Beat Darwin

A single wildlife photograph and nine species names, one of which is right. The twist that makes it hard is stated openly on the how-to page and holds up in play: all nine options come from the same taxonomic family as the answer. So a snake day is not snake versus lizard, it is nine colubrids, and you are choosing between a Baird's Ratsnake, a Cope's Vine Snake and a Jan's Cliff Racer on the evidence of one photo. Charles Darwin himself is the opponent, present as a small animated portrait who insults you every time you miss. Puzzles are numbered.

1. Look at the photo, which is a real observation pulled from iNaturalist rather than a studio shot, so the habitat behind the animal is usually the most useful thing on screen.
2. Click one of the nine species buttons.

Most daily guessing games teach you nothing when you fail. This one is built the other way round: every wrong click hands you a scientific name, a Wikipedia summary and a fact about the animal you wrongly picked, so a four-guess wipeout still leaves you four species better informed. The same-family constraint is what turns it from a lucky dip into a real identification problem, and it means you improve at something transferable rather than at the game. It is free, needs no account, keeps your streak in the browser, and the developer, Jonathan Clegg, says outright that the species page with its IUCN status is the point rather than the puzzle. The Darwin character is the joke that keeps it from feeling like homework.

A wrong guess is not just marked, it is answered. The species you picked is printed underneath with its scientific name and an encyclopedia-style summary, so guessing Striped Swampsnake earns you a paragraph on Liodytes alleni and its taste for crayfish. That is deliberate, and it is the reason the game is worth playing badly. Alongside it, Darwin taunts you in a rotating set of lines that lean smug: Darwin scribbles in his notebook, Adding you to my research on failures, or the flat Maybe stick to house pets? Lose all four and the verdict is Darwin Wins! followed by the answer and a row of red squares to share.

Today's animal

The only real mode. One species, four attempts, reset at midnight UTC, and the game notes it is one challenge per day per browser.

Past Animals and Browse All Species

Two footer links into the back catalogue. They are reference pages rather than replayable puzzles, but every species has its own page with full taxonomy and IUCN conservation status.

• Read the habitat before you read the names. The photos are field observations, so leaf litter, sand, bark or water in the frame eliminates several of the nine faster than any hint will.
• Burn a guess early if the family is unfamiliar. The second hint is the genus, which on a nine-option grid full of near-relatives often collapses the answer to one or two candidates outright.
• The hints describe the mystery animal, not your guess. A line like Rarely spotted, only 253 recorded observations is telling you today's species is obscure, which is a reason to distrust the most familiar-sounding name on the grid.