Bees and wasps use the same architectural solutions to join large hexagons to small hexagons
PLOSBees and wasps have converged on the same architectural solutions to nest-building problems, according to a study.
Bees and wasps have converged on the same architectural solutions to nest-building problems, according to a study.
Some of the world’s most distinct and ancient animal species, which play crucial roles in our planet’s ecosystems, are exploited for the wildlife trade across large parts of the world, according to new research from the University of Sheffield.
The Orinoco crocodile (Crocodylus intermedius) is a critically endangered species native to the Orinoco River basin in Colombia and Venezuela.
The Neolithic lifestyle, based on farming instead of hunting and gathering, emerged in the Near East around 12,000 years ago and contributed profoundly to the modern way of life.
A team of scientists have identified an ‘orphan’ gene—a gene with no identifiable homologous sequences in other species or lineages—in the seahorse Hippocampus abdominalis.
An international team of researchers has uncovered “unprecedented” snake venom resistance in an unexpected species – the legless amphibian known as caecilians.
Researchers found that rattlesnakes can buffer each other's stress response, much like humans, when they endure a stressful event together. This is the first time "social buffering" has been studied in a reptile.
A team led by Prof. WANG Wei from the Institute of Botany of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IBCAS) has unraveled the evolutionary history of the Arctic flora. The study was published in Nature Communications.
No, oxygen didn’t catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth’s first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago.
A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of Leicester have discovered that the genes required for learning, memory, aggression and other complex behaviours originated around 650 million years ago.
Oceanic islands provide useful models for ecology, biogeography and evolutionary research. Many ground-breaking findings – including Darwin's theory of evolution – have emerged from the study of species on islands and their interplay with their living and non-living environment. Now, an international research team led by the University of Göttingen has investigated the flora of the Canary Island of Tenerife. The results were surprising: the island's plant-life exhibits a remarkable diversity of forms.
In busy Los Angeles, few people pay attention to what’s under their feet, but a new underground movement has people looking at the subterranean world just below the surface. A team of scientists discovered a new species of millipede crawling just beneath the soil surface in Los Angeles and Orange counties. These never-before-seen creatures are pale, blind, thin, inch-long burrowers with the ability to produce a silk-like sticky substance, similar to spider silk.
An international team of scientists examining the genetic history of sea snakes have found that the species has enhanced their colour vision in response to living in brighter and more colourful marine environments.
Researchers have finally settled a decades-long dispute about the evolutionary origins of the pygmy right whale.
The Xerces Blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche xerces) was native to the coastal dunes of San Francisco, in the United States. As the city grew, much of the butterfly’s habitat was destroyed and its population was relegated to Golden Gate National Park.
EMSL user Kim Tait is using Martian meteorites to determine if the necessary ingredients for life once existed on Mars. Tait explains how these findings could teach us about evolution of life on our own planet.
Orangutans are dependent on their mothers longer than any other non-human animal, nursing until they are at least six years old and living with her for up to three more years, learning how to find, choose, and process the exceedingly varied range of foods they eat.
A spectacular crocodile newt from the Central Highlands of Vietnam was just published in the international peer-reviewed open-access academic journal ZooKeys.
If you travel to Bali, you won’t see a cockatoo, but if you go to the neighbouring island of Lombok, you will. The situation is similar with marsupials: Australia is home to numerous marsupial species, such as the kangaroo and the koala. The further west you go, the sparser they become.
University of Oregon archaeologists have found evidence suggesting humans occupied the Rimrock Draw Rockshelter outside of Riley, Oregon more than 18,000 years ago.
Biomechanical studies on the arachnid-like front “legs” of an extinct apex predator show that the 2-foot (60-centimeter) marine animal Anomalocaris canadensis was likely much weaker than once assumed. One of the largest animals to live during the Cambrian, it was probably agile and fast, darting after soft prey in the open water rather than pursuing hard-shelled creatures on the ocean floor.
University of South Australia scientists have found a way to remotely measure the heart rates of chimpanzees using a digital camera and artificial intelligence. It's hoped the contact-free technique will help detect cardiac disease in the species.
For the first time, researchers have succeeded in predicting how to change the optimum temperature of an enzyme using large computer calculations.
For a number of years, mounting evidence has shown that the microbiome – the totality of all microorganisms that inhabit a living being – interacts with its host in various ways and can influence key life processes.
