Biology

May 31st, 2023 - Dating apps are making predictions about who you'll fall in love with while marketers are using your online data to predict what you'll want to buy. As technology has transformed how people work, shop and date, ecologists are asking: How can we use these same tools to help animals other than humans? In a new paper in Trends in Ecology and Evolution , two researchers suggest artificial intelligence and the growing body of information online, which they call the "internet of animals," could ... [Read More]

May 31st, 2023 - Scientists Discover Chinmo – "The Youth Gene" Researchers discover Chimno, the gene responsible for the juvenile stage in insects. This gene is present in mammals and could play a key role in cancerous processes. The study, which was published in the journal eLife and led by the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (IBE, CSIC-UPF) and the IRB Barcelona, has revealed that the Chinmo gene is responsible for establishing the juvenile stage in insects. It also confirms that the Br-C and E93 ... [Read More]

May 31st, 2023 - Every so often, life on Earth steps onto a nearly empty playing field and faces a spectacular opportunity. Something major changes—in the atmosphere or in the oceans, or in the organisms themselves —and the existing species begin to branch out into a brand-new world. Scientists are fascinated by this process, because it's a unique look into evolution at pivotal moments in the history of life. A new study led by scientists with the University of Chicago examined how ... [Read More]

May 30th, 2023 - A critically endangered western lowland gorilla was born over the weekend at the Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute for the first time in five years. The baby, whose sex is still undetermined, is the second offspring of 20-year-old mother Calaya and 31-year-old father Baraka.  "We are overjoyed to welcome a new infant to our western lowland gorilla troop," Becky Malinsky, curator of primates, says in a zoo statement . "Calaya is an experienced mother, and I have ... [Read More]

May 30th, 2023 - One of Australia's first long-distance walkers has been described after Flinders University paleontologists used advanced 3D scans and other technology to take a new look at the partial remains of a 3.5 million year old marsupial from central Australia. They have named a new genus of diprotodontid Ambulator, meaning walker or wanderer, because the locomotory adaptations of the legs and feet of this quarter-ton animal would have made it well suited to roam long distances in search of food and ... [Read More]

May 30th, 2023 - Artistic reconstruction of Ferrodraco lentoni, a pterosaur from the Late Cretaceous found in Winton, Queensland. Credit: Peter Trusler. Two pterosaur fossils dating back 107 million years have been confirmed as the oldest found in Australia. The finds are "another piece of the puzzle" in understanding these extinct giant flying reptiles. The bones were first discovered in Dinosaur Cove in Victoria in the late 1980s. One of the bones is a partial pelvis belonging to a pterosaur with a wingspan ... [Read More]

May 30th, 2023 - A new study finds that hundreds of bacterial groups have evolved in the guts of primate species over millions of years, but humans have lost close to half of these symbiotic bacteria. In the study, researchers compared populations of gut bacteria found in chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest relatives, with those of humans—which in total amount to some 10,000 different lineages of bacteria. The scientists analyzed the evolutionary relationships of these bacteria in primates and identified ... [Read More]

May 30th, 2023 - A flood of new research is overturning old assumptions about what animal minds are and aren't capable of – and changing how we think about our own species G iraffes will eat courgettes if they have to, but they really prefer carrots. A team of researchers from Spain and Germany recently took advantage of this preference to investigate whether the animals are capable of statistical reasoning. In the experiment, a giraffe was shown two transparent containers holding a mixture of carrot and ... [Read More]

May 29th, 2023 - Look out, Dumbo! From Saturday morning cartoons to old fables, one of the most iconic images is that of an elephant cowering in front of a mouse. This conjuring is often used as an allegory for the underdog, but is there any truth to it? An ancient myth: where did the idea of elephants being afraid of mice come from? It's not clear where or when the first 'elephant scared by a mouse' myth started. One version can be traced back to 77 AD, the time of Pliny the Elder — who, next to ... [Read More]

May 29th, 2023 - In a recent study conducted in the lowland rainforests along the Caribbean coast of Costa Rica, researchers have unraveled fascinating details about the behavior and activity patterns of two sympatric sloth species, Bradypus variegatus and Choloepus hoffmanni. These revelations not only shed light on the ecological dynamics of these intriguing creatures, but also highlight their remarkable ability to adapt to a myriad of environmental conditions. The elusive nature of sloths has historically ... [Read More]

May 29th, 2023 - Finding has implications for the ways that Australia's native canid – including the extent to which they are culled – are managed Most dingoes in Australia are pure dingoes rather than hybrids, new research suggests. New genetic analysis shows that a significantly greater proportion of wild dingo populations are purer than previously thought, with less dog lineage than scientists once estimated. The finding has important consequences for dingo conservation and management, ... [Read More]

May 29th, 2023 - A flat, rounded shell. A tail that's folded under the body. This is what a crab looks like, and apparently what peak performance might look like — at least according to evolution . A crab-like body plan has evolved at least five separate times among decapod crustaceans, a group that includes crabs, lobsters and shrimp. In fact, it's happened so often that there's a name for it: carcinization. So why do animals keep evolving into crab-like forms? Scientists don't know for sure, but they ... [Read More]

May 28th, 2023 - Around the world, different species are shifting their habitats upwards, with potentially catastrophic results for our ecosystems I n the Alps and Apennines of southern Europe, nearly all the longhorn beetles are moving uphill, and way up at the peaks, the isolation of a brown butterfly with orange-tipped wings is pushing it towards extinction. This is a snapshot of a global trend. With temperatures rising and pressure on biodiversity growing, insects vital to our ecosystems are not only moving ... [Read More]

May 28th, 2023 - The widespread conversion of tropical forests into oil palm plantations leads to considerable losses of biodiversity and ecological functions. Currently, about 21 million hectares of palm oil plantations are cultivated worldwide, particularly in Indonesia and Malaysia.  Recently, an international team of scientists led by the University of Göttingen has found that planting islands of trees in such plantations could counteract the species loss caused by the intensive cultivation of oil ... [Read More]

May 27th, 2023 - An unknown pathogen is killing black sea urchins near Israel, according to scientists at the Tel Aviv University Sea otters use rocks as tools to crack tough shellfish and eat the meat inside in Portland. Credit: Oregon Zoo / AMAZING ANIMALS+ /TMX Sea urchins in Israel's Gulf of Eilat have been dying off at an alarming rate, researchers announced Wednesday — a development that threatens the Red Sea's prized coral reef ecosystems. According to Tel Aviv University scientists, an unknown ... [Read More]

May 26th, 2023 - On Thursday morning, a small group of killer whales battered the 66-foot sailing yacht Mustique off the coast of southern Spain, doing enough damage — including puncturing the hull and breaking the rudder — that the crew had to call in a maritime rescue and the vessel had to be towed to port for repairs. It was the second time in less than a week that such an encounter was reported in the same area, and the latest in a baffling series of seeming attacks on boats by the animals in or ... [Read More]