Articles for author: Maria Faith Saligumba

The Twilight Zone

The Twilight Zone: Meet the Lanternfish Powering Ocean Ecosystems

Imagine a world where sunlight barely penetrates, where darkness reigns and strange, glowing creatures drift silently through an alien landscape. This is the mysterious “twilight zone” of our oceans, a realm between 200 and 1000 meters below the surface. In these shadowy depths, one small, shimmering hero quietly supports the very foundation of ocean life: ...

Sun bear

The Sun Bear: Southeast Asia’s Forgotten Forest Guardian

Imagine wandering through the lush, tangled forests of Southeast Asia, sunlight flickering through a sea of emerald leaves—and there, almost hidden among the shadows, moves one of the region’s most mysterious and overlooked creatures. The sun bear, with its small stature and striking golden chest patch, is more than just an enigma; it’s a silent ...

The Platypus

The Platypus Is So Weird It Was Once Thought a Hoax

Imagine a creature that looks like a mashup from a child’s wildest dreams: a furry animal with the bill of a duck, the tail of a beaver, and webbed feet, that also lays eggs and produces venom. This isn’t a mythical beast from old fairy tales—it’s the platypus, one of the most baffling animals in ...

black and brown snake in close up photography

Snakes Evolved From Lizards—But Then Ditched Their Legs

Imagine a world millions of years ago, teeming with creatures unlike anything we see today. Among them slithered animals that would one day become the mysterious, legless wonders we now call snakes. It’s almost poetic—the idea that snakes, so perfectly adapted to their environments, began life on Earth as ordinary lizards. But what drove them ...