Biodiversity

Credit: Therese van Wyk, University of Johannesburg An unusual skullcap and thousands of clues have created a southern twist to the story of human ancestors, in research published in Science on 3 April. The rolling hills…

Credit: Zac Forsman A new study by researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology (SOEST) found that human-induced environmental stressors have a large effect on the genetic…

Credit: Emma M. Brinley Buckley Over the past few decades, the critically endangered whooping crane (Grus Americana) has experienced considerable recovery. However, in a report appearing April 2 in the journal Heliyon, researchers…

Credit: Manu San Felix, National Geographic It's not too late to rescue global marine life, according to a study outlining the steps needed for marine ecosystems to recover from damage by 2050. University of Queensland…

New study points to successes and gaps in the state's landscape-level conservation designCredit: Joshua Brown/UVM For the first time in more than a century, Vermont and neighboring states are losing forestland to development at a rate…

Credit: José Alejandro Alvarez The rich biodiversity of coral reefs even extends to microbial communities within fish, according to new research. The study in Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences reports that…

Credit: Kat Halsey As part of their project BioSCAN - devoted to the exploration of the unknown insect diversity in and around the city of Los Angeles - the scientists at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County (USA)…

Credit: SDU Many aquatic animals like frogs and turtles spend a big part of their lives under water and have adapted to this condition in various ways, one being that they have excellent hearing under water. A new study shows…

Credit: Elina Numminen An analysis based on mathematical statistics more precise than those previously carried out uncovered the reason why powdery mildew fungi on Åland are most abundant in roadsides and crossings. Identified…

Credit: Javier de la Puente The Common Nightingale, known for its beautiful song, breeds in Europe and parts of Asia and migrates to sub-Saharan Africa every winter. A new study published in The Auk: Ornithological Advances suggests that…

Testicular cells survive cryopreservation after dissociationCredit: Ex-situ Iberian Lynx Program A research team at the German Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW) developed a method to isolate and…

Credit: Bob Beschta, OSU CORVALLIS, Ore. - Increasing numbers of bison in Yellowstone National Park in recent years have become a barrier to ecosystem recovery in the iconic Lamar Valley in the northern part of the park,…

Credit: Noa Pinter-Wollman The idea of a complex spider society--in which thousands of spiders live, hunt, and raise their young together in a single colony--is unsettling to many of us. We are perhaps lucky then that this scene is…

Researchers investigate how forests are changing in response to global warming As the climate is changing, so too are the world's forests. From the misty redwoods in the west to the Blue Ridge forest of Appalachia, many sylvan ecosystems…

Study pinpoints minimum survivable size of Jurassic crocodilesCredit: Steve Castillo / Evolution: International Journal of Organic Evolution / Scott Schrage Taking the evolutionary plunge into water and abandoning land for good, as some…

Credit: Andreas Hartl Sometimes referred to as the "the Methuselah of freshwater fish", sturgeons and their close relatives are very old from an evolutionary point of view. Fossils indicate that sturgeons date back 250 million…

West African lions are a critically endangered subpopulation, with an estimated 400 remaining and strong evidence of ongoing declines. About 90% of these lions live in West Africa's largest protected area complex, the W-Arly-Pendjari.…

Credit: NIOZ A variety of sea animals can take up virus particles while filtering seawater for oxygen and food. Sponges are particularly efficient. That was written by marine ecologist Jennifer Welsh from NIOZ this week, in a publication…

The long journey of the African baboonCredit: UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA A study published in Journal of Human Evolution reveals for the first time the diet of the fossil baboon Theropithecus oswaldi found in Cueva Victoria in Cartagena…

In an effort to help with and advance conservation, scientists have been investigating the microbiome of the protected Krefft's river turtleCredit: Dr Donald McKnight Research published in the journal Microbiology has found that a unique…