Bridge species drive tropical engine of biodiversity

Although scientists have known since the middle of the 19th century that the tropics are teeming with species while the poles harbor relatively few, the origin of the most dramatic and pervasive biodiversity on Earth has ...

Mass extinction victim survives! Snail long thought extinct, isn't

(PhysOrg.com) -- Think "mass extinction" and you probably envision dinosaurs dropping dead in the long-ago past or exotic tropical creatures being wiped out when their rainforest habitats are decimated. But a major mass extinction ...

Mysterious pearl shells unearthed in French Polynesia

What was everyday life like for French Polynesians in the 19th century? An archaeology team co-led by the University of Sydney's Associate Professor James Flexner sought to find out during fieldwork in the Îles Gambier (Mangareva ...

Researchers identify the microbes in 100-year-old snail guts

On a drizzly day in July 1920, a Colorado scientist named Junius Henderson was hiking around the Dakota Hogback, a sandstone ridge north of Boulder. There, he spotted a group of Rocky Mountain snails (Oreohelix strigosa) ...

Turtles watch for, snack on gelatinous prey while swimming

Loggerhead turtles use visual cues to find gelatinous prey to snack on as they swim in open waters, according to research published June 12 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Tomoko Narazaki and colleagues from the University ...

Slug glue: A future with no sutures?

The materials for stitching up injuries and surgical wounds may have changed over the millennia, but the basic process of suturing tissue remains the same. In the 21st century, however, the method may finally become outdated.

Molecular structure could help explain albinism, melanoma

Arthropods and mollusks are Nature's true bluebloods - thanks to hemocyanin, an oxygen-carrying large protein complex, which can even be turned into the enzymatically active chemical phenoloxidase.

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