Innehållsförteckning för February 2025 från National Geographic Magazine

DEEP INSIDE COBRA CAVE, IN THE REMOTE MOUNTAINS OF NORTHEASTERN LAOS, THE BEAM FROM ERIC SUZZONI’S HEADLAMP BOUNCED ACROSS BARREN ROCK UNTIL IT flashed on something unusual: dozens of bones and teeth protruding from a layer of sediment and rock. Suzzoni, a tall, 50-year-old caving specialist with a tiger tattoo on his arm, yelled out to his partner, Sébastien Frangeul. This was the French explorers’ first foray into Cobra Cave. They had just scaled 65 feet of limes tone cliff, ascending from the forest floor to the cave’s entrance with their unlikely companions: a pair of local teenagers in flip-flops. The Hmong boys knew the terrain around the cave and the namesake cobras that sometimes lurked inside. Today the snakes were nowhere to be seen. But soon after climbing into the…

Paleoart breathes life into scientific discoveries, giving us a rare glimpse into prehistoric times. From Tyrannosaurus rex’s comically short arms to Neanderthal’s prominent brow, the science-based depictions of extinct creatures continue to captivate our imaginations. The renowned paleoartist John Gurche is one of only a handful of artists of his kind who focus on our long-vanished relatives, with his sculpture work appearing in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Hall of Human Origins. As scientists continue to uncover more human species, their discoveries complicate our image of Homo sapiens. Gurche’s models, which rely on fossil bones, help bring ancient humans into focus. The model shown here represents his best estimate of what a new hominin known as Homo longi may have looked like. Gurche’s goal was always clear: “To…

SOURCES: KRISTIAN H. NIELSEN AND HENRY NIELSEN, CAMP CENTURY: THE UNTOLD STORY OF AMERICA’S SECRET ARCTIC MILITARY BASE UNDER THE GREENLAND ICE; ELMER F. CLARK, “TECHNICAL REPORT 174: CAMP CENTURY EVOLUTION OF CONCEPT AND HISTORY OF DESIGN CONSTRUCTION AND PERFORMANCE” (1965); U.S. ARMY POLAR RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT CENTER, “THE CONSTRUCTION OF CAMP CENTURY” (1961); DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE, U.S. ARMY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRESS REPORT NO. SIX—CAMP CENTURY (1964)…

THE RED WOOD ANT IS THE UNSUNG HERO OF THE WOODS—AND PERHAP S ITS GREATEST SOCIAL DIRECTOR TOO. WILDLIFE PHOTOGRAPHER Ingo Arndt discovered his first enormous ant mound as a child exploring the forest with his father near their home in Germany almost 50 years ago. They were bird-watching and came around a bend in a densely wooded area when there it was: a five-foot-tall mound, jutting upward like a large stalagmite. The mound was covered with a thick layer of spruce needles and throngs of tiny red ants. Arndt wanted to investigate more closely, but a very particular smell suggested he rethink that impulse. The air felt thick and pungent, stinging his nostrils like vinegar. “All my life,” he says, “I could remember the smell.” As an adult, Arndt has…

CULTURE “Through the picture we see the resourcefulness in Bangladesh, where livelihoods, traditions, and values are shaped by the unique landscape and challenges of the RURAL ENVIRONMENT.”SYED MAHABUBUL KADER, photographer Rice paddies can provide two sources of income. After the grain is harvested, the leftover straw can be used as cattle feed, fuel, and thatch. Here, workers near the village of Kazipur unload a large bundle to sell along the Jamuna River. SCIENCE “I decided to show these flies in a clean place to elevate the dialogue on using insects as SUSTAINABLE FOOD. Only by showing a way forward can we inspire people to abandon a bleak worldview and fight for a better one.”MAURIZIO DI PIETRO, photographer Black soldier flies land on scientist Laura Gasco as she collects a box…

HOMO ERECTUS LEAVES AFRICA This hominin species that existed for more than a million years left Africa around 1.8 million years ago. Its descendants eventually became Homo neanderthalensis in the west and Denisovans in the east. HOMO SAPIENS EMERGES There is evidence that Homo sapiens first radiated out of Africa at least 200,000 years ago. Scientists believe most humans today are related to the last migration of as few as a thousand people. PRESENT-DAY RIVERS, BOUNDARIES, AND LAND COVER SHOWN MAP: JASON TREAT, PATRICIA HEALY, ROSEMARY WARDLEY, AND EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF SOURCES: CHRIS STRINGER, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM LONDON; JOHN HAWKS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN; LAURA SHACKELFORD, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN; LUDOVIC SLIMAK, UNIVERSITY OF TOULOUSE III; MICHAEL PETRAGLIA, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY; FRÉDÉRIK SALTRÉ, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY…

