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There Are About 73,000 Tree Species on Earth, New Study Shows

The number of tree species and individuals per continent in the Global Forest Biodiversity Initiative (GFBI) database. This dataset (blue points in the central map) was used for the parametric estimation and merged with the TREECHANGE occurrence-based data (purple points in the central map) to provide the estimates in this study. Green areas represent the global tree cover. GFBI consists of abundance-based records of 38 million trees for 28,192 species. Depicted here are some of the most frequent species recorded in each continent. Some GFBI and TREECHANGE points may overlap in the map. Image credit: Gatti et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2115329119.
Feb 1, 2022 by News Staff

Tree diversity is fundamental for forest ecosystem stability and services. However, because of limited available data, estimates of tree diversity at large geographic domains still rely heavily on published lists of species descriptions that are geographically uneven in coverage. Based on global ground-sourced data, a multinational team of scientists has estimated the total tree species richness at global, continental, and biome levels. Their results...

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The Meratus white-eye in the Meratus Mountains, South Kalimantan province, Indonesia, on July 9, 2016. Image credit: Eaton et al.

Two New Bird Species Discovered on Borneo

Jan 31, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists have described two new species of the flycatcher genus Cyornis and the white-eye genus Zosterops from southeastern Borneo, Indonesia. The...

Twelfth-Century Chronicle Contains Description of Ball Lightning

Jan 28, 2022 by News Staff

Durham University professors Brian Tanner and Giles Gasper have found a credible description of ball lightning in a monastic chronicle compiled and composed...

The hogfish (Lachnolaimus maximus). Image credit: Brian Gratwicke / CC BY 2.0.

Sound Communication is Widespread among Fish, Study Says

Jan 28, 2022 by News Staff

New research led by Cornell University scientists shows that sound production appeared in the ray-finned fishes (clade Actinopterygii) circa 155 million...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Canine Genetic Mutation Associated with Small Body Size Arose More Than 53,000 Years Ago

Jan 28, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers have assembled a catalog of 1,431 genomes, inclusive of ancient canines, modern breed dogs, and wild canids, in a search for genetic variants...

This image from the Context Camera onboard NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter shows Bosporos Planum on Mars; the white specks are salt deposits found within a dry channel; the largest impact crater in the scene is nearly 1.5 km (one mile) across. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS.

Water Flowed on Martian Surface as Recently as Two Billion Years Ago, Study Suggests

Jan 27, 2022 by News Staff

It’s commonly believed that Martian liquid water evaporated about 3 billion years ago, but a duo of planetary scientists from Caltech and Johns Hopkins...

Researchers Successfully Regrow African Clawed Frog’s Lost Leg

Jan 26, 2022 by News Staff

Limb regeneration is a frontier in biomedical science. Organisms such as the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis) — whose limited regenerative capacities...

Watermelon is a unique fruit loved for its sweet juicy flesh and strong ties to hot summer days, picnics, and family gatherings. Image credit: Andrea Petra Fogas.

Regular Watermelon Consumption May Help Promote Cardio-Metabolic Health

Jan 26, 2022 by Natali Anderson

A team of researchers from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the Illinois Institute of Technology has reviewed the preclinical and clinical...

An artist’s impression of the James Webb Space Telescope. Image credit: ESA.

Webb Arrives at Second Lagrange Point of Sun-Earth System

Jan 25, 2022 by News Staff

On January 24, 2021, the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope fired its thrusters for 297 seconds to complete the final post launch course correction...

Physicists Detect Exotic Particles in Quark-Gluon Plasma

Jan 25, 2022 by News Staff

Physicists from the CMS (Compact Muon Solenoid) Collaboration at CERN’s Large Hadron Collider have detected about 100 particles of a type known as X(3872)...

New Species of Branching Worm Discovered in Waters Off Japan

Jan 21, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Marine biologists have described a third species of branching syllid worm — and the second within the genus Ramisyllis — living inside an undescribed...

Coffee Consumption Has Stimulating Effect on Digestive Processes, New Review Says

Jan 21, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Since coffee is widely consumed worldwide, it is of critical importance to know its effects on the first organs of the body with which it comes in contact...

Mimas’ surface, like the surfaces of most of the other major Saturnian moons without atmospheres, is not pure ice but contains some dark impurities; the relatively dark markings appear along the lower portion of the walls of the 130-km-wide Herschel Crater (the peak in the middle of the crater is about as tall as Mount Everest; the impact that made it likely almost destroyed the moon) and some of the smaller craters; scientists interpret this darkening as evidence for the gradual concentration of impurities from evaporating icy materials in areas where the dark impurities slide slowly down the crater wall. Image credit: NASA / JPL / Space Science Institute.

Saturn’s Moon Mimas Hosts Global Ocean, New Study Suggests

Jan 20, 2022 by News Staff

Mimas, the smallest and innermost of Saturn’s eight main moons, may be warm enough to harbor a global, liquid water ocean beneath a 24-31-km (15-19-mile)...

A male giant panda named Xiao Liwu at San Diego Zoo, California, the United States. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Giant Pandas Gain More Weight when Eating Bamboo Shoots: Study

Jan 20, 2022 by News Staff

Shifts in the gut microbiota of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in the season when nutritious bamboo shoots become available helps the herbivorous...

Crossota millsae is one of the most colorful residents of the ocean’s midnight zone. Image credit: MBARI.

Psychedelic Jellies Caught on Video in Monterey Canyon

Jan 18, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Marine biologists from the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) have observed several species of the jellyfish genus Crossota in Monterey Bay,...

A slice through the 3D map of galaxies from the first few months of the DESI survey. The Earth is at the center, with the furthest galaxies plotted at distances of 10 billion light-years. Each point represents one galaxy. This version of the DESI map shows a subset of 400,000 of the 35 million galaxies that will be in the final map. Image credit: D. Schlegel / DESI / Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory / M. Zamani, NSF’s NOIRLab.

DESI Creates Largest and Most Detailed Map of Universe Ever

Jan 17, 2022 by News Staff

The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI), a multi-object survey spectrograph installed on the Nicholas U. Mayall 4-m Telescope at Kitt Peak National...

WASP-103b has been deformed by the strong tidal forces between the planet and its host star. Image credit: ESA.

CHEOPS Spots Tidally Deformed Planet around WASP-103

Jan 17, 2022 by News Staff

Astronomers have obtained 12 new high-precision transit observations of WASP-103b — a planet almost twice the size of Jupiter with 1.5 times its...

An artist’s impression of the gas giant Kepler-1708b, its moon Kepler-1708b-i, and their parent star. Image credit: Helena Valenzuela Widerström.

Astronomers Find Exomoon Candidate around Jupiter-Sized Exoplanet Kepler-1708b

Jan 14, 2022 by News Staff

In their hunt for elusive exomoon candidates, astronomers have looked at 70 cool gas giants found by NASA’s Kepler space telescope. They’ve found only...

The Greta Thunberg’s rainfrog (Pristimantis gretathunbergae). Image credit: Konrad Mebert.

New Rainfrog Species Found in Panama

Jan 13, 2022 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has described a new species of the rainfrog genus Pristimantis from the cloud forests of Panama and named it after...

The giant pangolin (Smutsia gigantea) by Joseph Wolf.

Two-Million-Year-Old Pangolin Fossil Found in Romania

Jan 12, 2022 by News Staff

The nearly complete humerus — or upper arm bone — of a pangolin from the paleontological site of Grăunceanu in Romania definitively demonstrates...

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