Biology News

Mar 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of researchers has described six new species of bald-legged spiders from Colombia and established a new genus for four of them, Stormtropis. Stormtropis muisca, male. Image credit: Perafán et al, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.830.31433. Bald-legged spiders are members of Paratropididae, a family of only 11 very similarly looking, small- to medium-sized species, whose placement in the Tree of Life has long been a matter of debate. One...

Mar 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

In 2010, the 28,140-year-old partial carcass of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius), nicknamed ‘Yuka,’ was found in Siberian permafrost. Now a...

Mar 13, 2019 by News Staff

A new species of stiletto snake has been discovered living in the rainforests of Liberia and Guinea. The Branch’s stiletto snake (Atractaspis branchi)...

Mar 4, 2019 by News Staff

Humans and other mammals are limited to seeing a range of wavelengths of light called visible light, which includes the wavelengths of the rainbow. But...

Feb 27, 2019 by News Staff

Fairy circles are extremely ordered round patches of bare soil within arid grasslands. They are known from southwestern Africa around the Namib Desert...

Feb 25, 2019 by News Staff

When humans go through big changes in life, their personality traits can change. In a study published in the Journal of Research in Personality, a duo...

Feb 22, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has discovered that female golden snub-nosed monkeys (Rhinopithecus roxellana), an endangered species of Old World...

Feb 22, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A living individual of a bee species feared to be extinct has been found in the Indonesian islands known as the North Moluccas. The Wallace’s giant...

Feb 21, 2019 by News Staff

Deep learning has recently revolutionized the field of machine hearing and vision, by allowing computers to perform human-like activities including seeing,...

Feb 19, 2019 by News Staff

The cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) is a large, flightless bird that bears a prominent helmet (or casque). The function of the cranial structure has attracted...

Feb 18, 2019 by News Staff

A species of aloe believed to be new to science has been found in Somaliland, a self-declared state, internationally considered to be an autonomous region...

Feb 15, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Cell, plants favor the production of uneven, asymmetrical patterns on the surface of pollen grains over...

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Hungary, Germany and Vietnam has discovered a new, critically endangered species of softshell turtle in north-central Vietnam...

Feb 14, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, gestures of chimpanzees follow the same mathematical patterns — known...

Feb 13, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from New York University Abu Dhabi has described a new species of frog from Bibita Mountain, an unexplored and isolated mountain...

Feb 12, 2019 by News Staff

A duo of researchers from South Africa has discovered a remarkable new species of tarantula living in central Angola. Ceratogyrus attonitifer. Image credit:...

Feb 11, 2019 by News Staff

Acquisition of freshwater is problematic for sea snakes living in oceanic environments that are distant from sources of freshwater associated with land....

Feb 8, 2019 by News Staff

Yellow fever mosquitoes (Aedes aegypti) can use their antennae to detect sounds that are at least 32 feet (10 m) away, according to a new study published...

Feb 7, 2019 by News Staff

Six new species of tentacle-nosed catfish have been discovered in the Amazon and Orinoco River basins. A close-up of the tentacles of a male Ancistrus...

Feb 7, 2019 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Science Advances shows that honeybees (Apis mellifera), with a miniature brain, can be taught to recognize colors...