Biology News

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

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.
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 in dogs involved selection for rapid facial movement, similar to the movement seen in human faces. Image credit: Elena Rogulina. Humans domesticated dogs (Canis familiaris) with attention to the facial expressions that dogs produce, selecting for a suite of facial movement. Domestic dogs and humans...

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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...

Theloderma khoii, holotype, male, in life. Image credit: Ninh et al., doi: 10.5852/ejt.2022.794.1655.

New Species of Mossy Frog Discovered in Vietnam

Mar 15, 2022 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers has described a new species of the tree frog genus Theloderma from northeastern Vietnam. Theloderma khoii, holotype,...

Wei et al. found that honeybee tongue hairs’ hydrophobicity can prevent the hairs from being adhered to the soft tongue surface, which could significantly enhance the deformability of the tongue when honeybees feed at various surfaces and promote their adaptability to different environments. Image credit: Jiangkun Wei.

Honeybee Tongue Hairs are Stiff and Hydrophobic, New Study Shows

Mar 14, 2022 by News Staff

The honeybee tongue, foraging liquid food in nature, has a unique segmented surface covered with dense hairs. Since honeybees are capable of using their...

Using field surveys and manipulative experiments, Zhong et al. evaluated how habitat modification by Brandt’s voles (Lasiopodomys brandtii) influences predation risk from shrikes in a steppe grassland, located in Inner Mongolia, China. Image credit: Guoliang Li.

Brandt’s Voles Trim Tall Grass to Watch Predatory Birds, Study Shows

Mar 11, 2022 by News Staff

A steppe-dwelling rodent species called the Brandt’s vole (Lasiopodomys brandtii) actively modifies habitat structure by cutting down a large, unpalatable...

The rose-veiled fairy wrasse (Cirrhilabrus finifenmaa), underwater photograph from Rasdhoo Atoll, Maldives, 60 m. Image credit: Luiz Rocha.

New Species of Fairy Wrasse Discovered

Mar 11, 2022 by Natali Anderson

An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of the fish genus Cirrhilabrus living in the waters off Maldives and Sri Lanka. The rose-veiled...

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Image credit: University of Melbourne.

Scientists Propose Nine Steps to De-Extinction of Tasmanian Tiger

Mar 10, 2022 by News Staff

The reality of bringing back the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as the Tasmanian tiger or the marsupial wolf, from extinction using its...

Saffron, the world’s most expensive spice, is extracted from the flowers of the saffron crocus (Crocus sativus). Image credit: Johan Puisais.

Saffron Crocus was First Domesticated in Ancient Greece

Mar 10, 2022 by News Staff

In a review paper published in the journal Frontiers in Plant Science, researchers followed ancient arts and recent genetics to trace the evolutionary...

Acetabularia jalakanyakae. Image credit: Felix Bast.

New Species of Green Alga Discovered

Mar 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have described a new species of the unicellular green algal genus Acetabularia from a rocky intertidal habitat of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Acetabularia...

Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae. Image credit: Hugo Medina.

New Species of Orchid Discovered in Ecuador

Mar 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have described a new species of the Neotropical orchid genus Maxillaria from cloud rainforests of northern Ecuador. Maxillaria anacatalinaportillae....

The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula). Image credit: Naokivin1978.

Artificial Electrochemical Neurons Make Venus Flytrap Close Its Lobes

Feb 28, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers have demonstrated bio-integration of organic electrochemical neurons with cells of the Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) to induce lobe closure...

Longitudinal cross-section showing microplastic particles inside a birch lateral root in a one-year-old birch tree after being exposed to contaminated soil for 5 months. Clockwise from top left shows cross sections using light microscopy, fluorescence microscopy, and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Arrows point to fluorescing microplastic particles. Inset in bottom right panel shows the area indicated by the arrows in the bottom left panel after enlargement. All images have been enhanced using a contrast and brightness correction. Scales are shown in the bottom right or left corner of the respective image. Image credit: Austen et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.152085.

Microplastic Particles Detected in Roots of Birch Trees

Feb 22, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

New research led by the Leibniz Institute for Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries shows that individual microplastic particles with diameters between...

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