News by Subject Earth Science

Scientists demonstrated that, contrary to what had been assumed for several years, colour variations among female macaques do not precisely indicate the time of ovulation. On the other hand, dominant female macaques, who usually have greater reproductive success, have darker hindquarters.

The Turkestan cockroach (commonly known as the red runner roach or rusty red roach), which is popular as food for pet reptiles, has an interneuron extremely sensitive to sex pheromones emitted by American cockroaches, providing evidence that the Turkestan cockroach is phylogenetically close to the American cockroach and the smoky brown cockroach belonging to the genus Periplaneta.

Why does it take 200 million sperm to fertilize a single egg? Part of the reason is bombardment by the female immune system, which very few sperm survive. Researchers have discovered a molecular handshake between sperm and uterine cells that may help sperm evade this attack -- or may help the immune system target the weakest sperm.

Neuroscientists from the Salk Institute and UC San Diego have discovered that at least six types of mammals -- from mice to cats -- distinguish odors in roughly the same way, using circuitry in the brain that's evolutionarily preserved across species.

Described in 1981, the genus Biswamoyopterus is regarded as the most mysterious and rarest amongst all flying squirrels. It comprises two species, each known from a single specimen. Recent research by Chinese and Australian scientists described a third species found to inhabit low-altitude forests in Yunnan Province, China. By publishing their discovery in the open-access journal ZooKeys, the research team aims to promote further study and conservation of these squirrels.

The 165-million-year-old fossil of Microdocodon gracilis, a tiny, shrew-like animal, shows the earliest example of modern hyoid bones in mammal evolution.

A new review article appearing in the journal Nature Reviews Microbiology highlights the evolution and ecology of plant viruses. Arvind Varsani, a researcher at ASU's Biodesign Institute joins an international team to explore many details of viral dynamics. They describe the subtle interplay between three components of the viral infection process, the virus itself, the plant cell hosts infected by the virus and the vectors that act as go-betweens -- an intricate system evolving over some 450 million years.

Two newly discovered organisms point to the existence of an ancient organism that resembled a tiny version of the lumbering, human-eating science fiction plants known as 'triffids,' according to research in Nature.

Gene identified in worms controls how resources are allocated for stress resilience, longevity and fertility.