by an enormous noggin. During times of strife, the supersoldier ants fight in the front lines, and block entries to the nest with their enlarged heads, rendering them a valuable member of the military caste. Yet despite their obvious tactical use, they're only found rarely, and in disparate species of the genus. Is it an example of parallel evolution? Or is there an older link? More »
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