The gharial (Gavialis gangeticus) is one of the most unusual living crocodilians. Its extraordinarily long, narrow snout, lined with sharp, interlocking teeth, looks almost impossible beside the broad jaws of …
Deep beneath the rainforest floor, a female tarantula rests inside a sheltered chamber lined with silk. Beside her lies a pale, rounded egg sac containing the next generation. Although these …
Deep inside Central America’s tropical rainforests, one tiny mammal has developed an extraordinary way to find shelter. Instead of hiding in dark caves or hollow trees, Honduran white bats transform …
A tiny sea slug bites into an alga, sucks out its cellular contents and digests much of what it consumes. But some of the algal chloroplasts escape immediate destruction. Instead, …
At first glance, the barreleye fish seems to have a fairly ordinary deep-sea face. Two small dark spots sit above its mouth, looking exactly where eyes ought to be. But …
A click beetle stranded on its back does something extraordinary: instead of pushing against the ground with its legs, it bends its body, stores energy inside its thorax, and releases …
The tropical forests of Asia are home to a lizard that can launch from a tree and travel through the air using a structure unlike the wings of birds or …
The aye-aye middle finger is one of the strangest feeding adaptations among primates. Extremely thin, long, and unusually mobile, this specialized finger helps the aye-aye locate and extract food hidden …
Few mammals have a face quite like the saiga antelope. Hanging over its mouth is a large, flexible, downward-facing nose that can look almost trunk-like when viewed from the side. …
Most salamanders begin life in water with gills and later transform into adults better equipped for life on land. Mudpuppies take a very different path. The striking mudpuppy external gills …