Biology News

World’s Oldest Host-Associated Microbial DNA Obtained from Ancient Mammoth Remains

Guinet et al. reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix from the oldest mammoth sample, representing the oldest authenticated host-associated microbial DNA to date. Image credit: Guinet et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003.
Sep 4, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, scientists analyzed ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly-sequenced and unpublished samples from a 1.1-million-year-old steppe mammoth. Using metagenomic screening, contaminant filtering, damage pattern analysis, and phylogenetic inference, they identified 310 microbes associated with different mammoth tissues. Guinet et al. reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix...

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Sheet web spider with fireflies caught in web. Image credit: Tunghai University Spider.

Nocturnal Spiders Use Trapped Fireflies as Glowing Bait to Attract Additional Prey, Study Confirms

Sep 1, 2025 by News Staff

Sheet-web spiders Psechrus clavis have been known to use their body color and webs as visual cues to deceptively lure and immediately consume insects....

The fossilized teeth of Camarasaurus from the Morrison Formation in the United States. Image credit: Sauriermuseum Aathal.

Scientists Reconstruct Mesozoic Carbon Dioxide Levels and Photosynthesis from Dinosaur Tooth Enamel

Aug 26, 2025 by News Staff

The atmosphere of Earth during the Mesozoic era, between 252 and 66 million years ago, contained far more carbon dioxide than it does today and total photosynthesis...

Gopaulchan et al. established the previously suggested role of pH and temperature changes as robust predictors of chocolate flavor characteristics. Image credit: Sci.News.

Microbiota Composition, pH and Temperature Influence Key Flavor Attributes of Premium Chocolate

Aug 19, 2025 by News Staff

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) bean fermentation is a spontaneous process involving interactions between various factors that contribute to the final flavors...

Deep diver about a meter behind the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) discovered at a depth of 144 m in North Maluku, Indonesia. Image credit: Alexis Chappuis.

Scientists Capture Rare Images of Indonesian Coelacanth

Aug 18, 2025 by Natali Anderson

First discovered in 1997 and described as a new species two years later, the Indonesian coelacanth (Latimeria menadoensis) is one of two living species...

The streaked shearwater (Calonectris leucomelas), a species of seabird found in the Pacific Ocean. Image credit: Kanachoro.

Streaked Shearwaters Prefer to Excret in Air, New Study Shows

Aug 18, 2025 by News Staff

Ornithologists from the University of Tokyo have observed excretions of streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) in the open ocean using belly-mounted...

Primates historically transitioned across diverse climates: (A) transition between the temperate (top), arid (left), tropical (bottom), and cold (right), main climates, for all primates; arrow size represents the proportion of phylogenetic branches with the respective transitions; (B) climatic transitions for early primates, who were living between 65 and 47.8 million years ago; (C) climatic transitions for species that were living between 47.8 and 23.03 million years ago; (D) climatic transitions for species that were living from 23.03 million years ago to the present. Image credit: Avaria-Llautureo et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2423833122.

Early Primates Primarily Inhabited Cold and Temperate Climates, New Study Suggests

Aug 12, 2025 by News Staff

Textbooks often portray primates as originating, evolving, and dispersing exclusively within warm tropical forests. This tends to come from fossil evidence...

Illustration of the 10 most common recorded dance movements by cockatoos. Image credit: Lubke et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0328487.

Cockatoos Have At Least 30 Different Dance Moves in Their Repertoire, New Study Shows

Aug 7, 2025 by News Staff

Parrots in captivity have been reported to show dance behavior in response to music, which may involve complex cognitive processes including imitation,...

Interspecific hybridization may trigger species radiation by creating allele combinations and traits. Cultivated potato and its 107 wild relatives from the Petota lineage all share the distinctive trait of underground tubers, but the underlying mechanisms for tuberization and its relationship to extensive species diversification remain unclear. Through analyses of 128 genomes, including 88 haplotype-resolved genomes, Zhang et al. revealed that Petota is of ancient hybrid origin, with all members exhibiting stable mixed genomic ancestry, derived from the Etuberosum and Tomato lineages ca. 8-9 million years ago. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.06.034.

Potato Evolved from Tomato Plants 8-9 Million Years Ago, New Research Suggests

Aug 5, 2025 by News Staff

Interbreeding between tomato plants and potato-like species from South America about 8-9 million years ago gave rise to the modern-day potato (Solanum...

