Biology News

Pallas’s Cats Inhabit Mount Everest Region, New Study Shows

The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul). Image credit: Nicolas Fischer / CC BY 3.0.
Jan 26, 2023 by Natali Anderson

At least two individuals of the Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) live in Sagarmatha National Park, Mount Everest region, eastern Nepal, according to a genetic analysis by Dr. Tracie Seimon of Wildlife Conservation Society’s Zoological Health Program, based at the Bronx Zoo, and colleagues. The team’s findings extend the range of the Pallas’s cat into eastern Nepal and add a new species to the list of known mammals in Sagarmatha National Park. The...

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Live adult male paratype of Sinocyclocheilus longicornus. Image credit: Xu et al., doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1141.91501.

New Fish Species Has Mysterious Horn-Like Structure on the Back of Its Head

Jan 24, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Sinocyclocheilus longicornus inhabits a completely dark cave in southwestern Guizhou province in China. Live adult male paratype of Sinocyclocheilus longicornus....

Nepenthes species sampled in Malaysian Borneo during the study: (A) Nepenthes burbidgeae, (B) Nepenthes edwardsiana, (C) Nepenthes lowii, (D) Nepenthes macrophylla, (E) Nepenthes rajah and (F) Nepenthes villosa. Note the presence of mammal droppings in (D) and (E). Image credit: A. van der Ent / A. Robinson.

Study: Some Tropical Pitcher Plants Capture Mammal Droppings

Jan 20, 2023 by News Staff

Nepenthes are some of the most recognizable carnivorous plants on the planet, capturing and digesting organic material in their modified leaves to acquire...

Legionella bononiensis, magnification 20 ,000x. Image credit: Girolamini et al., doi: 10.1099/ijsem.0.005512.

New Legionella Species Discovered in Italy

Jan 11, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Legionella are Gram-negative aerobic bacilli that live in fresh and man-made water environments. Legionella bononiensis, magnification 20 ,000x. Image...

DeLong et al. estimate that each Halteria in their experiments ate 10,000 to one million viruses per day. Image credit: Proyecto Agua.

Halteria: These Freshwater Microorganisms Can Grow on Virus-Only Diet

Jan 10, 2023 by News Staff

Halteria, a genus of microscopic planktonic ciliates that are found in many freshwater environments, can eat huge numbers of infectious chloroviruses —...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

New Research Shows How Humans Lost Their Body Hair

Jan 6, 2023 by News Staff

Humans, whales, elephants, and naked mole-rats all share a somewhat rare trait for mammals: their bodies are covered with little to no hair. The common...

The newly-discovered frog species Mantidactylus mahery. Image credit: Scherz et al., doi: 10.11646/megataxa.7.2.1.

Twenty New Species of Frogs Discovered in Madagascar

Jan 3, 2023 by News Staff

The newly-discovered frog species belong to the subgenus Brygoomantis within the mantellid frog genus Mantidactylus. The newly-discovered frog species...

The Qilian bluetail (Tarsiger albocoeruleus). Image credit: Xianting Wang.

Two New Species of Bush Robins Identified in Asia

Jan 2, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Bush robins are members of the genus Tarsiger, a group of small, colorful birds with high species richness in the Sino-Himalayan region. The Qilian bluetail...

Zolotarov et al. propose that miRNAs are intimately linked to the evolution of complex brains in octopuses and other animals. Image credit: Albert Kok / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study: microRNAs are Key to Evolution of Complex Octopus Brain

Dec 30, 2022 by News Staff

Octopuses and their cephalopod relatives are exceptionally intelligent invertebrates with a highly complex nervous system that evolved independently from...

Solanum scalarium. Image credit: T.M. Williams.

New Species of Bush Tomato Discovered in Australia

Dec 29, 2022 by News Staff

The newly-discovered species belongs to Solanum, a large and diverse genus of flowering plants in the nightshade family Solanaceae. Solanum scalarium....

The Mashpi glassfrog (Hyalinobatrachium mashpi), female. Image credit: Jaime Culebras.

Study: Glassfrogs Hide Red Blood Cells in Their Liver to Achieve Transparency

Dec 28, 2022 by News Staff

Transparency in animals is a complex form of camouflage involving mechanisms that reduce the scattering and absorption of light throughout the organism....

Neri et al. expanded RNA virus diversity from 13,282 to 124,873 distinct clusters at a granularity level between species and genus. Image credit: Neri et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2022.08.023.

Biologists Discover Over 100,000 New Types of RNA Viruses

Dec 26, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from Tel Aviv University and elsewhere have detected 111,000 new RNA virus genomes in global environmental data from diverse habitats and hosts....

Scanning electron micrograph of a ‘Candidatus Lokiarchaeum ossiferum’ cell showing the long and complex cell protrusions. Image credit: Thiago Rodrigues-Oliveira, University of Vienna.

Study: Enigmatic Asgard Archaea Have Complex Cellular Architecture and Extensive Cytoskeleton

Dec 22, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Asgard archaea (Asgardarchaeota) are considered to be the closest known relatives of eukaryotes, organisms (including animals, plants and fungi) whose...

Prešeren with Slovenia’s highest mountain Triglav in the background. Image credit: Genov et al., doi: 10.1007/s42991-022-00316-5.

Marine Biologists Document Longest Recorded Movement by Inshore Bottlenose Dolphin

Dec 22, 2022 by News Staff

An international team of marine scientists from the United Kingdom, Slovenia and Italy has documented the longest recorded movement in an inshore common...

This graphical abstract depicts the rise of new genes in humans. Image credit: Vakirlis et al., doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111808.

Homo sapiens is Still Evolving, New Study Shows

Dec 21, 2022 by News Staff

Scientists from the Institute for Fundamental Biomedical Research at the Biomedical Sciences Research Center ‘Alexander Fleming’ and the Smurfit Institute...

The Eastern Tropical Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus nuuanu). Image credit: NOAA / NMFS / SWFSC.

New Subspecies of Common Bottlenose Dolphin Identified

Dec 19, 2022 by Natali Anderson

The Eastern Tropical Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus nuuanu) prefers the deep waters off southern Baja California, the Pacific coast of...

Thottea beungongtanoeh flower. Image credit: Wendy A. Mustaqim.

Beautiful New Species of Flowering Plant Discovered

Dec 14, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Botanists from the Universitas Samudra have described a new species of the flowering plant genus Thottea from the lowland mixed forests of northern Sumatra,...

Shlosberg et al. present a method to simultaneously absorb carbon dioxide while producing an electrical current with minimal engineering requirements. Image credit: Shlosberg et al., doi: 10.1021/acsami.2c15123.

Researchers Turn Succulent Plant into Living ‘Bio-Solar Cell’

Dec 14, 2022 by News Staff

Harvesting an electrical current from biological photosynthetic systems, such as live cells, is typically achieved by immersion of the system into an electrolyte...

The nibblerid microbial predator Ubysseya fretuma. Image credit: Tikhonenkov et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05511-5.

Meet Provora, New Supergroup of Eukaryotes

Dec 8, 2022 by News Staff

Ten previously undescribed strains of microbial predators isolated from geographically distinct marine habitats — including coral reefs of Curaçao,...

The Hainan rhinoceros snake (Gonyosoma hainanense). Image credit: Mian Hou / Peng et al., doi: 10.24272/j.issn.2095-8137.2021.085.

Cryptic New Species of Rhinoceros Snake Identified in China

Dec 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have described a new species of the snake genus Gonyosoma from Hainan Island, China. The Hainan rhinoceros snake (Gonyosoma hainanense). Image...

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