New Zealand

A curious little snail that you've probably never seen before has a unique quirk: it lays eggs through an opening in its neck. You've got to see it to believe it, and thankfully, there's video.

Step aside, golden beaches – New Zealand has stretches of sand sparkling with real gold. And with this, scientists have been able to assemble the world's first atlas of highly detailed beach gold found along the country's South Island coastline.

A single vertebra dug out of a rock in a stream below a New Zealand mountain in 1978 has been found to have belonged to the oldest sea reptile in southern waters, where no record of these huge beasts had existed. It dates back 246 million years.

In 2009, one frisky bird put a spotlight on his extremely endangered species when he mounted a zoologist’s head and proceeded to show the world his best mating skills. Now, in another bold move, four of his flock are returning to New Zealand's mainland.

In a world first, the New Zealand government has passed laws that will permanently outlaw the sale of cigarettes and other tobacco products to anyone born after 2008, creating a "smokefree generation" that will never legally be able to buy tobacco.

Predicting the likelihood and severity of earthquakes is important, but it’s hard to account for all factors. Researchers in New Zealand have now uncovered an overlooked factor that could affect the impact of the next big quake – tiny marine fossils.

Researchers stationed in Antarctica have been left mesmerized by the skies overhead, brought on by the aftereffects of a volcanic eruption and captured in jaw-dropping, unedited images by science technician Stuart Shaw.

Researchers have identified the anti-inflammatory mechanism behind a plant used for centuries in traditional Samoan medicine. The new study found the plant, known as matalafi, is as effective at reducing inflammation as ibuprofen.

Newly released maps of Zealandia, a massive sunken landmass, are revealing the topography of this underwater land in unprecedented detail. An interactive website has also been launched allowing users dynamic ways to explore the new data.

New Zealand was not only home to prehistoric giant parrots, but monster penguins as well. A set of bones found at the Waipara Greensand fossil site in 2018 have been confirmed as belonging to a new species of extinct penguin standing 1.6 m (5.2 ft) and weighing up to 80 kg (176 lb).

Palaeontologists in New Zealand have now uncovered the remains of Heracles inexpectatus, an extinct giant parrot that would have stood hip-high to most people and packed a beak powerful enough to crack open pretty much whatever it wanted to.

Medical X-ray scans have long been stuck in the black-and-white era. Now Mars Bioimaging has developed a bioimaging scanner that can produce full color, three dimensional images of bones, lipids, and soft tissue, thanks to a sensor chip developed at CERN for use in the Large Hadron Collider.