Biology News

Goffin’s Cockatoos Can Use and Transport Toolsets, Study Shows

Captive Goffin’s cockatoos are able to innovate the flexible use of a toolset. Image credit: Osuna-Mascaró et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2023.01.023.
Feb 14, 2023 by News Staff

In new research from the University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, the majority of Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffiniana) spontaneously innovated toolset use under controlled experimental conditions, without social facilitation, and learned to apply it flexibly according to need; furthermore, the tool set is more than just the use of tools in sequence: four birds were observed to transport two tools simultaneously, and two birds were able to not...

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Kohda et al. show that bluestreak cleaner wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus) recognize their own mirror image using a mental image of the self-face comparable to humans. Image credit: Masanori Kohda, Osaka Metropolitan University.

Bluestreak Cleaner Wrasses Can Recognize Themselves in Photographs: Study

Feb 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a series of experiments conducted in Japan, mirror-naïve bluestreak cleaner wrasses (Labroides dimidiatus) frequently attacked photographs of both...

Neolissochilus pnar. Image credit: Uros Aksamovic.

Meet Neolissochilus pnar, World’s Largest Cavefish

Feb 8, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Neolissochilus pnar grows to over 400 mm (1.3 feet) and occurs only in the limestone caves of Meghalaya, a state in northeastern India. Neolissochilus...

The potent antibacterial activity of lunaemycins against antibiotic resistant Gram-positive bacteria may in part explain how Streptomyces lunaelactis strains have found their own place in extremely oligotrophic and competitive environments such as moonmilk deposits. Image credit: Martinet et al., doi: 10.3390/ijms24021114.

New Group of Antibiotics Isolated from Moonmilk Deposits

Feb 8, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Lunaemycins are produced by Streptomyces lunaelactis, a species of bacterium that inhabits the moonmilk deposits of La Grotte Des Collemboles in Belgium...

Hyperolius ukaguruensis. Image credit: Christoph Liedtke.

Scientists Discover New Species of Voiceless Frog in Tanzania

Feb 6, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The newly-identified species belongs to the frog genus Hyperolius and has an unusual trait — it’s completely silent. Hyperolius ukaguruensis. Image...

Nautilus samoaensis. Image credit: Barord et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1143.84427.

Marine Biologists Identify Three New Nautilus Species

Feb 3, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The three new species of nautiluses belong to the genus Nautilus and represent populations on the easternmost edge of the overall habitat range of the...

Flightless or poorly-flighted modern, and recently extinct, paleognath birds with their respective egg sizes. Lithornis, an ancient flying paleognath bird, is depicted and has an unknown egg size. Image credit: Hyunjoo Shin / CC BY 4.0.

Ornithologists Construct New Phylogenetic Family Tree for Paleognath Birds

Feb 1, 2023 by Natali Anderson

About 50 species of birds on Earth today do not belong to the same group as the other 10,000 currently in existence. Known as the paleognaths, this small...

The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul). Image credit: Nicolas Fischer / CC BY 3.0.

Pallas’s Cats Inhabit Mount Everest Region, New Study Shows

Jan 26, 2023 by Natali Anderson

At least two individuals of the Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) live in Sagarmatha National Park, Mount Everest region, eastern Nepal, according to a...

Live adult male paratype of Sinocyclocheilus longicornus. Image credit: Xu et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1141.91501.

New Fish Species Has Mysterious Horn-Like Structure on the Back of Its Head

Jan 24, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Sinocyclocheilus longicornus inhabits a completely dark cave in southwestern Guizhou province in China. Live adult male paratype of Sinocyclocheilus longicornus....

Nepenthes species sampled in Malaysian Borneo during the study: (A) Nepenthes burbidgeae, (B) Nepenthes edwardsiana, (C) Nepenthes lowii, (D) Nepenthes macrophylla, (E) Nepenthes rajah and (F) Nepenthes villosa. Note the presence of mammal droppings in (D) and (E). Image credit: A. van der Ent / A. Robinson.

Study: Some Tropical Pitcher Plants Capture Mammal Droppings

Jan 20, 2023 by News Staff

Nepenthes are some of the most recognizable carnivorous plants on the planet, capturing and digesting organic material in their modified leaves to acquire...

Legionella bononiensis, magnification 20 ,000x. Image credit: Girolamini et al., doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.005512.

New Legionella Species Discovered in Italy

Jan 11, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Legionella are Gram-negative aerobic bacilli that live in fresh and man-made water environments. Legionella bononiensis, magnification 20 ,000x. Image...

DeLong et al. estimate that each Halteria in their experiments ate 10,000 to one million viruses per day. Image credit: Proyecto Agua.

Halteria: These Freshwater Microorganisms Can Grow on Virus-Only Diet

Jan 10, 2023 by News Staff

Halteria, a genus of microscopic planktonic ciliates that are found in many freshwater environments, can eat huge numbers of infectious chloroviruses —...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

New Research Shows How Humans Lost Their Body Hair

Jan 6, 2023 by News Staff

Humans, whales, elephants, and naked mole-rats all share a somewhat rare trait for mammals: their bodies are covered with little to no hair. The common...

The newly-discovered frog species Mantidactylus mahery. Image credit: Scherz et al., doi: 10.11646/megataxa.7.2.1.

Twenty New Species of Frogs Discovered in Madagascar

Jan 3, 2023 by News Staff

The newly-discovered frog species belong to the subgenus Brygoomantis within the mantellid frog genus Mantidactylus. The newly-discovered frog species...

The Qilian bluetail (Tarsiger albocoeruleus). Image credit: Xianting Wang.

Two New Species of Bush Robins Identified in Asia

Jan 2, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Bush robins are members of the genus Tarsiger, a group of small, colorful birds with high species richness in the Sino-Himalayan region. The Qilian bluetail...

Zolotarov et al. propose that miRNAs are intimately linked to the evolution of complex brains in octopuses and other animals. Image credit: Albert Kok / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study: microRNAs are Key to Evolution of Complex Octopus Brain

Dec 30, 2022 by News Staff

Octopuses and their cephalopod relatives are exceptionally intelligent invertebrates with a highly complex nervous system that evolved independently from...

Solanum scalarium. Image credit: T.M. Williams.

New Species of Bush Tomato Discovered in Australia

Dec 29, 2022 by News Staff

The newly-discovered species belongs to Solanum, a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Solanum scalarium....

The Mashpi glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium mashpi), female. Image credit: Jaime Culebras.

Study: Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Achieve Transparency

Dec 28, 2022 by News Staff

Transparency in animals is a complex form of camouflage involving mechanisms that reduce the scattering and absorption of light throughout the organism....

Neri et al. expanded RNA virus diversity from 13,282 to 124,873 distinct clusters at a granularity level between species and genus. Image credit: Neri et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.08.023.

Biologists Discover Over 100,000 New Types of RNA Viruses

Dec 26, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from Tel Aviv University and elsewhere have detected 111,000 new RNA virus genomes in global environmental data from diverse habitats and hosts....

Scanning electron micrograph of a ‘Candidatus Lokiarchaeum ossiferum’ cell showing the long and complex cell protrusions. Image credit: Thiago Rodrigues-Oliveira, University of Vienna.

Study: Enigmatic Asgard Archaea Have Complex Cellular Architecture and Extensive Cytoskeleton

Dec 22, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Asgard archaea (Asgardarchaeota) are considered to be the closest known relatives of eukaryotes, organisms (including animals, plants and fungi) whose...

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