Biology News

Song Playback Experiments Reveal 21 Possible New Species of Birds

Top: an orange-billed sparrow (Arremon aurantiirostris). Bottom left: a golden-crowned warbler (Basileuterus culicivorus). Bottom right: a yellow-olive flycatcher (Tolmomyias sulphurescens). Image credit: Dominic Sherony / Dario Sanches / Gary L. Clark / CC BY-SA 2.0.
Sep 18, 2017 by News Staff

Two bird species that look the same, but have songs so different they can’t recognize each other, should be considered distinct species, according to a study by University of British Columbia postdoctoral researcher Benjamin Freeman and Cornell University researcher Graham Montgomery. Among the 72 related populations of Neotropical passerine birds the authors tested, they found evidence for 21 new species. Top: an orange-billed sparrow (Arremon...

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Human cell nuclei with fluorescently labeled chromatin (purple) and nuclear envelope (green). Image credit: Fang-Yi Chu & Alexandra Zidovska, New York University.

Live Human Cells Have Their Own ‘Internal Clocks’

Sep 13, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers at New York University has found that the nucleus of a human cell exhibits subtle, but measurable, fast shape fluctuations, and that...

The Australian magpie (Gymnorhina tibicen). Image credit: Eleanor Drinkwater.

Australian Magpies Dunk Their Food Before Eating, Find Ornithologists

Sep 12, 2017 by News Staff

Australian magpies ‘dunk’ their food in water before eating, a process that appears to be watched and ‘copied’ by their offspring, say University...

Cory’s shearwaters from the Crossley ID Guide Britain and Ireland. Image credit: Richard Crossley / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study: Olfaction is Key Factor in Bird Navigation

Sep 5, 2017 by News Staff

Olfaction (sense of smell) is a key factor in long-distance oceanic navigation in birds, according to a new University of Oxford-led study. Cory’s shearwaters...

Smooth-Coated Otters Can Learn How to Solve Puzzles by Copying Each Other, Research Shows

Aug 30, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers in the UK created a series of puzzles baited with food, and found smooth-coated otters (Lutrogale perspicillata) watched and copied...

Kowarsky et al discovered that the human body contains a vast and unexpected diversity of microbes, many of which have highly divergent relationships to the known tree of life. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Over 50% of Bacteria and Viruses inside Human Body are Unknown to Science

Aug 28, 2017 by News Staff

A new survey of DNA fragments circulating in human blood suggests the bacteria and viruses living within us are vastly more diverse than previously known....

Bizarre New Species of Frog Discovered in India: Nasikabatrachus bhupathi

Aug 28, 2017 by Natali Anderson

Herpetologists are claiming they have discovered a new species of purple frog living in the Western Ghats, India. The Bhupathy’s purple frog (Nasikabatrachus...

Chimpanzee Ai carrying out a task on the touch screen. Image credit: Kyoto University.

Chimps Can Understand Rules of Rock-Paper-Scissors Game

Aug 24, 2017 by News Staff

Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) can understand the popular game in which ‘paper’ beats ‘rock,’ ‘rock’ beats ‘scissors,’ and ‘scissors’...

The happy tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene wrightae): female with young pup attached, showing characteristic long ears with thickened edge and short, brown hair. Image credit: Debra Wright.

‘Yoda Bat’ from Papua New Guinea Gets Official Name

Aug 14, 2017 by News Staff

A newly discovered species of fruit bat — previously nicknamed ‘Yoda bat’ — has an official name: the happy tube-nosed fruit bat (Nyctimene...

Dolphins.

New Study Reveals What Dolphins Eat

Aug 4, 2017 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal PLoS ONE, a team of U.S. researchers examined the diets of three different dolphin species (the common bottlenose...

3D model of the ancestral flower reconstructed by the eFLOWER team. Image credit: Sauquet et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms16047.

This Is What Earth’s Earliest Flowers Might Have Looked Like

Aug 2, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of researchers at the eFLOWER project has reconstructed what the Earth’s ancestral angiosperm flowers might have looked like. 3D...

Although predominantly yellow, the yellow sea snake (Hydrophis platurus xanthos) often possesses black spots along the back. Image credit: Brooke L. Bessesen.

Marine Biologists Discover New Subspecies of Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake

Jul 31, 2017 by News Staff

A team of scientists from Northwestern University, the Field Museum of Natural History and Phoenix Zoo has discovered and described a distinctive new subspecies...

A known species of club-tailed scorpion from Brazil. Image credit: Humberto Yamaguti.

Arachnologists Discover Three New Species of Club-Tailed Scorpions

Jul 28, 2017 by News Staff

An international team of arachnologists has discovered and described three new species of Neotropical ‘club-tailed’ scorpions: Ischnotelson peruassu...

Wiederman et al have shown how a dragonfly’s brain anticipates the movement of its prey. Image credit: Komkrich Srigoson.

Predatory Dragonflies Can Predict Path of Their Flying Prey

Jul 28, 2017 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal eLife, the dragonfly brain can perform visual tasks that were previously associated only with mammals. Wiederman...

Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) in the South Bank, Dominican Republic. Image credit: Christopher Michel / CC BY 2.0.

Song Cultures of Humpback Whales Give Insight into Evolutionary Learning

Jul 26, 2017 by News Staff

Culture was once thought to be what distinguishes humans from other animals. However, research by a University of St Andrews-led team of scientists studying...

The Hoodwinker Sunfish (Mola tecta) in Reserva Marina Isla Chanaral, Chile, 2015. Image credit: Cesar Villarroel, https://vimeo.com/129499857.

Scientists Identify New Species of Ocean Sunfish: Hoodwinker Sunfish (Mola tecta)

Jul 25, 2017 by News Staff

A group of marine biologists led by Murdoch University researcher Marianne Nyegaard has identified and described an elusive new species of ocean sunfish. The...

The Dixie Valley toad (Bufo williamsi). Image credit: Mike Wolterbeek, University of Nevada, Reno.

Three New Toad Species Discovered in Nevada

Jul 25, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by University of Nevada Professor C. Richard (Dick) Tracy has discovered three new toad species in the Great Basin region of...

This digitally-colorized scanning electron microscopic (SEM) image depicts a number of mustard-colored, spheroid-shaped Staphylococcus aureus bacteria that were in the process of escaping their destruction by blue-colored human white blood cells. Magnification - 20,000x. Image credit: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Study: MRSA Emerged Long Before Introduction of Antibiotic Methicillin into Clinical Practice

Jul 21, 2017 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Genome Biology, methicillin use was not the original driving factor in the evolution of methicillin-resistant...

Gaudry et al demonstrate that members of various lineages (for example, cetaceans, horses, woolly mammoths, Steller’s sea cows) evolved extreme cold hardiness in the absence of UCP1-mediated thermogenesis. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Single Gene Linked to Evolutionary Rise of Multiple Mammalian Lineages

Jul 17, 2017 by News Staff

Ancient, independent inactivations of the ucp1 gene, which encodes the uncoupling protein 1, or UCP1 (essential for thermogenesis in brown fat), were a...

This scanning electron microscope image shows a tardigrade. Image credit: Diane Nelson, National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior.

Earth’s Most Indestructible Creature Identified: Tardigrade

Jul 14, 2017 by News Staff

Water-dwelling, eight-legged, segmented micro-animals called tardigrades will survive the risk of extinction from all astrophysical catastrophes, and be...

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