Biology

Jul 17th, 2025 - A fossil found on Vancouver Island in 1988 looked like a typical long‑necked marine reptile, yet every expert who studied Traskasaura sandrae left with new questions. Scientists have now confirmed that the 39‑foot creature, which lived about 85 million years ago, represents an entirely new species with a hunting style never before documented in its family. "It has a very odd mix of primitive and derived traits," said Professor F. Robin O'Keefe of Marshall University , whose group ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - A group led by University of São Paulo (USP) researchers in Brazil has described a new genus of frogs, Dryadobates, also known as rocket frogs, which was previously considered a single species. The study was in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History . The researchers used techniques that allow the analysis of degraded DNA obtained from specimens preserved in alcohol or formalin and deposited in natural history collections. Adapted from techniques initially developed for ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - The phrase "leave no stone unturned" has taken on new meaning for paleontologists at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science who discovered a special fossil hidden right under their noses — beneath the museum's parking lot. The dinosaur bone came to light in January during a drilling project to study the layers of rock underneath the site, the museum announced on July 9. The team had planned to pull an Earth core sample, a long cylindrical piece of rock or sediment, and came across a ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - Noise from ships play a harmful role in the lives of marine-dwellers including whales and dolphins which rely on sonar and echolocation for hunting, mating and social bonding. A new study suggests that a possible solution might have been found more than 180 million years ago. Palaeontologists propose, in a paper published in Nature , that modern ships could employ a similar system used by ancient marine reptiles which had specialised fins to sneak up on their prey. Ichthyosaurs evolved at least ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - The 12 lions at Lion Country Safari have never seen an antelope or wildebeest, but, much like house cats, they still like to chase things. That makes them the ideal centerpiece of a new study by Princeton University, the High Meadows Environmental Institute and National Geographic Society that has them racing through their enclosure after zebra-striped paper lures. Researchers in Palm Beach County are trying to figure out if patterns, such as stripes on a zebra, affect how lions chase prey. Do ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - Dead marine giants do not fade quietly. After scavengers strip away the flesh, their sinking bones become banquet halls for specialized worms. These worms drill through the skeleton and siphon its last reserves of fat and protein. A new survey of those ancient drill marks has identified seven distinct burrow types, revealing just how long these bone-eaters have shaped life on the seafloor. The study was led by Ph.D. student Sarah Jamison-Todd in collaboration with curator Marc Jones and ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - Nautilus Members enjoy an ad-free experience. . I n 1851, during the Great Exhibition in London, England, a collection of stuffed hummingbirds attracted over 75,000 people, including Queen Victoria, Charles Dickens, and Charles Darwin. The collector, John Gould, had prepared 1,500 birds for display in glass cases. Likely among them was the green-crowned brilliant ( Heliodoxa jacula ) from his vast collection, pictured here in silhouette in its native habitat, which extends through Costa Rica, ... [Read More]

Jul 17th, 2025 - Evolution often follows curious paths, especially when it comes to food. Over the past 100 million years, mammals have explored an incredible range of diets. Some mammals graze on grass, others hunt prey, and a few even sip tree sap or dive for krill. But one of the strangest dietary turns comes from species that eat and depend deeply on ants and termites. This peculiar choice may seem limiting, even risky. Yet, it has driven major transformations in anatomy, behavior and even survival ... [Read More]

Jul 16th, 2025 - Golden oyster mushrooms , with their sunny yellow caps and nutty flavor, have become wildly popular for being healthy, delicious and easy to grow at home from mushroom kits. But this food craze has also unleashed an invasive species into the wild, and new research shows it's pushing out native fungi . In a study we believe is the first of its kind, fellow mycologists and I demonstrate that an invasive fungus can cause environmental harm, just as invasive plants and animals can when they take ... [Read More]

Jul 16th, 2025 - These complex, looping tracks pressed into ancient seafloor mud look much more like doodles made by a child with a stick than fossils of animal movement. However, new measurements have shown those squiggles were, in fact, purposeful movements along paths made by primitive animals navigating their world almost 550 million years ago, well before textbooks say complex life "took off" during the Cambrian Explosion. Analysis of 170 trace fossils , which are the preserved marks of animal movement ... [Read More]

Jul 16th, 2025 - Can the threatened Maugean skate coexist with Tasmania's salmon industry? Lauren Fuge talks to the experts on the ground – and on the water. In the tannin-stained waters of a remote Tasmanian harbour, a prehistoric creature prowls the darkness. This ray-like predator has hunted the shallow harbour for tens of thousands of years, yet it was unknown to science until 1988. Now, there's a risk that it could soon become the first marine fish in modern times to go extinct due to human activity. ... [Read More]

Jul 15th, 2025 - Scientists have recovered ancient proteins from a fossilized rhinoceros tooth, breaking new ground in the study of ancient life on Earth. The 24 million-year-old tooth, which was unearthed in the Canadian Arctic, contains proteins that are 10 times older than the most ancient known DNA . Using the sample, scientists have now analyzed the oldest detailed protein sequence on record. "Enamel is so hard it protects these proteins over deep time (long time scales)," said Ryan Sinclair Paterson, a ... [Read More]

Jul 15th, 2025 - By 25,669 Northern Gannets in Canada. 134 harbor and gray seals along the coast of Maine. 21 California Condors in the western U.S. These are just a tiny fraction of the wild victims of a strain of high pathogenicity avian influenza—what we colloquially call bird flu . The virus, which scientists call H5N1, has spread like wildfire around the globe in recent years, surprising and horrifying scientists at every unpredictable turn. And while most people have fretted about the rising price ... [Read More]

Jul 15th, 2025 - It's a commonly held belief: Sperm cells are like runners in an epic race, competing against each other for access to the coveted egg at the finish line. The egg, in turn, waits patiently for the winning sperm to pierce its outer membrane, triggering fertilization. This narrative of racing sperm and waiting eggs has persisted through time — and yet, it simply isn't accurate. Scientific research has debunked this idea time and time again. In her new book " The Stronger Sex: What Science ... [Read More]

Jul 14th, 2025 - With a bottlenose population threatened by fishing gear, boats and pollution, campaigners on South Korea's Jeju island are lobbying to extend legal status to the vulnerable cetaceans I t is a beautiful sunny day on the island of Jeju in South Korea and as the boat cuts through the water all seems calm and clear. Then they start to appear – one telltale fin and then another. Soon, a pod of eight or nine dolphins can be seen moving through the sea, seemingly following the path of the boat. ... [Read More]

Jul 14th, 2025 - Extinct. That word used to carry a sense of finality with it. If a species went extinct, that was the end of it. There was no bringing it back; it was gone forever. That is how it has always been, until recently. Lately, scientists have been working on de-extinction projects. These projects aim to recreate species that have since been lost to us. So far, they have succeeded with some, but their vision is far from over. Now, those scientists plan to bring back another extinct animal, and it is ... [Read More]