Species in Biological News

Beautiful plumage: Feather color and sex start the species revolution

Faculty of 1000, the leading scientific evaluation service, has highlighted research providing evidence for the evolution of a new species. Birds use plumage colour to recognize and select potential mates. A mutation of a single DNA base can lead to a striking colour change, as demonstrated by ...

A global model for the origin of species independent of geographical isolation

The tremendous diversity of life continues to puzzle scientists, long after the 200 years since Charles Darwin's birth. However, in recent years, consistent patterns of biodiversity have been identified over space, time organism type and geographical region. Two views of the process of "specia...

Common fish species has 'human' ability to learn

Although worlds apart, the way fish learn could be closer to humans' way of thinking than previously believed, suggests a new research study. A common species of fish which is found across Europe including the UK, called the nine-spined stickleback, could be the first animal shown to exhibit an...

Sands of Gobi Desert yield new species of nut-cracking dinosaur

Plants or meat: That's about all that fossils ever tell paleontologists about a dinosaur's diet. But the skull characteristics of a new species of parrot-beaked dinosaur and its associated gizzard stones indicate that the animal fed on nuts and/or seeds. These characteristics present the first sol...

New species of phallus-shaped mushroom named after California Academy of Sciences scientist

SAN FRANCISCO (June 15, 2009) - It's two inches long, grows on wood, and is shaped like a phallus. A new species of stinkhorn mushroom, Phallus drewesii , has been discovered on the African island of Sao Tome and graces the upcoming cover of the journal Mycologia . The mushroom is named after R...

U of Minnesota research reveals critical role of evolutionary processes in species coexistence

A team of researchers, led by the University of Minnesota, addressing long-standing conflicts in ecology and evolutionary science, has provided key directions for the future of community ecology. The team comprehensively synthesized emerging work that applies knowledge of evolutionary relationshi...

New dinosaur species possible in Northwestern Alberta

EdmontonThe discovery of a gruesome feeding frenzy that played out 73 million years ago in northwestern Alberta may also lead to the discovery of new dinosaur species in northwestern Alberta. University of Alberta student Tetsuto Miyashita and Frederico Fanti, a paleontology graduate student fr...

New phorid fly species turns red imported fire ants into 'zombies'

OVERTON Zombie fire ants may not sound like a cool thing, but wait a minute, said a Texas AgriLife Extension Service expert. On April 29, on the grounds of the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center at Overton in East Texas, Dr. Scott Ludwig released fire ants infected with a new type of...

DNA barcoding of mosquito species deployed in bid to end elephantiasis

New biotechnologies that allow scientists to quickly and accurately distinguish species based on a simple DNA analysis are being creatively deployed for the first time in the war against a major global disease. The University of Ghana, supported by the Philadelphia-based JRS Biodiversity Founda...

Time record of marine species formation in the Baltic Sea

In 2005 researchers at the University of Gothenburg and Stockholm University discovered a new species of seaweed. The species, which was named Fucus radicans , evolved from a bladder wrack (Fucus vesiculosus) ancestor from the Baltic Sea. Detailed studies of Fucus radicans show that, from an ev...

New species of spiders discovered by UBC scientist in Papua New Guinea

A University of British Columbia researcher has discovered dozens of species of jumping spiders that are new to science, giving scientists a peek into a section of the evolutionary tree previously thought to be sparse. Jumping spiders are found in every part of the world except Antarctica. Capa...

Tree species composition influences nitrogen loss from forests

MADISON, WI, MARCH 16, 2009--Throughout the world, nitrogen compounds are released to the atmosphere from agricultural activities and combustion of fossil fuels. These pollutants are deposited to ecosystems as precipitation, gases, and particles, sometimes many hundreds of miles downwind of their ...

Study predicts when invasive species can travel more readily by air

A new study forecasts when climate factors such as temperature, humidity and rainfall will match at geographically distant airline departure and destination points, which could help to shuffle invasive species, and the diseases they may carry, across the globe along existing flight routes. The fin...

