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Categories: Ecology: General, Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published Who knew that coprophagy was so vital for birds' survival?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research explains how eating feces (known as coprophagy) shapes wild birds' digestive tracts (gut biota), enabling them to absorb lost or deficient nutrients and adjust to seasonal variations in food sources.
Published Rainforest's next generation of trees threatened 30 years after logging
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Rainforest seedlings are more likely to survive in natural forests than in places where logging has happened -- even if tree restoration projects have taken place, new research shows.
Published Cheetahs' unrivalled speed explained by their 'sweet spot' size, finds Imperial study
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study has answered a long-held question about why medium-sized land animals like cheetahs tend to be fastest.
Published Cicadas' unique urination unlocks new understanding of fluid dynamics
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source While most small insects and mammals urinate in droplets, cicadas urinate in jets. Researchers say the finding could be used to create better robots and small nozzles.
Published Halloween toy among plastics swallowed by sea turtles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A Halloween toy was among hundreds of plastic items found in the guts of dead sea turtles in the Mediterranean, a new study reveals.
Published Researchers develop artificial building blocks of life
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source For the first time, scientists have developed artificial nucleotides, the building blocks of DNA, with several additional properties in the laboratory.
Published Good news for coral reef restoration efforts: Study finds 'full recovery' of reef growth within four years
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source While the majority of the world's reefs are now under threat or even damaged potentially beyond repair, a new study offers some encouraging news: efforts to restore coral reefs not only increase coral cover, but they can also bring back important ecosystem functions, and surprisingly fast.
Published Reptile roadkill reveals new threat to endangered lizard species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The chance sighting of a dead snake beside a sandy track in remote Western Australia, and the investigation of its stomach contents, has led researchers to record the first known instance of a spotted mulga snake consuming a pygmy spiny-tailed skink, raising concerns for a similar-looking, endangered lizard species.
Published Loss of nature costs more than previously estimated
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers propose that governments apply a new method for calculating the benefits that arise from conserving biodiversity and nature for future generations.
Published Earth's earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The oldest fossilized forest known on Earth -- dating from 390 million years ago -- has been found in the high sandstone cliffs along the Devon and Somerset coast of South West England.
Published Microbes impact coral bleaching susceptibility
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study provides insights into the role of microbes and their interaction as drivers of interspecific differences in coral thermal bleaching.
Published Marine algae implants could boost crop yields
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists have discovered the gene that enables marine algae to make a unique type of chlorophyll. They successfully implanted this gene in a land plant, paving the way for better crop yields on less land.
Published Bee-2-Bee influencing: Bees master complex tasks through social interaction
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Bumblebees successfully learned a two-step puzzle box task through social observation. This task was too complex for individual bees to learn on their own. Observing trained demonstrator bees performing the first unrewarded step was crucial for successful social learning. Individual bees failed to solve the puzzle without previous demonstration, despite extensive exposure.
Published Herbivores, displaced by ocean warming, threaten subtropical seagrass meadows
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The findings suggest that subtropical seagrasses are less resilient to heavy grazing from marine herbivores, in part because they receive less sunlight relative to their tropical counterparts. As tropical herbivores move into subtropical waters, overgrazing may prevent subtropical seagrass meadows from persisting in these environments.
Published New deep-sea worm discovered at methane seep off Costa Rica
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Marine biologists have discovered a new species of deep-sea worm living near a methane seep some 50 kilometers (30 miles) off the Pacific coast of Costa Rica.
Published Genetic mutation in a quarter of all Labradors hard-wires them for obesity
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source New research finds around a quarter of Labrador retriever dogs face a double-whammy of feeling hungry all the time and burning fewer calories due to a genetic mutation.
Published Do some electric fish sense the world through comrades' auras?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source It would be a game-changer if all members of a basketball team could see out of each other's eyes in addition to their own. Biologists have found evidence that this kind of collective sensing occurs in close-knit groups of African weakly electric fish, also known as elephantnose fish. This instantaneous sharing of sensory intelligence could help the fish locate food, friends and foes.
Published Tiny worms tolerate Chornobyl radiation
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new study finds that exposure to chronic radiation from Chornobyl has not damaged the genomes of microscopic worms living there today -- which doesn't mean that the region is safe, the scientists caution, but suggests that these worms are exceptionally resilient.
Published Fossils of giant sea lizard with dagger-like teeth show how our oceans have fundamentally changed since the dinosaur era
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fossils of a strange new species of marine lizard with dagger-like teeth that lived 66 million years ago, show a dramatically more biodiverse ocean ecosystem to what we see today.
Published Fossil named 'Attenborough's strange bird' was the first in its kind without teeth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A new fossil, named 'Attenborough's strange bird' after naturalist and documentarian Sir David Attenborough, is the first of its kind to evolve a toothless beak. It's from a branch of the bird family tree that went extinct in the mass extinction 66 million years ago, and this strange bird is another puzzle piece that helps explain why some birds -- and their fellow dinosaurs -- went extinct, and others survived to today.