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MBARI researchers have discovered a remarkable new species of sea slug that lives in the deep sea. Bathydevius caudactylus swims through the ocean's midnight zone with a large gelatinous hood and paddle-like tail, and lights up with brilliant bioluminescence. The team published a description of the animal, nicknamed the "mystery mollusk," in the journal Deep-Sea Research Part I.

In an emerging red flag for the digital era, sleep experts have warned us to avoid screen time in bed, sounding the alarm that light emitted from phones and other electronic devices can disrupt our sleep patterns. That's one way that science is waking up to the broad range of health and disease implications related to circadian biology and our daily sleep-wake cycles.

Surfers could be protected from future shark attacks following new discoveries about how to trick sharks' visual systems made by Professor Nathan Hart, head of Macquarie University's Neurobiology Lab, Dr. Laura Ryan and colleagues.

Traditionally, migratory birds are thought to arrive at their wintering grounds after fall migration and remain there until the spring migration back to breeding sites. This assumption forms the basis for determining over-wintering ranges and shaping conservation measures. However, a team led by scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior has discovered that over-wintering ranges may be far more dynamic.

Habitat loss and poaching have driven dramatic declines in African elephants, but it is challenging to measure their numbers and monitor changes across the entire continent. A new study has analyzed 53 years of population survey data and found large-scale declines in most populations of both species of African elephants.

The sounds of barking elephant seals are again in the air along the breeding grounds of Península Valdés, Argentina—but it's quieter. Almost exactly a year after a massive outbreak of H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza killed more than 17,000 elephant seals, including about 97% of their pups, scientists estimate that only about a third of the elephant seals normally expected here returned.

When Mount St. Helens erupted in 1980, lava incinerated anything living for miles around. As an experiment, scientists later dropped gophers onto parts of the scorched mountain for only 24 hours. The benefits from that single day were undeniable—and still visible 40 years later.

A team in Utah has found that bee deaths due to collisions with automobiles in the western parts of the United States may be in the tens of millions every day.

Tool use isn't unique to humans. Chimpanzees use sticks as tools. Dolphins, crows, and elephants are known for their tool-use abilities, too. Now a report in Current Biology on November 8, 2024, highlights elephants' remarkable skill in using a hose as a flexible shower head. As an unexpected bonus, researchers say they also have evidence that a fellow elephant knows how to turn the...

When people have an audience watching them, it can change their performance for better or worse. Now, researchers reporting in iScience on November 8 have found that chimpanzees' performance on computer tasks is influenced by the number of people watching them.

Colors are widely used in communication within and among animal species. For example, peacocks proudly display their vibrant tails, adorned with iridescent eyespots, to attract peahens for courtship. This is a classic example of sexual selection using color signaling. Conspicuous colors are also displayed by toxic animal species, including many venomous snakes and the brilliantly colored poison frogs of Central and South America, as...

The radiation levels experienced by the frogs living in Chernobyl have not affected their age or their rate of aging. These two traits do not differ, in fact, between specimens captured in areas with high levels of radiation and those living in control areas without radiation. Nor have differences been found in the levels of corticosterone, a hormone associated with the response to stress,...

The densely-populated island of Luzon is home to over half of the Philippines' population, many of whom consume shellfish on a regular basis. An international team of scientists has just confirmed the presence there of two species of Pseudo-nitzschia diatoms capable of producing a dangerous neurotoxin that can cause severe sickness and memory loss.

Research led by the University of New Hampshire sheds light on how coyotes, North America's most successful predators, are responding to various environmental pressures, including human development, hunting and competition with larger carnivores. Surprisingly, the study's findings suggest that human hunting practices may actually contribute to increasing the number of coyotes.

In a study of salmon samples from Seattle, Washington, grocery stores and sushi restaurants, DNA analysis revealed that 18% were mislabeled. Tracie Delgado and colleagues at Seattle Pacific University, WA, U.S., present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on November 6, 2024.

Albatrosses are exceptionally mobile and use the wind to travel hundreds of thousands of miles to feed on squid, fish, or other animals found near the water surface in the open ocean. In fact, some larger species of albatrosses are so reliant on the wind that they struggle to even take off when the conditions are calm.

At less than 3mm long, you may not think Dunatothrips aneurae seem like much. And—as I have shown in a new study published in the Journal of Animal Ecology—you'd be absolutely right. That's because these may be the world's laziest insects.

Romance is a complex affair in humans. There's personality, appearance, seduction, all manner of physical and social cues. Mosquitoes are much more blunt. Mating occurs for a few seconds in midair. And all it takes to woo a male is the sound of a female's wingbeats. Imagine researchers' surprise when a single change completely killed the mosquitoes' libidos.

Swallows infected with parasites move less and in smaller ranges than healthy ones—with detrimental effects on their foraging success and their survival. As a result, infected individuals foraged in less productive areas, such as cultivated farmland, clearly avoided by their healthy conspecifics.

Mosquito larvae grow faster if they're exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health programs.

A German-American research team has discovered two highly unusual bacterial species in the tissue of two deep-sea corals from the Gulf of Mexico. These previously unknown coral symbionts have an extremely reduced genome and lack the ability to obtain energy from carbohydrates, the team reports in an article published in the journal Nature Communications.

A multi-institutional team of environmental scientists and physical limnologists has found that there may be a scientific explanation for Jesus' "miraculous catch of fish"—one that does not involve miracles. In their paper published in the journal Water Resources Research, the group describes their study of natural fish die-offs in Lake Kinneret, which is believed to be the Biblical Sea of Galilee mentioned in the...

If carbon emissions are curbed and local stressors are addressed, coral reefs have the potential to persist and adapt over time. That's according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB).

Increased land management by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia around 6,000 years ago cut forest shrub cover in half, according to our new study published in Science of fossil pollen trapped in ancient mud.