DNA evidence is in, newly discovered species of fish dubbed H. psychedelica

"Psychedelica" seems the perfect name for a species of fish that is a wild swirl of tan and peach zebra stripes and behaves in ways contrary to its brethren. So says University of Washington's Ted Pietsch, who is the first to describe the new species in the scientific literature and thus the one ...

Cracking the species code for plants

Plants are essential to our survival and that of most other animals on earth. It is easy to overlook this fact because they have become discretely embedded into our everyday lives. Plants provide us with food, medicines, and raw materials used by our industries. In spite of their importance, very ...

Biodiversity itself begets a species cascade, researchers say

EAST LANSING, Mich. Biodiversity feeds on itself, researchers found, as evolving animals open niches for other new species. Such is the case, says a Michigan State University researcher, with a parasite found to be evolving in sequence with an emerging host insect in western Michigan apple trees....

New paper offers key insights into how new species emerge

This year marks both the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work "On the Origin of Species." Just in time for the Darwin observances, a new paper appearing today in the journal Science by a team led by University of Notre Dame rese...

10 new amphibian species discovered in Colombia

Bogot, Colombia, February 2, 2009 -- Scientists today announced the discovery of 10 amphibians believed to be new to science, including a spiky-skinned, orange-legged rain frog, three poison dart frogs and three glass frogs, so called because their transparent skin can reveal internal organs. ...

Researchers first to 'see' reactive oxygen species in vital enzyme

UPTON, NY Using two simultaneous light-based probing techniques at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, a team of researchers has illuminated important details about a class of enzymes involved in everything from photosynthesis to the regulation of biological cloc...

Over 1,000 species discovered in the Greater Mekong in past decade

WASHINGTON, DC, December 15, 2008 -- A rat thought extinct for 11 million years and a hot-pink, cyanide-producing dragon millipede are among a thousand new species discovered in the Greater Mekong Region of Southeast Asia in the last decade, according to a new report launched by World Wildlife Fun...

Researchers create new class of fluorescent dyes to detect reactive oxygen species in vivo

Researchers have created a new family of fluorescent probes called hydrocyanines that can be used to detect and measure the presence of reactive oxygen species. Reactive oxygen species are highly reactive metabolites of oxygen that have been implicated in a variety of inflammatory diseases, includ...

11,000 alien species invade Europe

This release is available in German . Halle/Saale. For the first time it is now possible to get a comprehensive overview of which alien species are present in Europe, their impacts and consequences for the environment and society. More than 11,000 alien species have been documented by DAI...

Marine invasive species advance 50 km per decade, World Conference on Marine Biodiversity told

A rapid, climate change-induced northern migration of invasive marine is one of many research results announced Tues. Nov. 11 during opening day presentations at the First World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, in Valencia. Investigators report that invasiv...

Marine invasive species advance 50km per decade, World Conference on Marine Biodiversity told

A rapid, climate change-induced northern migration of invasive marine is one of many research results announced Tues. Nov. 11 during opening day presentations at the First World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, Ciudad de las Artes y las Ciencias, in Valencia. Investigators report that invasiv...

Tropical rainforest and mountain species may be threatened by global warming

STORRS, CT Contrary to conventional wisdom, tropical plant and animal species living in some of the warmest places on Earth may be threatened by global warming, according to an article by University of Connecticut Ecologist Robert K. Colwell and colleagues in this week's (Oct. 10) issue of Scien...

Australian frog species chooses not to put eggs in 1 basket

A groundbreaking new study into the mating and nesting practices of a common Australian frog has found they partner up to eight males sequentially the highest recorded of any vertebrate. Dr Phillip Byrne, from Monash University's School of Biological Sciences, has researched the frog species B...

Unique animal species can survive in space

Water bears (tardigrades) are the first animals in the world to have survived exposure to the vacuum and radiation of space. This has been established by Ingemar Jnsson, a researcher at Kristianstad University in Sweden. It has been nearly a year since the ecologist Ingemar Jnsson had some 3,0...

