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Defector

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


Sabrina Imbler

A photo of a beautiful tortoise beetle adult, with a gold and brown shell ringed with blue.

Creaturefector

These Baby Beetle Backpacks Are Made Of Poop

An Animorphs-like grid showing how bite marks in the deep-sea overlay perfectly with a rattail mouth

Maker Of Mysterious Horseshoes On The Seafloor Finally Revealed

Tourists snorkel next to a whale shark, the largest fish in the world in the Gulf of California, in a protected area, as part of a whale shark watching tour at Bahía de La Paz

Sharks’ Best PR Team Might Be Working Too Hard

Two wild Przewalski's horses nuzzle each other in a field.

The Real Horse-Wives Of Hortobágy Aren’t Here To Hurt Feelings, But They Will Stirrup Trouble

An alligator is seen near the 14th green during the first round of the Valspar Championship on the Copperhead Course at Innisbrook Resort and Golf Club in Florida

Teen Gators Are Getting Into Golf

Science

It’s OK That Ötzi The 5,000-Year-Old Ice Man Was Not Hot

Jonquel Jones #35 of the New York Liberty accepts the MVP trophy after the team's 82-63 victory over the Las Vegas Aces in the 2023 Commissioner's Cup Championship game at Michelob ULTRA Arena on August 15, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Life Lessons

How A Fat Baseball Ass And Four Lesbians Turned Me Into A Sports Fan

A very cute hadal snailfish that is blue and chunky and appears to be smiling

A Unified Theory Of Deep-Sea Fish Aesthetics; Or, The Deeper You Go The Cuter They Get

3D models of a parrotfish and trumpetfish are pulled on a line across a sandy reef.

Trumpetfish Are Champions Of Hide And Sneak

A reconstruction of the ancient enormous whale Perucetus colossus

Why He Look Like That?

English: Bronze statue of Henrietta Lacks by sculptor Helen Wilson-Roe located at Royal Fort House, Bristol. The plaque at the foot of the statue reads: Henrietta Lacks 1920-1951. more than a cell. To all the unrecognized Black Women who have contributed to humanity, you will never be forgotten.

The Settlement For Henrietta Lacks’s Family Is Momentous, But It’s Just One Step

A photo of a limbless amphibian called a caecilian

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)

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