Plants & Animals news

Termite creates sustainable monoculture fungus-farming

Biology / Plants & Animals

1hour ago | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Food production of modern human societies is mostly based on large-scale monoculture crops, but it now appears that advanced insect societies have the same practice. Our societies took just ...

We're off then: The evolution of bat migration

Biology / Plants & Animals

4 hours ago | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Not just birds, but also a few species of bats face a long journey every year. Researchers at Princeton University in the U.S. and at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Radolfzell, ...

The evolution of orchids

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 19, 2009 | 4.8 / 5 (8) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- Charles Darwin and many other scientists have long been puzzled by the evolution of orchids, the largest and most diverse family of flowering plants on Earth. Now genetic sequencing is giving ...

Scientists Unravel Evolution of Highly Toxic Box Jellyfish

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 18, 2009 | 4 / 5 (4) | 1

(PhysOrg.com) -- With thousands of stinging cells that can emit deadly venom from tentacles that can reach ten feet in length, the 50 or so species of box jellyfish have long been of interest to scientists ...

Bigger not necessarily better, when it comes to brains

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (14) | 10

(PhysOrg.com) -- Tiny insects could be as intelligent as much bigger animals, despite only having a brain the size of a pinhead, say scientists at Queen Mary, University of London.

Japanese researchers film rare baby fish 'fossil'

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.7 / 5 (7) | 4

Japanese marine researchers said Tuesday they had found and successfully filmed a young coelacanth -- a rare type of fish known as "a living fossil" -- in deep water off Indonesia.

Red Sea coral seen to feed on jellyfish

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (12) | 2

(PhysOrg.com) -- Corals depends on the products of photosynthetic algae for most of their food, but they also eat tiny plankton. Now, for the first time, there is evidence of a coral eating jellyfish.

Study: Sea stars bulk up to beat the heat

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

A new study finds that a species of sea star stays cool using a strategy never before seen in the animal kingdom. The sea stars soak up cold sea water into their bodies during high tide as buffer against potentially damaging ...

Ladybugs taken hostage by wasps

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 4.3 / 5 (3) | 0

Are ladybugs being overtaken by wasps? A Université de Montréal entomologist is investigating a type of wasp (Dinocampus coccinellae) present in Quebec that forces ladybugs (Coccinella maculata) ...

Study finds bees can learn differences in food's temperature

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 1 / 5 (1) | 0

Biologists at UC San Diego have discovered that honeybees can discriminate between food at different temperatures, an ability that may assist bees in locating the warm, sugar-rich nectar or high-protein pollen ...

Are female mountain goats sexually conflicted over size of mate?

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

Mountain goats are no exception to the general rule among mammals that larger males sire more and healthier offspring. But University of Alberta researcher David Coltman has found a genetic quirk that might make female mountain ...

For fish, bigger doesn’t always mean healthier

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 17, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Female smallmouth bass tend to prefer bigger male mates, but bigger doesn’t necessarily mean healthier. That’s the finding of a new study in the latest issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology that i ...

Right-handed chimpanzees provide clues to the origin of human language

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 16, 2009 | 3 / 5 (1) | 7

Most of the linguistic functions in humans are controlled by the left cerebral hemisphere. A study of captive chimpanzees at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center (Atlanta, Georgia), reported in the January 2010 issue ...

Birds 'See' Earth's Magnetic Field

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 16, 2009 | 4.5 / 5 (6) | 2

When birds migrate over long distances -- sometimes thousands of miles -- they usually end up in exactly the same place year after year. Such accurate feats of navigation, accomplished by millions of birds ...

Plants prefer their kin, crowd out competition from strangers

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 16, 2009 | 4 / 5 (1) | 0

(PhysOrg.com) -- Plants don't mind sharing space with their kin but when they're potted with strangers of the same species they start invigorating their leaves, a study by McMaster University reveals.

Researcher wants to tip the scales for northern lizard

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 16, 2009 | 2 / 5 (1) | 0

Armed with eyelash glue, a walking stick and a faithful horse, University of Alberta researcher Krista Fink is hoping to help Canada's most northern lizard get off the species-at-risk list.

Rapacious Rasberry ants march north

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 13, 2009 | 4.4 / 5 (10) | 10

Poor Texas. First it was killer bees, then fire ants. Now, it's the Rasberry ants.

You're being followed: Scientists track movement of living things

Biology / Plants & Animals

Nov 13, 2009 | not rated yet | 0

Almost 24 centuries after the Greek philosopher Aristotle wrote his book, "On the Movement of Animals," modern scientists are still struggling to understand how, why, when and where living creatures move.