Researchers have discovered that a fungal virus (also called a mycovirus) can convert deadly fungal pathogens into beneficial fungus in rapeseed plants. Once transformed, the fungus boosts the plant’s immune system, making the plant healthier and more resistant to diseases. Rapeseeds that cover farm fields with bright yellow blossoms like a fuzzy golden blanket are…

A study finds that there is a 50 percent chance that the common ancestor of birds and dinosaurs had bright colors on its skin, beaks and scales, but 0 percent chance that it had bright colors on its feathers or claws. There’s a good chance that extinct dinosaurs rocked pops of color on similar body…

New research has resulted in an updated evolutionary tree of early birds and their closest relatives to reconstruct powered flight potential, showing it evolved at least three times. Many ancestors of the closest bird relatives neared the thresholds of powered flight potential, suggesting broad experimentation with wing-assisted locomotion before flight evolved. «Our revised evolutionary tree…

Different dinosaur groups independently evolved gigantic body sizes, but they all faced the same problems of overheating and damaging their brains. «The brain and sense organs like the eye are very sensitive to temperature,» said Ruger Porter, Assistant Professor of Anatomical Instruction and lead author of the study. «Animals today often have elaborate thermoregulatory strategies…

A research group studying the diversity of parasitoid insects around the world. Parasitoid wasps (Hymenoptera) are one of the most species rich animal taxa on Earth, but their tropical diversity is still poorly known. The group discovered 15 new, sizable species that parasitize spiders in the lowland rainforests of the Amazon and the cloud forests…

Scientists have discovered that a new form of ant society spread across species. They found that after the new form of society evolved in one species, a ‘social supergene’ carrying the instruction-set for the new social form spread into other species. This spread occurred through hybridization, i.e., breeding between ants of different species. This unlikely…

When you only have fossils to go off of, it’s hard to tell which dinosaur traits, like size and ornamentation, are related to the animals’ sex, and which traits are related to other things like age. But a new kind of statistical analysis can often estimate the degree of sexual variation in a dataset of…

Researchers have developed a huggable, cushion-like device that mechanically simulates breathing, and preliminary evidence suggests it could help reduce students’ pre-test anxiety. Treatments for anxiety disorders primarily include therapy and medications. However, these can be costly, and medications may have unwanted side effects. At-home anxiety aids could complement treatments for anxiety disorders and also benefit…

Evolutionary expert Charles Darwin and others recognized a close evolutionary relationship between humans, chimps and gorillas based on their shared anatomies, raising some big questions: how are humans related to other primates, and exactly how did early humans move around? Thomas Cody Prang, assistant professor of anthropology, and colleagues examined the skeletal remains of Ardipithecus…

Scientists have found the most elaborately dressed-to-impress dinosaur ever described and say it sheds new light on how birds such as peacocks inherited their ability to show off. The new species, Ubirajara jubatus, was chicken-sized with a mane of long fur down its back and stiff ribbons projecting out and back from its shoulders, features…