Biology

Nov 19th, 2024 - A nearly perfect fossil has been waiting patiently to rewrite the story of flight. In a quarry in southern Germany, encased in limestone, a nearly perfect fossil has been waiting patiently to rewrite the story of flight. The fossil, a pterosaur with a stiff, sword-like tail, is a new species described today in the journal Current Biology . This remarkable discovery, made by an international team of scientists led by Dr. David Hone of Queen Mary University of London, sheds light on a ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - This year has seen its share of severe weather—but how do these powerful storms impact forests over the long term? A Virginia Tech forest health expert breaks down the long-term effects catastrophic weather events can have and how to revive hard-hit forests. Forests can recover from large-scale disasters through natural succession, though it may take years to resemble their original state, depending on the damage. "Disruptive weather events can set back, accelerate, or completely change ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - Suctioned to a leaf bottom in the rainforests of South and Central America, glass frogs seem to vanish in plain sight—the transparent skin of their undersides erasing the hard edges of their silhouette, making them difficult for birds and other predators to spot. The most transparent of the roughly 160 glass frog species, found from southern Mexico to the northern tip of Argentina, offer living anatomy lessons, revealing intestines, red beating hearts and sometimes clusters of eggs. Many ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - By Zebras, a children's tale goes, became striped after "standing half in the shade and half out of it." While the author, Rudyard Kipling, wasn't a biologist, his story may hold some truth: research shows that when temperatures rise, animals become lighter in color, resembling the sun-exposed parts of the storybook zebra. In the humid shadows, meanwhile, darker hues prevail. As our planet warms up and rain patterns shift, the feathers and skin of many species are changing colors, often getting ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - You are not logged into your account. You have a registered email address and password on pressherald.com, but we are unable to locate a paid subscription attached to these credentials. Please Thank you for your support of local journalism! An aerial survey confirmed 3,000 acres of Maine's forest were damaged by spruce budworm in July. Modeling indicates 178,000 acres are at risk of defoliation from budworm larvae that will emerge next spring. A spruce budworm outbreak has plagued Maine's ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - Elaborate courtship, devoted parenthood, gregarious nature (and occasional cannibalism)—earwigs have a lot going for them. Few people are fond of earwigs, with their menacing abdominal pincers—whether they're skittering across your floor, getting comfy in the folds of your camping tent, or minding their own business. Scientists, too, have given them short shrift compared with the seemingly endless attention they have lavished on social insects like and . Yet, there are a handful of ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - Sign up for CNN's Wonder Theory science newsletter.  . A mummified ice age cub from Siberia is the first known mummy of a saber-toothed cat, and its discovery is generating ripples of excitement among paleontologists. The mummy's exceptional preservation provided the first view of what saber-toothed cats looked like. Written in its soft tissues are clues about where the cat's muscles were bulkiest and how that may have shaped its hunting style. Abundant fur and mummified flesh covered the ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - By Stephen Beech via Ticks could spread new diseases around the world by hitching a lift on migrating birds, warns new research. The parasitic bugs have always traveled with birds - but rising temperatures due to global warming mean they may now survive at their destination along with the diseases they carry, say scientists. Some journeys can take ticks thousands of miles from their usual geographic range but, historically, they haven't been able to establish themselves, due to unsuitable ... [Read More]

Nov 18th, 2024 - After nearly disappearing for good, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs are once again hopping happily around California's alpine lakes. Scientists are celebrating the comeback of the amphibians ( Rana sierrae ) in Yosemite National Park. Though they're still endangered, Sierra Nevada yellow-legged frogs have made a "remarkably successful" recovery from the deadly amphibian chytrid fungus , researchers report this month in the journal Nature Communications . "The lakes are alive again, completely ... [Read More]

Nov 17th, 2024 - Every day, we share our cities with an array of wildlife. From birds and insects to squirrels and raccoons, these creatures navigate the concrete jungles alongside us. But in Los Angeles, a global city of over 18 million people, there's another species sharing the living space – the elusive mountain lion. A recent study from the University of California (UC), Davis, Cal Poly Pomona, and the National Park Service highlights an intriguing aspect of urban wildlife. The researchers found that ... [Read More]

Nov 17th, 2024 - In a fascinating speculation by experts, octopuses might just be the unexpected heirs to Earth's throne if humanity were ever to vanish. According to Professor Tim Coulson, a zoologist at the University of Oxford, these eight-limbed marine animals possess extraordinary intelligence and adaptability, making them prime candidates for evolving into civilisation-building creatures in a post-human world. Octopuses are widely known for their problem-solving skills, advanced neural structures, and ... [Read More]

Nov 17th, 2024 - Researchers recently provided the first experimental evidence that hints at a trigger for social learning in the wild, particularly in birds. Their study of great tits ( Parus major ) led to the discovery that immigration can make birds pay close attention to their peers' activities, which leads to the swift adoption of useful behaviors. Interestingly, it is a long-assumed theory that immigration is a fundamental factor that boosts strategic social learning in birds. Pioneers of social learning ... [Read More]

Nov 16th, 2024 - Jon Sperling secretly spread a non-native species across the Northeast. "It's insane what this guy was doing," a biologist said. The Italian wall lizard—a cigar-size Mediterranean reptile with a green back, mottled copper flanks, and a whiplike tail—is more or less the animal you picture when someone says the word "lizard." Their ubiquity in places like Pompeii and the Colosseum has earned them the moniker "ruin lizards." Their known range extends to Slovenia, Croatia, and, since ... [Read More]

Nov 16th, 2024 - Name: Cantor's giant softshell turtle ( Pelochelys cantorii ) Where it lives: Rivers in South and Southeast Asia What it eats: Fish, crustaceans, mollusks, frogs, insects, birds, small mammals Why it's awesome: Cantor's giant softshell turtles — named in honor of Danish zoologist Theodore Edward Cantor — spend 95% of their lives completely motionless, buried under mud or sand in shallow rivers with only their eyes and snorkel-like snouts protruding out. But when these ... [Read More]

Nov 15th, 2024 - The development of a big brain in humans and its connection to social bonding has been a hot topic of debate, and secrets found in fossil teeth may hold the answers. Researchers have been studying the fossilized teeth of an early Homo from Georgia, dating back approximately 1.77 million years. The research was made possible by the European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France. The findings suggest that despite having a small brain and reaching adulthood at a similar pace to great apes, these early ... [Read More]

Nov 15th, 2024 - By Do you think teeth are boring or gross? From the iron-laden teeth of Komodo dragons to the horns on unicorns of the sea, the animal kingdom is filled with marvelous dental adaptations that will have you thinking again. Sharks are covered in toothlike scales called denticles On supporting science journalism If you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by . By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the ... [Read More]