News

In a titanic effort spanning many years, a team of butterfly experts have listed the butterflies found in Colombia to date.

The Duchess of Cambridge visited the Museum to hear how the Urban Nature Project will inspire the next generation to care for the nature that surrounds them. 

Over the past few hundreds of thousands of years Sicily was home to two different miniature elephants.

It is the only known King Island emu egg in the world. 

A species of frog not seen for over 60 years is likely to be extinct.

It is the first meteorite fall to have been recovered in the UK for 30 years.

The new species is now known as Joseph's racer, was first collected in the mid-nineteenth century.

People are urged to keep an eye out for the whale last seen off Isleworth.

Seals either swim with their tails or with their flippers. 

Dating to roughly 78,000 years old, the grave is the oldest human burial discovered in Africa to date. 

Frog skulls have revealed that a frog's environment is the main driver of its skull shape, but that tadpole feeding behaviour influences how fast frogs evolve. 

It's more common for mammals to have evolved smaller body sizes which makes it look like the brain is getting bigger. 

Marsupials have missed out on their evolutionary potential because of how they reproduce.

The algae could also be of interest in developing new drugs. 

It could help deepen our understanding of the red planet. 

Billions of plastic particles accumulate on remote islands mostly via sea.

Return of the beavers will increase British biodiversity and help manage floods.

Their hearing may have been why these dolphins survived when all other relatives died out.

For the first time ever the two species of African elephants has been assessed separately.

When modern humans arrived in the islands of southeast Asia, they may have encountered a range of ancient human species. 

Last year an expedition to the Mariana Trench made history by conducting the deepest crewed dive ever.

Gamestop investors donate hundreds of thousands of pounds to endangered gorilla charity.

A walrus has been spotted on the western coast of Ireland.

Economists have called for nature to be valued more highly by governments and financial systems.

To mark British Science Week, Her Majesty took part in a virtual science showcase.

They bring on average 688,000 pieces of plastic back onto land every single year.

For the first time in 30 years, a meteorite has been recovered in the UK

By studying modern horseshoe crabs, researchers have been able to build up a picture of how some extinct arthropods such as trilobites may have fed on hard-shelled prey.

The brown marmorated stink bug is a new invasive species in the UK.

Why does the thylacine still capture our imagination?

New 50p coin collection honours fossil hunter Mary Anning.

The Mars 2020 rover landed near the Jezero Crater on 18 February 2021. 

It is shedding light on how the Columbian mammoth came to be. 

The fossilised tooth of a nine-year-old child found in Shuqba Cave is the most southerly evidence of Neanderthals ever discovered.

Tiny plastic fibres have been found in the stomachs of deep-sea fish living in a remote part of the South Atlantic Ocean.

It will cost us double to preserve nature unless we act now, Museum scientists have found.

Rather than a violent turnover of populations, there was a merging of communities.

Genetic and fossil records do not reveal a single point where modern humans originated, researchers have found. 

Irwin's capture of a bushfire wins the WPY People's Choice Award 2020.

Toxic proteins from bacteria have helped centipedes with their own arsenel. 

It is notoriously difficult to sex a dinosaur.

Changing our economic system would create a fairer, healthier, more sustainable world for everyone.

Ancient teeth could be evidence of a hybrid population of Neanderthals and modern humans. 

A pristine pair of ancient beetles were discovered in the Museum collection. They date back nearly 4,000 years.

A milestone has been reached in the campaign for a statue of fossil hunter Mary Anning in Lyme Regis.

A breakthrough in domestic production could bring down the carbon footprint of lithium-ion batteries.

Extinct dire wolves, made famous in the TV show Game of Thrones, are only distant cousins of modern grey wolves.

The Museum is set to star in a new four-part primetime Channel 5 series.

One species is known only from a single specimen in the Museum's collection. 

A meteorite from the birth of the solar system could tell us more about how life flourished on Earth.

New minerals from the UK are very rare. 

The spacecraft Hayabusa2 is arriving back to Earth after six years' travel through the solar system.

The Museum has announced a plan to cut carbon emissions to net zero by 2035.

Radiodont eye fossils inform scientists of the role of vision in evolution. 

The world needs wheat crops that are bountiful, disease resistant and able to thrive in soil without fertilisers.

Miranda Lowe makes it onto BBC's Woman's Hour Power List 2020.

Many groups of dinosaurs were doing rather well right up until the end. 

Fishermen in the southwest Atlantic are mutilating endangered seabirds. 

The most remote inhabited island in the world has become one of the biggest wildlife sanctuaries on the planet.

The Popa langur lives on an extinct volcano in Myanmar.

Researchers created a database of 52,515 microbial draft genomes of samples from all over the world. 

Why did they get so big?

The decline in native birds is threatening the existence of island biodiversity.

Researchers hope they will also be resilient in the face of man-made climate change and the threats it will bring.

The fish may be a relic population that has existed for over a hundred million years.

Museum gets the go-ahead to transform its five-acre gardens.

One of Britain's most threatened mammals is being given a boost.

Looking at the record of bird poo preserved for thousands of years could give us clue as to what might happen as climate change gathers pace.

A series of 'safety nets' are needed to prevent the next set of goals from failing. 

The spacecraft completed Touch-And-Go (TAG) sample collection.

An image of a Siberian tiger scent marking won this year's grand title.