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This artist’s impression shows how Mars may have looked about 4 billion years ago. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Chances of Finding Ancient Bacteria on Mars are Better than Previously Expected: Study

Oct 27, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Radiation resistance of microbes is a key parameter in considering survivability of microbes over geologic times on the frigid, arid surface of Mars that...

A pup of the harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). Image credit: Ian Capper / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Seals Have Sense of Rhythm, New Research Reveals

Oct 27, 2022 by News Staff

In a new study published this week in the journal Biology Letters, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and elsewhere tested...

Choanate vertebrates’ acoustic communication ancestral state reconstruction analysis: tree includes 1,800 choanatian species assigned either with the character presence or absence of acoustic communication; pie charts at ancestral nodes indicate likelihood of each character state; colors in the spectrograms represent sound intensity, with warm colors representing high intensity and cold colors (i.e. blue) representing low intensity or absence of sounds. Image credit: Jorgewich-Cohen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33741-8.

Acoustic Communication May Have Appeared as Early as 407 Million Years Ago

Oct 26, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Acoustic communication, broadly distributed among vertebrates, plays a fundamental role in parental care, mate attraction and various other behaviors....

A male Wakatobi sunbird. Image credit: Nicola Marples & David Kelly, Trinity College Dublin.

Scientists Discover Several New Species of Sunbirds

Oct 25, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists from Trinity College Dublin and the Universitas Halu Oleo have identified several cryptic species in two sunbird genera, Cinnyris and Leptocoma. A...

Cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult humans. Image credit: D.L. JackieLou.

Cats Know When Their Owners are Talking to Them, Study Suggests

Oct 25, 2022 by News Staff

A study performed on a cohort of 16 companion cats suggests that cats can discriminate speech specifically addressed to them from speech addressed to adult...

Honeybee swarm and atmospheric electricity. Image credit: Ellard Hunting.

Insect Swarms Contribute to Atmospheric Electricity, New Research Shows

Oct 25, 2022 by News Staff

The Earth’s atmosphere is always electrified to a greater or lesser extent, even in fair weather away from thunderstorms. By measuring the electrical...

Danaus plexippus. Image credit: Gyulche1.

Study: Ancient Junk DNA Contributes to Diversity of Butterfly Wings

Oct 25, 2022 by News Staff

In the 1920s, biologists proposed that butterfly wing pattern diversity evolved as variations of a ground plan of pattern elements that vary in color,...

Drone image of car driving through the NamibRand Nature Reserve, one of the fairy-circle regions in Namibia where Getzin et al. undertook grass excavations, soil-moisture and infiltration measurements. Image credit: Stephan Getzin.

Plant Water Stress Causes Fairy Circles in Namib Desert, Study Says

Oct 24, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research led by University of Göttingen scientists shows that grass death in fairy circles occurs immediately after rainfall due to plant water stress...

The Wangi-wangi white-eye (Zosterops paruhbesar). Image credit: James Eaton.

Newly-Described Bird Species is Endemic to Indonesian Island

Oct 21, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Informally known as the Wangi-wangi white-eye, the newly-described species of bird belongs to the genus Zosterops. The Wangi-wangi white-eye (Zosterops...

A digital illustration inspired by methane-eating archaea and the Borgs that assimilate them. Image credit: Jenny Nuss / Berkeley Lab.

Researchers Discover Enigmatic Genetic Elements: Methane-Eating ‘Borgs’

Oct 20, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have discovered the unusual DNA structures within Methanoperedens — a group of archaea that...

Bumblebees don’t seem to keep memories for how sweet a flower was, but instead only remember if it was sweeter than another flower. Image credit: Annette Meyer.

Study: Bumblebees’ Memories Operate Differently to Humans’

Oct 17, 2022 by News Staff

New research led by China’s Southern Medical University suggests that bumblebees are only able to make use of ordinal ranking memories to guide foraging...

This image of Paraliparis selti was taken by baited camera at a depth of 6,520 m. Image credit: Linley et al., doi: 10.1007/s12526-022-01294-0.

New Deep-Sea Snailfish Species Discovered in Atacama Trench

Oct 13, 2022 by News Staff

Paraliparis selti, or the Blue Atacama snailfish, lives in the hadal zone (waters deeper than 6,000 m) of the Atacama Trench in southeast Pacific Ocean. This...

Saussurea khunjerabensis in Khunjerab pass, Taxkorgan county, China. Image credit: Xu-Guang Yan.

Bizarre New Species of Flowering Plant Discovered in Asia

Oct 12, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have described a new species of the genus Saussurea from the Khunjerab pass border area between China and Pakistan. Living plants of Saussurea...

The West Caucasian tur (Capra caucasica). Image credit: Raindom.

New Ancient Lineage of Wild Goat Identified in Turkey

Oct 11, 2022 by News Staff

Dubbed the Taurasian tur, the newly-identified lineage is best represented by a 14,000-year-old genome sequenced from a specimen found in Direkli Cave,...

Model for the structure of the first enzyme-free precursor of solanimycin. Image credit: Matilla et al., doi: 10.1128/mbio.02472.

Solanimycin: New Antifungal Antibiotic Isolated from Pathogenic Bacterium

Oct 11, 2022 by News Staff

Solanimycin, which is produced by Dickeya solani, the enterobacterial pathogen of potato, is active against a broad range of plant-pathogenic fungi and...

Map of New Guinea Island and examples of fruits of (A, B) Musa acuminata ssp. banksii and closely related cultivated AA accessions from Papua New Guinea: (C) ‘Mero Mero;’ (D) ‘Nesuri;’ (E) ‘Wiau;’ (F) ‘Talasea;’ (G) ‘Seseve;’ (H) ‘Tobaung;’ (I) ‘Tavilo;’ (J) ‘Nape’e.’ Dark blue dots on the map represent collection locations for accessions within the cluster ‘banksii.’ Image credit: Julie Sardos / NARI.

Domestication History of Bananas is More Complex Than Previously Thought

Oct 10, 2022 by News Staff

New research led by the global research-for-development organization Bioversity International confirms that the genomes of today’s domesticated banana...

Kopakaius nicolae. Scale bar - 50 µm. Image credit: Zawierucha et al., doi: 10.1016/j.ympev.2022.107634.

Two New Species of Glacier Tardigrades Discovered in New Zealand

Oct 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Biologists have described two new tardigrade genera and associated species — two of which are new to science — from the mountain glaciers of...

Oil-damaged feathers of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus) under a digital high-powered microscope. The microstructure within the feather clumps together after exposure to oil, letting water pass through more easily. Image credit: Richard Unitt, University College Cork.

Tiny Amounts of Crude Oil Can Damage Feathers of Seabirds, New Study Shows

Oct 6, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists have investigated the effects of surface crude oil on the feather structure of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), a species of seabird...

The Cherry Satin flower (Geissorhiza seracina). Image credit: Goldblatt et al., doi: 10.1016/j.sajb.2022.09.014.

Beautiful New Species of Iris Discovered in South Africa

Oct 4, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Botanists have described a new high-altitude species of the genus Geissorhiza from the Langeberg Mountains of South Africa. The Cherry Satin flower (Geissorhiza...