Biology News

Single Clone of Poseidon’s Ribbon Weed is Largest Plant in World

Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis) meadow in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image credit: Rachel Austin, University of Western Australia.
Jun 1, 2022 by News Staff

A single plant or ‘clone’ of the Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis), a species of seagrass that occurs in the southern half of Australia, in the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Shark Bay is at least 4,500 years old and spans more than 180 km in fragmented, near-shore meadows. Poseidon’s ribbon weed (Posidonia australis) meadow in Shark Bay, Western Australia. Image credit: Rachel Austin, University of Western Australia. The UNESCO...

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Sela macaques (Macaca selai). Image credit: Zoological Survey of India.

New Species of Macaque Identified in India

May 31, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from the Zoological Survey of India and the University of Calcutta have discovered a cryptic new species of macaque in the forests of the Indian...

A group of bottlenose dolphins in Xcaret, Mexico.

Bottlenose Dolphins Get Their ‘Names’ from Neighborhood, Study Says

May 31, 2022 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers described the signature whistles produced by six distinct geographical units of the...

Eupera troglobia specimens in situ exposed to the air. Image credit: Simone & Ferreira, doi: 10.3897/subtbiol.42.78074.

New Species of Cave-Dwelling Mollusk Discovered

May 26, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Eupera troglobia is the first fully described cave-dwelling clam species discovered in the Americas, and possibly the second in the world. Eupera troglobia...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic image depicts Enterococcus faecalis. Image credit: Pete Wardell / CDC.

Bacteria Can Live in Venoms of Snakes and Spiders, New Study Says

May 24, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Animal venoms are considered sterile sources of antimicrobial compounds with strong membrane-disrupting activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria....

The wandering salamander (Aneides vagrans). Image credit: Christian Brown.

Wandering Salamanders are Able to Maneuver in Freefall, Study Shows

May 23, 2022 by News Staff

Wandering salamanders (Aneides vagrans) reside in the crowns of the world’s tallest trees, California’s coast redwoods, and have been observed to readily...

The southern yellow-billed hornbill (Tockus leucomelas), adult female, in Mapungubwe National Park, South Africa. Image credit: Derek Keats / CC BY 2.0.

Rapid Global Warming is Driving Southern Yellow-Billed Hornbills to Local Extinction

May 20, 2022 by News Staff

In a study published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, a team of scientists in South Africa assessed the effects of air temperature and...

Poecilocharax callipterus. Image credit: Ohara et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlac026.

Two New Fish Species Discovered in Brazil

May 17, 2022 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History, the Federal University of Rondônia and the Federal University of Bahia has...

The reef manta ray (Manta alfredi) at Dharavandhoo Thila, Maldives. Image credit: Shiyam Elk Cloner / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Scientists Find Huge Aggregations of Reef Manta Rays in Komodo National Park

May 17, 2022 by News Staff

The reef manta ray (Mobula alfredi) is a globally threatened species and an iconic tourist attraction for visitors to Komodo National Park, an Indonesian...

Juvenile topotype specimen of Phalotris shawnella, kept in captivity and which later escaped. Image credit: Jean-Paul Brouard.

Scientists Discover New Non-Venomous Snake Species in Paraguay

May 16, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers in Paraguay have described a beautiful new species of the snake genus Phalotris from the Paraguayan department of San Pedro. Juvenile...

Arabidopsis thaliana in the lunar regolith. Image credit: Paul et al., doi: 10.1038/s42003-022-03334-8.

Plants Can Germinate and Grow in Lunar Soil: Study

May 12, 2022 by News Staff

Using samples brought back from NASA’s Apollo 11, 12, and 17 missions, University of Florida biologists showed that a model terrestrial plant, Arabidopsis...

While submerged, Trechalea extensa uses a film of air to hide from predators. Image credit: Lindsey Swierk.

