Vertebrate news

Fishermen in the southwest Atlantic are mutilating endangered seabirds. 

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

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

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

The skull shape of birds is just a tiny fraction of the diversity that would have been seen in their dinosaur ancestors.

Whales are some of the only animals with wonky heads.

Why do the majority of animals undergo metamorphosis?

Discover how we're helping some of the most threatened animals on Earth.

You can't protect what you don't know. 

Female specimens are under represented in collections.

The frogs have been in the Museum collection since 1852.

Dugongs help fight climate change by protecting seagrass meadows.

The new species highlight how much more there still is to learn about India's herpetofauna. 

Wherever humans have gone, pigs have followed.

What this means for their future is still not known. 

What can we learn from scanning snakes?

This is fastest recorded timeline of a bird losing its ability to fly.

It has been named after Gollum due to its underground lifestyle. 

It has the highest density of plastic in the world.

It's one of the oldest datasets of its kind.

New species of extinct Australian Pigfooted Bandicoo discovered by the Natural History Museum and Western Australian Museum.

Despite breeding on remote islands, petrels are being poisoned by lead. 

A new paper is shedding light on the relationship between a bird's diet and how it looks.

These horned frogs are named for their pointy eyebrows.

Small primates were sailing the high seas long before humans existed.

Whales had more cortisol in their bodies while the global whaling industry was at its peak.

The birds' nesting behaviour reflects the health of our oceans.

The RSPB are planning a mouse eradication programme starting next year.

A new study is helping to explain how evolution works.

The fish burrows underground and breaths through the lining of its mouth. 

The discovery is expected to be followed up by more new species.

Scientists have been investigating the last meals of a seal in search of plastic.

Some shearwaters in Australia appear to be better than others at avoiding feeding plastic to their chicks. 

The Museum is scanning its collection of whale specimens so that the data is easier to handle and accessible to researchers around the world.

A deadly fungus has been devastating populations of amphibians all over the world - but no one knew where it began until now.

Studying an Indian Ocean paradise is helping to reveal which animals living on low-lying islands are at risk from rising temperatures.

British species of shark, scallop and bee will have their genome sequenced for the first time, thanks to the efforts of Museum scientists.

Skins dating back 150 years are revealing the story behind the near extinction of a Chinese deer species.

Some of the highest areas of wildlife diversity in east African forest regions are not within protected areas, a study suggests.

The unusual beak of the pufferfish is produced by small tweaks to the normal programme of tooth development, research reveals this week.

African toads that give birth to live young evolved the strategy to cope with mountainous regions lacking suitable areas of water for tadpoles to develop in.

Convergent evolution and a broad carnivorous diet are what led the warrah, or Falkland Islands wolf (Dusicyon australis), to resemble a jackal, Museum scientists have found.