How did the Elephant get its Trunk?
It took millennia to find out.
Alexander Lee
The Prehistoric Horses of Lascaux
What’s the meaning of the galloping herds painted on the walls of Lascaux’s cave system?
Pigs Might Try
Putting a pig on trial appears to defy logic, but in medieval France it gave rural folk the illusion of order in a frightening world.
Bats: Out of Hell?
It took an Irish Gothic novelist to tie up centuries of demonic mythology surrounding this leathery, nocturnal mammal.
The Jellyfish Problem
Plant, animal or other? The struggle to categorise jellyfish mirrors the desire to impose a hierarchy on the natural world.
Dürer’s Enduring Rhino
For centuries, one grossly distorted woodcut defined the ideal of a rare beast.
Isle of Dogs
No canine character has played a more crucial role in literature than Bendicò in Lampedusa’s The Leopard.
The Intelligence of Earthworms
Worms are among the simplest of creatures. But, as Darwin discovered, even they share things in common with humanity.
The Great Migration Mystery
It was once believed that swallows spent their winters on the Moon, or asleep on river beds.
For Whom the Bull Tolls
Ernest Hemingway’s love of bullfighting bordered on obsession. Did he see his own insecurities reflected in the ring?