Meet the world’s animals.

Photos: 12,038 · Stories: 19,488

• Cuvier's Beaked Whale Ziphius cavirostris

  

  A whale found in many of the world’s oceans that searches for prey in deep water.

• Troglohyphantes pedemontanus

  

  A small spider of caves in north-western Italy, known from three caves in Piemonte.

• Monito del Monte Dromiciops gliroides

  

  This small marsupial has dark markings around its eyes. Its confirmed range reaches the Rio Figueroa valley in southern Chile, with Nothofagus trees and Chusquea bamboo forming continuous forest along the southern range extension.

• Great cormorant Phalacrocorax carbo

  

  A long-necked swimmer that dives to catch fish.

• Cone-head Chameleon Chamaeleo calyptratus

  

  The veiled chameleon is a large arboreal chameleon with grasping feet and a fully prehensile tail. In an indoor study of nine animals, it used its tail for support when crossing gaps.

• Plotocnide borealis

  

  This animal has a swimming medusa and a minute mud-dwelling polyp. DNA research connected forms that had been treated as separate species.

• Cape Hare Lepus capensis

  The Arabian hare is recorded around AlUla in north-western Saudi Arabia. In this region, its grayish coat and black ear tips are noted.

• Elkhorn coral Acropora palmata

  These branching structures belong to an animal, not a plant. Elkhorn coral grows in shallow Caribbean waters; thickets shelter fish and other creatures.

• Choirboys Pycnoclavella narcissus

  A colonial sea squirt described from Algoa Bay, South Africa, with swollen tips on branching stalks.

• Eurasian spoonbill Platalea leucorodia

  A white waterbird with long legs and a spoon-shaped bill.

• Common Cuttlefish Sepia officinalis

  The common cuttlefish has a broad oval body with fins along its sides. It lives in shallow seas and offshore waters, with records from the North Sea region to southeastern Africa.

• Tri-spine horseshoe crab Tachypleus tridentatus

  A coastal animal of East and Southeast Asia with a hard shell and long tail. It lays eggs on sandy shores, and young animals grow on tidal flats.

• Aardvark Orycteropus afer

  An African mammal that searches for ants and termites on the ground at night and uses burrows as shelter.

• Southern ground hornbill Bucorvus leadbeateri

  A large black hornbill that walks over the ground searching for small animals.

• Common earthworm Lumbricus terrestris

  An earthworm that makes deep burrows, feeding on leaf litter at the surface and sometimes pulling it underground. It connects life above and below the soil.

• Black-crowned Night Heron Nycticorax nycticorax

  A heron with red eyes and a black-and-gray back, often active from evening onward.

• Roman Snail Helix pomatia

  Helix pomatia has a large rounded shell, cream-colored with faint brown bands. Its native range is in central and southeastern Europe, and it lives in woods, hedgerows, and tall vegetation.

• Common frog Rana temporaria

  A long-legged frog of damp woods and meadows that lays its eggs in water.

• Eurasian lynx Lynx lynx

  A wild cat of Europe and Asia, with black ear tufts and a prominent ruff around its cheeks.

• Zora silvestris

  A small spider with dark bands on the front part of its body, recorded from Europe, the Caucasus and Turkmenistan.

• Koala Phascolarctos cinereus

  An animal of Australian eucalypt forests. Trees provide both resting places and the leaves it eats.

• House sparrow Passer domesticus

  A small bird of towns and farms. Males and females differ in facial and chest markings; males have a black throat bib.

• Western Japanese skink Plestiodon japonicus

  A smooth-scaled lizard of woodland edges and stone walls that basks during the day.

• Rough-skinned Sea Anemone Actinostola callosa

  A seafloor anemone. A study off eastern Canada found a diverse range of small food items in its digestive cavity.