Biology News

Giant Sunfish Develop from Tiny Larvae, Marine Biologists Say

A larval sunfish (Mola sp.) collected off New South Wales coast, Australia. Image credit: Kerryn Parkinson / Australian Museum.
Aug 4, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of marine biologists has for the first time genetically identified a larva of the bump-head sunfish (Mola alexandrini). A larval sunfish (Mola sp.) collected off New South Wales coast, Australia. Image credit: Kerryn Parkinson / Australian Museum. The bump-head sunfish, also known as the southern sunfish or the Ramsay’s sunfish, is a fish belonging to the family Molidae, the heaviest and most distinctive of all bony fishes. This...

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Tetragonula carbonaria worker bees are observed to spend time clustered at the growing edges of terraces. Image credit: Tim Heard.

Chemists Find Biologically Active Sugar in Honey of Stingless Bees

Aug 3, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose is a major component of stingless bee honeys from Malaysia, Australia and Brazil, according to a new...

Researchers Observe Formation of Four-Stranded DNA in Living Human Cells

Jul 30, 2020 by News Staff

DNA usually forms the classic double helix shape — two strands wound around each other. Several other structures have been formed in the lab, but...

The buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Marta Boroń / CC BY 2.0.

Study: Floral Vibrations by Buzz-Pollinating Bumblebees More Powerful Than Their Flight or Defensive Buzzes

Jul 29, 2020 by News Staff

Buzzing by buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris audax) workers during pollen foraging is much more powerful than that used for defense or flight, according...

The Jonah’s mouse lemur (Microcebus jonahi). Image credit: Stephen D. Nash / IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group / D. Schüßler.

Scientists Discover New Species of Mouse Lemur

Jul 29, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A species of mouse lemur believed to be new to science has been found in the tropical forests of northeastern Madagascar. Outer morphology of the Jonah’s...

Magnified image showing microbes revived from 101.5 million-year-old (Cretaceous period) sediment. Image credit: Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology.

Biologists Revive 101.5-Million-Year-Old Microbes

Jul 28, 2020 by News Staff

A team of biologists from Japan and the United States has successfully revived aerobic microbes found in 101.5-million-year-old sediments from the abyssal...

Overview of bacterial biotransformation of the odorless physiological malodor precursor Cys-Gly-3M3SH, which is secreted onto the surface of skin by underarm apocrine glands, subcutaneously located in the hypodermis. In Staphylococcus hominis, Cys-Gly-3M3SH is actively transported by the di-/tri-peptide transporter (DtpT) along with the movement of protons (1). Once inside the cell the terminal glycine is cleaved by a dipeptidase (PepA) to release Cys-3M3SH (2), which is metabolized by a C-S β-lyase liberating volatile 3M3SH (3), which diffuses or is exported out of the cell (4). The catabolism of Cys-Gly-3M3SH provides carbon and nitrogen as nutritional incentive in the form of glycine, ammonia and pyruvate. Image credit: Rudden et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-68860-z.

Key Enzyme behind Human Underarm Malodor Identified

Jul 28, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers from the University of York, the University of St Andrews and Unilever R&D has discovered a unique enzyme responsible for the...

Tetragonula carbonaria worker bees are observed to spend time clustered at the growing edges of terraces. Image credit: Tim Heard.

Stingless Tetragonula Bees Build Their Combs Like a Crystal

Jul 27, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

According to a new study led by University of Cambridge researchers, the processes that drive atoms or molecules to aggregate as a crystal have the same...

The Cinder Cones seep, the Ross Sea, Antarctica: the white microbial mats are telltale signs of areas where methane may be released from underground methane deposits. Image credit: Andrew Thurber, Oregon State University.

Scientists Discover Antarctica’s First Active Methane Seep

Jul 24, 2020 by News Staff

A team of marine ecologists from Oregon State University has described the formation and development of a new methane seep — a location where methane...

This SEM image shows manganese oxide nodules generated by Candidatus Manganitrophus noduliformans. The nodules are generally about 0.1 to 0.5 mm in diameter. Image credit: Hang Yu / Caltech.

Microbiologists Discover Bacterium that Eats Manganese

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

A team of microbiologists at Caltech has discovered a species of bacterium that feeds on manganese, one of the most abundant elements on Earth. This SEM...

Two New Cryptic Species of Australian Sugar Gliders Discovered

Jul 21, 2020 by News Staff

A research team led by Charles Darwin University biologists has identified and raised two additional species within what is currently designated as the...

Desmacella hyaline. Image credit: Sally Leys.

New Species of Glass Sponge Discovered

Jul 20, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A research team led by University of Alberta marine biologists has discovered a new species of sea sponge living off the coast of British Columbia, Canada. Desmacella...

This deep-sea dragonfish Idiacanthus sp. has ultra-black skin capable of absorbing the bioluminescent light that might blow its cover. Image credit: Karen Osborn, Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.

Biologists Identify 16 Deep-Sea Fish Species with Ultra-Black Camouflage

Jul 16, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published today in the journal Current Biology, a team of marine biologists from the United States and the United Kingdom investigated the distribution...

Calumma tjiasmantoi. Image credit: Prötzel et al, doi: 10.26049/VZ70-1-2020-3.

Scientists Discover Three New Species of Chameleons

Jul 15, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of herpetologists from Germany and Madagascar has discovered and described three new species of chameleons from the Calumma nasutum...

A young female Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in Argentina. Image credit: Hugo Pédel / CC BY-SA 3.0.

World’s Heaviest Soaring Bird Flaps Wings for Only 1% of Flight Time

Jul 15, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, a team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Germany and Argentina deployed high-tech flight-recorders on the world’s heaviest extant...

Extremely Rare Cross River Gorillas Caught on Camera in Nigeria

Jul 14, 2020 by News Staff

Camera traps placed in the Mbe Mountains of Nigeria have captured stunning photos of a group of Cross River gorillas (Gorilla gorilla diehli) with a number...

O’Corry-Crowe et al analyzed the relationship between group behaviors, group type, group dynamics, and kinship of beluga whales in 10 locations across the Arctic. Image credit: Lisa Barry / NOAA / NMFS / AFSC / MML.

Beluga Whales Form Complex Societies

Jul 13, 2020 by News Staff

Beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) have social systems to rival our own, according to new research led by marine biologists from the Harbor Branch Oceanographic...

The suprachiasmatic nucleus of a mouse. Image credit: McGill University.

Sodium Regulates Circadian Clock in Mice, New Study Shows

Jul 10, 2020 by News Staff

A new study published this week in the journal Nature shows that injecting mice with a salt solution (hypertonic saline) leads to the activation of neurons...

Wang et al created an oligo-capture system to characterize the dog DNA methylome, targeting syntenic regions of the genome conserved across all mammals. Image credit: Ideker Lab, University of California, San Diego.

One Dog Year Is Not Equivalent to Seven Human Years, Study Shows

Jul 8, 2020 by News Staff

The conventional wisdom that every year in a dog’s life equates to seven human years is wrong, according to a paper published in the journal Cell Systems....

Enamel is made up of tightly bunched, oblong crystals that are about 1,000 times smaller in width than a human hair. Image credit: Karen DeRocher, Northwestern University.

Researchers Capture Human Dental Enamel in Unprecedented Detail

Jul 6, 2020 by News Staff

A research team led by Northwestern University scientists has uncovered the structural makeup of human dental enamel at unprecedented atomic resolution,...

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