nature

Modern snakes evolved from a few survivors of a dino-killing asteroid

Love them or loathe them, there is now new information that suggests that snakes have an even more intriguing origin story than previously thought.

The ancestors of the modern snake may have been among the few reptiles to survive the giant asteroid catastrophe that erased dinosaurs from the face of the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous – a period in time that began 145 million years ago and ended 66 million years ago.

12.2017 | Denise Slabbert

Animals will be animals

Intro: Camera close-ups of nature and animal life tell us more than we may have expected, but now that we are hooked, we may learn as much good as there seems to be bad.

10.2023 | Peter Dearlove

The evolution of beauty

Evolution is my faith; Darwin is my prophet. And evolution explains the power women hold over men. Males of the species Homo sapiens sapiens are in thrall to a phenomenon called neoteny.

05.2023 | Tom Learmont

Nature’s Essential Workers

Often referred to as wildlife’s “clean up crew,” vulture numbers are sadly dwindling on the African continent, but when they do pitch up – it’s a sign that nature is thriving.

02.2023 | Denise Slabbert

The origin of the African jackal traced back 5 million years to the West Coast of SA

The discovery of fossils from a new species of canid, on the West Coast of South Africa, has unearthed the African origins of the crafty jackal - tracing its history on the continent back 5 million years ago.

07.2022 | Adrian Ephraim

The karoo – cradle of the mammals

Africa may have been the cradle of Humankind, but the continent was also the birthplace of the order to which we belong – the Mammalia.

08.2021 | Tom Learmont

Creatures great and small

We share this planet with such a rich variety of creatures. Often animals symbolize different traits to which we aspire or simply appreciate.

07.2021 | Daniel Heintz

The mermaid man

Marine mammal scientist Dr Vic Cockcroft fears that the “mermaids” he studies may be doomed.

01.2021 | Tom Learmont

The dark side of leaf blowers, the windscreen effect and insect extinction

Imagine this.

You are in the grounds of a leafy upmarket South African housing estate.

09.2020 | Athalie Russell Besseling

Some facts about human’s best friend

As a person who grew up with dogs, I have loved some of my quadruped family members with so much of my heart that I grieved deeply when they invariably passed on.

04.2020 | Chrisoula Adonopoulos

Climate change

The rise of anti-science discourse: forehead-slapping conversations with climate change deniers.

12.2018 | Kim Segel

The money tree

Growing up in a strict, very middle-class family in the 1940s and 1950s and learning the virtue of thrift, “money does not grow on trees” was a constant refrain. But there is a tree which grows money.

12.2018 | Clarence Dreyer

The Blue Zone phenomenon

Where to go to live longer … and happier.

11.2018 | Chrisoula Adonopoulos

Don’t worry about the last fish in the sea

Catching the last fish in the sea should be the least of your worries. Here’s why.

06.2018 | Jon Stilwell

Weed tourism means big business

Knowing that cannabis and the tourism dollar are fast friends would most likely have Bob Marley rolling about in his grave.

12.2017 | Denise Slabbert