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It's not enough to understand what the effects of climate change are. Society needs ways to get ahead of these changes, to predict them before they actually happen. And when it comes to conservation, the approach scientists use to study species in the wild could be critical to these predictions, according to a recent research review led by biologist Stephanie Green and published in...

Scientists have shown that elevated heavy metal levels in rivers can lead to higher levels of antibiotic resistance.

Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History researcher Murilo Pastana and his colleagues have discovered and described two new species of Amazonian fish—one with striking red-orange fins and the other so small it is technically considered a miniature fish species—in a paper published today, May 16, in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.

Through a collaborative effort including the public, scientists from the Marine Megafauna Foundation and Murdoch University are reporting a large number of manta rays in the waters of Komodo National Park, an Indonesian UNESCO World Heritage Site, suggesting the area may hold the key to regional recovery of the threatened species.

For years, bats have gotten a bad rap as the creepy creatures lurking in the dark. But for just as long, agricultural producers have known the winged wonder is actually the hero of the story, not the villain.

An international team of biologists has successfully used biologgers to reveal insights into the lifestyle and hunting behavior of the little-known species Sowerby's beaked whale. The team's first results show that these dolphins have a surprisingly different, much faster lifestyle than related species. The research was led by Fleur Visser of the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research...

Organisms adjust their cell walls according to environmental conditions such as temperature. Some adaptations involve changes in lipids, which may still be preserved long after the rest of the organisms has been degraded. Researchers at the University of Göttingen studied a specific group of lipids called long chain diols, which are found in sea sediments all over the world, and which can be preserved...

A large international team of researchers has found that cilia on coral reef polyps generate horizontal currents that are used to carry mucus across the surface of a reef. In their paper published in the journal Current Biology, the group describes how they discovered the currents generated by the cilia and experiments they conducted to learn more about their purpose.

The authors of a major study on the once critically endangered pink pigeon say boosting the species' numbers is not enough to save it from extinction in the future.

In this week's Nature Food, Michigan State University (MSU) researchers find that imports from high-income countries benefit biodiversity in low-income countries.

For all their uncanny intelligence and seemingly supernatural abilities to change color and regenerate limbs, octopuses often suffer a tragic death. After a mother octopus lays a clutch of eggs, she quits eating and wastes away; by the time the eggs hatch, she is dead. Some females in captivity even seem to speed up this process intentionally, mutilating themselves and twisting their arms into...

A trial of underwater sound devices called pingers reduced the number of dolphins caught in fishing nets—but did not deter humpback whales.

Invasive species offer a rare research opportunity, as they often colonize new environments very different to their native habitat. One such species is the Jackson's three-horned chameleon (Triocerus j. xantholophus), which was accidentally introduced to the Hawaiian Islands in the 1970s.

Planting a tree seems like a generally good thing to do for the environment. Trees, after all, take in carbon dioxide, offsetting some of the emissions that contribute to climate change.

Jars of tiny platypus and echidna specimens, collected in the late 1800s by the scientist William Caldwell, have been discovered in the stores of Cambridge's University Museum of Zoology.

A revolutionary new DNA detection method has helped rediscover an iconic species of turtle last seen more than 25 years ago in a northern Queensland river.

More than 90% of Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached in the fourth such mass event in seven years in the world's largest coral reef ecosystem, Australian government scientists said.

Ancient moa DNA has provided insights into how species react to climate change, a University of Otago study has found.

Much of what scientists think about soil metabolism may be wrong. New evidence from Northern Arizona University suggests that microbes in different soils use different biochemical pathways to process nutrients, respire, and grow. The study, published last month in Plant and Soil, upends long-held assumptions in the field of soil ecology and calls for more investigation and higher-resolution methods to be applied to what...

A new study led by Washington University in St. Louis uses a mathematical model and a global meta-analysis to highlight the cascading consequences of common parasitic infections in wild animals on terrestrial ecosystems.

Marine biologists from the Marine Biological Association (MBA) and the University of Southampton have led ground-breaking research which indicates that lethal collisions of whale sharks with large ships are vastly underestimated, and could be the reason why populations are falling.

A tropical spider species uses a "film" of air to hide underwater from predators for as long as 30 minutes, according to faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Individual traits seem to drive our learning success: for instance, conscientious individuals often show higher academic performance. A group of cognitive and behavioral biologists from University of Vienna conducted personality assessments and a battery of learning tests with common marmosets and found that such a link, intertwined with family group membership, exists in these monkeys, too. The study results were recently published in the...

About 75% of food crops and more than 80% of wild plants require pollination by insects. The value of crop pollination alone is estimated at up to 577 billion US dollars per year worldwide. The best-known pollinators are bees, but these are by no means the only insects that provide this service for humans and nature—flies, wasps, beetles, butterflies and moths also play important...

In Batesian mimicry, a harmless species imitates a more dangerous one in an evolutionary "ruse" that affords the mimic protection from would-be predators. Now, researchers reporting in Current Biology on May 9, 2022, have discovered the first case of acoustic Batesian mimicry in mammals and one of very few documented in any species: greater mouse-eared bats imitate the buzzing sound of a stinging insect...

Around 56 million years ago, Earth's climate underwent a major climatic transition. A huge release of carbon into the ocean and atmosphere raised atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations—which meant temperatures going up by 5 to 8°C and rising sea levels.

