A 99-million-year-old piece of amber trapped this worker hell ant grasping an ancient relative of modern cockroaches in its unique jaws, which swung upwards unlike all modern ants.The 99-million-yr-old ant had scythe-like jaws that swung upward to pin prey against a horn-like head appendage.Some 99 million years back, an ant, unlike any alive today,...
A hoverfly exits the blossom of a Cypripedium wardii orchid after having fed on its pseudopollen (whitish powder visible at the lip of the pouchlike blossom). Credit: ZHENG CHEN-CHENResearch suggests pollinators, like bees and hoverflies, find the fake pollen of at least one orchid species delicious.Orchids are among the most untrustworthy flowering plants on...
New, possibly arboreal rice rat species discovered in Ecuador - ScienceDaily - Verve timesVisitar"In total, the expeditions to the Kutukú region in southeastern Ecuador involved 1,200 trap nights, but only one specimen of the new species Mindomys kutuku was found," claims Dr. Claudia Koch, curator of herpetology at the LIB, Gallery Koenig Bonn, describing the effort...
Neuroterus valhalla is a newly described species of cynipid gall wasp discovered in the branches of a live oak tree near the Rice University graduate student pub Valhalla. Credit: Miles Zhang/Smithsonian NMNHIts name sounds legendary, but the newly uncovered insect Neuroterus (noo-ROH'- teh-rus) Valhalla does not look or act the part. It is barely...
Climate change is not only a human concern; animals have to adjust to it too. Some "warm-blooded" animals are shapeshifting and getting bigger beaks, legs, and ears to manage their body temperatures better as the planet's temperature increases. Bird scientist Sara Ryding of Deakin University in Australia explains these modifications in a review released...
Researchers at the University of Miami Rosenstiel College of Marine and Atmospheric Science (UM) and the Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society London (ZSL) discovered that tiger sharks, often regarded as lone nomadic species, are social animals, having preferences for each other.A first of its kind, the study additionally evaluated if exposure of...
Perfect Bush-crow and Swallow habitat in Ethiopia. Credit: Andrew BladonThe White-tailed Swallow, Hirundo megaensis, and Ethiopian Bush-crow, Zavattariornis Stresemann, live in 'climatic lifeboats' with their small ranges restricted on all sides by temperature level as well as rains patterns. Also, under moderate climate warming, simulations predict a severe loss of ideal environment for these...
A mother Rothschild’s giraffe tending to her baby. The photo was taken in Soysambu Conservancy, in the Rift Valley region of Kenya. Giraffes are attentive mothers to their offspring, and all female adults in a group are invested in each others’ offspring. Credit: Zoe MullerBefore, giraffes were thought to have little to no social...
