The Big Picture 2021
From the beautiful to the bizarre, this photographic showcase of life on Earth shines a light on some of our planet's most amazing species and places.
Discoveries
Latest in Discoveries
Antarctica’s Upside Down World
Clinging to the underside of ice hundreds of meters thick, strange communities of sea life eke out a living in perpetual darkness. Now, researchers are racing to find and study these creatures before they—and their ice sheets—disappear.
Convenient Conveyance
For a jellyfish, there are few hitchhikers more harmful than this juvenile brown paper nautilus, and for the nautilus, few rides could be more handy.
Northern Lights from the Deep
What could easily be an atmospheric apparition is in fact a formidable predator, and a critical member of its strange, open-ocean ecosystem
The Gibbon’s Tail
For the world’s rarest ape, survival may depend on stories passed down for centuries among the people of its Chinese island home.
A Novel Demise
Although we’ve marveled over carnivorous plants for centuries, the plants’ penchant for vertebrate flesh has been largely overlooked.
The Big Picture 2020
From the beautiful to the bizarre, this photographic showcase of life on Earth shines a light on some of our planet's most amazing species and places.
The Scent of Water
Most mammals can’t smell underwater, but Eurasian otters may have a way of sniffing out prey even while swimming.
Unexpected Playmate
A young humpback whale is spotted off the coast of Sri Lanka. Is it a sign of a promising trend, or just a fluke?
Enemy of My Enemy
An Amazonian frog finds refuge under the watchful compound gaze of a surprising guardian.
Antarctica’s Upside Down World
Clinging to the underside of ice hundreds of meters thick, strange communities of sea life eke out a living in perpetual darkness. Now, researchers are racing to find and study these creatures before they—and their ice sheets—disappear.
Convenient Conveyance
For a jellyfish, there are few hitchhikers more harmful than this juvenile brown paper nautilus, and for the nautilus, few rides could be more handy.
Northern Lights from the Deep
What could easily be an atmospheric apparition is in fact a formidable predator, and a critical member of its strange, open-ocean ecosystem
The Gibbon’s Tail
For the world’s rarest ape, survival may depend on stories passed down for centuries among the people of its Chinese island home.
A Novel Demise
Although we’ve marveled over carnivorous plants for centuries, the plants’ penchant for vertebrate flesh has been largely overlooked.
The Big Picture 2020
From the beautiful to the bizarre, this photographic showcase of life on Earth shines a light on some of our planet's most amazing species and places.
The Scent of Water
Most mammals can’t smell underwater, but Eurasian otters may have a way of sniffing out prey even while swimming.
Unexpected Playmate
A young humpback whale is spotted off the coast of Sri Lanka. Is it a sign of a promising trend, or just a fluke?
Enemy of My Enemy
An Amazonian frog finds refuge under the watchful compound gaze of a surprising guardian.