Biology News

Bizarre New Species of Frog Discovered in India: Nasikabatrachus bhupathi

Aug 28, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Herpetologists are claiming they have discovered a new species of purple frog living in the Western Ghats, India. The Bhupathy’s purple frog (Nasikabatrachus bhupathi). Image credit: S. Jegath Janani et al. In a paper published in the Alytes, the International Journal of Batrachology, the researchers describe the new frog species that they call Nasikabatrachus bhupathi. The proposed English name is the Bhupathy’s purple frog. The new species was...

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Chimpanzee Ai carrying out a task on the touch screen. Image credit: Kyoto University.

Chimps Can Understand Rules of Rock-Paper-Scissors Game

Aug 24, 2017 by News Staff

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can understand the popular game in which ‘paper’ beats ‘rock,’ ‘rock’ beats ‘scissors,’ and ‘scissors’...

The happy tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene wrightae): female with young pup attached, showing characteristic long ears with thickened edge and short, brown hair. Image credit: Debra Wright.

‘Yoda Bat’ from Papua New Guinea Gets Official Name

Aug 14, 2017 by News Staff

A newly discovered species of fruit bat — previously nicknamed ‘Yoda bat’ — has an official name: the happy tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene...

Dolphins.

New Study Reveals What Dolphins Eat

Aug 4, 2017 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, a team of U.S. researchers examined the diets of three different dolphin species (the common bottlenose...

3D model of the ancestral flower reconstructed by the eFLOWER team. Image credit: Sauquet et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms16047.

This Is What Earth’s Earliest Flowers Might Have Looked Like

Aug 2, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers at the eFLOWER project has reconstructed what the Earth’s ancestral angiosperm flowers might have looked like. 3D...

Although predominantly yellow, the yellow sea snake (Hydrophis platurus xanthos) often possesses black spots along the back. Image credit: Brooke L. Bessesen.

Marine Biologists Discover New Subspecies of Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake

Jul 31, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Northwestern University, the Field Museum of Natural History and Phoenix Zoo has discovered and described a distinctive new subspecies...

A known species of club-tailed scorpion from Brazil. Image credit: Humberto Yamaguti.

Arachnologists Discover Three New Species of Club-Tailed Scorpions

Jul 28, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of arachnologists has discovered and described three new species of Neotropical ‘club-tailed’ scorpions: Ischnotelson peruassu...

Wiederman et al have shown how a dragonfly’s brain anticipates the movement of its prey. Image credit: Komkrich Srigoson.

Predatory Dragonflies Can Predict Path of Their Flying Prey

Jul 28, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal eLife, the dragonfly brain can perform visual tasks that were previously associated only with mammals. Wiederman...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the South Bank, Dominican Republic. Image credit: Christopher Michel / CC BY 2.0.

Song Cultures of Humpback Whales Give Insight into Evolutionary Learning

Jul 26, 2017 by News Staff

Culture was once thought to be what distinguishes humans from other animals. However, research by a University of St Andrews-led team of scientists studying...

The Hoodwinker Sunfish (Mola tecta) in Reserva Marina Isla Chanaral, Chile, 2015. Image credit: Cesar Villarroel, https://vimeo.com/129499857.

Scientists Identify New Species of Ocean Sunfish: Hoodwinker Sunfish (Mola tecta)

Jul 25, 2017 by News Staff

A group of marine biologists led by Murdoch University researcher Marianne Nyegaard has identified and described an elusive new species of ocean sunfish. The...

The Dixie Valley toad (Bufo williamsi). Image credit: Mike Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno.

Three New Toad Species Discovered in Nevada

Jul 25, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by University of Nevada Professor C. Richard (Dick) Tracy has discovered three new toad species in the Great Basin region of...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image depicts a number of mustard-colored, spheroid-shaped Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that were in the process of escaping their destruction by blue-colored human white blood cells. Magnification - 20,000x. Image credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Study: MRSA Emerged Long Before Introduction of Antibiotic Methicillin into Clinical Practice

Jul 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Genome Biology, methicillin use was not the original driving factor in the evolution of methicillin-resistant...

Gaudry et al demonstrate that members of various lineages (for example, cetaceans, horses, woolly mammoths, Steller’s sea cows) evolved extreme cold hardiness in the absence of UCP1-mediated thermogenesis. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Single Gene Linked to Evolutionary Rise of Multiple Mammalian Lineages

Jul 17, 2017 by News Staff

Ancient, independent inactivations of the ucp1 gene, which encodes the uncoupling protein 1, or UCP1 (essential for thermogenesis in brown fat), were a...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a tardigrade. Image credit: Diane Nelson, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Earth’s Most Indestructible Creature Identified: Tardigrade

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

Water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals called tardigrades will survive the risk of extinction from all astrophysical catastrophes, and be...

A family of mountain gorillas in Volcanoes National Park, Rwanda. Image credit: Tierra Smiley Evans, University of California, Davis.

Epstein Barr-Like Virus Detected in Wild Mountain Gorillas

Jul 13, 2017 by News Staff

Researchers have detected a herpes virus in wild mountain gorillas (Gorilla beringei beringei) that is very similar to Epstein-Barr virus in humans. A...

Sea Spiders Move Oxygen with Pumping Guts, Marine Biologists Say

Jul 11, 2017 by News Staff

Marine arthropods called sea spiders use gut peristalsis to move hemolymph and oxygen throughout most of their bodies, according to a team of researchers...

A young male of the dry-forest sabrewing (Campylopterus calcirupicola) captured in the Fazenda Corredor, municipality of Bocaiúva, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Image credit: Leonardo Esteves Lopes.

Dry-Forest Sabrewing: New Hummingbird Species Discovered

Jul 3, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A new hummingbird species, called the dry-forest sabrewing, has been discovered in the tropical forests of eastern Brazil. A young male of the dry-forest...

Male palm cockatoo (Probosciger aterrimus) drumming on a hollow tree with a manufactured ‘drumstick.’ Image credit: Christina Zdenek.

Male Palm Cockatoos Play Drums to Attract Mates

Jun 30, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

Palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus) not only play the drums, they craft the sticks too, according to new research from scientists in Australia. Male...

The starlet sea anemone (Nematostella vectensis). Image credit: Sinigaglia et al / University of Vienna.

Do Muscle-Less and Heartless Sea Anemones Hold Key to Heart Regeneration?

Jun 30, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Florida has found genes known to form heart cells in humans and other animals in the gut of the starlet sea...

Male (right) and female paratypes of the blue-winged amazon (Amazona gomezgarzai). Image credit: T. Silva et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.3475.

New Species of Amazon Parrot Discovered in Mexico

Jun 28, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A new species of parrot has been discovered in the tropical forests of the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. Male (right) and female paratypes of the blue-winged...

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