Trilobite “hyper-eyes” found according to ScienceDaily 30 September 2021, Science Alert 3 October 2021 and Scientific Reports 30 September 2021 doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-98740-z. Trilobite eyes have long been known for precision optics, and now one kind of trilobite has been found to have more complex eyes than previously thought. Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina have two […]
Horseshoe crab brains haven’t changed, according to a report in Science Alert 28 July 2021, Natural History Museum (NHM) Science News 5 August 2021, and Geology, doi: 10.1130/G49193.1, published online 26 July 2021. An international group of scientists from Australia, UK and USA have studied an “exceptionally preserved” fossil horseshoe crab named Euproops danae, found […]
“Jurassic Pompeii” found by amateur rock sleuth Neville Hollingworth, who scoured old maps and records looking for ‘lost’ UK fossil sites. The huge number of sea creatures and land plants in the rocks reminded him of Pompei according to BBC News 22 July 2021. Enter palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London who are […]
Sea sponge fluid dynamics revealed by supercomputer, as reported in Nature News and Views 21 July 2021, and Nature 21 July 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41586-021-03658-1. Researchers in Italy have used one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world to study the way sea water flows through and around the sea sponge Euplectella which grows on […]
Mass baby burial of 1400 juvenile animals, according to reports in ScienceDaily and Penn State News 28 June 2021 and Nature Ecology and Evolution 28 June 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01490-4. Palaeontologists have found an exceptionally preserved trove of soft bodied invertebrate fossils from a rock formation named the Haiyan Lagerstätte located in Haiyan, China. The term […]
All revealed in see through butterflies in SciTech Daily 17 June 2021, Science (AAAS) News 21 June 2021 and Journal of Experimental Biology 28 May 2021, doi:10.1242/jeb.237917. Clearwing, or glass wing butterflies have large transparent regions in their wings that are distinct from other transparent insect wings in that they are also very non-reflective, with […]
Scientists “evolve a fungus” claims Science (AAAS) News 4 June 2021, and Scientific Reports 19 May 2021 doi:10.1038/s41598-021-89811-2. Researchers looking for a method of biological control of the Verroa mite, which has devastated honeybee colonies, have found a fungus that attacks and kills the mites. However, the fungus grows poorly in the warm temperatures of […]
Rock hard skeletons resist climate change, according to articles in Rutgers University News 8 April 2021, SciTech Daily 18 April 2021 and, Journal of the Royal Society Interface, 24 February 2021, doi: 10.1098/rsif.2020.0859. Coral reefs are formed as coral animals lay down a hard rock-like material that consists of the mineral aragonite, a type of […]
Octopuses feel the light, according to reports in Inside JEB and Live Science 5 March 2021 and Journal of Experimental Biology 5 March 2021, doi:10.1242/jeb.237529. Whilst studying the response of octopus skin to bright lights scientists at Ruppin Academic Center, Israel, researchers noticed that the animals moved their arms away from the light in a […]
Oldest cephalopods may have been found, claim scientists via reports in ScienceDaily 23 March 2021, Science Alert 25 March2021 and Communications Biology 23 March 2021, doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01885-w. Scientists at the University of Heidelberg have studied fossils from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, and identified them as fossil cephalopods. Living cephalopods include octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and […]