Nature
Browse Impossible Universe stories filed under Nature.
Goblin Shark Filmed Alive in the Deep Ocean for the First Time. A 125-Million-Year-Old Mystery Just Got Answers.
For more than a century, every confirmed sighting of a live goblin shark came only after the animal was caught on a fishing line and hauled to the surface, where it soon died. Now scientists have filmed two healthy goblin sharks swimming in their natural deep-ocean habitat, dramatically expanding the known range of a 125-million-year-old species and setting a depth record for the entire mackerel shark group.
In Two Weeks Off Brazil, Scientists Identified 31 New Deep-Sea Species
An international team aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute research vessel Falkor (too) spent 14 days exploring the midwater off Brazil and identified 31 previously unknown species, from glowing jellyfish to gossamer worms, using laser imaging and onboard genetic sequencing.
This Shark Walks on Four Fins. Scientists Just Found a New One.
Marine biologists surveying the waters of eastern Papua New Guinea have identified a tenth species of walking shark. Hemiscyllium dudgeonae uses its fins to crawl across the seafloor, and like its cousins, its tiny home range makes it vulnerable to extinction before most people even learn its name.
A Golf-Ball-Sized Blue Octopus From 6,000 Feet Down Is New to Science
In 2015, researchers aboard the E/V Nautilus spotted a tiny blue octopus near Darwin Island. Eleven years later, it has a name: Microeledone galapagensis.
The Black Frogs of Chernobyl
Eastern tree frogs inside the Chornobyl Exclusion Zone are darker than nearby frogs, a visible clue in a study of radiation and selection.
The Trembling Giant That Weighs 6,000 Tons
Pando looks like a forest of quaking aspens, but it is a single clone connected by one root system across 106 acres in Utah.
The Golden Orb That Wasn't an Alien Egg
A shiny object found more than 3,000 meters deep near Alaska looked like a deep-sea mystery. NOAA and Smithsonian scientists traced it to a rare anemone.