Biology News

New Study Evaluates Nutritional Needs of Polar Bears

Willy (Wilhelm) the polar bear at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. Image credit: John / CC BY 2.0.
Apr 2, 2015 by News Staff

Polar bears (Ursus maritimus), increasingly forced on shore due to sea ice loss, may be eating land-based foods, but any nutritional gains are limited to a few individuals and likely cannot compensate for lost opportunities to consume their traditional prey, says a new study led by Dr Karyn Rode of the U.S. Geological Survey’s Alaska Science Center in Anchorage. Willy (Wilhelm) the polar bear at the North Carolina Zoo in Asheboro. Image credit:...

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Arabian spiny mice (Acomys cahirinus). Image credit: Andy Mabbett / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Male Mice Sing like Songbirds to Attract Females

Apr 1, 2015 by News Staff

Male mice produce highly complex ultrasonic vocalizations (USVs) to seduce females, says a team of biologists led by Duke University Medical Center. Arabian...

The blackpoll warbler (Setophaga striata). The ornithologists found that in some cases, the birds flew more than 2,500 km, non-stop, to reach their destinations. Image credit: William H. Majoros / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Blackpoll Warblers Migrate Thousands of Miles across Atlantic Ocean, Scientists Find

Apr 1, 2015 by News Staff

A team of ornithologists led by William DeLuca of the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, reports the first direct evidence that the blackpoll warbler...

The Lesser bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea minor) was one of 977 species examined by Prof Peter Dunn and his colleagues at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in a worldwide study of the evolution of bird colors. Image credit: Reza Pratama / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Natural Selection Drives Evolution of Bird Colors, Say Scientists

Mar 30, 2015 by News Staff

In a worldwide study of the evolution of bird plumage coloration, a team of scientists led by Prof Peter Dunn of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee...

Giant panda cub Xiao Liwu and his mother Bai Yun at the San Diego Zoo.

New Study Sheds More Light on Secret Life of Giant Pandas

Mar 28, 2015 by News Staff

A new study, led by Dr Vanessa Hull of the Michigan State University’s Center for Systems Integration and Sustainability, has revealed more details on...

Skin texture variation in one individual Pristimantis mutabilis; note how skin texture shifts from highly tubercular to almost smooth; also note the relative size of the tubercles on the eyelid, lower lip, dorsum and limbs. Image credit: Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Pristimantis mutabilis: Scientists Discover Shape-Shifting Frog in Ecuador

Mar 24, 2015 by News Staff

Case Western Reserve University PhD student Katherine Krynak, naturalist Tim Krynak of Cleveland Metroparks’ Natural Resources Division, and their colleagues...

Neonothopanus gardneri. Image credit: Marina Capelari et al, doi: 10.3852/11-097.

New Study Explains Why Some Fungi Glow

Mar 20, 2015 by News Staff

According to a study co-led by Dr Cassius Stevani of the University of São Paulo and Prof Jay Dunlap of the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, the...

Freshwater shrimp Gammarus duebeni celticus. Image credit: University of Leeds.

Tiny Parasite Pleistophora mulleri Can Turn Freshwater Shrimp to Cannibalism

Mar 19, 2015 by News Staff

In a new study published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, scientists from the University of Leeds, Queen’s University Belfast and Stellenbosch...

Blue-Bearded Helmetcrest Rediscovered in Colombia, Photographed for First Time

Mar 19, 2015 by News Staff

Long thought to be extinct, the blue-bearded helmetcrest (Oxypogon cyanolaemus) – one of the world’s rarest hummingbirds – has been caught...

X-rays stream off the Sun in this image. The NuSTAR data, seen in green and blue, reveal solar high-energy emission (green shows energies between 2 and 3 kiloelectron volts, and blue shows energies between 3 and 5 kiloelectron volts). The high-energy X-rays come from gas heated to above 3 million degrees. The red channel represents UV light captured by SDO at wavelengths of 171 angstroms, and shows the presence of lower-temperature material in the solar atmosphere at 1 million degrees. This image shows that some of the hotter emission tracked by NuSTAR is coming from different locations in the active regions and the coronal loops than the cooler emission shown in the SDO image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / GSFC.

Lifespan Linked to Solar Activity in New Research

Mar 14, 2015 by News Staff

People born when there was low solar activity lived longer on average than those born during times when there was more solar activity, according to a study...

The Antarctic octopus Pareledone charcoti. Image credit: Tomas Lundälv.

How Antarctic Octopus Pareledone charcoti Survives Extreme Temperatures

Mar 12, 2015 by News Staff

Pareledone charcoti, a shallow-water species of octopus from the Antarctic, uses an unique strategy to transport oxygen in its blood, says a new study...

Perijá Tapaculo: New Bird Species Discovered in Colombia, Venezuela

Mar 12, 2015 by News Staff

An international group of ornithologists led by Dr Jorge Enrique Avendaño of the Universidad de los Andes in Bogotá has described a new species of tapaculo...

The veiled chameleon, Chamaeleo calyptratus. Image credit: Russell Ligon.

Researchers Explain How Chameleons Change Color

Mar 11, 2015 by News Staff

According to a team of scientists at the University of Geneva, Switzerland, chameleons shift color through active tuning of a lattice of nanocrystals within...

Cats love cat-appropriate songs. Image credit: © Natali Anderson.

Cats Prefer ‘Cat Music,’ New Study Says

Mar 10, 2015 by News Staff

While cats ignore human music, they are highly responsive to music written especially for them, says a new study reported in the journal Applied Animal...

Moist muddy layer with Zospeum vasconicum in the Cueva Arrikrutz, Gipuzkoa, Spain. Image credit: Jochum A et al.

Two New Snail Species Discovered in Northern Spain

Mar 10, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of scientists headed by Dr Adrienne Jochum from the University of Bern, Switzerland, has described two new species of the genus Zospeum...

Callicebus miltoni: New Species of Titi Monkey Discovered in Brazil

Mar 9, 2015 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by Dr Julio César Dalponte of the Institute for the Conservation of Neotropical Carnivores in Atibaia has described a new species...

The Myanmar Jerdon’s babbler (Chrysomma altirostre altirostre). Image credit: © Robert Tizard / WCS.

Extremely Rare Subspecies of Jerdon’s Babbler Rediscovered in Myanmar

Mar 6, 2015 by News Staff

The Myanmar Jerdon’s babbler (Chrysomma altirostre altirostre), last seen in Myanmar more than 70 years ago, has been discovered still living in the...

Female praying mantis (Iris oratoria) in defensive posture. Image credit: Ca Pro / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Biologists Surprised by Acrobatic Skills of Juvenile Praying Mantises

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Current Biology reveals that, unlike other jumping insects, wingless baby mantises don’t spin out of control when...

A female adult Aenigmatinea glatzella on a Southern Cypress-pine stem. Image credit: George Gibbs.

New Family of Primitive Moths Discovered on Kangaroo Island

Mar 5, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of entomologists led by Dr Niklas Wahlberg from the University of Turku in Finland has described an enigmatic new species of moth...

Top: 3D reconstruction of a Mimivirus virion; the blue regions represent the areas of highest density. Bottom: computerized rendering shows a cutaway view of a collection of about 200 X-ray patterns; the images were combined to produce a 3D rendering of the Mimivirus particle. Image credit: Uppsala University.

X-ray Laser Sees Giant Mimivirus in 3D

Mar 4, 2015 by News Staff

Researchers using the Stanford University’s Linac Coherent Light Source – the world’s first hard X-ray free-electron laser and one of only...

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