Biology News

Schools of Fish Can Make Less Noise than Solitary Swimmer, Study Shows

Computational models are used to examine the effect of schooling on flow generated noise of fish swimming using their caudal fins. Zhou et al. simulated the flow as well as the far-field hydrodynamic sound generated by the time-varying pressure loading on these carangiform swimmers. Image credit: Zhou et al., doi: 10.1088/1748-3190/ad3a4e.
Apr 10, 2024 by News Staff

A team of engineers at Johns Hopkins University has found that a school of fish moving together in just the right way is stunningly effective at noise reduction: a school of seven fish sounds like a single fish. Computational models are used to examine the effect of schooling on flow generated noise of fish swimming using their caudal fins. Zhou et al. simulated the flow as well as the far-field hydrodynamic sound generated by the time-varying pressure...

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Illustration of the body plan of a toothed whale, with a cross section of the head showing the melon (dark yellow) and the extramandibular fat bodies (light yellow) which are key organs for using sound such as echolocation. Image credit: Takeuchi et al., doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2024.148167.

Echolocation Organs of Toothed Whales Evolved from Jaw Muscles, New Research Suggests

Apr 8, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Toothed whales have developed specialized echolocation abilities that are crucial for their underwater activities. Acoustic fat bodies — the melon...

Chettih et al. propose that animals recall episodic memories by reactivating hippocampal barcodes. Image credit: Chettih et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2024.02.032.

Chickadees Have Unique Neural Barcodes for Episodic Memories, Researchers Say

Apr 2, 2024 by News Staff

Black-capped chickadees (Poecile atricapillus), small North American passerine birds that live in deciduous and mixed forests, have extraordinary memories...

A compilation of evidence for ancient chickens in Central Asia: SEM images of a Bash Tepa egg shell, emphasizing morphologically distinct breathing pores at magnifications x30 (a), x150 (b), x750 (e, f); (c) a ceramic egg with clay balls from Bukhara dating between the tenth and twelfth centuries CE; (d) the Sophytes coin from Bactria in 300 BCE; (g) a fragment of an ossuary from Bash Tepa dating to the last centuries BCE, with an apparent chicken on the top; (h) a selection of eggshells from the Bukhara site, showing color (essentially all white) and burning, which was evident on many of the shells. Image credit: Peters et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-46093-2.

Study: Chickens Were Widely Raised across Southern Central Asia as Early as 400 BCE

Apr 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The origins and dispersal of the chicken (Gallus gallus) across the ancient world is one of the most enigmatic questions regarding Eurasian domesticated...

The updated bird family tree delineating 93 million years of evolutionary relationships between 363 bird species. Image credit: Jon Fjeldså / Josefin Stiller.

Scientists Create Largest and Most Detailed Bird Family Tree to Date

Apr 1, 2024 by Natali Anderson

The updated family tree, detailed in two complementary papers published today in the journal Nature and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,...

Sanchez-Martinez et al. provide insights into how tardigrades induce reversible biostasis through the self-assembly of labile CAHS gels.

Study: Introduced Tardigrade Proteins Slow Metabolism in Human Cells

Mar 27, 2024 by News Staff

New research led by the the University of Wyoming, Laramie, provides additional evidence that tardigrade proteins eventually could be used to make life-saving...

Excastra albopilosa. Image credit: James Tweed.

New Species of Fluffy Beetle Discovered in Australia

Mar 21, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Entomologists have discovered a remarkable new genus and species of longhorn beetle living in the subtropical rainforests of southeastern Queensland, Australia. Excastra...

Recent findings document the domestication of cacao tree (Theobroma cacao) in the Ecuadorian Amazon region, its region of origin, by at least 5,300 years ago. Lanaud et al. demonstrate the large landscape of domestication of cacao, out of its area of origin, along the Pacific coast of South America, occurring concurrently during this same early time period and in subsequent time periods. Image credit: Fernando Graniel.

Cacao May Have Spread from Amazonia to Other South and Central American Regions 5,000 Years Ago

Mar 20, 2024 by News Staff

Humans have a long history of transporting and trading plants, contributing to the evolution of domesticated plants. The cacao tree (Theobroma cacao),...

The cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).

Study: Cheetahs’ Intermediate Size Explains Their Unrivalled Speed

Mar 12, 2024 by News Staff

The fastest animals are neither large elephants nor tiny ants, but intermediately sized, like cheetahs (Acinonyx jubatus). Why does running speed break...

