Fossil records indicate that this early lizard, Megalania (Megalania prisca or Varanus priscus), was a whopping seven metres in length. They were part of a megafaunal assemblage that inhabited southern Australia during the Pleistocene. The youngest fossil remains date to around 50,000 years ago. The first aboriginal settlers of Australia might have encountered them and been a factor in their extinction. (Photo by Sky TV/The Guardian)

In a new project, an international group of photographers have joined forces to use their powerful images to raise awareness and funds to help stop the illegal wildlife trade. Here: Fennec foxes are captured for the illegal pet trade. This three-month-old pup was for sale in a market in southern Tunisia. (Photo by Bruno D'Amicis/Photographers Against Wildlife Crime/Wildscreen/The Guardian)

Founded in 1989, the Icehotel in Swedish Lapland is built from the snow up each year, using ice from the local river. The rooms are designed by international artists and this year feature spacemen and an ice queen. The hotel has 35 suites, featuring ice carvings designed by 36 different artists from 17 countries. (Photo by Asaf Kliger/IceHotel/The Guardian)

Inspired by traditional Indian travelling photography studios, Arthur Crestani photographed the inhabitants of Gurgaon, a city built almost entirely by private companies. Arthur Crestani’s “Bad City Dreams” contrasts the glossy ideal sold by developers with urban reality. Here: Luxury Living Bhiwadi: “Sky Club on 18th Floor”. (Photo by Arthur Crestani/The Guardian)

Tip turkey, dumpster chook, rubbish raptor – the Australian white ibis goes by many unflattering names. But it is a true urban success story, scavenging to survive in cities across Australia as wetlands have been lost. Wildlife photographer Rick Stevens captured them in Sydney. Here: Of all the species affected by river regulation in Australia, the ibis is one of the few that has changed its behaviour and moved to coastal cities. (Photo by Rick Stevens/The Guardian)

Teenage girls at a drinking fountain in Hyde Park in Central London on August 9, 2022 after weeks with no significant rain and unprecedented high temperatures. Many parts of southern England and Wales are facing drought conditions and preparing for emergency water measures. (Photo by Sarah Lee/The Guardian)

Forrest Walker, “Police Walk”. Walker describes this shot, taken in 2015 at the last officially permitted Pride parade in Istanbul, as a tense and surreal experience. His focus is on a woman walking calmly in front of a line of riot police, her attitude part defiance and part performance. (Photo by Forrest Walker/All About Photo awards 2025 via The Guardian)

Smoke billows from a high-rise apartment building in west London Wednesday, June 14, 2017. A massive fire raced through the building early Wednesday, emergency officials said. (Photo by Rick Findler/PA Wire via AP Photo)