Living World / New Species

#74: Meet the Megavirus


Scientists find the world's largest virus. 12.22.2011

#63: How Many Species Inhabit the Earth?


It's a tough question, but we now have the best answer yet. 12.22.2011

#49: Arsenic-Based Life Shakes Up Science (Again)

Rosie Redfield takes scientific controversy out into the open. 12.22.2011

World's Deepest Known Animal: Worm That Lives Under Almost a Mile of Rock

Researchers dubbed it "Halicephalobus mephisto," from the Greek for “he who loves not the light.” 10.12.2011

Homo Sapiens, Meet Your New Astounding Family

Once we shared the planet with other 
human species, 
competing with them and interbreeding with them. Today 
we stand alone, but our rivals’ genes live on inside us—even as their remarkable stories are only 
now coming to light. 07.28.2011

The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. 12.16.2010

When Animals Attack Our Attempts to Categorize Them

For three centuries, scientists have divided living things into tidy species. But the real world seems more slippery: a continuum in which one variety of life flows seamlessly into the next. 11.19.2010

#33: The Most Amazing New Species of the Year

The smallest snake, biggest stick insect, smallest sea horse, and a tree that kills itself by flowering. 01.25.2010

#90: Fossil Bonanza for an Animal That Doesn't Fossilize: The Octopus

“The preservation of these soft-bodied creatures is the result of a chain of lucky chances.” Paleontologists hit the luckiest stash of all in Lebanon. 12.18.2009

Jane Goodall on the Lazarus Effect

Rediscovery of a long-lost species sends a message of hope about second chances for all of us. Goodall relates two beautiful examples: the tiny Caspian horse and the Lord Howe Island phasmid (it's a bug). 09.16.2009

Cool Killers: The Beauty of Deadly Pathogens

From swine flu to Ebola, you’ve never seen infectious agents quite like these. 06.11.2009

Darwin's Dystopias: Ghastly Visions Inspired by Evolution

A new collection of art shows how one scientist shocked the world. 02.12.2009

#33: The First Known Case of Virus-Attacks-Virus

Sputnik virus seems to have influenced evolution of the Mamavirus. 12.16.2008

#79: The Ancient Rat as Big as a Bull

This giant rodent weighed as much as a compact car. 12.09.2008

#92: A 380-Million-Year-Old Fish Gives Birth

Paleontologists unearth a prehistoric pregnant skeleton. 12.05.2008

Did Life Evolve in Ice?

Funky properties of frozen water may have made life possible. 02.01.2008

The Last Unexplored Place on Earth

Scientists race to discover the secret world buried miles beneath Antarctica. 09.28.2007

Frigid Antarctic Seas Boil Over with Biodiversity

Researchers find 750 new species, including the carnivorous moonsnail. 08.09.2007

Jurassic Godzilla Found

Marine croc was T.rex of the seas. 11.14.2005

Venomous Mouse Found

Is This a Job For Venomouse? 10.24.2005

Missing Links Found

Humans - 37 million years ago. 10.18.2005

Name That Species

08.06.2005

Walking Octopuses, Running Bats

Walking Octopuses, Running Bats 06.01.2005

A Naturalist's Paradise

In a wonderland called Madagascar, a modern-day Darwin discovers hundreds of new species 03.31.2005

Lilliputian Lizard

03.01.2002

The Year in Science: Animals 1997

Amazing Amazonians 01.01.1998

An Indecent Beetle

05.01.1997

Shell Game

01.01.1997

A Shrewd Design

05.01.1996

Large and Lungless

04.01.1996

The Secret Life of Backyard Trees

Ecologists are finding undescribed species and ecosystems in treetops. 11.01.1995