After a factory had found a 40-million-year-old whale fossil in a limestone kitchen counter, researchers investigated the stone's fossil-packed quarry, which could shed light on the origins of African wildlife. Video.

Newly released photos reveal some of the subterranean wonders documented by a team of National Geographic Young Explorer grantees, who recently braved the depths of the Earth to map a 7,808-foot (2,380-meter) cave in Gabon for the first time.

As tornado season touches down in the U.S., see a high-tech tornado chaser's stunning footage of twisters—and of lightning as you've never seen it, in superslow motion.

In a phenomenon occurring just twice a century, tens of millions of rats decimate fields and forests in northeast India and parts of Burma and Bangladesh. The cause: bamboo.

Pounding fortified beehives with big sticks and other tools, a chimpanzee group in Africa has been filmed using the most sophisticated honey-gathering methods yet seen among wild chimps. Video.

The Zapotec thrived in southern Mexico from A.D. 200 to 900. Now, new archaeological research is shining a light on the culture's rise and fall.

Explorer, environmentalist, and British celebrity David de Rothschild will set out on a 11,000-mile journey across the Pacific Ocean to teach us about plastic waste and recycling.

Archaeologists are uncovering the history of the Zapotec state, a vital player in ancient Mesoamerica.

The British government, helped by the National Geographic Society and the British Red Cross, has returned 3.4 tons of stolen antiquities confiscated from luggage at London's Heathrow Airport.

Across war-shattered Afghanistan, looters and thieves have pillaged antiquities from more than 1,500 ancient sites--and now, the country's getting something back: 3.4 tons of stolen artifacts confiscated in the United Kingdom have returned to Kabul.

A baby blue whale filmed off Costa Rica may be the first to have been photographed underwater and adds to evidence that a blue whale hot spot is a birthing ground. With video.

A newly designated conservation area in Papua New Guinea will help preserve pristine forests as habitats, homes for villagers, and carbon sinks.

What causes rare "thundersnow" storms like those that struck the U.S. Southeast this week? How do they spark heavier snowfall? And where can you see them? Experts explain.

Scientists have long believed the moon to be a dead world. But observers have reported seeing intermittent bright flashes there for the past 400 years. Could these be signs of geological activity?

Microchip-implanted penguins in Argentina are helping scientists by just doing what comes naturally on the birds' favorite "highway" to the sea.