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The tigrina or oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus). Image credit: Groumfy69 / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Cat Species Discovered in Museum Collection is Probably Already Extinct

Aug 7, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The only known specimen of the small spotted cat species Leopardus narinensis was found on the Galeras Volcano in southern Colombia in 1989. The tigrina...

Interest in local bird feeding appears to have ramped up in countries all over the world during the pandemic lockdowns, even in countries not historically noted for bird feeding practices. Image credit: Victor Pogson.

Study: Interest in Wild Bird Feeding Surged in 115 Countries during COVID-19 Lockdowns

Aug 3, 2023 by News Staff

The global extent of supplementary bird feeding is unknown but has consequences for bird conservation and human well-being. Using a measure of search intensity...

Bread wheat (left) has been bred over thousands of years to have large grain size, and be easy to harvest, but it has lost much of the resilience still maintained in the wild, ancient einkorn wheat (right). Image credit: Kimbra Cutlip / University of Maryland.

Wild and Domesticated Einkorn Genomes Sequenced

Aug 2, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Einkorn (Triticum monococcum) was the first domesticated wheat species, and was central to the birth of agriculture and the Neolithic Revolution in the...

Plant-herbivore interactions from the Cenozoic fossil record: (A) meta-network of plant-herbivore interactions, based on 10,714 damaged leaves from 21 fossil floras; colored bars represent the total interaction frequencies of host plants and herbivores; the ten most abundant plant orders are labeled; gray lines represent pair-wise interactions, with more frequent interactions being thicker and less transparent; (B) examples of damage types: (a and b) mines mainly produced by moths; (c and d) galls mainly produced by gall midges; (e-h) external foliage feeding including hole feeding, margin feeding, surface feeding, and skeletonization; (i) endophytic oviposition; (j) in situ preservation of armored scale insects. Scale bars - 10 mm. Image credit: Albrecht et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2300514120.

Fossil Leaves with Insect Imprints Reveal Drivers of Herbivore Functional Diversity during Cenozoic Era

Aug 2, 2023 by News Staff

Plant-eating insects are the most diverse group of multicellular organisms on Earth. The most discussed drivers of their inordinate taxonomic and functional...

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

Study: Brain of Tasmanian Tiger Was Typical of Carnivorous/Scavenger Marsupials

Aug 1, 2023 by News Staff

The thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus) is the largest of modern-day carnivorous marsupials and was hunted to extinction by European settlers in Australia....

Heterodontus marshallae. Image credit: Sci.News / White et al., doi: 10.3390/d15070849.

New Species of Hornshark Discovered Off Australia

Jul 31, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists have described a new species of the shark genus Heterodontus from northwestern Australia based on six whole specimens and a single egg...

Discoscapa apicula; the bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Image credit: George Poinar Jr. / College of Science, Oregon State University.

Bees Originated in Western Gondwana before Breakup of Africa and South America, Study Suggests

Jul 31, 2023 by News Staff

Bees are the most significant pollinators of flowering plants. This partnership began approximately 120 million years ago, but the uncertainty of how and...

General morphology of Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, female. Image credit: Shatilovich et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1010798.

Researchers Sequence Genome of 46,000-Year-Old Soil Nematode from Siberian Permafrost

Jul 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Precise radiocarbon dating indicates that Panagrolaimus kolymaensis, a species of soil nematode new to science, remained in cryptobiosis for about 46,000...

Australian honeypot ants (Camponotus inflatus) are found throughout the central desert region of Australia. Image credit: Danny Ulrich.

Honey from Australian Honeypot Ants Has Unique Antimicrobial Properties

Jul 26, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Honey produced by the Australian honeypot ant (Camponotus inflatus) is valued nutritionally and medicinally by Indigenous peoples. In a new study, scientists...

Caecilians are a group of limbless, vermiform or serpentine amphibians. Image credit: Marco Mancuso.

Biologists Discover Unprecedented Resistance to Snake Venom in Caecilians

Jul 25, 2023 by News Staff

Living amphibians include frogs and salamanders and the limbless worm-like caecilians (order Gymnophiona). Caecilians have cylindrical bodies with a compact,...

Hoaxed photo of the Loch Ness ‘monster’ from April 21, 1934.

Loch Ness Monster: If It’s Real, Could It Be Giant European Eel?

Jul 24, 2023 by News Staff

The ‘eel hypothesis’ proposes that the anthrozoological phenomenon at Loch Ness in Scotland can be explained in part by observations of large-bodied...

The basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus). Image credit: Chris Gotschalk.

Basking Sharks are Partially Warm-Blooded, New Research Suggests

Jul 20, 2023 by News Staff

Few fast-swimming apex fishes are classified as regional endotherms, or partially warm-blooded, having evolved a relatively uncommon suite of traits (e.g....

The Ngoc Linh crocodile newt (Tylototriton ngoclinhensis), holotype male. Image credit: Phung et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1168.96091.

New Crocodile Newt Species Discovered in Vietnam

Jul 11, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have described a new salamander species of the genus Tylototriton from evergreen montane forests on Ngoc Linh Mountain in the Central Highlands...

Boulila et al. highlight a common, correlatable 36-million-year cycle in the diversity of marine genera as well as in tectonic, sea-level, and macrostratigraphic data over the past 250 million years of Earth history. Image credit: James St. John / CC BY 2.0.

36-Million-Year Geological Cycle Drives Marine Biodiversity, Scientists Say

Jul 11, 2023 by News Staff

The evolution of life on Earth has changed dramatically at tens of million-year time scales. However, the causal mechanisms of these changes remain unclear....

Western honeybees (Apis mellifera). Image credit: PollyDot.

New Research Reveals How Honeybees Make Fast, Accurate Decisions

Jul 10, 2023 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal eLife elucidates the honeybee’s behavioral strategy to associate sensory cues with rewards of different values....

The Mizoram parachute gecko (Gekko mizoramensis). Image credit: Lal Muansanga.

New Species of Gliding Gecko Discovered in India

Jul 4, 2023 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from Mizoram University and the Max Planck Institute for Biology has discovered a new species of the gecko genus Gekko living in...

A snapshot of parallel trajectories of odor particles in the cat olfactory region (colored dots). Image credit: Wu et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pcbi.1011119.

Domestic Cat Nose Functions as Highly Efficient Gas Chromatograph, Says New Study

Jul 4, 2023 by News Staff

Scientists from Ohio State University and elsewhere have developed a 3D computer model of the nose of the domestic cat (Felis catus) and simulated how...

The common cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis). Image credit: Stephan Junek, Max Planck Institute for Brain Research.

Cuttlefish Camouflage is More Complex Than Previously Thought

Jun 28, 2023 by News Staff

Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Brain Research and the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology have studied camouflage in the common cuttlefish...

Otodus megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago. Image credit: Alex Boersma / PNAS.

Megalodon Was Partially Warm-Blooded, New Research Shows

Jun 27, 2023 by News Staff

Otodus megalodon was a gigantic megatooth shark that lived in the world’s oceans from 23 to 3.6 million years ago. It could grow to the enormous size...