A single letter change in DNA code can potentially decide whether a plant is a lark or a night owl, according to a study published in the journal Plant, Cell and Environment. Arabidopsis thaliana. Image credit: Carl Davies, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0. The circadian clock is a temporal program …
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Marine biologists from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History have described a new species of the hermit crab genus Cancellus from a deep bank in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico. Cancellus heatherae, female holotype, shield length – 4 mm: (A) habitus, dorsal; …
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Palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus), renowned for their human-like musical drumming behavior, are in severe decline, according to a paper published in the journal Biological Conservation. A palm cockatoos (Probosciger aterrimus). Image credit: Doug Janson / CC BY-SA 3.0. Palm cockatoos are one of the largest cockatoos, reaching 1.2 kg and …
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Marine biologists from the University of Oregon and the University of New Brunswick have recorded common, previously unknown, ultrasonic vocalizations produced by Weddell seals (Leptonychotes weddellii), the world’s southernmost-ranging mammal. They’ve identified nine recurrent call types in more than one year (2017-2018) of broadband acoustic data obtained by a continuously …
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Fleas are not a separate insect order, as previously thought, and are a lineage of scorpionflies, which evolved when they started feeding on the blood of vertebrates sometime between 290 and 165 million years ago (Permian to Jurassic periods), according to a new genetic analysis of fleas and related insects. …
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Zoologists believe they have found a previously unknown species of tree hyrax in the Taita Hills, Kenya. A female tree hyrax in Ngangao Forest, Taita Hills, Kenya. Image credit: Hanna Rosti. Tree hyraxes, members of the genus Dendrohyrax, are medium-sized (3-5 kg) mammals native to Africa. Also known as tree …
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Kangaroos, marsupial mammals that have never been domesticated, can intentionally communicate with humans, according to new research led by the University of Roehampton. The western gray kangaroo (Macropus fuliginosus) in Donnelly Mills, Western Australia. Image credit: Sean Mack / CC BY-SA 3.0. “Domestication is generally assumed to have resulted in …
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By 4 months of age, the cognitive performance of common ravens (Corvus corax) in experimental tasks is similar to those of two great ape species, chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus). Pika et al. conducted the first systematic, quantitative large-scale assessment of physical and social cognitive performance of common …
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Marine biologists working with the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believe that they have discovered a previously unknown species of beaked whale in the waters north of Mexico’s San Benito Islands. Possibly a new species of beaked whale. Image credit: Simon Ager / Sea Shepherd. A team of researchers on board …
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In a paper published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an international team of researchers described an extraordinary collective defense used by eastern honeybees (Apis cerana) in Vietnam against group-hunting giant hornets Vespa soror: in response to attack by the hornets, eastern honeybee workers foraged for and applied spots …
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