A team led by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin has filled a major gap in the state’s fossil record – describing the first known Jurassic vertebrate fossils in Texas.
A study led by the University of Oxford has brought us one step closer to solving a mystery that has puzzled naturalists since Charles Darwin: when did animals first appear in the history of Earth?
From the 20-foot-long jawbones of the filter-feeding blue whale to the short, but bone-crushing, jaws of the hyena and the delicate chin bones of a human, the pair of lower jawbones characteristic of mammals have evolved with amazing variation.
Orangutans can make two separate sounds simultaneously, much like songbirds or human beatboxers, according to a study led by the University of Warwick.
A new study finds that the gigantic prehistoric Megalodon or megatooth shark was warm-blooded. DePaul University paleobiologist Kenshu Shimada sheds light on the physiology of Megalodon and reveals new clues about how climate change may have led to the shark’s demise.
The recent tragic loss of the Titan submersible in the depths of the North Atlantic has brought the fascinating (and very dangerous) world of Oceanography and Marine Science to the forefront. Below are some recent stories that have been added to the Marine Science channel on Newswise, including expert commentary on the Titan submersible.
Researchers from the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History have identified the oldest decisive evidence of humans’ close evolutionary relatives butchering and likely eating one another.
Have you ever wondered what the earliest ancestors of today’s dolphins looked like? Then look no further, meet Olympicetus thalassodon, a new species of early odontocete, or toothed whale, that swam along the North Pacific coastline around 28 million years ago.
Thor, the legendary Norse god from the mythological city of Asgard, is not alone. According to groundbreaking research published in the journal Nature, we humans — along with eagles, starfish, daisies and every complex organism on Earth — are, in a sense, Asgardians.
15 years of archaeological work in the Tam Pa Ling cave in Laos has yielded a reliable chronology of early human occupation of the site, scientists report in Nature Communications. Excavations reveal that humans lived in the area for at least 70,000 years – and likely even longer.
Markings on a cave wall in France are the oldest known engravings made by Neanderthals, according to a study published June 21, 2023 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jean-Claude Marquet of the University of Tours, France and colleagues.
The distant ancestors of modern horses had hooved toes instead of a single hoof, which vanished over time, according to researchers.
In the age of dinosaurs, many marine reptiles had extremely long necks compared to reptiles today.
Leaf arrangements in the earliest plants differ from most modern plants, overturning a long-held theory regarding the origins of a famous mathematical pattern found in nature, research shows.
When introducing a new species to science, taxonomists always get to choose its scientific name. And while there are some general rules to naming, there’s also relative freedom.
A Cambridge University researcher has digitally reconstructed the missing soft tissue of an early human ancestor – or hominin – for the first time, revealing a capability to stand as erect as we do today.
Put yourself in the exoskeleton of a bumblebee for a moment: your world would be a riot of colors and scents, both essential to guide your search for pollen and nectar.
A new paper in Molecular Biology and Evolution, published by Oxford University Press, shows that a condition known as Dupuytren's disease is partly of Neandertal origin.
Extinct kangaroos used alternative methods to their famous hop according to comprehensive analysis from University of Bristol and the University of Uppsala scientists.
In a recent article published in the journal Nature Communications, Binghamton University Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences Adam Session and Daniel S. Rokhsar, a professor of genetics, evolution and development at the University of California, Berkeley, outline a way to trace these genomes back to the polypoid hybrid’s parent species.
Genetic variation is the ultimate fuel for evolution, says Utah State University evolutionary geneticist Zachariah Gompert. But, over centuries, that fuel reservoir gets depleted in the course of natural selection and random genetic drift.
Cratons are pieces of ancient continents that formed several billions of years ago. Their study provides a window as to how processes within and on the surface of Earth operated in the past.
The earliest reptiles, birds and mammals may have borne live young, researchers from Nanjing University and University of Bristol have revealed.
Recent scientific discoveries have shown that Neanderthal genes comprise some 1 to 4% of the genome of present-day humans whose ancestors migrated out of Africa, but the question remained open on how much those genes are still actively influencing human traits — until now.
Tightly curled scalp hair protected early humans from the sun’s radiative heat, allowing their brains to grow to sizes comparable to those of modern humans. Loughborough University researchers in the UK worked with Penn State University to study heat transfer through human hair wigs and the environment to examine how diverse hair textures affect heat gain from solar radiation.
Socially tolerant species are better at controlling their emotions and behaviours, according to a new study of one of humanity's closest relatives.