The villas of Marabe Al Dhafra in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates are home to approximately 2,000 people. Located in one of the hottest regions of the world, the record high temperature here is 49.2C° (120.6F°). (Photo by Benjamin Grant/Penguin Random House)

In this January 27, 2015 photo, penguins walk on the shore of Bahia Almirantazgo in Antarctica. Antarctica “is big and it's changing and it affects the rest of the planet and we can't afford to ignore what's going on down there”, said David Vaughan, science director of the British Antarctic Survey. (Photo by Natacha Pisarenko/AP Photo)

Neon sea creatures have been captured lighting up the ocean with their vibrant colors – in what looked like a scene from Avatar. Photographer Simon Pierce, 39, took the images over several months after visiting both Nosy Sakatia in Madagascar and Mafia Island in Tanzania recently. (Photo by Simon Pierce/Caters News Agency)

Is it a leaf? Is it tree bark? No, it’s the Satanic leaf-tailed gecko. Cleverly disguised as a rotting leaf, Madagascar’s camouflage king has red eyes, pointy horns and a taste for night hunting: it’s nature’s most devilish deceiver. The twisted body and veiny skin echo the detail of a dry leaf, which ensures the gecko blends in with its forest home. The mottled tail appears to have sections missing, as though it has withered over time. This mini-monster epitomises survival of the fittest, having adapted gradually to become today’s extraordinary leaf impersonator. (Photo by Thomas Marent/ARDEA)

The secretive indri (Indri indri) of Madagascar, the largest living lemur. It is also critically endangered and highly evolutionarily distinct with no close relatives, which makes its branch one of most precarious on the mammal evolutionary tree. In the likely event that the indri goes extinct, we will lose 19m years of unique evolutionary history from the mammal tree of life. (Photo by Pierre-Yves Babelon/Aarhus University)

The electronically animated giant baby Miguelin (created by Isabel Coixet in collaboration with the special effects team behind Alien vs. Predator) was seen in the Spanish Pavilion at the site of Shanghai 2010 World Expo on April 27, 2010 in Shanghai, China. (Photo by China Photos)

“My goal was to capture the image of a storm that emulated an atomic explosion”, Dobrowner says of this picture. Here: “Monsoon”, Lordsburg, N.M., 2010. (Photo by Roger Hill)

This spiky tenrec was spotted in Madagascar’s Mantadia National Park in the last decade of September 2025. Mostly nocturnal and rarely seen, it puffs out its spines when threatened. Spiky tenrecs are excellent swimmers — unlike most spiny mammals, some species of tenrec can forage in streams and rivers, using their spines for protection while hunting aquatic insects and small prey. (Photo by Dale Morris/Solent News & Photo Agency)