CULTURE

Footer Column 2

Footer Legal

Footer Main

Nav Bar

OTHER

SPORTS

Subscribe, at any level, to play

Thanks for your interest in Defector Crosswords!

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Plans start at $8/month.

Subscribers enjoy unlimited, ad-free browsing.

Register to continue

Or click here to subscribe for unlimited, ad-free access!

Our gift to you: This year's post is unlocked. Register your email to get even more free articles.

Welcome to the 2025 Hater's Guide!

Just register your email:

This blog is free to read.

This is Defector, a new sports blog and media company. We made this place together, we own it together, we run it together. Without access, without favor, without discretion, and without interference.

Defector


<p>charismatic megafauna (they/them)</p>


Sabrina Imbler

A photo of a limbless amphibian called a caecilian

Creaturefector

Never Go In Against A Caecilian When Death Is On The Line

Paleoanthropologist and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, Professor Lee Rogers Berger holds a replica of the skull of "NEO" a new skeleton fossil findings of the Homo Naledi Hominin species at the cradle of Human Kind in Maropeng near Johannesburg on May, 9 2017 in South Africa. Primitive hominids may have lived in Africa at the same time as humans, researchers said Tuesday, in new findings that could change the understanding of human evolution. Fossils found deep in South Africa's Rising Star cave complex in 2013 have been dated by several expert teams with their findings suggesting the hominids, called Homo naledi, may have lived alongside Homo sapiens. It had previously been thought that the hominids were millions of years old. A team of 20 scientists from laboratories and institutions around the world, including in South Africa and Australia, established the age of the fossils which suggests that Homo naledi may well have lived at the same time as humans. (Photo by GULSHAN KHAN / AFP) (Photo by GULSHAN KHAN/AFP via Getty Images)

Science

Here’s A Recap Of Lots Of Science Drama About Ancient Human Death

a magpie nest in a tree. the nest is built from a bunch of anti-bird spikes, which are long spiky needles attached to strips.

Birdfector

There’s No Such Thing As Hostile Architecture When You’re A Bird

Artistic reconstruction of Megasiphon thylakos, a benthic organism that lived directly on the seafloor. The tunicate looks like two ghostly cylinders sitting on the seafloor

Sea Squirts Started From The Bottom, Now They’re Here

A deep-sea octopus spreads out its arms on the seafloor

Maker Of Mysterious Octagons On The Seafloor Finally Revealed

Present-day katydids of the genus Arethaea, pictured here, have the same internal structures as those seen in the fossil.

They Found An Old Bug Ball

Dominant male orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) with large cheek flaps pointing his finger at his face, Borneo, Indonesia.

These Orangutans May Not Be Beatboxing But They’re Definitely Doing Something

Bone-Eating Worms Apparently Also Freaks For Teeth

Stockton Rush, OceanGates chief executive, spoke at a press conference said during a press conference next to the Cyclops 1, a five-person sub that is different from the one used in the Titanic expedition

What Is Extreme Tourism For?

A bleeped and blooped photo of a 2,200 year old bird nest

Zillowing Out

A 2,200-Year-Old Poop Donut In Which We Can Raise Our Hatchlings

When A Turtle Is A Taxi For Shrimp

Giri Nathan

Laura Wagner

Photo of Yamil "Yam Yam" Arocho in a bright purple sweater.

Let Yam Yam Host ‘Survivor’

A pod of killer whales on the move in the Pacific Ocean.

How To Sink A Yacht (If You’re An Orca)

a Greenland shark swims away from the camera

This Barnacle Went Where No Other Barnacles Dared Go (Inside A Greenland Shark’s Cloaca)

A close-up of a clay model from Mesopotamia that dates back to 1800 BCE, depicting a nude couple kissing and copulating.

When Was The First Sexy Kiss?

Quick, Everyone Play Dead!

A model of a brown grain weevil resting on a grain.

Going Against The Grain Weevils

A photo of the now deceased last female Yangtze giant softshell turtle

The Last Female Yangtze Giant Softshell Turtle Is Dead

What If I Told You Sperm Could Be Balls?

A prehistoric tully monster, looks like a squid with stalked eyes and a jointed trunk with a toothy pincer mouth at the end.

The Mystery Of The Tully Monster Will Never Be Solved

A dung-rolling weevil in the genus Tentegia props up a piece of marsupial dung

Rookie Dung-Roller Is Learning On The Job

Two firefighters attempt to free a red squirrel, whose head is stuck inside a manhole cover

History Repeats: Red Squirrel Gets STUCK In Manhole Cover In Germany, Just Four Years After Similar Squirrel’s Manhole Stranding

a photo of a coprolite (fossil poop) with bite marks taken out of it

Behold An Ancient Fish’s Moment Of Sheer Regret

Associate US Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas poses for the official photo at the Supreme Court, dressed in black robes.

Politics

Clarence Thomas’s Billionaire Sponsor Owns Some Weird Nazi Stuff

two gloved hands holding a mummified brown squirrel in the shape of a perfect sphere