FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Sea slug exhibits same foraging abilities as terrestrial insects
Sep 28, 2015 (UPI)
Researchers have identified a range of chemical cues that govern the lives of foraging insects. Now, for the first time, scientists have located an herbivore's ...
Enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later
Sep 25, 2015 (SPX)
When did the enamel that covers our teeth evolve? And where in the body did this tissue first appear? In the latest issue of the journal Nature, researchers fro...
Endangered salamander celebrated in China - on plates
Sep 24, 2015 (AFP)
A critically endangered amphibian found itself at the centre of a new Chinese festival on Thursday, officials said -- promoted as a "350 million year old" healt...
DNA sequencing improved by slowing down
Sep 23, 2015 (SPX)
EPFL scientists have developed a method that improves the accuracy of DNA sequencing up to a thousand times. The method, which uses nanopores to read individual...
How a frog's molecules 'leaped,' and 'crawled,' to evolve violet vision
Sep 23, 2015 (SPX)
The African clawed frog is tongue-less, has long, curvy toes and eyes that are perched on top of its head, but that's not all that's odd about it. This species ...
Study: It's not cheating unless a species gets hurt
Sep 23, 2015 (SPX)
A review of dozens of key ecological studies has found very little evidence to support one of the field's commonly held beliefs: Cheating is widespread among 'm...
Living fossil genome decoded
Sep 23, 2015 (SPX)
A group of scientists from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST), Nagoya University, and the University of Tokyo decoded the fi...
South African breeders ask court to end rhino horn trade ban
Sep 22, 2015 (AFP)
Two South African game owners went to court Tuesday to fight the government's ban on the trade in rhino horn, arguing that legalising the market is key to curbi...
'Tree of life' for 2.3 million species released
Sep 22, 2015 (SPX)
A first draft of the "tree of life" for the roughly 2.3 million named species of animals, plants, fungi and microbes - from platypuses to puffballs - has been r...
Species extinction can doom parasites important for ecosystem health
Sep 22, 2015 (SPX)
The effects of an animal population's extinction may echo beyond the original species, new University of Georgia research finds. Loss of a population could ulti...
Critically endangered Sumatran rhino pregnant again
Sep 22, 2015 (AFP)
A rare Sumatran rhino in Indonesia is pregnant with her second baby and expected to give birth in May, raising new hope for the critically endangered species, c...
Critically endangered Sumatran rhino is pregnant, again
Sep 22, 2015 (AFP)
A rare Sumatran rhino in Indonesia is pregnant with her second baby and is expected to give birth in May, raising new hope for the critically endangered species...
58,046 fruit flies shed light on 100-year old evolutionary question
Sep 22, 2015 (SPX)
Throughout the natural world, shape, physiology and behavior are strongly related to the size of the organisms. These relationships are found both within specie...
Tech for tuskers: protecting Africa's elephants with Google
Sep 20, 2015 (AFP)
As elephant poaching in Africa by organised crime gangs using high-tech equipment rises, those working to stop their extinction in the wild have turned to techn...
Apes know a good thriller when they see one
Sep 18, 2015 (SPX)
Remember the scene in the classic movie Alien, when that creepiest of creatures bursts out of John Hurt's belly as he writhes in pain? Well, according to a stud...
There is strength in diversity!
Sep 18, 2015 (SPX)
Altered or new environmental conditions, such as those brought about by shifts in human land use and climate change, impose challenges on living organisms. This...
Sponge cells build skeletons with pole-and-beam structure
Sep 18, 2015 (SPX)
Researchers reporting in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on September 17 have found that sponges build their skeletons in a completely different way than...
Plant species' responses to climate change altered by novel competitors
Sep 17, 2015 (SPX)
With climate change and rising average temperatures, many wild animals and plants are being forced into new habitats, their distributions shifting in elevation ...
Zimbabwe hunter behind Cecil lion killing freed in sable smuggling case
Sep 17, 2015 (AFP)
Prosecutors have withdrawn new smuggling charges against the professional hunter who helped an American dentist kill Zimbabwe's popular lion Cecil, his lawyer s...
The black box at the beginning of life
Sep 17, 2015 (SPX)
Life begins with an egg and a sperm: that much is clear. But how do these "germ cells" form, and how do they pass genetic traits from one generation to the next...
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