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Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History
Amphibians, Reptiles, & Natural History
For more than a century, the fruit fly has been a workhorse of the biological sciences that has helped scientists to make fundamental breakthroughs in fields such as genetics and neuroscience. As it turns out, human scientists are not the only ones learning during these experiments. A recent study by Harvard neuroscientists in Current Biology shows how fruit flies are themselves figuring things out—in this case, how to manipulate balls with “play-like” experimentation.
Can our forests adapt to a hotter and drier future climate? Temperatures are predicted to rise up to 5°C compared to pre-industrial times. Forest management needs to adapt to these conditions, which requires a better understanding of how heat and drought affect trees. A new study by a team of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and EPFL shows that warming itself is not the biggest issue for trees. The work is published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
An international research team, including the Leibniz Institute for the Analysis of Biodiversity Change (LIB), has described a new species of spider from the Ecuadorian Amazon: Taczanowskia waska. The species is characterized by an extraordinary form of mimicry: It represents the first documented case in which a spider mimics the appearance of a parasitic fungus. The findings are published in the journal Zootaxa.
Heat can change a honey bee’s hormone levels, but only if the bee is alone. New research from MSU entomologist Zachary Huang shows that isolated honey bees experience a rapid hormonal rise when exposed to high temperatures, while bees kept in groups stay stable. The discovery highlights how social conditions and chemical signals shape bees’ ability to withstand environmental stress.
The movement patterns of waterfowl, including ducks, swans and geese, may affect the spread of highly pathogenic avian influenza in bird populations, according to a new study from the University of Georgia. The findings are published in the journal Ecology Letters.
A new study published in the Biodiversity Data Journal provides a profound look at life up to nearly 10 kilometers below the ocean’s surface in the Japan, Ryukyu, and Izu-Ogasawara trenches. The research catalogs at least 108 distinct organism groups (morphotaxa), including the deepest-ever observation of a fish and a baffling, unidentified animal that has left global taxonomic experts stumped.
Communication is central to the survival of most animals, including humans. Yet animals of different species communicate differently, and the complexity of their communication skills varies greatly. One characteristic of advanced communication systems is the ability to combine different sounds (i.e., vocal elements) to create structured sound sequences that convey more information. This ability, known as syntax or combinatoriality, was originally thought to be unique to humans, yet a growing body of research showed that it is also present in other species, including the Western Australian magpie.
Giving lemurs the chance to use technology to share control of sensory experiences with zoo visitors can help create meaningful connections between humans and animals, new research suggests.
Oyster reef living shorelines have been found to provide a resilient and adaptive alternative to conventional hard coastal protection, reducing wave energy while supporting oyster colonization.
Climate change may reduce yields of crops like corn and soybeans, but it can also give some plants an edge. That’s one of the takeaways of a recent study of tall goldenrod, a common wildflower that runs rampant in fields across its native range in North America and other parts of the world where it has been introduced.
Reef sharks are observed less frequently on Caribbean reefs that have high levels of diving activity and greater coastal development, according to new research published in the Journal of Applied Ecology. Even recreational activities that are often considered low impact are associated with fewer sharks on these reefs. Reef sharks play an important role in maintaining healthy reefs by helping to keep the ecosystem in balance.
New evidence suggests that a disease-causing tapeworm that has been spreading across the United States and Canada has arrived in the Pacific Northwest. The tapeworm, called Echinococcus multilocularis, lives as a parasite in coyotes, foxes and other canid species and can cause severe disease if passed to domestic dogs or humans.
Warming temperatures from climate change cause tree swallows to nest up to two weeks earlier than they did in the 1970s, but early spring cold snaps can hinder nestlings’ growth and survival, according to a new study that incorporates a four-decade Cornell dataset on the birds.
Snow leopards, leopards, and Himalayan wolves all share similar stomping grounds in Nepal’s Lapchi Valley in the Himalayas. A recent study, published in PLOS One, has taken a closer look at how these apex predators have found a way to coexist, despite limited resources.
A new study led by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) reveals that endangered sei whales regularly use the New York Bight as a key spring habitat, underscoring the importance of this heavily trafficked region for one of the world’s fastest and most elusive baleen whales.
If you were rewarded for following a particular pattern of behavior, wouldn’t you keep doing it? The answer turns out to be more nuanced than you might think. In a new study, University of Iowa researchers report that pigeons rewarded with food after pecking five buttons in any order did, indeed, decrease the variety of their sequences. However, the birds kept their options open, never gravitating toward a single sequence and consistently electing to try different sequences.
Just because a female olive baboon has mated with a specific male doesn’t mean he will be the father of her offspring. According to a new study published in PLOS Biology, mate selection continues long after copulation as the vaginal tract appears to “weed out” genetically incompatible suitors.
A plant uses a rare scent to guide its pollinator to male flowers first and to female flowers later, finds a study led by Kobe University. The work, appearing in Current Biology, uncovers a precise chemical system that not only keeps this partnership specific but also helps ensure it remains beneficial to both parties.
In a striking example of nature’s ingenuity, a collaborative research team has revealed that a bioluminescent fish glows not by producing its own light-emitting molecules, but by “stealing” them from its prey. Details of the findings were published in Scientific Reports.
For over half a century, people in Central Africa have told tales of the fish seen climbing waterfalls, but these claims have never been officially confirmed. Now, these fish have finally been caught on camera, studied more closely, and described in a study published in Scientific Reports.
Researchers Soma Chiyoda, Ko Mochizuki, and Atsushi Kawakita from the University of Tokyo have discovered that nocturnal hawkmoths are the main pollinators of Jasminanthes mucronata, a plant species native to Japan that produces black nectar. This is the first time that a colored nectar flower has been confirmed to be mainly pollinated by nocturnal insects. The discovery thus promotes further research into this so far unexplored ecology. The findings were published in the journal Ecology.
Humans are creatures of rhythms. As far as we know, humans have always sung and always danced. We can recognize a song by its rhythm alone, regardless of whether it is played fast or slow.
August Weismann’s germ plasm theory of the late 19th century posited that only germ cells, e.g., sperm and egg cells in animals or pollen and ovule cells in plants, transmit genetic information to the next generation, and that somatic mutations represent an evolutionary dead end. This theory has been highly validated in animals, whose germ cells are formed and segregated early in the organism’s development.
Anyone who keeps a bird feeder has likely had the same uneasy thought after seeing a sudden blur of wings in the yard: What was that hawk doing here?
Compounds in psychedelic drugs like DMT, psilocybin, and psilocin are naturally produced in certain plants, fungi, and animals, and have a long history of use in spiritual and therapeutic contexts. Now, a considerable amount of research is going into determining how these compounds can be translated into a therapeutic context for several mental health conditions. But to do this, researchers need to find a more sustainable way to source these compounds, as current methods raise ecological and ethical concerns.
A common antidepressant detected in rivers and streams worldwide is disrupting how fish learn, and the impact is strikingly one-sided. New research led by Monash University shows the drug amitriptyline impairs spatial learning in wild fish, but only in males. Females remain unaffected.
Yunnan Province in southwestern China is a global biodiversity hotspot, accommodating an incredible variety of plants and animals. It is also the heart of China’s coffee industry, with Yunnan accounting for almost all of the country’s coffee production. However, coffee plants are very common hosts for many types of fungi, which can act as harmful diseases, harmless residents, or natural recyclers—these factors can impact the plant’s health and how much coffee it produces.