How animals evolved on Earth is somewhat murky. We know that most major animal phyla we see today appeared during the Cambrian explosion 541 million years ago - but before that, the fossil record is patchy.

One of Ireland’s most successful canine athletes has been banned from dog racing indefinitely after three doping control tests found evidence of cocaine in his system, the BBC reported Thursday. Clonbrien Hero will have some of his prize money and titles withheld, including his winnings from July’s Irish Laurels final at Cork, where he took home the top prize, worth roughly $35,000.

Party lines may be sharply divided regarding issues, but not when it comes to animals and their welfare. Today, California Assembly Bill 485, the Pet Rescue and Adoption Act, passed the California State Senate by a vote of 38 to 0. With Assemblymember Rocky Chavez (R-Oceanside) signing on as a co-author and more Republicans voting in favor in both houses, the bill passed with bipartisan support. The bill's supporters are hoping that Gov.

A photographer wins a legal fight against an animal rights group over a "monkey selfie" photograph.

Scary-looking fish found on a Texas beach after Hurricane Harvey is identified as a fangtooth snake-eel with the help of social media

We look at some of the finalists from the 2017 Wildlife Photographer of the Year contest and learn the stories behind these breathtaking images.

The Cat Train Café aims to raise awareness of stray cats and prevent culling.

Officials are calling it animal cruelty like they've never seen before. As Hurricane Irma’s outer bands inch closer to Palm Beach County, animal control officers said they are hustling to rescue abandoned animals.

Wild tigers are to be reintroduced to Kazakhstan 70 years after they became extinct in the country. The animals will be reintroduced in the Ili-Balkhash region in a project that involves the creation of a nature reserve and the restoration of a forest that is part of the animal’s historical range.

Despite Canada's vast wilderness, populations of half its vertebrate species are shrinking, a new World Wildlife Fund report finds. And endangered species like woodland caribou and St. Lawrence beluga whales continue to disappear even after becoming protected by federal laws. The Living Planet Report Canada, released Thursday morning by the conservation group WWF-Canada, found 451 of 903 mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species across the country — half the species in the study — declined in number between 1970 and 2014.

There's something to be learned from every fossil, but now and then, a fossil is found that doesn't quite seem to fit. These are the exciting ones. Like Hongyu chowi , a newly described fish fossil that seems to imply that more species were...

Naming species forms the foundation of biology—but these rogue researchers are exposing the flaws in the system

The Twycross Zoo is having an enrichment day for the animals by throwing lots of colorful balls and some boxes into the enclosure. The orangutan mom with her

For many years now, we've been covering the sometimes odd/sometimes dopey case of the monkey selfie and the various disputes over who holds the copyright (the pretty clear answer: no one owns the copyright, because the law only applies to...

It was wheels up for around 80 orphan dogs and cats this week as they were flown from overcrowded shelters in storm-hit Houston to new lives in California. Dozens of animal crates packed the cabin of a donated San Diego-bound Southwest Airlines flight on Tuesday, thanks to volunteers with the airline and various animal rescue groups.

Research finds endangered Antarctic blue, fin and southern right whales struggling to recover despite hunting bans

A Californian teenager has been arrested after he tried to smuggle a male Bengal tiger cub across the US border from Mexico. Luis Eudoro Valencia, 18, was charged with smuggling the animal into the US after officials found it lying on the floor of his vehicle. He was caught at the Otay Mesa border crossing in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

Moonlight triggers the world’s biggest orgy, strange creatures emerge from the depths, and waves glow blue. Some phenomena in the ocean can only be witnessed after dark.

As Hurricane Irma continued its devastating run in the Caribbean, Cuba evacuated dolphins held in a dolphinarium in the north of the country, where Irma made landfall Friday night. The six dolphins were wrapped in wet towels to ensure healthy travel and put on helicopters that took the dolphins to the province of Cienfuegos, the Mirror reported.

Armadillos are native to the southern United States, but the animals have slowly been moving north. And, Champaign County recently saw its first armadillo. Armadillos have been in southern Illinois since the 1990s. But, Champaign County saw its first documented armadillo earlier this month at Urbana High School.

New technologies mean that the evolution of color vision is getting clearer than ever

A team from the Universities of Liverpool and Oslo have just discovered how goldfish and Crucian carp are able to turn lactic acid into ethanol. Goldfish can survive without oxygen because they take lactic acid and convert it into ethanol which flows across their gills out into the water.

New research has shed fresh light on how animals first appeared on the Earth. It is a story spanning hundreds of millions of years, of entire mountain ranges ground to dust by vast glaciers that once covered the planet and of dramatic climate change that ushered in a new biological age. Life on Earth was dominated by simple bacteria up until about 650 million years ago when more complex forms of life suddenly took over.

A Canadian man had to punch a black bear in the nose to force it outside after it followed a toddler into a British Columbia family's home. Froude was home with her two sons when she heard her two-year-old yell: "Mom, look!" She turned and saw a black bear walking through her home's sliding glass doors. Ms Froude locked herself and her children in a bedroom while a family friend banged pots and chased it with a chair.

That pigs are smart and sensitive is not in doubt. How can we justify continuing to kill them for food?

Eleven horses have died so far at Saratoga Race Course in just over two weeks since opening day. The track is on pace to surpass last year's 15 deaths. The 11th horse, "Unbroken Chain," suffered a fatal musculoskeletal injury and was euthanized after a race on Sunday, according to NYS Gaming Commission's equine incident database.

Slaughterhouses in England will have to install CCTV as part of government plans to monitor animal welfare. Under rules being phased in over the next year, Food Standards Agency vets will be able to ask to see footage of all areas where livestock are held. Slaughterhouses found to be failing welfare standards could face a criminal investigation or lose staff licences.

This is just amazing! Just a few months ago in June, we shared the news of Jay Wilde, a beef farmer who had a change of heart and sent all of his cattle to Hillside Animal Sanctuary in the UK. And now yet another farmer is now following Jay’s lead and sending his cows to the same sanctuary!

Puerto Rico’s governor said Monday that he is evaluating whether to close the island’s only zoo as he announced that 11 animals will be transferred elsewhere following concerns for their wellbeing amid an economic crisis.

Joe Howlett helped to rescue a north Atlantic right whale that had become heavily tangled in rope and was struck by the mammal afterward

After 10 years in the making, two Pittsburgh artists have created a penny machine that spits out coins with designs of endangered animals.

More than 200 sheep have plunged to their deaths in the Pyrenees while apparently trying to escape a brown bear. The bears have been reintroduced to the mountain region over the past three decades after being wiped out by hunters.

A bear that got stuck in a car in the US state of Colorado took a short joyride before crashing, police say. Durango resident Ron Cornelius awoke to find a Subaru SUV crashed at the bottom of the hill at the end of his driveway. "Usually, I don't get up at 5 o'clock unless there is a bear driving a car down the street," he joked to the Durango Herald newspaper.

The way humans make an 'ssss' noise is different to the way a snake does it. We put our tongue behind our teeth when we hiss, but for a snake the tongue isn't involved at all in making sounds.

Last Friday, Hans Nilsson in Sweden finally caught sight of an elusive creature he'd been trying to capture on film for three years straight.