Biology News

Nov 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of entomologists has found that numerous termite mounds in Brazil are between 690 to 3,820 years old. The termite mounds are found in dense, low, dry forest and can be seen when the land is cleared for pasture. Image credit: Roy Funch. The vast array of termite mounds covers an estimated 230,000 km2 (roughly the size of Great Britain) of seasonally dry tropical forest in a relatively undisturbed region of northeastern Brazil. It...

Nov 21, 2018 by News Staff

An African freshwater fish species called the Peters’ elephantnose fish (Gnathonemus petersii) generates weak electrical pulses to safely navigate its...

Nov 20, 2018 by News Staff

A small songbird called the Siberian willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus yakutensis) holds a long-distance migration record in the 10-gram weight category...

Nov 20, 2018 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Dalhousie University, Canada, has identified two previously undescribed species of hemimastigotes — members of the extremely...

Nov 16, 2018 by News Staff

Toothed whales — apex predators varying in size from 40-kg porpoises to 50-ton sperm whales — use narrow beams of high intensity sound to echolocate...

Nov 14, 2018 by Natali Anderson

An international team of botanists has discovered and described two new species of the African palm genus Raphia from Cameroon and Gabon. Raphia zamiana:...

Nov 12, 2018 by News Staff

Orangutans spontaneously make hook tools out of a straight piece of wire, using them to ‘fish’ for food. Laumer et al show that orangutans can spontaneously...

Nov 12, 2018 by Sergio Prostak

Hongyacha, a new type of wild tea plant from the mountains of southern China, contains little or no caffeine, according to a study published in the Journal...

Nov 9, 2018 by News Staff

An Indonesian species of parrot known as the Goffin’s cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana) can tear a cardboard sheet into long strips as tools to reach food,...

Nov 8, 2018 by News Staff

A three-species hybrid warbler found in Pennsylvania is the offspring of a hybrid warbler mother and a warbler father from an entirely different genus...

Nov 7, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Tufts University and the University of Florida has found that delivering progesterone to an amputation injury site can induce...

Nov 5, 2018 by News Staff

Inaccessible Island, the westernmost of three islands in the Tristan Archipelago, is located about 2,250 miles (3,600 km) east of Porto Alegre, Brazil,...

Nov 5, 2018 by Sam Sander Effron

It is no secret that climate change and environmental negligence have been worsened by human activity and accelerated industrialization over the past century,...

Nov 2, 2018 by News Staff

A beautiful new species of swallowtail butterfly has been discovered on the Pacific Island of Vanua Levu, Fiji. The Natewa swallowtail (Papilio natewa)....

Nov 1, 2018 by News Staff

The emerald jewel wasp (Ampulex compressa) is renowned for its ability to zombify the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) with a sting to the brain....

Oct 30, 2018 by News Staff

Today, fewer than 4,000 free-ranging tigers survive in the wild, covering only 7% of their historical range. Efforts to protect these animals have been...

Oct 29, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, habitually tool-using New Caledonian crows (Corvus moneduloides) are able to create...

Oct 26, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has identified a cryptic new species of slender-snouted crocodile living in Central Africa. The Central African slender-snouted...

Oct 24, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by scientists at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden, has discovered a new structure in human cells — a new type of...

Oct 23, 2018 by News Staff

A striking new species of leaf warbler has been discovered in the forests of the Indonesian island of Rote by an international team of researchers. The...