Biology

Biofluorescence

An international team of researchers led by the University of Georgia has documented ultraviolet biofluorescence in live southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) and in museum specimens of four additional gopher species. Southeastern pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) are biofluorescent, giving off a colored glow when illuminated with UV light. Image credit: …

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Window Fly Discovered

Entomologists have described a new species in the window fly genus Scenopinus from Finland. Frontal view of male Scenopinus jerei. Image credit: Pohjoismäki & Haarto, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1059.70085. Window flies are members of Scenopinidae, a small family of primitive flies belonging to the superfamily Asiloidea. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with …

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Tardigrades Walking

Tardigrades utilize a tetrapod-like stepping pattern remarkably similar to that observed in insects, despite significant disparities in size and skeletal structure between the two groups, according to new research led by scientists from Rockefeller and Princeton Universities. Hypsibius exemplaris. Image credit: Tarushika Vasanthan & Jonathon Stone, doi: 10.22120/jwb.2020.96855.1037. The vast …

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Vocal Learning Avians

An international team of scientists led by Flinders University has found evidence of prenatal auditory learning in embryos of three vocal learning species (superb fairy-wren, red-winged fairy-wren and Darwin’s small ground finch) and two vocal non-learning species (little penguin and Japanese quail). Colombelli-Négrel et al. demonstrate a capacity to perceive …

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Personality Traits in Cats

A team of scientists at the University of Helsinki has studied cat personality and behavior by collecting a large dataset of 4,316 cats from 56 different breeds, house cats and mixed breed cats, with online questionnaires. Mikkola et al. examined the structure, test-retest reliability, inter-rater reliability, convergent validity and discriminant …

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Chemists Pinpoint Compounds

  Body is one of ten attributes defined by the Specialty Coffee Association (SCA) that contributes to the overall quality rating of coffee, and, consequently, to the value ascribed to coffee beans. The SCA describes coffee body as the ‘tactile feeling’ of the liquid in the mouth. In a new …

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Trehalulose Rich Honey

Organic chemists at the University of Queensland have found that an unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose, which is a feature of stingless bee honey, while not dominant in any other foods, is produced in the gut of stingless bees. Tetragonula carbonaria combs. Image credit: Tobias Smith. Stingless bees belong to …

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Fish Neck-Like Motion

Trout and frogfish can bend their spines and heads upwards, despite having different anatomy from humans and other land-dwelling vertebrates, according to a study by University of Liverpool’s Dr. Ariel Camp. Craniovertebral skeleton of the Commerson’s frogfish (Antennarius commerson). Image credit: Ariel L. Camp, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1091. Dr. Camp used X-ray …

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Tardigrades Resembling Insects

Tardigrades utilize a tetrapod-like stepping pattern remarkably similar to that observed in insects, despite significant disparities in size and skeletal structure between the two groups, according to new research led by scientists from Rockefeller and Princeton Universities. Hypsibius exemplaris. Image credit: Tarushika Vasanthan & Jonathon Stone, doi: 10.22120/jwb.2020.96855.1037. The vast …

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Amazonian Marmoset

A new, pseudo-cryptic species of the Amazonian marmoset genus Mico has been identified by a team of researchers led by Dr. Rodrigo Costa-Araújo of the Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi and the Federal University of Amazonas and Dr. Tomas Hrbek of the Federal University of Amazonas and Trinity University. The Schneider’s …

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