New Scientist

Birds all over the world break into a dawn chorus every morning – now experiments in zebra finches suggest both a mechanistic and a functional explanation for this phenomenon

Microbes high in Earth’s stratosphere produce pigments to protect them from UV light – so similar molecules could be biosignatures of life elsewhere in the galaxy

Naturalist Chris Packham speaks at New Scientist Live about the six species that changed his life

As orcas continue to attack boats in the Strait of Gibraltar, those studying them think they know why

Chilli powder is touted as a cheap, easy, safe option to protect your garden from foxes and squirrels. James Wong casts a scientific eye on this popular remedy

Our bond with cats – which has seen them go from hunter to house pet – may be more diverse than with any other animal. And Jerry D. Moore's Cat Tales: A history rounds up the lot, says Bethan Ackerley

A 230-million-year-old fossil found in Argentina shows that the evolution of sauropod dinosaurs’ long necks began earlier than previously thought

A beautifully preserved skeleton found on the UK’s Jurassic Coast has been identified as a new species of the marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs

From an alien-looking flat-faced longhorn beetle to an abandoned baby rhino, images at London’s Natural History Museum show what we stand to lose from the decimation of global biodiversity

Some conservation groups are calling for an effective ban on genetic modification, but others say these technologies are crucial for preserving biodiversity

Several species of birds from different continents use and understand similar alarm calls when they see an invader that might lay an egg in their nest – this shared call hints at the origin of language

Jane Goodall, who chronicled the social lives of chimps, has died, but she leaves a lasting legacy on how we view the natural world

In most mammals, females live longer than males, but in birds the trend goes the other way – a study of over 1000 species points to possible reasons for these differences

In his book The Genius Bat, ecologist Yossi Yovel explains why these mammals are a vital part of ecosystems, pollinating plants and keeping insect populations in check

Social media is awash with videos of cats and dogs getting startled or hurt for our entertainment. We should all be more alert to poor animal welfare, says Christa Lesté-Lasserre

The constant temperature and low humidity of a cave network in Saudi Arabia turned cheetahs, some of which died thousands of years ago, into mummies

Surreal images from a new book, Microcosms, show how confocal microscopy that uses laser scanning creates a super-sharp new journey around mind-altering plants and fungi

A fossil from about 66 million years ago reveals a species of dinosaur that is new to science, with claws that would have ripped through its prey's flesh

A sand quarry in Ecuador has yielded South America’s first amber with bio-inclusions, including a spider's web and a collection of mosquitoes, beetles, flies, wasps and biting midges that lived 112 million years ago

Chimpanzees are consuming significant levels of alcohol from their diet of ripe fruit and the finding may help explain the origins of humans’ taste for alcohol