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Machaeropterus eckelberryi. Image credit: Andy Kratter, Florida Museum of Natural History.

New Bird Species Discovered in Peru: Machaeropterus eckelberryi

Oct 24, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A new species of manakin, called Machaeropterus eckelberryi, has been discovered in the foothills of southwestern Loreto and northern San Martín departments,...

Kaminski et al provide evidence that dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state when producing facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions are not just inflexible and involuntary displays of emotional states, but rather potentially active attempts to communicate with others. Image credit: Fran F.

Dogs are More Expressive When Humans are Looking at Them

Oct 20, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, has found evidence that domestic dogs move their faces in direct response to human attention. Kaminski...

Roa rumsfeldi. Image credit: Luiz Rocha, California Academy of Sciences.

New Butterflyfish Species Discovered in Philippines: Roa rumsfeldi

Oct 19, 2017 by News Staff

A team of marine biologists from Monterey Bay Aquarium and the California Academy of Sciences has discovered and described a new species of the butterflyfish...

An American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) caught a nurse shark in the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Sanibel, Florida. Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wildlife Biologists Find American Alligators Eat Small Sharks and Stingrays

Oct 18, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist is the first to document that American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) on the Atlantic...

KLFs are a subfamily of zinc finger transcriptional regulators with highly characterized roles in proliferation, survival, metabolism, and response to stress. Hsieh et al demonstrate that KLFs are critical determinants of aging, influencing both lifespan and age-related deterioration, and are broadly required for lifespan extension in all four mechanistically distinct longevity models tested. Importantly, the team provides evidence that these effects are mediated by KLF regulation of autophagy (autophagy was assessed using a GFP::LGG-1 translational reporter; GFP-positive puncta [red arrow] were counted in 30-150 total hypodermal seam cells in 10–20 animals) and are conserved in a mammalian system via a functional ortholog, KLF4. Together, the findings provide a role for the KLFs as a transcriptional regulatory point in longevity. Image credit: Hsieh et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00899-5.

Scientists Identify New Molecular Pathway that Controls Aging

Oct 16, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine has discovered a conserved molecular pathway that controls lifespan and...

Brain of the sweat bee Megalopta genalis (body length: 1-2 cm). Highlight/inset shows compass regions. Abbreviations: CBL - lower division of the central body, CBU - upper division of the central body, LBU - lateral bulb, MBU - medial bulb, NO – noduli, PB - protocerebral bridge. Scale bars - 200 μm. Image credit: A. Narendra / Stone et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2017.08.052.

New Study Shows How Bee’s Brain Functions to Guide It Home

Oct 10, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Lund University scientist Stanley Heinze, a network of compass and speed neurons in the bee brain integrates every detail...

Raccoon (Procyon lotor). Image credit: StockSnap.

Raccoons Solve Aesop’s ‘Crow and Pitcher’ Puzzle

Oct 6, 2017 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Animal Cognition demonstrates that raccoons (Procyon lotor) are able to learn to solve complex problems and that they...

Small flying foxes (Pteropus hypomelanus). Image credit: Zoo Leipzig.

Flying Foxes Play Important Role in Pollination of Durian

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

Using camera traps, University of Nottingham researcher Sheema Abdul Aziz and colleagues collected video evidence showing the small flying fox (Pteropus...

Brain scans of healthy volunteers showed that human brains may drain waste through lymphatic vessels. Image credit: Reich Lab, NIH / NINDS.

Human Brain Has Lymphatic System, Scientists Discover

Oct 5, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the National Institutes of Health has discovered lymphatic vessels in the dura, the leathery outer coating of the brain. Described...

Paranthropus boisei. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev.

‘Nutcracker Man’ Gave Us Genital Herpes, Study Says

Oct 3, 2017 by News Staff

New research from the University of Cambridge and Oxford Brookes University predicts which species acted as an intermediary between the ancestors of Homo...

Chimpanzee tool-use is fuelled mainly by individual learning, according to the study. Image credit: Marcel Langthim.

Tool Use Comes Naturally to Chimpanzees

Oct 2, 2017 by News Staff

A new study has found that chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can use tools spontaneously to solve a task, without needing to watch others first. Chimpanzee...

This is an illustration of Uromys vika. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Uromys vika: New Species of Tree-Dwelling Giant Rat Found in Solomon Islands

Sep 27, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new rodent species with an unusual lifestyle has been discovered on Vangunu — an island, part of the New Georgia Islands in the Solomon Islands...

The jellyfish Diplulmaris antarctica and the Adélie penguin (Pygoscelis adeliae) swim in the Antarctic waters near Dumont d’Urville station in December 2015. Image credit: Pierre Chevaldonné / CNRS / IPEV.

Penguins Caught on Camera Eating Jellyfish and Other Gelata

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

Dr. Jean-Baptiste Thiebot, a marine biologist at the National Institute of Polar Research in Tokyo, Japan, and colleagues have documented nearly 200 cases...

The structure of T6SS during contraction. Image credit: University of Basel, Biozentrum.

New Research Shows How Cholera Bacteria Use ‘Nano-Speargun’ to Poison Enemies

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

The Gram-negative bacterium Vibrio cholerae (causative agent of cholera) is armed with a nano-speargun, which it uses to combat unwelcome competitors....

The smiley-faced spider Spintharus berniesandersi is named after U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders. Image credit: Glynnis Fawkes.

Fifteen New Species of ‘Smiley-Faced’ Spiders Discovered

Sep 26, 2017 by News Staff

A team of spider experts and students from the University of Vermont has discovered and described 15 new species of the spider genus Spintharus from the...

Wild male and female Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata). Image credit: Per Harald Olsen / CC BY 3.0.

Guppies Have Complex Personalities, New Study Shows

Sep 25, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at the University of Exeter, UK, studied how Trinidadian guppies (Poecilia reticulata) behaved in various situations and found complex...

Like humans, Cassiopea jellyfish exhibit the telltale signs of sleep. Image credit: California Institute of Technology.

Jellyfish Have Sleep-Like State, Biologists Discover

Sep 21, 2017 by News Staff

Cassiopea jellyfish, a genus of true jellyfish found throughout the tropics in shallow ocean waters and mudflats, exhibit reversible behavioral quiescence...

South American horned frog showing round shape and large mouth. Image credit: Kristopher Lappin.

Giant Prehistoric Frogs Ate Small Dinosaurs, Claim Scientists

Sep 20, 2017 by News Staff

Exceptionally large individuals of Beelzebufo ampinga, an extinct species of frog that lived in Madagascar during the Late Cretaceous epoch, about 68 million...

Immunohistochemical analysis of a human lung section stained with anti-PIWIL4 antibody. Scale bars - 10 μm. Image credit: Wasserman et al, doi: 10.1172/JCI94639.

Researchers Identify New Type of Lung Cell

Sep 19, 2017 by News Staff

A research team led by Boston University scientists has identified a new type of lung cell that is implicated in the body’s immune defense against pneumonia-causing...