Misunderstood fin with no clear function evolved repeatedly in different fishes
Though present in more than 6,000 living species of fish, the adipose fin, a small appendage that lies between the dorsal fin and tail, has no clear function…
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Modern ocean acidification is outpacing ancient acidification upheaval
Some 56 million years ago, a massive pulse of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere sent global temperatures soaring. In the oceans, carbonate sediments dissolved, some organisms went extinct…
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Preserving Cuttlefish and a Valuable Fishing Industry Cooperating with cuttlefish fishermen to help preserve cuttlefish eggs and fisherman livelihood proves challenging.
Once upon a time, in a sea far far away, called Adriatic Sea, there were many cuttlefish. These delicate creatures spent their short life in the deep but before dying,…
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Winter’s Cold Can’t Stop Me, Baby: Migrating Birds Don’t Duet It turns out, species that migrate together don't sing together.
In “Ain’t no Mountain High Enough,” Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell sing “If you ever need a helping hand, I’ll be there on the double, just as fast as I…
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Hawaiian Fishes Like it Deep Coral reef twilight zone acts as a “locals only” hangout for Hawaiian coral reef fishes.
As if Hawaii didn’t already have enough to boast about – beautiful beaches, luscious green mountains, and lava – it now also wears the crown for the highest recorded levels…
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How to Find Large Animals by Tracking Dung Beetles The higher the percentage of fossilized dung beetles, the more ancient dung and the greater the number of large animals.
Big animals make lots of dung. And where there’s dung, there’s dung beetles. Researchers counted fossilized dung beetles to figure out the quantity of megafauna–animals weighing 97 pounds…
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Who’s the Living Fossil? The genus Crocodylus is Younger Than We Think! All of the species of true crocodile we see today most likely shared a single common ancestor only 14 to 8 million years ago - before the arrival of humans.
What comes to mind when you think of crocodiles? You might think of ancient reptiles, or “living fossils,” that have been around, little changed, since the time of…
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One tree likes seabird poop, the next prefers fresh air. Researchers found that non-nitrogen fixing trees become more abundant closer to the sea, replacing the usually more abundant nitrogen fixing trees in Peru deserts.
Off the west coast of Peru, seabirds deposit thick layers of guano that accumulates on the ground because of the lack of rain. Guano has historically played a key role…
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Hitting the jackpot — a new vertebrate family endemic to West Africa
Biological classification arranges taxa according to their degree of relationship; several species may be grouped in a genus, several genera may be grouped in a family, etc. Higher-level systematics in amphibians…
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Environment-related morphological changes can confuse scientists
For many years, morphology-based classification has served us so well, and still forms a basis of what we are viewing the biological world today. Scientists have described morphological…
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