GluK2 KO mice are defective in cold sensing. Image credit: Cai et al., 10.1038/s41593-024-01585-8.

Neuroscientists Identify Cold-Sensing Receptor in Mice

Mar 12, 2024 by News Staff

Neuroscientists at the University of Michigan have identified a thermoreceptor that mediates cold sensing in somatosensory neurons. GluK2 KO mice are defective...

Pudella carlae. Image credit: Sernanp.

New Species of Dwarf Deer Discovered in Peru

Mar 11, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Pudella carlae is the first living cervid species described in the 21st century and the first from the New World in over six decades. Pudella carlae. Image...

Gibbons et al. showed that bumblebees are capable of modifying their response to noxious stimuli in order to get a higher sugar reward. Image credit: Ralphs Fotos.

Bumblebees Can Learn Complex Tasks through Social Interaction, New Study Says

Mar 8, 2024 by News Staff

Culture refers to behaviors that are socially learned and persist within a population over time. Increasing evidence suggests that animal culture can,...

Clare Jacobs captured the rare moment a gray seal (Halichoerus grypus) spits a jet of water at a swooping white-tailed eagle (Haliaeetus albicilla) on the Isle of Wight. Image credit: Clare Jacobs.

Gray Seal Spits Jet of Water at White-Tailed Eagle in Never Seen Before Encounter

Mar 7, 2024 by News Staff

The interaction sheds new light on the dynamics between gray seals (Halichoerus grypus) and white-tailed eagles (Haliaeetus albicilla), according to Clare...

Pectinereis strickrotti, a live male specimen. Image credit: Ekin Tilic.

Marine Biologists Discover Remarkable New Species of Deep-Sea Worm

Mar 6, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California, San Diego, and the Centro de Investigación Científica...

Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in captivity. Image credit: Ailie HM / CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed.

Scientists Solve Mystery of Brown Giant Pandas

Mar 6, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Brown-and-white giant pandas are distinct coat color mutants found exclusively in the Qinling Mountains of China. Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in...

Tomson et al. found that the interplay of macro and micromorphology in green wall plant species determines their particulate matter removal potential. Image credit: Tomson et al. 2024., doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170950.

Study: Green Walls Can Strip Pollution from Air, Some Plants Do It Better than Others

Mar 5, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Biologists at the University of Surrey have investigated inter-species variation in particulate matter accumulation, wash-off, and retention on ten broadleaf...

The function of CLV3 in Arabidopsis and tomato is conserved despite extreme divergence in cis-regulatory sequences. Image credit: Ciren et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1011174.

Plant Scientists Shed Light on 125-Million-Year-Old Genetic Mystery

Mar 5, 2024 by News Staff

Researchers at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have discovered that two distantly related model plants, Arabidopsis thaliana and the tomato (Solanum lycopersicum),...

Danionella cerebrum has a pair of extrinsic, indirect sonic muscles that house the drumming cartilage. When a sonic muscle contracts, the fifth rib is pulled anteriorly and builds tension as it pulls the cartilage. The sudden release of the cartilage causes it to rapidly strike the swim bladder, producing a short, loud pulse. A burst of pulses is generated with either bilaterally alternating or unilateral muscle contractions. In sum, this mechanism enables loud and stereotyped sounds that can be elicited in structured sequences, making it a unique solution for acoustic communication and ultrafast skeletal motion in vertebrates surpassing the limitation of muscle contraction speed. Image credit: Ralf Britz, Senckenberg Natural History Collections.

Miniature Cyprinid Fish Can Produce Sounds over 140 dB, Ichthyologists Say

Feb 27, 2024 by News Staff

Danionella cerebrum, a translucent fish species of only 12 mm length, produces high amplitude sounds exceeding 140 dB (re. 1 µPa, at a distance of one...

Lysandra bellargus. Image credit: Eric Sylvestre.

Study: Butterfly and Moth Genomes Have Remained Largely Intact through 250M Years of Evolution

Feb 26, 2024 by News Staff

This stability exists despite the incredible diversity seen today in wing patterns, sizes, and caterpillar forms across over 160,000 species globally,...

The Pilbara delicate mouse (Pseudomys pilbarensis). Image credit: Ian Bool.

Two New Species of Native Mice Discovered in Australia

Feb 22, 2024 by News Staff

Mice of the genus Pseudomys are among the few terrestrial placental mammals that colonized Australia without human intervention. The Pilbara delicate mouse...

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