Biology

A new study into one of the world’s oldest types of fish, the coelacanth, illuminates for the first time the development of the brain and skull of this iconic animal and provides new insights into the evolution of the vertebrate skull. A coelacanth. Image credit: Laurent Ballesta, Gombessa expeditions, Andromede …

The world’s tallest known tropical tree, and possibly the tallest flowering plant, has been discovered in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in the Malaysian part of the island of Borneo, measuring a whopping 328 feet (100.8 m). The view from the bottom of ‘Menara.’ Image credit: Unding Jami / University …

An international team of scientists has reconstructed the tree of life for all major lineages of passerines (perching birds). The Eurasian blue tit (Cyanistes caeruleus). Image credit: Francis Franklin / CC BY-SA 4.0. The team, led by Louisiana State University researcher Carl Oliveros, extracted and sequenced DNA from 221 specimens …

An international team led by Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München scientist Mark Scherz has described a new genus and five new species of tiny frogs from the island of Madagascar. Mini mum in Manombo Special Reserve, lateral view on a thumbnail. Image credit: Scherz et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213314. “The five new species belong …

Backyard bird feeding is a popular form of human-wildlife interaction in certain regions of the northern and southern hemisphere including North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Given its scale, it can have profound consequences for the ecology of feeder birds and their behavior. In a new study, researchers from …

A duo of arachnologists from Brazil has discovered a new species of short-tailed whip scorpion in eastern Amazon. Male of Surazomus saturninoae: (A) lateral, (B) dorsal and (C) ventral views. Image credit: G.R.S. Ruiz R.M. Valente, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0213268. “Schizomida (schizomids) are an order of small arachnids that display short-range endemism …

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports provides evidence that sun bears (Helarctos malayanus), a typically solitary species, have the ability to mimic the expressions of their conspecifics and that they do so by matching the exact facial variants they interact with. It is the first time exact …

  Technology has made it easier than ever to create content, be it photos, video, or an angsty Tumblr blog. You might have a device in your pocket right now that can record 4K video at dozens of megabits per second. In 2018, humanity created 33 zettabytes (that’s 33 billion …

An international team of neuroscientists and geoscientists from Caltech, the University of Tokyo, Princeton University and Tokyo Institute of Technology has discovered that the human brain can detect Earth-strength magnetic fields. Wang et al report a strong, specific human brain response to ecologically-relevant rotations of Earth-strength magnetic fields. Image credit: …

An international team of researchers has described six new species of bald-legged spiders from Colombia and established a new genus for four of them, Stormtropis. Stormtropis muisca, male. Image credit: Perafán et al, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.830.31433. Bald-legged spiders are members of Paratropididae, a family of only 11 very similarly looking, small- …