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Occurring in the genomes of most living organisms, transposable elements (TEs) are short DNA sequences that have the ability change their position. By means of various molecular mechanisms—so-called copy-paste or cut-and-paste—they can 'jump' to another place within the genome. The genes contained in transposable elements are therefore known as jumping genes. Depending on the position into which they insert in the genome, this can have negative consequences for the host—the organism lending its genome which they inhabit. Host species thus evolved protection mechanisms to restrict the activity of TEs. However, TEs have found ways to circumvent these protection mechanisms.View the full article -
Why have some plant species changed pollinators in their evolution? An international team of researchers from the Universities of Bonn and Xi'an Jiaotong-Liverpool University Suzhou (China) studied the reproductive systems of three sister species pairs, where one species is pollinated by insects and the other by hummingbirds. Mechanisms were discovered that explain the switch from insect to bird pollination. The study has now appeared in the journal Ecology and Evolution.View the full article
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Australia is losing its birds at an alarming rate—one in six species are now threatened with extinction, predominantly due to climate change, land clearing and worsening bushfires.View the full article
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America's national bird is more beleaguered than previously believed, with nearly half of bald eagles tested across the U.S. showing signs of chronic lead exposure, according to a study published Thursday.View the full article
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Recent advances in wildlife tracking techniques have enabled large-scale data collection on the detailed movements of many animal species. The application of these approaches has revealed new insights into how animals use their environment, interact with one another, and respond to environmental and anthropogenic change—details that were previously impossible to explore.View the full article
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To eat or get eaten. It describes the evolutionary race of snakes versus the mammals and birds that prey on these snakes. Muzaffar Ali Khan devoted his Ph.D. to investigating the molecular mechanisms play of the evolutionary arms race, and has his promotion 16 February. What makes mammals and birds successful in their snake hunting?View the full article
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For female common yellowthroats, beauty isn't just skin—or features—deep. New research provides evidence that large or showy physical features of males attract females because they signal high-quality male genes, such as those linked with robust immunity or stress resistance. View the full article
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Something was just not right.View the full article
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Honeybees are common pollinators, but wild bees, including bumble bees, and other insects such as hoverflies, beetles and butterflies, are also needed for pollination and are important in many different ways. With simple measures, we can help these insects thrive so they can contribute to a diversity of wild flowers, crops and rich nature experiences.View the full article
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In the yards behind the slaughterhouses—also called abattoirs—of Ethiopia, an ecological shift is unfolding that has echoes of similar crises all over the world. Species with a clear and effective ecological role are in serious decline, and the less-specialized but more aggressive species that have moved in to take their place are not only less effective, but are harmful to their ecosystem which, in this case, includes humans.View the full article
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An international team of scientists, including two from the University of Bath, has just arrived back from an expedition studying penguin colonies in the Falkland Islands, South Georgia and Antarctic Peninsula.View the full article
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Over the last decade, the area protected for nature in Australia has shot up by almost half. Our national reserve system now covers 20% of the country.View the full article
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A new statistical method suggests that past landscape changes can cast a shadow on future bird biodiversity, leading to avian communities facing impeding species extinctions, as well as the arrival of new colonizing species.View the full article
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A team of researchers from Dongguan University of Technology and the Royal Veterinary College has found that female barn owls use their tails in unexpected ways. In their paper published in the Journal of The Royal Society Interface, the group describes their analytical drag model using high-fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFDs).View the full article
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Thousands of migratory birds have failed to make their annual visit to Albania's western coast this winter, experts say, pointing to climate change, overfishing and urbanisation as likely factors.View the full article
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Cockatoos have shown an extraordinary ability to complete a task by combining simple tools, demonstrating that this cognitive ability is not found only in primates.View the full article
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Predators kill prey and prey attempt to avoid being killed by predators; the former obviously reduces the number of prey but, according to a new study, fear (avoiding being killed) can itself halve the population size of prey in 5 years or less, by so impairing parental investment and care fewer than half as many young reach adulthood and those that do are permanently handicapped.View the full article
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In the 250 years since Europeans colonized Australia, native birdlife has disappeared across the continent. Our new research has, for the first time, registered just how much Australia has actually lost—and our findings are astonishingly sad.View the full article
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In humid savanna on Cape York Peninsula, February 5, 1922, a man was on the hunt with a local Indigenous guide. They had just heard their quarry calling among the tall grass—a low "oomm, oomm, oomm"—before it burst into view with a flurry of wingbeats. A loud shotgun blast, and the bird dropped to the ground.View the full article
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Hand fed fish and given gentle yet rigorous baths, penguins and other sea birds are slowly regaining their strength at a Peruvian zoo after a major oil spill that claimed many of their friends.View the full article
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Nagoya University physiologists have furthered understanding of the bird neural circuitry that allows them to distinguish where a specific sound is coming from. Their findings, published in the journal Science Advances, could help scientists understand the basics of how mammalianbrains compute the time difference between a single sound arriving at each individual ear, known as 'interaural time difference." This ability is an integral component of sound localization.View the full article
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Sara Bogard halted her dog as the two began descending the cliff down to Manchester Beach, along the Mendocino coast.View the full article
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Oviraptorosaurs are a group of birdlike dinosaurs that were part of the ancestral dinosaur lineage that later gave rise to birds. Oviraptorosaurs walked on two legs, had a powerful toothless beak and were covered in feathers.View the full article
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Nursed back from near death, a skittish vulture flaps its wings and returns to the grey skies above India's capital after weeks of tender care from two devoted brothers.View the full article
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As the sun sets over central Rome, five figures in white overalls move under the trees. They wave speakers emitting a mix of sharp cries, and the birds rise into the air.View the full article