IN THE 19TH CENTURY, ships full of workers sailed to islands off the coast of Peru to mine a precious resource: bird excrement, or guano, deposited by seabirds like cormorants, pelicans, and boobies. The chalky white material was sold as fertilizer to farmers around the world but at an environmental cost. As trade increased, more people disturbed the birds’ habitat, contributing to severe population declines on the order of tens of millions. The steep drop in numbers inspired photographer and National Geographic Explorer Thomas Peschak to resurrect “the ghosts of seabirds past into the modern-day landscape,” he says. In these archival photographs, he projects images onto now diminished areas of the islands to share a unique perspective of the seabird crisis.…

what A bonsai forest when 1950s to present day where National Bonsai and Penjing Museum, Washington, D.C. THE ANCIENT ART of bonsai may look deceptively simple, but its practice requires care, contemplation, and consistency over long periods of time—especially if you’re growing an entire miniature forest, like the famous living artifact known as Goshin (pronounced go-SHEEN). This bonsai was started more than 70 years ago, when Japanese American bonsai artist John Naka cut the top off a mature juniper tree and planted it in a pot. Over the next two decades, he surrounded it with 10 more trees, one to honor each of his grandchildren. He named this miniature forest Goshin, which means “protector of the spirit” in Japanese. Today Goshin is on display at the National Bonsai and Penjing…

BOMBARDIER BEETLE When threatened, this insect has an explosive defense. It produces an internal chemical reaction that releases a scalding and irritating fluid that can reach 212 degrees Fahrenheit. It sprays the liquid from its rear end to repel predators. DIVING BELL SPIDER The only spider to live its whole life underwater collects air bubbles from the surface using its abdominal hairs and carries them to a woven-silk “diving bell.” The bell doubles as a gill, transferring oxygen from the water to help provide a 24-hour supply. TIGER BEETLE This beetle’s long, thin legs help it reach unbelievable speeds, whether chasing prey or running from predators. In Australia, one less-thanan-inch-long species can run up to eight feet a second, among the fastest in the insect world. PEACOCK SPIDER Instead of…

Laurent Ballesta, p.56 The French diver, photographer, and marine biologist spent weeks living in a pressurized chamber that enabled him to withstand more time at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea for this month’s story about puzzling rings that have formed there. An Explorer since 2022, he’s drawn to both the wonder of the ocean and its “timeless mysteries.” Justin Jin, p.14 An Explorer since 2024, the Hong Kong born photographer traveled to China’s Gansu Province to photograph the excavation of a newly discovered species of hominin in a sacred cave. Our cover story surveys human ancestors and the exciting developments that are offering a more complete picture of our evolution. Ingo Arndt, p.110 The German wildlife photographer captured rare images of red wood ants for a story on the…

GRAPHIC: JASON TREAT, PATRICIA HEALY, AND EVE CONANT, NGM STAFF SOURCES: CHRIS STRINGER, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM LONDON; JOHN HAWKS, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN; LAURA SHACKELFORD, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS URBANA-CHAMPAIGN; LUDOVIC SLIMAK, UNIVERSITY OF TOULOUSE III; MICHAEL PETRAGLIA, GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY; FRÉDÉRIK SALTRÉ, UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY SYDNEY…

ON A BRIGHT, HOT DAY in mid-September 2011, a marine biologist named Christine Pergent-Martini was hunkered down inside the cabin of a small research vessel, a 97-foot-long catamaran, cruising through the Mediterranean Sea about 12 miles off the coast of Corsica. Outside the ship’s windows, the sun glinted off the dark-blue water, but Pergent-Martini ignored the waves. She was more interested in what lay beneath them. A monitor in front of her displayed images from the vessel’s onboard sonar system, which was emitting a series of short acoustic pulses to reveal the underwater topography about 400 feet below. The ocean scientist was nearing the last day of a month-long mission: With a small crew, including her husband, oceanographer Gérard Pergent, and a graduate student from the University of Corsica Pasquale…

A TEAM OF U.S. ARMY technicians toiling at the top of the world stood in the belly of a glacier, making the final preparations that would bring a nuclear reactor to life. It was an experimental model, smallish and fickle, and these, of course, were the early years of atomic energy; the men knew that a single burst of radiation could kill them. They were surrounded by walls of glistening snow that muffled their voices, reflected the beams cast by their lights, and absorbed the tick-tick-ticking of their Geiger counters. Far above their heads arched a ceiling of corrugated steel. Beneath their feet lay a mile-thick slab of ice so old it reached back to the Pleistocene. When the chain reaction finally began, there was a flash of relief, maybe…

TELEVISION A FAMILY DISH passed down through the generations is usually delicious—it survived that long for a reason—and can be a profound connection to where we come from. It can also tell us where we’re going, and in the new show No Taste Like Home With Antoni Porowski the answer is all around the world. The six-episode National Geographic docuseries follows along as Porowski takes celebrities around the globe to explore their ancestral culinary heritage in our ever evolving world. In the episodes above (clockwise from top) actress Florence Pugh samples tea and sponge cake in London, Porowski and actress Issa Rae make a traditional Senegalese dish, and actor Henry Golding and Porowski look on as a chef prepares a classic meal of freshwater ikan semah fish in Malaysian Borneo. The…