Porcupines in cages, endangered tortoises in buckets and snakes in cloth bags -- rare wildlife is on open sale at a Chinese market, despite courts being ordered to jail those who eat endangered species.

The diners of southern China have long had a reputation for exotic tastes, with locals sometimes boasting they will "eat anything with four legs except a table".

A few months ago, Argentine scientists found the remains of a giant dinosaur. Now they look forward to digging up hundreds more fossils, but what they really want is the big one's head.

In recent years, the discovery of fossils of such sauropods -- giant plant-eaters with thin necks and a long tail -- in Argentina's Patagonia region confirmed that the remote area was once home to the largest dinosaurs to roam the Earth.

Japanese and Salvadoran archaeologists said Friday they have found three human skeletons in El Salvador from more than 1,600 years ago that could shed new light on early human settlements in the region.

The three nearly complete human skeletons, preserved in volcanic ash, were found near the Pacific coast at a dig called "Nueva Esperanza," about 90 kilometers (55 miles) southeast of the capital.

Hundreds of experts will gather in Geneva next week to discuss a "disturbing upswing" in the illegal wildlife trade, driven increasingly by ostentatious displays of wealth by the super-rich. 

"We're seeing a shift from health to wealth... a significant shift away from (demand for) traditional uses associated with health to uses associated with wealth," said John Scanlon, head of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). 

Chimpanzees use their hands to say "follow me," "stop that" or "take this," according to new research seeking to translate the sophisticated messages flowing back and forth.

Previous research had revealed that our nearest genetic relatives use gestures to communicate, prompting questions over whether the communication systems shared ancestry with the origins of human language.

Hundreds of the world's top marine scientists have called for Western Australia to ditch its shark cull policy, arguing there is no evidence that it makes beaches safer, a report said Friday.

The controversial catch and kill policy was introduced as a trial this year around popular west coast beaches following a spate of fatal attacks.

Japanese scientists say they have found a way to slow down the aging process in flowers by up to a half, meaning bouquets could remain fresh for much longer.

Researchers at the National Agriculture and Food Research Organization in Tsukuba, east of Tokyo, said they had found the gene believed to be responsible for the short shelf-life of flowers in one Japanese variety of morning glory.

Terrified of spiders? Then get down and personal with the venomous beasts at one of New York's top museums as it debunks the Hollywood myth that they're dangerous.

Arachnophobia, the excessive fear of spiders, is one of the most common animal phobias -- felt by millions of people worldwide.

The man who designed China's Jade Rabbit moon rover hopes a more advanced version of his creation will be sent to Mars, state media reported, underscoring Beijing's increasingly ambitious space program.

Jia Yang also told the official Xinhua news agency of his despair when the lunar rover lost contact with Earth six weeks after it was deployed on the moon's surface.

Tibetans are able to live at high altitude thanks to a special gene they inherited from a mysterious, now-extinct branch of the human family, scientists reported on Wednesday.

The ancestors of today's Tibetans acquired a key variant of a gene regulating oxygen in the blood when they mated with a species of human called the Denisovans, they said.