Biology News | Sci.News

Saxifraga sempervivum, a species of alpine plant in Cambridge University Botanic Gardens, ‘produces pure vaterite.’ Image credit: Paul Aston.

Biologists Find Rare and Unstable Mineral Vaterite in Alpine Plants

Mar 6, 2018 by News Staff

A team of biologists from the University of Cambridge, UK, has found that a very rare and unstable mineral called vaterite is a dominant component of the...

Macrobiotus shonaicus. Scale bars in μm. Image credit: Stec et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0192210.

New Species of Tardigrade Found in Japan

Mar 5, 2018 by Natali Anderson

An international team of biologists from Poland and Japan has discovered and described a new species of tardigrade. Details of the micro-animal’s discovery...

Borowicz et al found that the Danger Islands have 751,527 pairs of Adélie penguins (Pygoscelis adeliae) -- more than the rest of the entire Antarctic Peninsula region combined. Image credit: Rachael Herman, Louisiana State University / Stony Brook University.

Scientists Find Mega-Colony of Adélie Penguins in Antarctica

Mar 5, 2018 by News Staff

A recent expedition to the Danger Islands, a chain of remote islands off the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, used new technologies to discover...

Rare Greenland Sharks Captured on Film in Canadian Arctic

Mar 2, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of marine biologists from the Fisheries and Marine Institute of the Memorial University of Newfoundland has filmed Greenland sharks (Somniosus microcephalus)...

According to Briscoe et al, IT neurons were present in the last common ancestor of birds and mammals. Image credit: Susanne J.

Study: Mammals and Birds Share Neuronal Cell Types Linked to Intelligence

Mar 2, 2018 by News Staff

Neuronal cell types in the avian brains linked to goal-directed behaviors and cognition are similar to cells in a region of the mammalian brain called...

African dung beetles (Scarabaeus satyrus) use the glow of the Milky Way to navigate. Image credit: Emily Baird.

Nocturnal Animals Use Stars for Orientation

Mar 1, 2018 by News Staff

Nocturnal animals can use the stars and the Milky Way to find their way during the darkest hours, according to a new review article, published in the Proceedings...

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen) is a medium-sized passerine bird native to Australia and southern New Guinea. Image credit: Toby Hudson / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Australian Magpies Living in Large Groups Are No Bird Brains: Study

Feb 28, 2018 by News Staff

A new study by researchers from the University of Western Australia and the University of Exeter shows that in wild Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen),...

Chimps and bonobos use gestures to initiate and change positions during grooming. Image credit: Catherine Hobaiter.

Bonobo and Chimp Gestures Overlap in Meaning, Study Finds

Feb 28, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study published in the journal PLoS Biology, two closely related great ape species — the bonobo (Pan paniscus) and the common chimpanzee...

Little skates (Leucoraja erinacea). Image credit: Monash University.

Study: Fish Were Walking 400 Million Years Ago — Long Before Land-Dwelling Vertebrates

Feb 27, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has uncovered information about the nerve networks required for walking on land, suggesting the last common ancestor...

A Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) with three cubs at Beaumaris Zoo in Hobart, 1909. Image credit: Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

3D Digital Models Reveal Tasmanian Tiger’s Development from Joey to Adulthood

Feb 27, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Museums Victoria and the University of Melbourne has scanned all known joey specimens of the Tasmanian tiger...

Some of the Botai horses were found to carry genetic variants causing white and leopard coat spotting patterns. Image credit: Ludovic Orlando / Sean Goddard / Alan Outram.

Research Sheds New Light on Origins of Domestic and Przewalski’s Horses

Feb 26, 2018 by News Staff

New research overturns a long-held assumption that Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii), a rare and endangered animal native to the steppes...

Transmission electron micrograph of ranaviruses (hexagons), members of the family Iridoviridae. Image credit: Electron Microscopy Unit, Australian Animal Health Laboratory / CSIRO.

Researchers Discover ‘Insulin-Producing’ Viruses

Feb 23, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists led by Harvard Medical School’s Joslin Diabetes Center has identified four viruses that can produce insulin-like...

Seltmann et al studied Asian timber elephants in Myanmar. Image credit: John Jackson.

Study: Asian Elephants Have Complex Personalities

Feb 22, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh, UK, and the University of Turku, Finland, has investigated the personality structure of Asian elephants...

An adult Atlantic sixgill shark (Hexanchus vitulus) swims in the waters off Belize. Image credit: Ivy Baremore, MarAlliance.

Cryptic New Species of Shark Identified: Atlantic Sixgill Shark

Feb 22, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of marine biologists from the United States and Belize has confirmed that sixgill sharks residing in the Atlantic Ocean are a different...

The human spermatozoon tail is a highly complex machine that consists of around a thousand different types of building blocks. Image credit: University of Gothenburg.

Researchers Find Previously Unknown Structure in Human Spermatozoon Tails

Feb 22, 2018 by News Staff

By using cryo-electron tomography, an international team of scientists has identified a completely new nanostructure — named the Tail Axoneme Intra-Lumenal...

First comprehensive map of butterfly evolution: branch support is color coded according to the support thresholds indicated on the legend, and the shape indicates whether the branch was supported using one or more methods; pie charts on certain nodes in Lycaenidae and Riodinidae indicate the probability of ant association (red) and no ant association (blue) based on ancestral state reconstruction; ants before tribe/subfamily names indicate at least one ant-associated species in the group; question marks denote taxa for which no data on ant association could be found. POLYOMMAT, PL – Polyommatinae, TH – Theclinae, PORITI – Poritiinae, NEM – Nemeobiinae, HED – Hedylidae, PARN – Parnassiinae, PAP – Papilionidae. Image credit: Espeland et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.01.061.

Scientists Complete Butterfly Evolutionary Tree

Feb 20, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of lepidopterists has compiled the most comprehensive evolutionary tree for butterflies to date. The results appear in the journal...

Rhynia gwynne-vaughanii, 400 million-year-old fossil plant stem from Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Image credit: Natural History Museum, London.

Study: First Land Plants Appeared 500 Million Years Ago

Feb 19, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study to be published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the first plants to colonize the Earth originated around...

New Species of Pygmy Squid Discovered

Feb 19, 2018 by Natali Anderson

James Cook University researcher Dr. Jan Strugnell and Australian Museum Research Institute’s Dr. Mandy Reid have discovered and described a new species...

Young Tasmanian devil. Image credit: Keres H. / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Wild Populations of Tasmanian Devils Continue to Decline, Study Shows

Feb 16, 2018 by News Staff

The overall population numbers of wild Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii) are continuing to decline, due to the presence of a transmissible cancer,...