FLORA FAUNA

5,060 articles

Today's environment influences behavior generations later
May 23, 2012 (SPX)
Researchers at The University of Texas at Austin and Washington State University have seen an increased reaction to stress in animals whose ancestors were expos...
Taiwan uses DNA mapping to save endangered sharks
May 23, 2012 (AFP)
Taiwan has begun testing DNA from shark fins sold in local markets in a bid to protect endangered species such as great whites and whale sharks, an official fro...
Street lights disrupt ecosystem, says beetle study
May 23, 2012 (AFP)
Street lights have an unexpectedly strong effect on insect populations, favouring some species while punishing others, according to a study released Wednesday t...
Heliconius butterfly genome explains wing pattern diversity
May 21, 2012 (SPX)
Pooling funds and putting their heads together, more than 70 scientists from 9 institutions including the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, sequenced the...
Living longer - variability in infection-fighting genes can be a boon for male survival
May 21, 2012 (SPX)
Females of mammals (including humans) tend to outlive males, a circumstance that is usually attributed to males' more aggressive and hence energy-depleting beha...
Philippines seeks to blunt knife fish invasion
May 20, 2012 (AFP)
The Philippine fisheries chief on Sunday said he had ordered a study into a foreign species called the "knife fish" that was posing a threat to the local fishin...
Mixed bacterial communities evolve to share resources, not compete
May 18, 2012 (SPX)
New research shows how bacteria evolve to increase ecosystem functioning by recycling each other's waste. The study provides some of the first evidence for how ...
Growing risks from hatchery fish
May 18, 2012 (SPX)
A newly published collection of more than 20 studies by leading university scientists and government fishery researchers in Alaska, British Columbia, Washington...
5-limbed brittle stars move bilaterally, like people
May 18, 2012 (SPX)
It appears that the brittle star, the humble, five-limbed dragnet of the seabed, moves very similarly to us. In a series of first-time experiments, Brown Univer...
Race to save the devil Down Under
May 17, 2012 (AFP)
It's been hundreds of years since the Tasmanian devil last lived on the Australian mainland but, in the misty hills of Barrington Tops, a pioneering group is be...
Neighboring chimp communities have their own nut-cracking styles
May 17, 2012 (SPX)
People don't always do as their neighbors do, and the same is true of neighboring chimpanzees. That's according to a report published online on May 10 in the Ce...
UCLA scientists unlock mystery of how 'handedness' arises
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
The overwhelming majority of proteins and other functional molecules in our bodies display a striking molecular characteristic: They can exist in two distinct f...
'Modern Portfolio Theory' optimizes conservation practices
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
While climate change is likely to alter the spatial distributions of species and habitat types, the nature of those changes is uncertain, making it more difficu...
Nearly one-tenth of hemisphere's mammals unlikely to outrun climate change
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
A safe haven could be out of reach for 9 percent of the Western Hemisphere's mammals, and as much as 40 percent in certain regions, because the animals just won...
Big-mouthed babies drove the evolution of giant island snakes
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
Some populations of tiger snakes stranded for thousands of years on tiny islands surrounding Australia have evolved to be giants, growing to nearly twice the si...
One Quarter Of Grouper Species Being Fished To Extinction
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
Groupers, a family of fishes often found in coral reefs and prized for their quality of flesh, are facing critical threats to their survival. As part of the Int...
UMD Finding May Hold Key to Gaia Theory of Earth as Living Organism
May 16, 2012 (SPX)
Is Earth really a sort of giant living organism as the Gaia hypothesis predicts? A new discovery made at the University of Maryland may provide a key to answeri...
Frozen tiger parts among Thai police wildlife haul
May 16, 2012 (AFP)
Thai police on Wednesday discovered the frozen body parts of several tigers and other big cats thought to be destined for buyers in Vietnam and China in a raid ...
Report details biodiversity concerns
May 15, 2012 (UPI)
A significant decline in biodiversity is hitting low-income countries least able to afford it, the World Wildlife Fund reported in Switzerland. "Overall, biodiv...
Keeping immune cells alive and kicking
May 15, 2012 (ESA)
New results from research on the International Space Station are offering clues on why astronauts' immune systems don't work as well in space. The findings may ...
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