Biology News

New research reveals that 3.4 billion years ago (Archean Eon), ancient microbes relied on molybdenum — a metal that was vanishingly rare at the time...

A landmark study of several butterfly lineages and a day-flying moth in South America shows that convergent evolution — when unrelated species arrive...

Experiments involving dozens of European bird species — such as great tits, house sparrows and blackbirds — suggest the birds can distinguish...

A comprehensive genome-wide analysis of Amazonian two-toed sloths (genus Choloepus) suggests the animals are more genetically diverse than once believed,...

A new analysis of honeybee vision suggests their ability to distinguish quantities is not a trick of visual patterns, but evidence of genuine numerical...

In the lightless depths of the Gulf of Alaska, approximately 3,251 m (two miles) below the surface, a softball-sized golden object clinging to a rock left...

New experiments with rice suggest that the acoustic vibrations of falling droplets can jolt dormant seeds into growth, offering the first direct evidence...

By studying almost 900 parrots living with humans, a team of researchers from the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Vienna, the Acoustics...

A newly-identified visual protein lets dragonflies detect deep red and near-infrared light using a mechanism strikingly similar to that in human eyes,...

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are important ecological and agricultural pollinators. In the United States, beekeepers experience substantial annual colony...

A protist species called Stentor coeruleus appears to navigate by sensing physical shapes — a discovery that suggests even the simplest life forms...

Researchers who analyzed dozens of spontaneous performances by a captive male chimpanzee named Ayumu say the animal’s steady rhythms and expressive ‘play...

The Galápagos lava heron, a small heron that stalks the lava-strewn shores of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, may finally have secured its place as a...

Both the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) and the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) are believed to have become extinct on the Australian...

In the cold, wave-battered channels off southern Chile, scientists have identified what they say is a new species of the steamer duck genus Tachyeres,...

In the remote rainforests of New Guinea’s Vogelkop Peninsula, scientists have spotted two marsupial species — the pygmy long-fingered possum (Dactylonax...

A team of researchers from the United States and Germany has identified fungal proteins that can freeze water at relatively warm subzero temperatures,...

Genetic and acoustic evidence show that the rare Ijima’s leaf warbler (Phylloscopus ijimae) is actually two distinct bird species, including the newly-identified...

Entomologists in Panama have observed a leaf-masquerading katydid species that begins life bright pink before turning green days later, a shift that may...