EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology - News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 30-Apr-2025 22:08 ET (1-May-2025 02:08 GMT/UTC)

26-Mar-2025

New species revealed after 25 years of study on ‘inside out’ fossil – and named after discoverer’s mum

University of Leicester
Peer-Reviewed Publication

- Study from University of Leicester describes a new species of fossil that is 444 million years-old with soft insides perfectly preserved

- Research ‘ultramarathon’ saw palaeontologist puzzled by bizarre fossil for 25 years

- Revealed to be an entirely new kind of arthropod and named after lead researcher’s mum

Journal: Palaeontology

26-Mar-2025

Fossils: Ancient parasitic ‘Venus flytrap’ wasp preserved in amber

BMC (BioMed Central)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

An extinct lineage of parasitic wasps dating from the mid-Cretaceous period and preserved in amber may have used their Venus flytrap-like abdomen to capture and immobilise their prey. Research, published in BMC Biology...

Journal: BMC Biology

26-Mar-2025

Fish use tools too

Macquarie University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New research led by Macquarie University has documented tool use in five species of wrasse fish across the western Atlantic, revealing these colourful reef dwellers can select and use rocks as tools to crack open hard-shelled prey.

Journal: Coral Reefs
Funder: Fondation Fyssen, FSBI, Minderoo Foundation

26-Mar-2025

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative announces new biohub to develop breakthrough imaging technologies to observe cells in action

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Business Announcement

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI) announced a new grand challenge to develop groundbreaking imaging technologies to transform how scientists observe, measure and understand living cells and organisms. CZI’s two powerhouse institutes, CZ Biohub San Francisco and CZ Institute for Advanced Biological Imaging, will leverage their complementary expertise to form a new Biohub unmatched in the field of life science imaging research. They will combine their teams at a new science campus in Redwood City, Calif., adjacent to CZI headquarters.

26-Mar-2025

Scientists uncover key mechanism in evolution: Whole-genome duplication drives long-term adaptation

Georgia Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Georgia Tech scientists uncovered how whole-genome duplication emerges and remains stable over thousands of generations of evolution in the lab.

Journal: Nature
Funder: NIH/National Institutes of Health, Human Frontier Science Program, David and Lucile Packard Foundation, NIH/National Institutes of Health, NIH/National Institutes of Health

26-Mar-2025

How did the large brain evolve?

Deutsches Primatenzentrum (DPZ)/German Primate Center
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Two specific genes that evolve exclusively in humans jointly influence the development of the cerebrum. Researchers from the German Primate Center - Leibniz Institute for Primate Research and the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics have discovered this in a recently published study. They have thus provided evidence that these genes contribute together to the evolutionary enlargement of the brain.

Journal: Science Advances

26-Mar-2025

Rare disease drug nitisinone makes human blood deadly to mosquitoes

University of Notre Dame
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A study in Science Translational Medicine found when patients take the drug nitisinone, their blood becomes deadly to mosquitoes.

Journal: Science Translational Medicine
Funder: Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council, Medical Research Council