FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

The Tree of Life may be a bush
Aug 19, 2015 (SPX)
New species evolve whenever a lineage splits off into several. Because of this, the kinship between species is often described in terms of a 'tree of life', whe...
Frogs exposed to road salt appear to benefit then suffer
Aug 18, 2015 (SPX)
Millions of tons of road salt are applied to streets and highways across the United States each winter to melt ice and snow and make travel safer, but the effec...
Giant panda gives birth in Malaysia
Aug 18, 2015 (AFP)
A giant panda leant by China to Malaysia has given birth to a cub in captivity, Prime Minister Najib Razak said Tuesday, following a diplomatically tough year b...
Mosquito-repelling chemicals identified in traditional sweetgrass
Aug 18, 2015 (SPX)
Native North Americans have long adorned themselves and their homes with fragrant sweetgrass (Hierochloe odorata), a native plant used in traditional medicine, ...
Study: New Zealand's freshwater species are disappearing
Aug 17, 2015 (UPI)
Ecologists in New Zealand say the island nation's freshwater species are in serious trouble. In a recent report, scientists reveal 74 percent of the islands' fr...
Elephant skin graft gives mutilated rhino second chance
Aug 15, 2015 (AFP)
A rhinoceros in South Africa that was mutilated by poachers for its horn is getting a chance to recover after receiving a skin graft from an elephant, a veterin...
How do ants identify different members of their society?
Aug 14, 2015 (SPX)
Ants, which are eusocial insects, have intrigued scientists for long as a model for cooperation inside a colony where they nurse the young, gather food and defe...
Diversity provides stability among the animals in the wild
Aug 14, 2015 (SPX)
Why some species of plants and animals vary more in number than others is a central issue in ecology. Now researchers at Linnaeus University in Sweden and from ...
Bird song-recognition mobile app launches
Aug 14, 2015 (UPI)
There's still no technology to translate the garbled tweets of your friend Jimmy on Twitter, but a new app called Warblr can recognize the tweets coming out of ...
Computerized 'fishing expedition' hooks 12,500 virus genomes
Aug 14, 2015 (UPI)
Researchers at Ohio State University have increased the number of sequenced virus genomes almost tenfold with a new computer analysis tool that mines genetic co...
Pupil shape linked to animals' ecological niche
Aug 13, 2015 (SPX)
While the eyes may be a window into one's soul, new research led by scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, suggests that the pupils could also re...
Ants can tell each other apart by smell
Aug 13, 2015 (UPI)
Ant societies are some of the most compartmentalized in the insect world -- in the animal kingdom, for that matter. But how do ants tell whether another ant is ...
Controlling feral animals and plants will save unique species and $billions
Aug 13, 2015 (SPX)
Controlling feral pigs is the most cost-effective strategy to help save 148 endangered plant and animal species in the Lake Eyre Basin, and is just one of the s...
How 16th Century observations paved the way for Darwin's landmark study
Aug 13, 2015 (SPX)
Documents dating back to the 16th Century provide a unique insight into one of Darwin's landmark studies - according to new research from the University of East...
Bringing the Tasmanian devil back to mainland would restore ecosystems
Aug 13, 2015 (SPX)
Reintroducing Tasmanian devils to the mainland could improve biodiversity by limiting the spread of red foxes and feral cats in habitats where dingoes have been...
Land animals proliferate faster than aquatic counterparts
Aug 13, 2015 (SPX)
Of the nearly 1.5 million known animal species on Earth, those with backbones come in a stunning array of shapes and sizes. Vertebrates include fish, amphibians...
Scientists decode octopus genome, reveal cephalopod secrets
Aug 12, 2015 (UPI)
For the first time, researchers have decoded the entire octopus genome, revealing significant differences between the genetic coding of cephalopods and other re...
Wild boar populations growing across Europe
Aug 12, 2015 (UPI)
Over the last three decades, Europe's wild boar population has continued to rise. New research suggests their numbers have been buoyed by mild winters brought o...
Doctors attempt to grow a monkey arm in the lab
Aug 11, 2015 (UPI)
With the goal of ultimately building a human arm transplant, researchers at Mass General, in Boston, are currently working to reconstruct a monkey arm in the la...
During mass extinction, no species safe: study
Aug 11, 2015 (AFP)
Dominant species spread across the globe are just as vulnerable during a mass extinction event as more fragile ones confined to a single locale, according to a ...
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