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Mushrooms growing around the base of a tree in a forest

Do trees communicate via a 'wood wide web'? The evidence is lacking

13 February 2023

A review of studies on mycorrhizal fungi finds there is insufficient evidence for the popular idea that trees communicate and share resources via these underground networks


A group of peccaries

Herds of pig-like peccaries seem to disappear and reappear years later

9 November 2022

Massive herds of a hairy, pig-like creature known as a peccary sometimes disappear suddenly across much of the Americas, and now we know why – its populations go through 30-year cycles of boom and bust


Green mountains in the Azores

European empires had a lasting impact on plant biodiversity worldwide

17 October 2022

The global distribution of plants has been heavily influenced by the European empires that spread alien species across the world from the 15th century onwards


panoramic of Serran?a del Perij?

Colombian dinosaur finally identified thanks to 2016 peace agreement

18 August 2022

A peace agreement in Colombia meant researchers could return to the site where a sauropod fossil was dug up in 1943 and name it as a new species, Perijasaurus lapaz


A male Santa Marta sabrewing. The species was rediscovered in Colombia's Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta in July 2022. The hummingbird had not had a documented sighting in 12 years. It was only the second time the hummingbird has been documented since it was first collected in 1946. (Photo by Yurgen Vega/SELVA/ProCAT)

Hummingbird that was feared extinct is spotted in Colombian mountains

5 August 2022

The Santa Marta sabrewing, an emerald green hummingbird, has been officially documented for only the second time since it was discovered in 1946


Colorado potato beetle

Hibernating beetles break down and regrow their muscles on demand

25 July 2022

Colorado potato beetles lose almost all the mitochondria in their muscles during hibernation, but regrow them in time to start flying in the spring


An image of a feathered theropod dinosaur eating a mammal on a cold day

Dinosaurs’ ability to survive icy cold helped them dominate the planet

1 July 2022

Being already adapted to polar climes could have enabled dinosaurs to survive cold winters in the end-Triassic extinction event when most other animals died out


Santa Marta harlequin toad

Male toad clings to female for 5 months waiting for chance to mate

11 April 2022

A tracking study suggests males of one species of toad are prepared to go without food for several months for an opportunity to reproduce


Rhesus macaques

Living through a hurricane accelerated the ageing process for monkeys

7 February 2022

In 2017, Hurricane Maria devastated Caribbean communities, and we now know it had an impact on monkeys too - macaques that lived through the stressful experience have aged at an accelerated rate


Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia), British Columbia, Canada

Fear of predators means sparrows struggle to raise chicks to adulthood

7 February 2022

Sparrows on a collection of Canadian islands change their behaviour when they fear predators are nearby, and an experiment shows this reduces their ability to raise their offspring to adulthood


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