Chinese treasure trove of exquisite fossils found, according to reports in National Geographic 21 March 2019, BBC News 24 March 2019 and Science 22 March 2019 doi: 10.1126/science.aau8800. Scientists in China have collected over 20,000 fossils including worms, jellyfish, sea anemones, small segmented invertebrates, and algae, preserved in rock near the Danshui river in Hubei […]
Lobster skin could make car tyres, according to Science (AAAS) News 19 February 2019 and Acta Biomaterialia 31 January 2019, doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2019.01.067. Lobsters have a hard exoskeleton over their backs, legs and sides, but they have a soft flexible membrane covering the undersides of their tails and around their joints that enables them to move […]
Weevil larvae at sea according articles in Journal of Experimental Biology, 13 December 2018, doi: 10.1242/jeb.195792. Flightless insects and small invertebrates are found all over the world, including remote islands. In order to get to such places they must cross long stretches of ocean. Even if they are carried on rafts of vegetation they will […]
Oldest sponges found, according to ScienceDaily 15 October 2018 and Nature Ecology & Evolution 15 October 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0676-2. Researchers at the University of California have found evidence of sponges in rock and oils from Oman, Siberia, and India, dated as 660-635 million years ago. This is classified the Neoproterozoic Era, and is claimed to […]
World needs death and decay claims an article is ScienceDaily 12 September 2018 about a study published in Ecological Monographs 11 September 2018, doi: 10.1002/ecm.1331. When animals and plants die there is a need for their remains to be broken down and decomposed so that nutrients and other substances are returned to the earth to […]
Eye evolution problem reported in Current Biology published online 19 July 2018 doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.05.055. A large and diverse group of invertebrates, the cnidarians, including jellyfish, corals and sea anemones, vary a lot in their ability to detect light and see their surrounding environment. Some have no eyes, some have eye spots and others have eyes […]
Birds disperse stick insects, according to reports in Science News and ScienceDaily 28 May 2018, and Ecology, 29 May 2018, doi: 10.1002/ecy.2230. Stick insects are found throughout the world and scientists have wondered how they could have spread to land masses that are separated by long distances. Stick insects are large and don’t fly so […]
Clams recycle urea for algae, according to reports in Inside JEB 19 April 2018, and Journal of Experimental Biology 14 March 2018, doi: 10.1242/jeb.176313. Giant clams live in close symbiotic relationship with marine algae known as zooxanthellae, which produce nutrients for the clam by photosynthesis. The algae can make sugars from carbon dioxide and water, […]
Feathered dinos had ticks, claim scientists in articles in, National Geographic 12 December 2017, BBC News and ScienceDaily 13 December 2017, and Nature Communications doi:10.1038/s41467-017-01550-z published online 12 December 2017. An international team of researchers from Spain, USA and UK have found three species of ticks preserved in amber from Burma. The amber is dated […]
Scallops have telescope mirror eyes, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and Live Science 30 November 2017, and Science doi: 10.1126/science.aam9506, 1 December 2017. Scallops are bivalve shellfish that have many tiny round eyes. The eyes have an unusual structure – they have two retinae (light sensitive layers) and a mirror that focuses the […]