How New World blackbirds conquered the Americas
Peer-Reviewed Publication
This August, we're exploring the science behind the animals that share our planet. From the behaviors and adaptations that help species thrive to the conservation efforts protecting wildlife around the world, animal awareness days like World Lion Day, World Elephant Day, International Cat Day, and International Wolf Day are an opportunity to celebrate biodiversity and discover the research helping us better understand and protect the species that call our planet home.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 21-Oct-2026 22:17 ET (22-Oct-2026 02:17 GMT/UTC)
From North America to Patagonia: Researchers at the University of Würzburg have reconstructed how New World blackbirds spread across the Americas over millions of years.
Pigeons adjust the division of parental care effort depending on circumstances. A study by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) shows that when food becomes scarce, male pigeons spend more time incubating eggs, allowing females additional time to forage for themselves. This behavior allows pigeons to maintain a high level of parental care, even during difficult times. The findings raise welfare concerns with feeding bans.
From sloths to birds, vertebrates rely on insects for a wide array of purposes, including food, shelter, and medicine, according to an international paper co-authored by faculty at Binghamton University, State University of New York.
Dinos might have been beachcombers that dined on washed-up seafood, a new study has found. Marine plants have higher carbon isotope values than land plants and these reflect in the bodies of the animals that eat them. Researchers showed that carbon isotope traces in fossilized teeth and bones from coastal assemblages were consistently higher than the carbon isotope values of fossils from land-locked assemblages – a signature that could be linked to the consumption of seafood. The authors said the study highlights the connections terrestrial and marine ecosystems have and have had for millions of years.