species

Small individuals of Eupera troglobia sp. n. exposed to the air, with a harvestman (Eusarcus sp.) near them. Credit: Rodrigo Lopes Ferreira Exclusively subterranean bivalves—the group of molluscs comprising clams, oysters, mussels, scallops—are considered a rarity. Prior to the present study, there had only been three such species confirmed in the world: all belonging to a small-sized mussel genus known from southeastern…

Bacteria are resourceful little organisms. They can live in some of the weirdest, most inhospitable places on our planet – arid deserts, toxic acidic lakes, even deep in Earth's crust below the ocean floor.  But scientists have just discovered a new, very unexpected habitat for the hardy little microbes: the venom of snakes and spiders. This contradicts what we thought we knew; such venoms contain antimicrobial compounds, which scientists assumed to mean they were sterile environments in which no microbes could…

Phalotris shawnella. Credit: Jean-Paul BrouardA magnificent non-venomous snake, previously unknown to science, was discovered in Paraguay and described by researchers from the Paraguayan NGO Para La Tierra in collaboration with Guyra Paraguay and the Instituto de Investigación Biológica del Paraguay. The new snake species belongs to the genus Phalotris, which features 15 semi-subterranean species distributed in central South America. This group of snakes is noted for its striking coloration with red, black, and yellow…

Scientists have uncovered an extensive unmonitored trade of spiders, scorpions, and related species around the world. Many of these arachnids are wild caught, threatening these spectacular beasties with potentially unsustainable harvesting practices.  The team detected peaks in interest for these animals during COVID lockdowns."Trade in these groups exceeds millions of individuals," Suranaree University conservation biologist Benjamin Marshall and colleagues write in their paper detailing the extent of the trade. They…

Which bird species are super spreaders of avian influenza? New research from Tufts University offers details.A new study from researchers at Tufts University details which species are super spreaders.When it comes to avian influenza, more commonly called bird flu, all birds are not created equal.“The scientific community has become accustomed to speaking about influenza viruses in birds as a group, but birds are an incredibly diverse taxa of animals with different natural history, physiology, and anatomy,” says Jonathan…

A close-up of the tooth from a ‘birds-eye’ viewpoint. Credit: Fabrice Demeter (University of Copenhagen/CNRS Paris)Denisovans, a sister species of modern humans, inhabited Laos from 164,000 to 131,000 years ago with important implications for populations out of Africa and Australia.What connects a finger bone and some fossil teeth discovered in a cave in the remote Altai Mountains of Siberia to a single tooth found in a cave in the limestone landscapes of tropical Laos?The answer to this question has been established by…

Deep in the forests of Laos, in a cave in the Annamite Mountains, lay a single child's tooth. That tooth – an unassuming molar - could be from a mysterious species of human we know little about, and of which few remains are known to exist.  "Analyses of the internal structure of the molar in tandem with palaeoproteomic analyses of the enamel indicate that the tooth derives from a young, likely female, Homo individual," researchers write in a new study. The tooth, from the Tam Ngu Hao 2 cave, "most likely represents a…

Large fish in the open sea have declined by at least 90 percent over the past century due to overexploitation.To pull fish like tuna, swordfish, and marlin back from the brink, scientists argue we need to protect their migration superhighways known as 'blue corridors'.  A recent study on the Pacific Ocean has mapped the busiest of these underwater traffic lanes using a fish's tendency to return to its birthplace.This behavior is known as philopatry, or natal homing, and it's not just an impulse for salmon.  Other fish…

Scientists have discovered a clever mimicry trick used by some bats: they'll buzz like hornets when they think they're under threat from predators, giving the sonic impression they're more dangerous than they actually are.  It's the first time behavior like this has been recorded in mammals, but it happens elsewhere in the animal kingdom – such as when the wings of moths are patterned to appear like the insect is actually a different, much more dangerous species. The technical term for it is Batesian mimicry.The team…

New research shows that sperm production is critical to how regions of the genome are re-organized within and between chromosomes during evolution. In particular, inherited chromosomal rearrangements are associated with physical and biochemical processes that are specific to the final stages of sperm production, after the meiotic cell divisions have completed.A study led by researchers at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB) and the University of Kent uncovers how the genome three-dimensional structure of male germ…