Staggering declines in bird populations are taking place around the world. So concludes a study from scientists at multiple institutions, published today in the journal Annual Review of Environment and Resources. Loss and degradation of natural habitats and direct overexploitation of many species are cited as the key threats to avian biodiversity. Climate change is identified as an emerging driver of bird population declines.

An international team of researchers has found evidence that suggests Malaysia's "mystery monkey" is a hybrid between a proboscis monkey and a silvery langur. In their paper published in the International Journal of Primatology, the group describes their analysis of pictures taken of the monkey and how they came to their assessment about its origins.

A team of researchers with the Buglife project, working with the Kent Wildlife Trust, has found evidence that suggests the number of flying insects in the U.K. has dropped significantly over the past several years. The group has posted a technical report on their findings.

Native species in California's estuaries are expected to experience greater declines as invasive species interact with climate change, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.

The vaquita porpoise, the world's smallest marine mammal, is on the brink of extinction, with 10 or fewer still living in Mexico's Gulf of California, their sole habitat. But a genetic analysis by a team of UCLA biologists and colleagues has found that the critically endangered species remains relatively healthy and can potentially survive—if illegal "gillnet" fishing ceases promptly.

You can love something to death. That is one way of thinking about a new Stanford University study that reveals how a common component of many sunscreens worn by coral reef-exploring tourists may hasten the demise of these endangered ecosystems. The surprising findings, published May 6 in Science, could help guide the development and marketing of effective, coral-safe sunscreens.

With about one-third of the world's corals currently under threat of extinction due to climate change, Curtin researchers have made the encouraging discovery of a "lost" species of coral that had been hidden for more than 50 years.

Inborn defensive behaviors, such as flight, freeze and fight, are crucial for animals to survive in a dangerous environment. Neuroscientists from City University of Hong Kong (CityU) recently revealed the essential neurocircuitry that is fundamental for animals to perceive and integrate environmental cues to initiate defensive behavior. The findings suggest a new direction for further investigation in developing treatment for schizophrenia patients suffering from...

Baby corals are just as susceptible as adults to a deadly disease that has been spreading across Florida's reefs since 2014, according to a new study led by scientists at the University of Miami (UM) Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The findings showed that stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) infects baby corals with similar severity and mortality that we see in...

Jaws was the only word needed to give the iconic 1970's thriller about a great white with a preference for humans its eerie title. Though a strong and important player at the top of the foodchain, sharks face a range of enemies: overfishing, habitat loss, pollution, climate change and human fear resulting in the use of shark control programs in some locations. 

Animals have three main strategies to survive the freezing temperatures of winter: migrating, remaining in place and resisting the cold, and reducing body temperature and metabolic rate in a state called torpor.

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, the J. Craig Venter Institute (JCVI), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) used tools of genetics research akin to those used in genealogical research to evaluate the diversity of marine life off the California coast.

Wealth inequality is a research topic typically reserved for humans. Now, research from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln suggests that studying wealth inequality in animals can help shed light on social evolution. Adapting approaches from the study of wealth inequality in humans, the researchers show how wealth—in the form of material goods, individual attributes, or social connections—occurs...

A new study published today in Animal Behaviour shows for the first time that brilliant iridescence and gloss found in some animals can have a protective function by working as a form of deceptive warning coloration, and that it is the key feature of iridescence, its changing colors, that is important for this effect.

Sometimes things are fine—until they're not. A boat capsizes. A bridge collapses. The stock market takes an extreme turn.

A new global study of Indigenous oyster fisheries co-led by Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History anthropologist Torben Rick and Temple University anthropologist and former Smithsonian postdoctoral fellow Leslie Reeder-Myers shows that oyster fisheries were hugely productive and sustainably managed on a massive scale over hundreds and even thousands of years of intensive harvest. The study's broadest finding was that long before European colonizers...

Sleep deprived Australian magpies are tired and unmotivated, just like humans, according to new research from La Trobe University in Melbourne which has found that, after a poor night's sleep, the common black and white songbird shifts their normal singing from twilight to midday, have a reduced song bandwidth and struggle with cognitive tasks.

A newly published study by researchers at the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa revealed that bacteria alter their swimming patterns when they get into tight spaces—making a beeline to escape from confinement.

Corals are keystone species for reef and marine ecosystems but coral bleaching due to climate change and ocean warming is killing them. A new open access study by researchers at the University of California, Riverside, aims to shed light on how to reverse the damage and save corals.

As the world sees rising ocean temperatures, it will also see more cases of coral bleaching. When corals bleach, they become more vulnerable to other stressors such as water pollution. However, many reefs harbor corals that persist despite warming oceans. Unraveling the complex issue of coral bleaching and its impact on their survival or death may be key to conserving coral reefs— ecosystems that...

Climate change is already affecting plants and animals worldwide and is a growing threat to biodiversity, adding a new layer to the existing challenges of habitat loss, invasive species, pollution, and overexploitation.

A forest's ability to regenerate after devastating wildfires, droughts or other disturbances depends largely on seed production. Findings from two new studies led by Duke University researchers could boost recovery and replanting after these disasters by providing foresters with new guidance on which trees species produce more seeds and how their productivity can vary from location to location.

The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever existed, weighing as much as two thousand people together. This is why this cetacean was the most chased species in the world due to its size and economic yield when whaling started, around the mid-19th century. The first captures, in northern Norway, expanded to other marine areas, and in only a few decades, in...