A long-legged mammal, a sharp-toothed rodent, and an iridescent beetle are among the more than 6,500 fossils recently unearthed in Germany's Messel Pit, where creatures trapped in 47-million-year-old shale have been helping scientists better understand life during the Eocene epoch.

See a torch-bedecked bull, a rocket go out in a blaze of glory, a green roof get mowed, and more in our editor's picks of the week's best news pictures.

New deep-sea worm species nicknamed "green bombers" fire glowing blobs to distract predators, a new study says.

A storm brews on a Saturn moon, gullies drape a Martian crater, tiny bursts of extraordinary energy heat the sun's atmosphere, and more in the week's best space pictures.

The world's seafood appetite is growing but its oceans are increasingly empty. See what science has dreamed up to fill the void--from untethered "Oceanspheres" to sharp-edged "SeaStations."

Among fertile farms once rich with wetlands, conservationists are recruiting Washington State farmers to temporarily inundate their fields in an effort to bring back habitat for migratory shorebirds.

A civet "makes" high-end coffee, farmers gather for a Scottish lamb sale, a Tokyo quake shakes up beer bottles, and more in our editor's picks of the week's best news pictures.

A hundred meteors an hour may light up the August nights during this year's peak of the Perseid meteor shower, one of the most popular annual sky shows.

A cosmic smashup sends lava and rubble flying, a Martian meteorite gets a color treatment, a young black hole is put on a strict diet, and more in the week's best space pictures.

In the weeks leading up to today's Saturn equinox, a possible moonlet punctured one of the planet's thin outer rings, creating a glittering structure unlike anything seen before.

A bird with a sword-like beak, a venomous pit viper, and a new kind of snakehead fish are among the more than 300 new creatures discovered in the Eastern Himalaya in the past ten years, conservationists say.

An ancient bronze figure that was underwater for 2,000 years is offering new clues to how some marine creatures absorb metals to create hard shells, scientists say.

Drain the ocean and what have you got? For starters, a chasm to rival the Grand Canyon and a mountain taller than Everest--as revealed by accurate, eye-popping new digital illustrations.

Two spiders sported adaptations that helped them survive the brutal beginnings of earthly life, new 3-D imaging shows.

A seal hunter bloodies the waters, models strut the world's longest catwalk, mourners remember Hiroshima, and more in this week's best news photos.