FLORA FAUNA - AFRICA DAILY

Amazonian bird chick mimics toxic caterpillar to avoid being eaten

Feb 24, 2015 (SPX)

In a study published in the January 2015 issue of The American Naturalist, Gustavo A. Londono, Duvan Garcia, and Manuel Sanchez Martinez report a novel nesting ...

Aquatic plant has tiny genome but lots and lots of genes

Feb 24, 2015 (UPI)

Bladderworts are a genus of carnivorous plants that prefer freshwater environs or very wet soils. And as a new study finds, at least one bladderwort variety -- ...

Hydrogel baits offer novel way to manage invasive ants

Feb 23, 2015 (SPX)

Water-storing crystals known as hydrogels can effectively deliver pesticide bait to invasive Argentine ants, quickly decimating a colony, a Purdue University st...

Small predator diversity key to a healthy ecosystem

Feb 23, 2015 (UPI)

Biodiversity requires small predators, and plenty of them -- not small like a weasel, but small like a dragonfly. A diverse range of small insect and amphibian ...

'Nature's medicine cabinet' helps bees reduce disease load

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

Researchers studying the interaction between plants, pollinators and parasites report that in recent experiments, bees infected with a common intestinal parasit...

Is urbanization pushing Earth's evolution to a tipping point?

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

That humans and the cities we build affect the ecosystem and even drive some evolutionary change in species' traits is already known. The signs are small but st...

Cold-blooded animals grow bigger on land, but smaller in water

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

The findings strongly support the idea that reduced oxygen availability in water causes aquatic animals to reduce their body size much more with warming than th...

Mutant bacteria that keep on growing

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

The typical Escherichia coli, the laboratory rat of microbiology, is a tiny 1-2 thousandths of a millimeter long. Now, by blocking cell division, two researcher...

White sharks grow more slowly than previously thought

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

A new study on white sharks in the western North Atlantic indicates they grow more slowly and mature much later than previously thought. The findings, published...

Discovery: Tropical fire ants traveled the world on 16th century ships

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

Thanks to a bit of genetic sleuthing, researchers now know the invasion history of the tropical fire ant (Solenopsis geminata), the first ant species known to t...

Animals tend to evolve toward larger size over time

Feb 20, 2015 (SPX)

Does evolution follow certain rules? If, in the words of the famed evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould, one could "rewind the tape of life", would certain ...

Size matters to adapt to diverse environments and avoid extinction

Feb 19, 2015 (SPX)

A new University of Toronto study may force scientists to rethink what is behind the mass extinction of amphibians occurring worldwide in the face of climate ch...

Harm and response

Feb 18, 2015 (SPX)

We often think of damage on a surface level. But for plants, much of the important response to an insect bite takes place out of sight. Over minutes and hours, ...

Plants survive better through mass extinctions than animals

Feb 18, 2015 (SPX)

At least 5 mass extinction events have profoundly changed the history of life on Earth. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows...

Distant species produce love child after 60 million year breakup

Feb 18, 2015 (SPX)

A delicate woodland fern discovered in the mountains of France is the love child of two distantly-related groups of plants that haven't interbred in 60 million ...

Genetic evidence shows penguins have 'bad taste'

Feb 18, 2015 (SPX)

Penguins apparently can't enjoy or even detect the savory taste of the fish they eat or the sweet taste of fruit. A new analysis of the genetic evidence reporte...

Lengthy tails of luna moths deflect bat attacks

Feb 17, 2015 (UPI)

Sex and food are the two main drivers of evolutionary invention -- which means roughly half of all biological adaptations are inspired by the ongoing battle bet...

Oldest fur seal fossil plugs 5 million-year gap in evolutionary history

Feb 16, 2015 (UPI)

Fossils at the John D. Cooper Archaeological and Paleontological Center once thought to belong to Neotherium mirum, an extinct species of basal walrus, have bee...

Wild ponies ride to the rescue of unique Czech ecosystem

Feb 16, 2015 (AFP)

Wild ponies vanished from Czech soil thousands of years ago but are now making a comeback thanks to an imported herd that conservationists hope will rescue an u...

Make like a squid and transform

Feb 15, 2015 (SPX)

The principle of adaptation -- the gradual modification of a species' structures and features -- is one of the pillars of evolution. While there exists ample ev...