Biology News

Scientist Discovers New Species of Carnivorous Marine Snail

Holotype of Amoria thorae, dredged off Cape Moreton, Queensland and Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia: (A) dorsal view; (B) ventral (apertural) view; (C) lateral view; (D) view looking down on spire showing detail of protoconch. Image credit: Healy et al., doi: 10.17082/j.2204-1478.62.2020.2019-02.
Oct 11, 2021 by News Staff

Dr. John Healy, a marine biologist at the Queensland Museum, the University of Queensland, and the Field Museum of Natural History, has described a new species of the genus Amoria from shells dredged off the Australian mid-east coast. Holotype of Amoria thorae, dredged off Cape Moreton, Queensland and Tweed Heads, New South Wales, Australia: (A) dorsal view; (B) ventral (apertural) view; (C) lateral view; (D) view looking down on spire showing detail...

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Aenigmanu alvareziae in the Amazon rainforest. Image credit: Patricia Álvarez-Loayza.

New Tree Species Discovered in Amazon Rainforest

Oct 7, 2021 by News Staff

A strange tree found in the Manu National Park in Peru in 1973 is a new genus and species of the small, mainly neotropical plant family Picramniacea, according...

(A, B) the Nujiang pit viper (Gloydius lipipengi) and (C, D) the Glacier pit viper (Gloydius swild). Image credit: Shi et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1061.70420.

Two New Species of Venomous Snakes Discovered

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have described two new species of pit vipers in the genus Gloydius from Zayu in Tibet and Heishui in Sichuan, China. (A, B) the Nujiang pit...

Yolk in the intestinal lumen of Caenorhabditis elegans larva after being left on a plate with no food apart from vented yolk for 4 h. Top: Nomarski microscopy image. Bottom left: larva imaged immediately after removal from plates using reflectance confocal microscopy (RCM) to highlight the refractive material of the terminal web that surrounds the intestinal lumen (red) and superimposed airyscan image (green) for GFP-labeled yolk. Bottom right: same larva imaged 100 min later showing yolk no longer in the lumen, either due to defecation or digestion; this disappearance confirms that the green fluorescence indicated in the central panel corresponds to yolk within the intestinal lumen. Scale bar - 20 μm. Image credit: Kern et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-25821-y.

Worm Mothers Provide Milk-Like Fluid for Their Offspring

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Post-reproductive Caenorhabditis elegans nematode mothers exhibit a form of primitive lactation, releasing yolk milk through their vulva that can enhance...

The diet of domestic cats consist primarily of provisioned foods, though the contribution of wild animals to their diets, all of which regularly caught wild animals, is low (cat food 96%, wild animals 3-4%). Image credit: Birgit.

Predatory Instinct is Main Reason why Domestic Cats Regularly Hunt Wild Prey, Study Suggests

Oct 1, 2021 by News Staff

Predation of wildlife by domestic cats (Felis catus) presents a threat to biodiversity conservation in some ecological contexts. The proportions of wild...

The swamp yabby (Cherax latimanus). Image credit: McCormack & Raadik, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5026.3.2.

New Species of Freshwater Crayfish Discovered in Australia

Sep 30, 2021 by News Staff

Scientists have described a new species of the crayfish genus Cherax from the Murray-Darling Basin in eastern Australia. The swamp yabby (Cherax latimanus)....

Gloeotrichia echinulata, a colonial species of cyanobacteria. Image credit: Barry Rosen, U.S. Geological Survey.

Oxygenic Photosynthesis and Living Lineages of Cyanobacteria Evolved in Archean Eon, Study Suggests

Sep 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using a new gene-analyzing technique, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that all extant species of cyanobacteria can be traced back to a common...

Kea parrots (Nestor notabilisa) don’t differentiate between the real and virtual worlds. Image credit: Amalia Bastos.

Kea Parrots Treat Physical and Virtual Worlds as Continuous and Equivalent, Study Shows

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

Using touchscreen laptops, a team of researchers from the University of Auckland has tested whether kea (Nestor notabilisa) — a large species of...

Frank et al. investigated differences in sulfur volatile production between saliva from children and adults using a proton transfer reaction mass spectrometry method using raw cauliflower powder. Image credit: Frank et al., doi: 10.1021/acs.jafc.1c03889.