New giant clam species offers window into human past

Researchers report the discovery of the first new living species of giant clam in two decades, according to a report to be published online on August 28th in Current Biology , a Cell Press publication. While fossil evidence reveals that the new species, called Tridacna costata , once accounted f...

Ecological Society of America criticizes administration's overhaul of the Endangered Species Act

The Ecological Society of America today criticized the Bush administration's Aug. 15 proposal to reinterpret the Endangered Species Act, which would impose regulatory changes eliminating the requirement for federal projects to undergo independent scientific review. The proposal would allow federal...

Genes and nutrition influence caste in unusual species of harvester ant

Researchers trying to determine whether nature or nurture determines an ant's status in the colony have found a surprising answer. Both. Nature (that is, the ant's genetic makeup) and nurture (what it eats, for example) play a role in determining the fate of the Florida harvester ant, Pogono...

Climate change and species distributions

Scientists have long pointed to physical changes in the Earth and its atmosphere, such as melting polar ice caps, sea level rise and violent storms, as indicators of global climate change. But changes in climate can wreak havoc in more subtle ways, such as the loss of habitat for plant and animal ...

Study suggests past climate changes may have promoted the formation of new species in the Amazon

AUSTIN, TEXASThe results of a new study suggest that past climate changes and sea level fluctuations may have promoted the formation of new species in the Amazon region of South America. Today, the Amazon basin is home to the richest diversity of life on earth, yet the reasons why this came to...

Setting the record right: species diversity less dramatic than previously believed

COLLEGE STATION, July 7, 2008 A study published in the current issue of Science challenges the long-held belief that diversity of marine species has been increasing continuously since the origin of animals. Dr. Thomas D. Olszewski, a geology and geophysics professor at Texas A&M University, has...

First successful reverse vasectomy on endangered species performed at the National Zoo

Veterinarians at the Smithsonian's National Zoo have performed the first successful reverse vasectomy on a Przewalski's horse ( E. ferus przewalskii ; E. caballus przewalskii classification debated), pronounced zshah-VAL-skeez. Przewalksi's horses are a horse species native to China and Mongolia...

Bee species outnumber mammals and birds combined

Scientists have discovered that there are more bee species than previously thought. In the first global accounting of bee species in over a hundred years, John S. Ascher, a research scientist in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History, compiled online species...

New catfish species named for museum mail supervisor

PHILADELPHIA He's not well known like President Bush and musician Neil Young, but Philadelphian Frank Gallagher now has something in common with them: He has a new species named after him. Gallagher was The Academy of Natural Sciences' affable mailroom supervisor for 37 years before retiring in...

The cormorant -- the 'black plague' or an example of successful species conservation?

This release is available in German . Leipzig. Europe requires a common management strategy for cormorants in order to reconcile nature conservation and fishing interests. An effective regulation of cormorant populations can only work at the European level, researchers from the Helmholtz C...

A survivor in Greenland: A novel bacterial species is found trapped in 120,000-year-old ice

A team of Penn State scientists has discovered a new ultra-small species of bacteria that has survived for more than 120,000 years within the ice of a Greenland glacier at a depth of nearly two miles. The microorganism's ability to persist in this low-temperature, high-pressure, reduced-oxygen, a...

Over 50 percent of oceanic shark species threatened with extinction

22nd May 2008 The first study to determine the global threat status of 21 species of wide-ranging oceanic pelagic sharks and rays reveals serious overfishing and recommends key steps that governments can take to safeguard populations. These findings and recommendations for action are published in...

New species discovered in Brazil

Arlington, Virginia (April 29, 2008) Researchers discovered a legless lizard and a tiny woodpecker along with 12 other suspected new species in Brazils Cerrado, one of the worlds 34 biodiversity conservation hotspots. The Cerrados wooded grassland once covered an area half the size of Europe, ...