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A male Albert’s lyrebird (Menura alberti) using its powerful claws to forage in the leaf litter. Image credit: Alex Maisey.

New Light Shed on Vocal Mimicry Abilities of Albert’s Lyrebirds

Apr 19, 2022 by The Conversation

Fiona Backhouse and her colleagues from Western Sydney University, the University of Wollongong and the Australian National University have investigated...

Nannaria swiftae, male holotype from Van Buren County, Tennessee. Image credit: Hennen et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1096.73485.

Seventeen New Species of Millipedes Discovered

Apr 18, 2022 by News Staff

A team of entomologists from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University has described 17 new species of the millipede genus Nannaria living...

Field image of Gasteranthus extinctus. Image credit: R. Fortier.

Botanists Rediscover Cloud Forest Herb in Ecuador after 37 Years

Apr 18, 2022 by News Staff

Dr. Nigel Pitman from the Field Museum of Natural History and his colleagues from Ecuador, the United States, and France report the rediscovery of the...

Adamatzky found that size of fungal lexicon can be up to 50 words; however, the core lexicon of most frequently used words does not exceed 15-20 words; Schizophyllum commune and Omphalotus nidiformis have largest lexicon while species Cordyceps militaris and Flammulina velutipes have less extensive one. Image credit: Mohammad Mahir Borhan.

Fungi Use Electrical ‘Language’ to Communicate with Each Other: Study

Apr 15, 2022 by The Conversation

In new research, Dr. Andrew Adamatzky, a computer scientist at the Unconventional Computing Laboratory of the University of the West of England, analyzed...

The same thing that makes their eyes glow helps cats see better in dim light. Image credit: Jplm / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Why Do Eyes of Cats, Dogs and Other Animals Glow in the Dark?

Apr 14, 2022 by The Conversation

Cats and many other animals can reflect light from their eyes. That’s why their eyes will usually shine brightly in photos taken in a dimly lit room...

Prasophyllum morganii. Image credit: Ayre et al., doi: 10.11646/phytotaxa.528.2.1.

Orchid Species Missing for 89 Years Rediscovered in Australia

Apr 13, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Prasophyllum morganii was first collected from a single population in Victoria, Australia, in 1929, but has not been collected since 1933. Prasophyllum...

Village weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) and their nests. Image credit: Chao Zhao.

Study: Vegetarian Weaver Birds are More Sociable than Their Insect-Eating Counterparts

Apr 12, 2022 by News Staff

New research supports an influential ecological hypothesis on social behavior first proposed 58 years ago. Village weavers (Ploceus cucullatus) and their...

Mother Nature Prefers Symmetry and Simplicity, Researchers Say

Apr 6, 2022 by News Staff

Biological structures frequently exhibit modularity and symmetry, but the origin of such trends is not well understood. It can be tempting to assume —...

Cooney et al. quantified global latitudinal trends in colorfulness by collating and analysing a photographic dataset of whole-body plumage reflectance information for 4,527 species of passerine birds. Image credit: Sandid.

Passerine Birds are More Colorful Close to Equator, Study Confirms

Apr 6, 2022 by News Staff

An analysis of a photographic dataset for more than 4,500 species of passerine birds shows that male and female birds of tropical passerine species are...

Burrows & Omstead show that the domestication process in dogs involved selection for rapid facial movement, similar to the movement seen in human faces. Image credit: Elena Rogulina.

New Study Reveals Anatomical Features that Could Explain what Makes Dogs’ Faces So Appealing

Apr 5, 2022 by News Staff

New research suggests that ancient humans played a role in selecting dogs with sweetest faces. Burrows & Omstead show that the domestication process...

Odor preference rankings were collected from nine culturally and geographically diverse populations. These included the three hunter-gatherer groups, Seri from a coastal desert and Maniq and Semaq Beri from tropical rainforest, one shoreline forager, Mah Meri, from a tropical coast; one swidden-horticulturalist, Semelai, from tropical rainforest; one farmer-foraging community, Chachi, from tropical rainforest; one subsistence agriculturalist community, Imbabura Quichua, from temperate highlands; and two urban dwellers from industrial and postindustrial communities of bustling urban settings, Mexican and Thai. The data from these nine communities were then related to available data from a large dataset on odor preference collected from urban dwellers from New York City, the United States. Image credit: Arshamian et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2022.02.062.

Culture Plays Minimal Role in Perception of Odor Pleasantness, Says New Study

Apr 5, 2022 by News Staff

Humans share sensory systems with a common anatomical blueprint, but individual sensory experience nevertheless varies. In olfaction, it is not known to...

Human ES cell derived RASC transitioning to an Alveolar type 2 cell over time in culture. Image credit: Basil et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04552-0.

New Type of Human Lung Cell Discovered

Apr 5, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers from the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania have identified a distinct secretory cell lineage deep within human...

A spider orb web is an enormous, reconfigurable, regenerative, and highly sensitive acoustic antenna. Image credit: Zhou et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2122789119.

Orb-Weaving Spiders Use Their Web as Acoustic Antenna

Apr 1, 2022 by News Staff

Hearing is a fundamental sense of many animals, including all mammals, birds, some reptiles, amphibians, fish, and arthropods. The auditory organs of these...

Ocellate river stingrays (Potamotrygon motoro) at Zoo Duisburg, Germany. Image credit: Raimond Spekking / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Research Shows Stingrays and Cichlid Fish Can Add and Subtract

Apr 1, 2022 by News Staff

In a new study, researchers at the University of Bonn’s Institute of Zoology examined the numerical understanding of cichlids and stingrays regarding...

A juvenile variegated snailfish (Liparis gibbus) imaged under fluorescent lighting conditions. Image credit: Gruber & Sparks.

Prominent Biofluorescence Discovered in Arctic Fish

Mar 28, 2022 by News Staff

New research published in the American Museum Novitates is the first to document biofluorescence in Arctic fishes. A juvenile variegated snailfish (Liparis...

Octopuses can solve complex puzzles and show a preference for different individuals. Image credit: Edmond Lafoto.

Do Mollusks and Crustaceans Have Emotions?

Mar 25, 2022 by News Staff

If the United Kingdom joins a handful of other nations to recognize the sentience of invertebrates, such as octopuses, crabs, lobsters and crayfish, by,...

The Mashpi glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium mashpi), female. Image credit: Jaime Culebras.

Two New Species of Glassfrogs Discovered in Ecuador

Mar 24, 2022 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers has described two new species of the frog genus Hyalinobatrachium from the Ecuadorian Andes. The Mashpi glassfrog...

https://cdn.sci.news/images/2022/03/image_10637-Polymita-picta.jpg

Cuban Painted Snail is Mollusk of Year 2022

Mar 21, 2022 by News Staff

There were five finalists — three snails, one mussel and a tusk shell or scaphopod — in the Mollusk of the Year 2022 competition, an international...

The New Caledonian storm petrel (Fregetta lineata) off Nouméa, New Caledonia, in January 2020. Image credit: Hadoram Shirihai, Tubenoses Project.

New Species of Storm Petrel Identified

Mar 15, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Based on the numbers seen at sea, both off Australia and New Caledonia, the population of the New Caledonian storm petrel (Fregetta lineata) is in the...