Biology News

Musa nanensis: New Species of Wild Banana Discovered in Thailand

Musa nanensis: male inflorescence. Image credit: P. Srisanga.
Oct 18, 2015 by News Staff

A team of Thai botanists has announced the discovery of what they say is a new species of wild banana. Musa nanensis: male inflorescence. Image credit: P. Srisanga. The newly-discovered species belongs to Musa, a large genus in the family Musaceae containing more than 70 species of bananas and plantains. The species’ scientific name – Musa nanensis – honors the Thai northern province of Nan, where the type specimens of this new species...

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A honeybee foraging on a citrus flower, which is one of the flowers whose nectar contains caffeine. Image credit: Jon Sullivan.

Plants Use Caffeine-Laced Nectar to Trick Honeybees into Pollination

Oct 17, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new paper in the journal Current Biology, honeybees may select caffeinated nectar over an uncaffeinated but otherwise equal-quality alternative....

Sommera cusucoana: tip of shoot with flower, developing fruits, and leaf pair emerging between pair of stipules. Image credit: A.C. Dietzsch.

Scientists Uncover New Coffee Tree Species in Honduras

Oct 15, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of coffee tree has been described from the Cusuco National Park, a national park in Honduras. Sommera cusucoana: tip of shoot with flower,...

This image shows the structure of DNA calculated with the supercomputer simulations (in color) superimposed upon the electron cryo-tomography data (in white or yellow); one can see that the familiar double helix has been either simply bent into a circle or twisted into a figure-8. Image credit: Thana Sutthibutpong.

Research Casts New Light on 3D Structure of DNA

Oct 13, 2015 by News Staff

Using a multidisciplinary approach, an international team of scientists has revealed in never-before-seen detail the 3D structure of biologically active...

The Montagne d’Ambre dwarf lemur (Cheirogaleus andysabini) in its natural habitat. The population of this new species is found in and just outside the boundaries of Montagne d’Ambre National Park, Madagascar. Image credit: Edward E. Louis, Jr.

Montagne d’Ambre Dwarf Lemur: New Species Found

Oct 12, 2015 by News Staff

In northern Madagascar’s Montagne d’Ambre National Park, Dr Runhua Lei of the Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium and his colleagues from Australia,...

Phylogeny of birds. Image credit: Richard O. Prum et al., doi: 10.1038/nature15697.

Ornithologists Publish Most Comprehensive Avian Tree of Life

Oct 9, 2015 by News Staff

The most comprehensive and accurate avian tree of life has been published in the current issue of the journal Nature. Phylogeny of birds. The five major,...

Scydosella musawasensis. Image credit: Alexey Polilov.

Scydosella musawasensis: World’s Tiniest Beetle Lives in Colombia

Oct 9, 2015 by News Staff

The smallest known beetle – and the smallest non-parasitoid insect – has a body length of 0.325 mm, according to entomologist Dr Alexey Polilov...

Cophixalus rajampatensis. Image credit: Günther R et al.

Two New Species of Narrow-Mouthed Frogs Discovered in Western New Guinea

Oct 7, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Rainer Günther, a German herpetologist at the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, and his colleagues from Australia and Indonesia have described two new...

Cacti in the Sonoran Desert. Image credit: Bob Wick / Bureau of Land Management / CC BY 2.0.

Study: Almost One Third of All Cactus Species on Verge of Extinction

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

Nearly 30 percent of 1,478 known cactus species are on the verge of extinction, according to a new report published yesterday in the journal Nature Plants. Cacti...

The Sulawesi snouter (Hyorhinomys stuempkei). Image credit: Jake Esselstyn / Louisiana State University.

Hyorhinomys stuempkei: New Genus, Species of Shrew Rat Discovered in Indonesia

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Jake Esselstyn of Louisiana State University and his colleagues from Indonesia and Australia have discovered a new genus and species of shrew rat in...

A family of moose roams free in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. Image credit: Valeriy Yurko / Polesie State Radioecological Reserve.

Researchers Discover Abundant Populations of Wildlife in Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Oct 6, 2015 by News Staff

In 1986, after a catastrophic nuclear accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet Union released radioactive particles into the environment,...

Dendrochilum hampelii. Image credit: Lubbert Westra / Sulistyo B et al.

‘Big Pink’ Orchid Turns Out To Be New Species

Oct 2, 2015 by News Staff

In 2013, a rare and beautiful variety of orchid appeared in cultivation under the commercial trade name ‘Big Pink.’ Now, research by Dutch and Australian...

Mealworms (larvae of the darkling beetle) munch on Styrofoam, a hopeful sign that solutions to plastics pollution exist. Image credit: Yu Yang.

Common Mealworms Can Live on Diet of Polystyrene, Scientists Say

Oct 1, 2015 by News Staff

Mealworms, which are the larvae of the darkling beetle (Tenebrio molitor), can subsist on a diet of Styrofoam and other forms of polystyrene, according...

Pandoravirus salinus (© IGS CNRS-AMU)

Study: Viruses Are Living Entities, Not Machines

Sep 30, 2015 by News Staff

Viruses are fully-alive organisms that share a long evolutionary history with cells, according to a new study published last week in the journal Science...

The holotype of Angustopila dominikae in the eye of a sewing needle to picture its extraordinary small size. Image credit: B. Pall-Gergely / N. Szpisjak.

Scientists Discover Seven New Species of Microsnails in China

Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

Seven new species of minute land snails have been discovered in the Chinese province of Guangxi by Dr Barna Pall-Gergely of Shinshu University and his...

Aurora borealis over Norway. Image credit: Carsten / CC BY 2.0.

Arctic Polar Night Isn’t for Sleep, Researchers Say

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

The Arctic polar night is not a period without any biological activity as had been assumed, says a large international team of biologists led by Norwegian...

The forest bumblebee (Bombus sylvicola) is one of two bumblebee species in the central Rocky Mountains that has responded to a decline in flowering in alpine habitats by evolving a shorter tongue. Image credit: Nicole Miller-Struttman.

Study: Global Warming Shrinking Tongues of Alpine Bumblebees

Sep 25, 2015 by News Staff

A new study in the journal Science shows that two alpine bumblebee species have responded to a decline in flowering due to warming temperatures by evolving...

We each give off millions of bacteria from our human microbiome to the air around us every day, and that cloud of bacteria can be traced back to an individual. Image credit: Viputheshwar Sitaraman / Draw Science.

Study: Humans Have Personalized Microbial Clouds

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published online this week in the journal PeerJ has found that humans emit their own personal microbial cloud (airborne microbes we emit into...

This family tree of Earth’s lifeforms is considered a first draft of the 3.5-billion-year history of how life evolved and diverged. Colors represent proportion of lineages represented in databases of the National Center for Biotechnology Information. Image credit: Cody E. Hinchliff et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1423041112.

Researchers Create Tree of Life for More Than Two Million Species

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of scientists from eleven institutions in the U.S. has produced a first draft of the ‘tree of life’ for 2.34 million species...

May bruno. Image credit: Dirk Kunz.

New Genus, Four New Species of Huntsman Spiders Discovered in Southern Africa

Sep 16, 2015 by News Staff

German arachnologists have described a new genus and four species of huntsman spiders from South Africa and Namibia. May bruno. Image credit: Dirk Kunz. Only...

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