Studying the evolution of hibernators like some hedgehogs, bats, ground squirrels, and lemurs could reveal the secrets of their remarkable resilience. Image credit: Chrissy Richards.

Superpowers of Hibernating Animals Could Lie Hidden in Human DNA

Aug 4, 2025 by News Staff

Two new studies by University of Utah researchers provide clues on how to unlock these hibernating abilities, opening the door to someday developing treatments...

Holotype of Acrophylla alta in nature. Image credit: Ross M. Coupland.

New Species of Giant Stick Insect Discovered in Australia

Aug 1, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Australian entomologists have described a spectacular new species of the stick insect genus Acrophylla from two female specimens as well as eggs. Holotype...

Swamp forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Image credit: Greta Dargie.

Congo Basin’s Peatlands are More Than 42,000 Years Old, New Study Reveals

Jul 29, 2025 by News Staff

The central Congo Basin contains the world’s most extensive tropical peatland complex, spanning 16.7 million hectares. Until now, radiocarbon dating...

Jaguars get relief from the heat at an artificial waterhole in Guatemala. Image credit: WCS Guatemala.

Warming Climate Sparks Innovative Wildlife Protection Measures in Guatemala

Jul 24, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists with the Wildlife Conservation Society have documented a remarkable diversity of wildlife visiting the artificial watering holes in Guatemala’s...

Live coloration of Neotrygon romeoi from around Fiji. Image credit: Glaus et al., doi: 10.1111/jfb.70094.

New Species of Blue-Spotted Maskray Discovered in Fiji

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

Marine scientists have identified a new species of the stingray genus Neotrygon living in Fijian waters. Live coloration of Neotrygon romeoi from around...

Koala in the wild with a custom-built collar containing a GPS logger and accelerometer. Image credit: Ami Fadhillah Amir Abdul Nasir.

Koalas Spend Only 1% of Their Life on Ground, New Study Reveals

Jul 15, 2025 by News Staff

Koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) spend around 10 min per day on the ground, but this ground-time is associated with two-thirds of recorded koala deaths,...

Using ultra-deep sequencing of >300 blood samples from healthy individuals, we show that age-dependent methylation changes occur regionally across clusters of CpG sites either stochastically or in a coordinated block-like manner. Image credit: Ochana et al., doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2025.115958.

Accurate Age Predictions are Possible Using as Few as 50 DNA Molecules: Study

Jul 15, 2025 by News Staff

Using deep learning networks analyzing DNA methylation patterns, scientists at Hebrew University achieved chronological age (defined as the amount of time...

Guan et al. demonstrate that venoms are a rich source of previously hidden antimicrobial scaffolds, and that integrating large-scale computational mining with experimental validation can accelerate the discovery of urgently needed antibiotics. Image credit: Guan et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-025-60051-6.

AI Finds 386 Potential Antibiotics in Animal Venoms

Jul 14, 2025 by News Staff

To identify new antimicrobial candidates, scientists at the University of Pennsylvania mined global venomics datasets using a deep-learning system called...

Polyethylene degradation by wax worms. Left: plastic bag after exposure to about 100 wax worms for 12 hours; Right: magnification of the area indicated in the image at left. Image credit: Bombelli et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.02.060.

Wax Moth Caterpillars Can Metabolically Degrade Plastics and Store Them as Body Fat: Study

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

Plastic polymers are ubiquitous in our lives, and while their resilience makes them ideal for a variety of uses, finding means to effectively dispose of...

The cases presented by Towers et al. are among the first recorded where wild killer whales (Orcinus orca) used prey and other items to instigate interactions with humans. Image credit: Towers et al., doi: 10.1037/com0000422.

Wild Killer Whales Sometimes Offer Food to Humans, Scientists Say

Jul 7, 2025 by News Staff

In a paper published online in the Journal of Comparative Psychology, marine biologists report on 34 interactions spanning two decades in which killer...

Pristimantis chinguelas. Image credit: Chávez et al., doi: 10.3897/evolsyst.9.148522.

Herpetologists Discover Three New Species of Frogs in Peru

Jul 4, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Herpetologists have described three new species of the frog genus Pristimantis from the rugged, misty highlands of northwestern Peru. Pristimantis chinguelas....

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