Tag archives for weird
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The top 10 stories on our radar today: Researchers have identified a previously unknown layer in human eyes, mobile phone apps that mimic birdsongs may harm birds, and…
Posted by Scientists at the GulfSERPENT Project recently captured an oarfish on video near the Gulf of Mexico. Since the video was released, it has appeared on numerous websites and blogs calling it the “first-ever” video of a “sea serpent” and other glamorous names. While these titles may help to get the oarfish video more views, they…
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A team of researchers recently announced the discovery of Cyanogaster noctivaga, a brand new species of transparent fish that lives deep in the Amazon. Indeed, with its transparent skin and dazzling blue belly, the discovery constitutes an entirely new genus and, despite being very hard to see, has been given an eye-catching name that means…
The top 10 headlines on our radar today: Scientists are developing a spacecraft that will propel towards the sun, a lunar real estate agent has already sold a chunk of land on the moon, and…
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We recently wrote about a two-headed bull shark found by fishermen. One of our readers, Christopher Johnston, then sent us an email with photos he had taken on September 27, 2008 of a similarly surprising find: a two-headed blue shark. As far as we know these photos have never been published anywhere before. As we…
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Ötzi the Iceman, the world’s oldest wet mummy, may have had many things in life, but a dazzling smile and fresh breath were not among them. A team of researchers from the Centre for Evolutionary Medicine at the University of Zurich announced that Otzi’s oral hygiene left a lot to be desired, to put it…
Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) passed away today after fighting illness for several years. She died in London, after having suffered a stroke, at 87 years old. Last December, she had undergone an operation to remove a growth from her bladder. Known as the Iron Lady for her toughness, Thatcher had served as the United Kingdom’s only…
We recently covered a two-headed bull shark fetus that was found by a fisherman and described by scientists in a journal. That story got more than ninety comments and more than four thousand Facebook likes, and it got us thinking about what other two-headed creatures might have been found. So in lieu of this week’s…
We’ve written about a cyclops shark, freshwater sharks, and whorl-toothed sharks, but we have to add a new curiosity to the digital curio: a two-headed shark. A fisherman working off the Florida Keys recently caught a bull shark, then opened it up to find that it contained two live fetuses, including one highly unusual one with two…
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By Valarie Chapman We have only studied a small portion of the world’s oceans – leaving us plenty of room for surprises. In one great recent surprise, researchers at Hokkaido University have proven that a species of squid can fly (published in the journal Marine Biology). There were rumors and witnesses of these flying squid,…
“Ugly” Christmas sweaters have been around for decades, but their popularity has been soaring the past few years. Many people are dressing up in festive knits throughout the winter holidays; some because they think it is “ironic” to don the garments of yesteryear, others because they just like the way they feel in them. With…
Posted by Just in time for Halloween, our new book, Tales of the Weird: Unbelievable True Stories, was released this week.
An international team of researchers has found that female Komodo dragons are living half as long as males do. The reason? “Housework.” That’s right. Housework: The physically demanding tasks of building large nests, maintaining them, and guarding their eggs are shortening the lives of female Komodo dragons. Members of the research team come from Australia,…
The sight of a daddy longlegs scurrying across your backyard can be unnerving—typically the spindly legs of these creatures, also called harvestmen, are an inch or two long. But how would you feel about finding a giant one in a dark cave? If you’re an arachnologist, like Dr. Peter Jäger of the Senckenberg Research Institute…
Update 10/15/12 2:19PM: The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission has reported that the ‘mystery eyeball’ appears to be from swordfish. Learn More. Perhaps reminiscent of the infamous Montauk monster, a giant eyeball has washed up on a Florida beach (as if Florida needed anything else weird). The Internets are buzzing with questions: whose eye…
There’s a gigantic diamond in outer space, according to new research from a team led by Yale University scientists. About as twice as big as Earth and with eight times more mass, the rocky planet is a “Super Earth” and orbits a star 40 light years away in the constellation Cancer. First detected in 2004, …
First it was the raccoons. Next came the coyotes. And then? Bigger carnivores. Urban and suburban areas in North America are home to a lot of small, wild predators, and now scientists believe that the coyote’s success in adapting to an urban lifestyle could pave the way for larger carnivores to move in. Ohio State…
The National Geographic Society has a noble mission: to inspire people to care about the planet. It’s lofty. It’s important. But few know just how weird it can turn out to be. When you’re exploring the world and all that is in it, you tend to uncover some strange stuff—two-faced cats, cannibal stars, and vampire…
A new species of freshwater fish found in Mexico has several interesting – and perhaps cringe-inducing – characteristics, including four hooks on the male genitalia, North Carolina State University said this week.
An Ode to the Odd and Obscure
Posted by Christine Dell'Amore of National Geographic News in News From Nature+ on September 11, 2012 
Ever heard of the Macaya breast-spot frog? Didn’t think so. It’s one of many obscure organisms that made the hundred most threatened species list, which was announced today at the World Conservation Congress.
A National Geographic reader just sent us this curious photo, which we have been staring at longingly today, as we sweat through the longest heat wave on record in the nation’s capital. Half of the country is suffering through a drought, so it’s especially refreshing to gaze at such cool slopes. Gisela Taranovski, a…
Read about a white humpback whale calf spotted near Australia and see pictures of albino animals, including a gorilla named Snowflake.