Some Tropical Spiders Can Stay Underwater for as Long as 30 Minutes

May 9, 2022 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Binghamton University, the Amazon Conservatory for Tropical Studies, the California State University Sacramento and the Universidade...

Kjernsmo et al. show that brilliant iridescence and gloss found in some animals can have a protective function by working as a form of deceptive warning coloration. Image credit: Domianick.

Study: Beetle Iridescence is Form of Warning Coloration against Predators

May 4, 2022 by News Staff

Iridescence and gloss are usually associated with display, but can they also defend? In new research, scientists at the University of Bristol have tested...

Differences in Vibrio fischeri swimming patterns when in open spaces or tight spaces. Image credit: Lynch et al., doi: 10.1016/j.bpj.2022.04.008.

Swimming Marine Bacteria Can Make Beeline to Escape Tight Spaces: Study

May 4, 2022 by News Staff

Vibrio fischeri (also known as Aliivibrio fischeri), a flagellated marine bacterium that forms a binary symbiosis with the Hawaiian bobtail squid (Euprymna...

Until now odd and even categorization, also called parity classification, had never been shown in non-human animals; Howard et al. show honeybees (Apis mellifera) can learn to do this. Image credit: xiSerge.

Honeybees Demonstrate Ability to Learn Concepts of Odd and Even

May 2, 2022 by The Conversation

New research shows that honeybees (Apis mellifera) can visually acquire the capacity to differentiate between odd and even quantities of 1-10 geometric...

Machine learning guided predictions improve enzyme performance across PETase scaffolds. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-04599-z.

Scientists Engineer New Plastic-Eating Enzyme

Apr 28, 2022 by News Staff

Plastic waste poses an ecological challenge and enzymatic degradation offers one, potentially green and scalable, route for polyesters waste recycling....

Asgard archaeon. Scale bar - 500 nm. Image credit: Imachi et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-019-1916-6.

Eukaryotic Cells Emerged in Anoxic Environment, New Study Suggests

Apr 27, 2022 by News Staff

Since the 1960s, many scientists have argued that the emergence of eukaryotes — cells containing a clearly defined nucleus — happened in response...

Craugastor cueyatl sits on a Mexican 10 pesos coin (diameter is 2.8 cm). Image credit: Jeffrey W. Streicher, Natural History Museum, London.

Scientists Discover Six New Diminutive Frog Species

Apr 27, 2022 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States, the United Kingdom and Switzerland has described six new species of direct-developing frogs from the Mexican...

Jaws of Glycera dibranchiata are composites of protein, melanin, and both mineral and ionic copper; to date, nanomechanical tests have correlated the ionic copper and melanin with hardness and wear resistance, but the function of protein is uncertain. Wonderly et al. characterize a Gly- and His-rich protein called multi-tasking protein (MTP) and, using recombinant protein, show that it performs six distinct functions critical for jaw formation and performance, namely (1) recruiting 22 equiv of Cu2+, (2) mediating a liquid-liquid phase separation of the MTP-copper complex, (3) catalyzing the oxidation of 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (Dopa) to melanin, (4) templating the interfacial polymerization of melanin, (5) integrating melanin and itself into thin films and fibers, and (6) providing intermolecular cohesion through Cu bridging. MTP achieves all these by assuming unprecedented roles as a building block, organizer, and fabricator -- a processing feat of considerable relevance to the autonomous production of other polymer composites, blends, and/or networks. Image credit: Wonderly et al., doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2022.04.001.

Study: Bloodworms Use Copper Harvested From Marine Sediments to Form Their Unique Jaws

Apr 26, 2022 by News Staff

Bloodworms Glycera dibranchiata are known for their unusual jaws, which are made of protein (∼50% w/w), ionic and mineralized copper (up to 10%), and...

New Species of Deep-Sea Crown Jelly Discovered in Pacific Ocean

Apr 19, 2022 by News Staff

Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have described an unusually large and distinctive deep-sea crown jelly with...

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