Biology News

Rhino Horns Have Gradually Decreased in Size over Past Century, Image-Based Study Shows

This colorized photo shows American President Theodore Roosevelt standing behind the carcass of a rhinocerous. Image credit: U.S. Library of Congress.
Nov 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Rhinos are among the most charismatic and well-known mammals on Earth, but they face extinction because of human activities. To learn how to save rhinos, scientists need as much information as possible about how their relationship with humans has changed over time. By analyzing thousands of artistic portrayals and photographs, a team of researchers from the University of Helsinki, the University of Cambridge and the Rhino Resource Center found that...

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The Principe scops-owl (Otus bikegila): an adult rufous morph (left) in the typical posture and an adult gray-brown morph (right) in a stress posture, when it raises the ear tufts to increase the efficiency of camouflage. Image credit: Marco N. Correia.

New Species of Scops-Owl Discovered in Africa

Nov 1, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists have discovered a new species of the scops-owl genus Otus inhabiting the forests of Príncipe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of...

Dravidacris annamalaica: (a) dorsal view, (b) lateral view, (c) dorsal view of the horn and head, (d) frontal view of horn and head, (e) lateral view of horn and head. Image credit: H Sankararaman.

Newly-Identified Grasshopper Species Has Sword-Like Head

Nov 1, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Scientists in India have described a new genus and species of unicorn pygmy grasshopper from Tamil Nadu, one of the southern Indian states. Dravidacris...

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). Image credit: David Harin / Duke Lemur Center.

Aye-Ayes Use Their Elongated Fingers to Pick Their Nose, Scientists Say

Oct 31, 2022 by News Staff

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a species of strepsirrhine primate closely related to lemurs and the largest nocturnal primate in the world. The...

Leioproctus zephyr. Image credit: Kit Prendergast.

Newly-Described Species of Australian Native Bee Has Dog-Like ‘Snout’

Oct 31, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Curtin University researcher Kit Prendergast has named the new bee species Leioproctus zephyr, after her pet dog Zephyr after noticing a protruding part...

Ball-rolling action by a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Dona et al., doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.08.013.

Behavioral Phenomenon in Bumblebees Resembles Object Play

Oct 28, 2022 by Natali Anderson

New research led by Queen Mary University of London shows that rolling of wooden balls by buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) fulfils behavioral...

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,...

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