Study: Dislike of Brassica Vegetables Is Written in Oral Microbiome

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

Interactions between Brassica vegetables, such as cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, and cauliflower, and human saliva can affect in-mouth odor development,...

The common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). Image credit: Uwe Schmidt.

Study: Vampire Bats Prefer to Hunt with Socially Bonded Roostmates

Sep 23, 2021 by News Staff

During nightly foraging trips, closely bonded females of common vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus) depart their roost separately, but often reunite far outside...

The pied hoverfly (Scaeva pyrastri). Image credit: Will Hawkes.

Hoverflies Navigate with ‘Time-Compensated Sun Compass’

Sep 23, 2021 by News Staff

The Sun is the most reliable celestial cue for orientation available to daytime migratory insects. New research led by the University of Exeter shows that...

Southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) are biofluorescent, giving off a colored glow when illuminated with UV light. Image credit: Pynne et al., doi: 10.1674/0003-0031-186.1.150.

Scientists Observe Biofluorescence in Burrowing Mammals for First Time

Sep 21, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of researchers led by the University of Georgia has documented ultraviolet biofluorescence in live southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys...

Frontal view of male Scenopinus jerei. Image credit: Pohjoismäki & Haarto, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1059.70085.

New Species of Window Fly Discovered in Finland

Sep 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Entomologists have described a new species in the window fly genus Scenopinus from Finland. Frontal view of male Scenopinus jerei. Image credit: Pohjoismäki...

Photographs of Bruce handling objects larger than his preening pebbles, namely: (a) a slice of carrot, (b) a stone, (c) a piece of bark, (d) a black token used in previous cognitive experiments he was a part of; a close-up image (e) demonstrates how he uses his tongue and lower mandible to hold these objects. Image credit: Bastos et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-97086-w.

Kea Parrots are Capable of Innovating Self-Care Tooling, New Study Shows

Sep 13, 2021 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides empirical evidence for deliberate self-care tooling in a species of bird. Photographs...

Left: a 3D illustration of the nucleus representing the classical theory of DNA organization at its center. Right: microscopic image of the nucleus of a fruit fly larva’s muscle cell; the long chains of DNA (red) are attached to the nuclear lamina (green) -- the inner layer of the nuclear membrane. Image credit: Weizmann Institute of Science.

New Images Reveal 3D Chromatin Organization in Live Cell Nuclei

Sep 10, 2021 by News Staff

Chromatin is a substance within a chromosome consisting of DNA and protein. The major proteins in chromatin are histones, which help package the DNA in...

In the study, male cats showed a left-side bias for natural behaviors, females a right-side bias. Image credit: Jan Mallander.

Researchers Identify Seven Behavior and Personality Traits in Cats

Sep 9, 2021 by News Staff

A team of scientists at the University of Helsinki has studied cat personality and behavior by collecting a large dataset of 4,316 cats from 56 different...

Khairuloconcha lunbawangorum and Khairuloconcha sahanae. Image credit: Zieritz et al., doi: 10.1002/aqc.3695.

Two New, Rare Freshwater Mussel Species Discovered

Sep 7, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has discovered two new species of freshwater mussels endemic to the island of Borneo and established a new genus for...

Colombelli-Négrel et al. demonstrate a capacity to perceive and learn to recognize sounds in ovo, as evidenced by habituation, even in bird species that were previously assumed to have little, if any, vocal production learning. Image credit: Barbara Fraatz.

Avian Vocal Learning Begins Before Birth, Study Says

Sep 7, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Flinders University has found evidence of prenatal auditory learning in embryos of three vocal learning species...

Southern California hummingbird foraging nectar from a flower. Image credit: David Rankin / University of California, Riverside.

Hummingbirds Use Sense of Smell to Make Foraging Decisions: Study

Sep 6, 2021 by News Staff

Avian olfaction is not just limited to vultures and a few other bird species, according to new research from the University of California, Davis, and Riverside. Southern...

The Galápagos pink land iguana (Conolophus marthae). Image credit: Gabriele Gentile & Howard L. Snell, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.2201.1.1.

Galapagos Pink Land Iguanas on Verge of Extinction, Experts Say

Sep 3, 2021 by News Staff

A critically endangered species of lizard called Conolophus marthae is in dire need of conservation action, according to researchers from Galápagos Conservancy...

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