2021

The genetic landscape of England and Wales was shaken up thousands of years ago as new arrivals redefined its people.

One of the largest invertebrates to have ever lived once roamed the beaches of ancient England.

A newly discovered millipede has claimed the title of the 'leggiest' animal in the world.

The largest-ever flying animal acted like a giant heron, plucking prey from the water and launching itself into the air. 

An ancient relative of modern crocodiles and alligators shows that their semi-aquatic lifestyle dates back over 150 million years. 

Scientists have discovered how a bird of prey dubbed 'the flying tiger' could take down one of the heaviest birds that ever lived.

Ancient elephants that would have been born the size of a puppy lived for decades more than previously thought.

Neanderthals lived fast and died young, developing their teeth earlier than humans to power their rapid growth. 

The fossils of 'very weird animals' have helped show how elephants and walruses may have evolved their iconic tusks. 

Sewage in Britain's waterways has been hitting the headlines recently. But what effect does raw waste have on our rivers, streams and oceans? 

A new ancestor of modern humans with the potential to rip up the family tree has been tentatively named.

Domesticated horses are about three centuries younger than the Pyramids of Giza, researchers have found, as they uncover the origin of all domestic horses. 

The economic benefit of digitising an entire museum collection has been quantified for the first time.

Microbes in the air could be among the victims of climate change, with 15% of airborne species of bacteria predicted to go extinct.

Climate change could leave birds and their eggs unprepared for the extreme weather being thrown at them. 

A giant ground sloth that once roamed South America occasionally broke its plant-based diet to eat meat, researchers have found.

Over recent weeks there have been plenty of sensational headlines about insects invading our homes and causing the evacuation of schools. 

The world's biodiversity has fallen below the 'safe limit', researchers suggest, as habitat destruction and agriculture take their toll on nature.

Rocks with the potential to hold fossils of Martian life have been identified by NASA's Perseverance rover. 

The oldest-known meat-eating dinosaur discovered in the UK has been named in honour of trailblazing Museum scientist Angela Milner, who passed away in August 2021.

Discovering the largest Winchcombe meteorite in a field of sheep poo.

Lanternfish are one of the most abundant vertebrates on Earth. Yet despite their huge numbers, almost nothing is known about them.

The moth is famous for its enormous tongue - the longest of any insect.

The loss of the world's primates will lead to a greater loss of diversity than first thought, as their parasites also risk extinction. 

The oldest confirmed human footprints from the Americas have been found in New Mexico, pushing back the date of our ancestors' arrival on the continent by thousands of years.

Coral reefs have declined by over half since the 1950s as they suffer from the effects of climate change and overfishing.

Spicomellus afer is the oldest ankylosaur ever discovered. 

Animals are 'shapeshifting' as the planet warms, as limbs, ears and beaks change size to adapt to rising temperatures.

Six new species of dragonflies and damselflies have arrived in Britain since the late 1990s.

A new company has been launched to restore the woolly mammoth to the Arctic tundra.

The world's largest lizard, the Komodo dragon, could disappear in the next century as rising sea levels threaten to submerge its habitat.

This is the first rock sample ever to be collected from the red planet.

A series of ancient lake beds discovered in Saudi Arabia is showing how the now arid deserts were once green wetlands.

NASA's rover is attempting to collect first rock samples for Mars 2020 mission.

A new beautifully preserved fossil of a horseshoe crab has revealed that their brains have hardly changed since at least the Carboniferous Period.  

Elephant ancestors diversified widely thanks to climate change and new habitats.

Uncovering details about how the Carolina parakeet became extinct.

In recent years there has a growing shift to change the common English names of birds that are offensive or inaccurate.

A huge skull found in China represents a new sister lineage for Homo sapiens.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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. 

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

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

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

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

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

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