Scientists from South Africa and Brazil have provided empirical evidence that pollen grains of rival plants may compete with one another for space on pollinators, thus influencing whose pollen is going to make it to the next flower – or not.

In an article published in The American Naturalist this week, they argue that because plants can manipulate where and how much pollen is placed on the bodies of pollinators, plants may have developed strategies that are similar to sperm manipulation in animals.

A 200 year old painting in a cave on the La Belle France farm in the Free State province of South Africa, may be the world's oldest known piece of paleo-art depicting an extinct mammal-like reptile called a dicynodont, predating the creature's official scientific discovery by at least a decade.

The African Plant Nutrition Institute (APNI) convened a four-day international workshop in Benguérir, Morocco to explore the potential to develop multifunctional agricultural landscapes that acknowledge the rapidly emerging need for sustainability, resilience, and farmer-centric solutions for nutrient management.

Imagine a world on the brink of collapse: volcanic eruptions spewing toxic gases, oceans turning acidic, and up to 90% of Earth's species vanishing in the blink of an eye. This was the reality at the end of the Permian Period, around 252 million years ago, during Earth's most catastrophic mass extinction event. Yet, amid this global upheaval, a stocky predator (with a body length of just over a metre) known as Moschorhinus kitchingi managed to survive and thrive, staking its claim as one of the top predators in the aftermath. For the first time, scientists from the University of the Witwatersrand and the University of Southern California have offered a detailed look at the skeleton of Moschorhinus kitchingi beyond just its skull, by studying multiple fossil specimens from collections in South Africa.