Biology News

Almost Two-Thirds of Breed Dogs Have Wolf Ancestry, Study Shows

German Shepherd puppy. Image credit: Marilyn Peddle / CC BY 2.0.
Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

Although dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) and wolves (Canis lupus) can interbreed and produce fertile offspring, hybridization between the two is far more rare than domestic and wild populations of other species. In new research, scientists from the American Museum of Natural History, the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History and the University of California Davis combined highly sensitive local ancestry inference and phylogenomic analyses...

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Physcomitrium patens spores survive simulated space conditions with high resilience. Image credit: Maeng et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2025.113827.

Moss Can Survive Long-Term Exposure to Elements of Space, New Experiments Show

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Japan has tested protenemata (juvenile moss), brood cells (specialized stem cells that emerge under stress conditions) and sporophytes...

Maldarelli & Güntürkün show that there is growing evidence that (i) birds have sensory and self-awareness, and (ii) they also have the neural architecture that may be necessary for this. Image credit: Kutte.

Birds May Possess Fundamental Forms of Conscious Perception: Study

Nov 25, 2025 by News Staff

In their new paper in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, Ruhr University Bochum researchers Gianmarco Maldarelli and Onur Güntürkün...

Composite representation of the complete Bas63 virion. Image credit: Hodgkinson-Bean et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adx0790.

Scientists Explore Structure of Bacteriophage

Nov 18, 2025 by News Staff

Using cryo-electron microscopy, researchers have investigated the structure of Bas63, a bacteriophage of the subfamily Ounavirinae and the Felixounavirus...

Tea plant (Camellia sinensis). Image credit: Yonghan Kim.

Researchers Identify Gene Responsible for Bud Size in Tea Plant

Nov 17, 2025 by News Staff

Tea plant (Camellia sinensis) is among the most significant beverage crops globally. The size of tea buds not only directly affects the yield and quality...

The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Myriam.

Study: Bumblebees Can Be Trained to Read Simple ‘Morse Code’

Nov 17, 2025 by News Staff

Buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) can decide where to forage for food based on different durations of visual cues, according to new research. The...

The new Megachile species. Image credit: Kit Prendergast & Joshua Campbell, doi: 10.3897/jhr.98.166350.

Females of New Australian Native Bee Species Have Pair of Large ‘Horns’

Nov 12, 2025 by News Staff

The newly-discovered bee species belongs to the genus Megachile and is a visitor to a critically endangered flowering plant species called Marianthus aquilonaris. The...

Chen et al. carried out two studies: the first, a human study assessing fingertip sensitivity to tactile cues from buried objects; the second, a robotic experiment using a tactile-equipped robotic arm and a Long Short-Term Memory model to detect object presence. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Humans Have Form of ‘Remote Touch,’ Scientists Claim

Nov 10, 2025 by News Staff

Humans possess the ability to sense objects without direct contact, a sense that some animals have, according to new research. Chen et al. carried out...

Nectophrynoides luhomeroensis, adult in life. Image credit: Thrane et al., doi: 10.3897/vz.75.e167008.

Three New Species of Viviparous Tree Toads Discovered in Tanzania

Nov 7, 2025 by News Staff

A research team led by University of Copenhagen scientists has described three new species of the tree toad genus Nectophrynoides from Tanzania’s Eastern...

Preferential colonization of dinosaur bones by lichens. Image credit: Pickles et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.09.036.

Orange-Colored Lichens Helping Paleontologists Discover Dinosaur Fossils

Nov 4, 2025 by News Staff

Lichens are symbioses between fungi and algae (and/or cyanobacteria) that play important ecological roles and colonize many substrates, including fossils....

Paracalliactis tsukisome. Image credit: Yoshikawa et al., doi: 10.1098/rsos.250789.

New Species of Shell-Forming Sea Anemone Discovered in Japanese Waters

Nov 4, 2025 by News Staff

The new species of hermit crab-associated sea anemone, Paracalliactis tsukisome, secretes and constructs a unique shell-like structure known as a carcinoecium,...

Thornton et al. investigated the solid urine of more than 20 reptile species. Image credit: Thornton et al., doi: 10.1021/jacs.5c10139.

New Research Reveals How Reptiles ‘Package Up and Pee’ Crystalline Waste

Oct 22, 2025 by News Staff

Both avian and non-avian reptiles excrete excess nitrogen in solid form — colloquially termed ‘urates’ — as an evolutionary adaptation...

Circles indicate distinct SolarBird app observations submitted on April 8, 2024. Image credit: Aguilar et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adx3025.

Total Solar Eclipses Can Trigger Dawn Behavior in Birds, Scientists Say

Oct 21, 2025 by News Staff

On April 8, 2024, a total solar eclipse disrupted light-dark cycles for North American birds during the lead-up to spring reproduction. Compiling more...

Hierococcyx tiganada. Image credit: Robert O. Hutchinson.

New Species of Hawk-Cuckoo Discovered in Borneo

Oct 17, 2025 by Natali Anderson

A team of ornithologists from the National University of Singapore, Birdtour Asia Ltd., and the University of Queensland has described a new and cryptic...

Abundance of Archaea across samples collected from the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. Image credit: Caro et al., doi: 10.1029/2025JG008759.

Researchers Revive Pleistocene-Age Microbes

Oct 2, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists have resurrected ancient microbes from permafrost cores of Late-Pleistocene age (up to 40,000 years old) collected from four locations within...

Marmosa chachapoya. Image credit: Pedro Peloso.

New Species of Marsupial Discovered in Peru

Sep 29, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have identified a new species in the marsupial genus Marmosa from a single specimen collected on the eastern side of the Andes in San Martín...

A male hybrid of a green jay mother and a blue jay father. Image credit: Brian R. Stokes.

Unique Hybrid between Blue and Green Jays Spotted in Texas

Sep 23, 2025 by News Staff

Hybridization between these species is remarkable across vertebrate species, as such events typically occur between recently diverged populations, whereas...

Examples of 12 arm actions from wild octopuses; octopuses often used multiple arm actions on a single arm or multiple arms simultaneously. Image credit: Bennice et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-10674-y.

Octopuses Tend to Use Particular Arm, or Arms, for Specific Tasks

Sep 12, 2025 by News Staff

New research provides a comprehensive look into how wild octopuses use their arms in natural habitats. By analyzing arm movements across diverse environments,...

The Atlas blue butterfly (Polyommatus atlantica). Image credit: Roger Vila.

Atlas Blue Butterfly Has 229 Pairs of Chromosomes, Scientists Find

Sep 11, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists at the Wellcome Sanger Institute and the Institut de Biologia Evolutiva in Spain have sequenced the genome of a female Atlas blue butterfly...

In situ imagery of Careproctus colliculi, Monterey Bay, California, the United States. Image credit: MBARI.

Three New Species of Abyssal Snailfishes Discovered in Pacific Ocean

Sep 9, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists have described three new species of deep-sea snailfishes in the family Liparidae from the eastern abyssal Pacific (depths 3,268 to 4,119...

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