New Scientist

A fossil found in the Namib desert has been described as a 2.5-metre long predator that resembled a giant salamander

The egg hatch rate of one shark species may plummet by up to 90 per cent by the end of the century, suggesting that other egg-laying sharks are at risk

Ants are one of the few animals that tend to the injuries of their peers, and now it seems they are also the first non-humans known to perform life-saving amputations

Trilobites are one of the most common fossils we know, but normally only their hard exoskeleton is preserved. Now, researchers have discovered a site that was buried by a Pompeii-style volcanic eruption, leaving the arthropods outlined in exquisite detail

A genetic study of woolly mammoths found on an isolated Arctic island shows they reached a stable population that lasted millennia, so were probably wiped out by a random event rather than inbreeding

Warm retreats made using bricks in greenhouses give frogs a place to keep toasty in winter, which helps protect them from deadly chytrid fungal infections

Sleeping cuckoo bees, colourful cotton harlequin bugs and a thorny lacewing trapped in amber appear in some of the best entries to the Royal Entomological Society Photography Competition

Chimpanzees with wounds or gut infections seem to add unusual plants to their diet, and tests show that many of these plants have antibacterial or anti-inflammatory effects

Researchers have confirmed a centuries-old rumour that leeches can jump, which they may do to land their next blood meal

A new species of dinosaur discovered in Montana and related to Triceratops had one of the strangest, most asymmetrical skulls that scientists have ever studied

In this week's Future Chronicles column, which explores an imagined history of future inventions, we visit a cult in 2080s Japan that engineered a way of becoming chimeric with fungal biology. Rowan Hooper reveals their history

A giant flower, one of the smelliest in the world, is currently blooming at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Humans may have shaped the development of aromatic herbs like lavender and mint, but did herbs also shape our own evolution?

How Indonesia’s only firefly conservation lab aims to repopulate Bali's jungle amid habitat loss and pollution  

Scientists have identified a new species of pterosaur from a 100-million-year-old fossil in Australia, which appears to have had a massive tongue to push prey down its throat

An analysis of their vocalisations suggests that African savannah elephants invent names for each other, making them the only animals other than humans thought to do so

Biological processes such as DNA replication or cellular structure formation may become more accurate when done as quickly as possible, offering new hints into life's origins

When bacteria were put in alternating environments, some became better at evolving to cope with the changes – evidence that “evolvability” can be gained through natural selection

A kneecap and two teeth found in Germany have been identified as belonging to a new species of ape from 11.6 million years ago, thought to have weighed as little as 10 kilograms

Dominant male Verreaux’s sifakas always have the largest testicles in their group to make the most sperm, and they can grow their gonads to make sure of it