Tatarinow's aster is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat a number of ailments; the plant contains an active ingredient known as astin—and it is this agent which cancer researchers are now investigating. However, the plant does not produce...
This is an elephant in Namibia.Credit: Photo courtesy of Andrew Schaefer
Despite reported differences in appearance and behavior, DNA evidence finds that Namibian desert elephants share the same DNA as African savanna elephants. However, Namibian desert-dwelling elephants should be protected...
New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed that crocodiles once flourished on land and in the oceans as a result of fast evolution.
Modern crocodiles are predators living in rivers, lakes and wetlands, grabbing fish, reptiles, birds...
A new study reconfigures the elephant family tree, placing the giant extinct elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus closer to the African forest elephant, Loxodonta cyclotis, than to the Asian elephant, Elephas maximus, which was once thought to be its closest living...
Research on fossilized fish from the late Devonian period, roughly 375 million years ago, details the evolution of fins as they began to transition into limbs fit for walking on land.
The new study by paleontologists from the University of...
New research indicates adolescent offspring of the menacing saber-toothed predator, Smilodon fatalis, were more momma's cubs than independent warriors.
A new study by scientists at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and University of Toronto, published January 7, 2021 in iScience¸ documents...
Each year, millions of monarch butterflies migrate across eastern North America to fly from as far north as the U.S.-Canadian border to overwinter in central Mexico—covering as much as 3,000 miles. Meanwhile, on the other side of the Rocky...
Cephalotus follicularis, the Australian pitcher plant. Photographed here in its native range in Western Australia, this carnivorous plant evolved to digest insects through a strikingly similar evolutionary pathway as other plants that developed the same capability independently, a new...
A lionfish specimen photographed in the Mediterranean.Credit: Maria Papinikola
Rising sea temperatures in the Mediterranean are encouraging alien lionfish species to invade and colonise new territories with potentially serious ecological and socioeconomic impacts.
Evidence collated from divers and fishermen reveals that...
Leucauge venusta suspended from its web.
Credit: Dimitar Dimitrov
For the first time biologists have made a full family tree of the world's spiders, giving us knowledge about venoms that can be useful in medicine. And we might be able to...
MIT-WHOI Joint Program Student Max Kaplan scuba diving over a coral reef in the Virgin Islands back.Credit: T. Aran Mooney, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
A new study from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) will help researchers understand the ways...
