News by Subject Biology

Fossils of a giant new species from the long-extinct group of sea creatures called trilobites have been found on Kangaroo Island, South Australia.

Scientists at The Graduate Center of The City University of New York and Brooklyn College have discovered seasonal changes in dopamine levels in the female plainfin midshipman fish's inner ear helps hearing sensitivity grow in the summer mating season, making her better able to hear the male's mating calls.

Free fingers have many obvious advantages on land, such as in locomotion and grasping, while webbed fingers are typical of aquatic or gliding animals. But both amphibians and amniotes -- which include mammals, reptiles, and birds -- can have webbed digits. In new research from Japan, scientists show that during embryo development, some animal species detect the presence of atmospheric oxygen, which triggers removal of interdigital webbing. Their research appears June 13, 2019 in the journal Developmental Cell.

In a new study, researchers confirm a theory from the 1970s that coastal hunter-gatherers processed much of their shellfish at the beach before returning with their meat to camps on higher ground, leaving the heavy shells by the water. This finding has dramatic implications for past analyses of hunter-gatherer diets -- because many beachside shell middens would now be destroyed or underwater due to past sea level rises since the last Ice Age.

Giant petrels will be 'temporary' winners from the effects of climate change in the Antarctic region -- but males and females will benefit in very different ways, a new study shows.

To control pest outbreaks, airplanes sprayed more than 6,280 tons of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) onto forests in New Brunswick, Canada, between 1952 and 1968, according to Environment Canada. By 1970, growing awareness of the harmful effects of DDT on wildlife led to curtailed use of the insecticide in the area. However, researchers reporting in ACS' Environmental Science & Technology have shown that DDT lingers in sediments from New Brunswick lakes, where it could alter zooplankton communities.

Engineers have discovered what allows the tail appendage of the mantis shrimp to absorb the blows of its feisty self, with the goal of applying these lessons to protective gear.

Many species will need large population sizes to survive climate change and ocean acidification, a new study finds.