Biology

Honeybees (Apis mellifera) have individually distinct biases in ‘left- and right-handedness’ when flying through obstacles, according to new research from the University of Queensland’s Brain Institute, Australia. According to Ong et al, honeybees have individual flying direction preferences. Image credit: Walter Bichler. “Our study showed that honeybees displayed handedness that …

An international team of researchers has identified a new species of orangutan living on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Named the Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis), the species is already at a high risk of extinction, with an estimated 800 individuals living in the upland forest regions of the island. The …

According to a study led by Dr. Javier Lazaro of the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, the skulls of Eurasian shrews (Sorex araneus) shrink in anticipation of winter, by an average of 15.3%; as spring approaches, their skulls grow again to approach their previous size. The study appears in the …

Researchers involved in the E. coli long-term evolution experiment (LTEE) have debunked an established evolutionary theory with a study that provides a ‘high-resolution’ view of the molecular details of adaptation. This illustration depicts a 3D computer-generated image of a group of Escherichia coli. Image credit: James Archer, CDC. “Evolutionary adaptation …

A new species of manakin, called Machaeropterus eckelberryi, has been discovered in the foothills of southwestern Loreto and northern San Martín departments, Peru. Machaeropterus eckelberryi. Image credit: Andy Kratter, Florida Museum of Natural History. Machaeropterus eckelberryi was first sighted in the Cordillera Azul, an isolated mountain ridge in Peru, in …

According to a new study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, ancient peoples began to systemically affect the evolution of crops up to 30,000 years ago — around 10,000 years before researchers previously thought. Barley (Hordeum vulgare). Image credit: Cliff. Wild plants contain a gene which …

A team of researchers at the University of Portsmouth, UK, has found evidence that domestic dogs move their faces in direct response to human attention. Kaminski et al provide evidence that dogs are sensitive to the human’s attentional state when producing facial expressions, suggesting that facial expressions are not just …

A team of marine biologists from Monterey Bay Aquarium and the California Academy of Sciences has discovered and described a new species of the butterflyfish genus Roa from the Verde Island Passage in the Philippines, West Pacific Ocean. Roa rumsfeldi. Image credit: Luiz Rocha, California Academy of Sciences. “We named …

A new study published in the journal Southeastern Naturalist is the first to document that American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts occasionally eat three shark species and one species of stingray. An American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) caught a nurse shark in the Ding Darling National Wildlife …

According to a new study led by Lund University scientist Stanley Heinze, a network of compass and speed neurons in the bee brain integrates every detail of changes in direction and distance covered on outbound journeys, and enables the insect to return directly home. Brain of the sweat bee Megalopta …