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Wearing a bright outfit covered in shiny sequins is a sure-fire way to attract attention. Just think of stars on stage—Beyonce, Taylor Swift or Harry Styles—their bedazzled outfits catch the lights, flashing and sparkling as they dance in concert. Many animals also have brilliant and dazzling appearances. Jewel beetles look like, well, jewels and there's even a fly so fabulous it was named after...

Ticks travel light, but they carry pathogens with them. When they parasitize migrating birds, these journeys can take them thousands of miles away from their usual geographic range. Historically, they haven't been able to establish themselves due to unsuitable climate conditions at the other end of their long journeys. But now, thanks to the climate crisis, it's getting easier for ticks to survive and...

Phosphorus, a nutrient in soil essential for sustaining most forms of life, is increasingly disappearing from land as it is washed into waterways throughout the United States, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State.

A new species of tarantula, Trichopelma grande, has been discovered in western Cuba by researchers David Ortiz of Masaryk University, Czechia, and Elier Fonseca of the Cuban Zoological Society, Cuba. The charismatic addition to the Trichopelma genus is remarkable for its size and unique features, making it the largest and hairiest of its kind.

Southeast Asia's tropical forests are renowned for their biodiversity, but at the same time face significant threats from the expansion of oil palm plantations. With global demand for palm oil rising, the urgency for effective restoration strategies in these landscapes has become critical.

A new study reveals alarming risks that pesticides pose to ground-nesting bees, which are crucial for pollination and food production. As agriculture increasingly relies on pesticides to protect crops, the unintended consequences for these essential pollinators are becoming clearer.

For many researchers in biology and other natural sciences, dissecting specimens may not be desirable, though it is often necessary. This is because dissection means killing the animal a researcher is trying to study—a big issue, especially if the species is experiencing a population decline.

A small team of marine scientists from the University of the Ryukyus, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology and the Kuroshio Biological Research Foundation, has found that a worm species thought to be missing since 1957 has been appearing in photographs taken by citizen scientists for several years.

Animals and plants also live and thrive on public squares. This creates opportunities for greater biodiversity and well-being for the human population. Researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have studied at 103 locations in Munich how various factors affect flora and fauna.

It's a common sight—ants marching in an orderly line over and around obstacles from their nest to a food source, guided by scent trails left by scouts marking the find. But what happens when those scouts find a comestible motherlode?

Hunted nearly to extinction during 20th century whaling, the Antarctic blue whale, the world's largest animal, went from a population size of roughly 200,000 to little more than 300. The most recent estimate in 2004 put Antarctic blue whales at less than 1% of their pre-whaling levels.

Mountain lions in greater Los Angeles are proactively shifting their activity to avoid interacting with cyclists, hikers, joggers and other recreationists, finds a study from the University of California, Davis, Cal Poly Pomona and the National Park Service.

Scientists have found a trigger for social learning in wild animals. An experiment on great tits has pinpointed a single factor—immigration—that can cause birds to pay close attention to others, leading them to rapidly adopt useful behaviors.

The megafires that tore through Australia's forests in 2019–20 burnt more than 10 million hectares. The tragedy prompted a massive research effort to understand how plants and animals were affected.

"Cool" white lights—such as those in modern car headlights—endanger moths by causing them to fly erratically, new research shows. The findings are published in the journal Biology Letters.

In the tropical Atlantic, stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD) is particularly severe because the disease is transmitted quickly, spreads to many hosts, and results in high mortality rates. Treatment methods to stop the spread of SCTLD are available; the most common is the use of antibiotics. This, however, comes with side effects like increased antibiotic resistance.

A remote lakeshore deep inside Yosemite National Park teems with life: coyotes, snakes, birds, tadpoles, frogs. The frogs are at the heart of this scene, which a decade ago was much different. It was quiet—and not in a good way. The frogs that are so central to this ecosystem were absent, extirpated by a deadly fungal disease known as amphibian chytrid fungus.

According to a recent study published in Nature, many planktonic foraminifera species may face unprecedented environmental conditions by the end of this century, potentially surpassing their survival thresholds. Planktonic foraminifera are single-celled organisms living in seawater, many of which carry a calcium carbonate shell. In tropical regions, the changing environmental conditions could trigger further extinctions, impacting marine ecosystems and the ocean's carbon storage capacity.

Animal habitats are currently changing extremely rapidly and extensively due to urbanization and climate change. As a result, animals are increasingly exposed to stressors. However, until now, little research has been conducted on how individual stress levels affect the group and the behavior of other group members that may not have experienced a stressor themselves.

A new study highlights how some marine life could face extinction over the next century, if human-induced global warming worsens.

Migratory birds are known for their ability to traverse thousands of kilometers to reach their breeding or wintering grounds. Research by Bangor University found that these birds, in this case, Eurasian reed warblers (Acrocephalus scirpaceus) use only the Earth's magnetic inclination and declination to determine their position and direction.

FIU scientists have discovered two major problems after analyzing small shark fins from Hong Kong markets—small coastal species are much more common in the international fin trade than previously thought and there is a burgeoning market for juveniles of large species.

Coral larvae reduce their metabolism and increase nitrogen uptake to resist bleaching at high temperatures, according to a study published November 12 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Ariana S. Huffmyer of the University of Washington, US, and colleagues.

The story of Arctic greening has overlooked some main characters. At center stage are climate change and warming temperatures. Meanwhile, large grazing wildlife, such as caribou and muskoxen, also play a key role in the timing and abundance of Arctic plants, according to a study from the University of California, Davis.