European brown bears are masters of survival: These animals have weathered Pleistocene climate fluctuations and survived the cycles of ice ages and interglacial periods to the present day. Zoologists have now investigated the origins of this evolutionary flexibility: 3D analyses of bear jaws show that certain chewing structures in the lower jaw of brown bears have apparently adapted very flexibly to changing climatic conditions. SNSB zoologist Anneke van Heteren has now published her findings in the journal Comptes Rendus Palevol.

Common UK birds may be making a bigger contribution to the pollination of plants than people realise. 

Researchers led by Kaoru Sugimura from the University of Tokyo have identified the mechanism that ensures average cell size is constant across samples of developing Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) wings. They have found that rather than every cell behaving in the same way, several distinct groups of cells that differ in when and how many times they divide work together to reproduce the average cell size with remarkable precision. This new framework for understanding how developing animal tissues control cell size could widen avenues for research into conditions associated with abnormal cell size, such as cardiac hypertrophy and cancer. The findings were published in the journal Development.

University of Maine researchers have recently documented evidence of the American woodcock charging at deer in order to protect their nests. Typically, woodcock rely on camoflouge or luring predators away from nests, but in newly published research five woodcock in West Virginia were recorded charging approaching deer. This opens new questions for researchers as they seek to understand these unexpected interactions. 

The origins of Snake River trout, a simple means of improving prairie restoration and more from ESA’s journals.

A research team led by the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) has revealed how the genome is reorganised in 3D during male germ cell formation in vertebrates, leading to important new insights in understanding how biodiversity is generated and maintained. The article, published in Nature Communications, analyses species with a common origin dating back over 350 million years.

How does a stripy tree snail hide from hungry birds? The Hypselostyla camelopardalis from the Philippines and Reinia variegata from Japan have both evolved a form of dynamic camouflage to survive. Their light-colored patterns vanish in the rain and the shell turns dark brown, similar to damp tree bark. Researchers from the University Museum at the University of Tokyo have uncovered the mechanism behind this rare molluscan transformation. The outmost layer of the snails’ shell is porous like a sponge. When water fills the holes, it changes how light bounces off, making a second darker layer of shell beneath more visible. This has potential applications for smart sensors and materials that react to humidity, without the need for external power.