Animal Life

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A female mountain lion with her kittens in the dark night of the woods
Zoom Backround Female mountain lion 'P65' with her kittens

Credit: NPS
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a white and pink longwing butterfly
A longwing butterfly rests on a Lantana flower. Its wing patterns have been modified through CRISPR gene editing, which removed a crucial RNA molecule, leading to the loss of melanic scales (or black pigment)

Credit: Luca Livraghi, Biology Department, The George Washington University
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Graphic showing a butterfly specimen overtop a portion of the largest butterfly tree of life ever created. The "tree" was assembled with DNA from more than 2000 butterfly species representing all butterfly families and 92% of genera.
Graphic showing a butterfly specimen overtop a portion of the largest butterfly tree of life ever created. The "tree" was assembled with DNA from more than 2000 butterfly species representing all butterfly families and 92% of genera.

Credit: Florida Museum photo by Kristen Grace and phylogeny by Hillis, Zwickl, and Gutell
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A white-lined sphinx moth sitting on flower
A white-lined sphinx (Hyles lineata)

Credit: Courtesy of Ron Wolf
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a water slug with kaleidoscope colors
This type of nudibranch (Notaeolidia) is found in the icy waters of Antarctica. Crary Lab, McMurdo Station, Antarctica.

Credit: Photo by Aaron Toh, Courtesy of Amy Osborne (PolarTREC 2019), Courtesy of ARCUS
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A wolf spider
A wolf spider ( Schizocosa ocreata).

Credit: JOSEPH FUQUA II
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A bumblebee foraging on blueberry flowers.
A bumblebee foraging on blueberry flowers.

Credit: Winfree Lab
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School of fish swimming together in coral reef.
A school of fish swims over the coral reefs of Pagan.

Credit: Photo courtesy University of Guam
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tree frog embryos
Three-day-old embryos of red-eyed tree frogs (Agalychnis callidryas) photographed in Gamboa, Panama.

Credit: Karen Warkentin, Boston University
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dolphins
Spinner dolphins school just beneath the surface of the sea.

Credit: Andre Seale, University of Hawaii
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A caribou skull
A caribou skull glistens white against the tundra of northern Alaska.

Credit: Daniel Ackerman
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Image of an endangered antelope fading away.
Extinction risk for 1,700 animal species to increase by 2070. The Nile lechwe is an already endangered antelope species in East Africa.

Credit: Michael S. Helfenbein, Yale University
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zebras
Ankole cattle and zebra share grazing lands in central Kenya.

Credit: Rebecca Chaplin-Kramer, Natural Capital Project, Stanford University
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Image of white fox sitting in snow.
Arctic fox sitting in snow.

Credit: Alfred-Wegener Institute/Michael Ginzburg
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bat flying in the air
Vampire bats hunt with 'friends' in wild.

Credit: Brock Fenton
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a jumping spider
A male jumping spider (Saitis barbipes).

Credit: Photo/Bernard Dupont/Wikimedia Commons (licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 International)
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xray of zebra fish
Confocal microscopy image of nerve fibers in zebrafish brain

Credit: HHMI Janelia Research Campus
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skull of lizard
The skull of an earless monitor lizard, via CT scan.

Credit: Edward Stanley and David Blackburn, Florida Museum of Natural History
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skull of frog
The skull of Hemiphractus scutatus, a horned tree frog from South America.

Credit: Edward L. Stanley, Florida Museum of Natural History
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Butterflyfish school
Butterflyfish school near Acroporid corals at Lord Howe Island, Australia.

Credit: F. Joseph Pollock, Penn State University
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school of Atlantic silversides fish
School of Atlantic Silversides seen from below

Credit: Chris Pickerell, Cornell Cooperative Extension of Suffolk County
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swimming fish
Fish swim along a coral reef in the Line Islands in the central Pacific Ocean.

Credit: Jennifer Smith, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
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catshark glowing in the dark
The chain catshark (Scyliorhinus rotifer) naturally glows in the dark.

Credit: ©J. Sparks, D. Gruber and V. Pieribone
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whale shark
Whale sharks regularly pass nearby when ocean-going science vessels traverse the Pacific ocean.

Credit: Kelly VonDrehle, IODP
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a shark
A shark lurks near the Lost City hydrothermal field deep in the Atlantic ocean.

Credit: Courtesy of Susan Lang, University of South Carolina/NSF/ROV Jason/2018/©Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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A map of the fruit fly’s brain with bright colors
A map of the fruit fly’s brain. Developed by an international team of researchers, the map is known as connectome and is the largest created to date, identifying 140,000 neurons and over 8,000 cell types.

Credit: Amy Sterling and Julia Kuhl for FlyWire
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Tiny microscopic copepod belonging to genus Euchirella.
Tiny microscopic copepod belonging to genus Euchirella.

Credit: Michael Stukel/Florida State University
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A collage of five comb jelly species
A collage of five comb jelly species that were used in a study that provided insight into how related ocean creatures have adapted to live in vastly different environments. Starting in the upper left and moving clockwise, the species are: (Beroe cucumis), (Leucothea pulchra), (Beroe abyssicola), (Bathocyroe aff. fosteri) and an undescribed mertensiid.

Credit: Jacob Winnikoff
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Extreme close-up image of male orchid bee.
Researchers at the University of California, Davis, found that orchid bees, like this male, are easier to tell apart by the chemical differences of their perfumes than by their physical appearance.

Credit: Thomas Eltz
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dinosaurs
Allosaurs attack a sauropod along a beach in what is now Utah, 150 million years ago.

Credit: Todd Marshall
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Monarch butterflies
Monarch butterflies bask in the Florida sun. NSF scientists have been tracking the monarchs’ decline in the hopes of finding clues to saving them.

Credit: Florida Museum photo by Court Whelan
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