This year’s most captivating illustrations tell stories from the micro scale—such as newborn neurons in the adult brain and bacteria in the infant gut—to the scale of entire ecosystems, including reintroduced predators and rising seas.

This month, voters in the state approved the predators’ reintroduction, but the species’ recent delisting as an endangered species at the federal level binds up available funding.

As some conservationists and researchers begin to return large carnivores to areas where they once roamed, scientists intensify efforts to study the ecological roles of predators.

A global decline of large carnivores has motivated scientists to understand the animals’ ecological roles, and consider whether reintroducing them can help restore ecosystems.

The release of gray wolves in Yellowstone decades ago still stands as one of the few examples of a predator reintroduction, and the lessons learned continue to be debated. New projects aim to do it again.

The protist Rhodelphis limneticus bears little resemblance to its close genetic relative, red algae.

Baby fish show fewer signs of stress in the presence of large fish that scare off midsize predators. 

Trap-jaw spiders have the fastest, most powerful bite of any arachnid, scientists show. 

Meet some of the people featured in the April 2016 issue of The Scientist.