News by Subject Biology

How do animals adapt to urban environments? In the case of the Tungara frog, city males put on a more elaborate mating display than males in forested areas.

Encouraging people to change their behavior through social marketing campaigns can help the recovery of threatened wildlife populations.

Planning and self control in animals do not require human-like mental capacities, according to a study from Stockholm University. Newly developed learning models, similar to models within artificial intelligence research, show how planning in ravens and great apes can develop through prior experiences without any need of thinking.

Indian peafowl crests resonate efficiently and specifically to the same vibration frequencies used in peacock social displays, according to a paper published November 28, 2018 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Suzanne Amador Kane from Haverford College, USA, and colleagues.

Researchers have sequenced the genome of the tegu, Salvator merianae: a lizard that has taken an evolutionary step toward warm-bloodedness. It is also a highly desired pet, that can often be house-trained; unfortunately, as part of the exotic pet trade, it has been released in new environments and become a threat to local species. This extremely high-quality tegu genome sequence will be of use to researchers in the fields of evolution, physiology and ecology.

Male birds-of-paradise are notorious for their wildly extravagant feather ornaments, complex calls, and shape-shifting dance moves -- all evolved to attract a mate. New research published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology on Nov. 20 suggests for the first time that female preferences drive the evolution of combinations of physical and behavioral traits that may also be tied to where the male does his courting: on the ground or up in the trees.

Crickets that are exposed to human drugs that alter serotonin levels in the brain are less active and less aggressive than crickets that have had no drug exposure, according to a new study led by researchers from Linköping University. The findings have been published in Scientific Reports.

Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis have mapped the regions of the brain in mormyrid fish in extremely high detail. The new measurements can help illuminate longstanding questions in neuroanatomy. As brains get bigger, do all regions of the brain scale up in a predictable way? Or does natural selection act independently on separate regions of the brain -- such that certain parts of the brain become enlarged in animals that have extra reasons to use them?