Invertebrate zoology is a subdiscipline of zoology focused on the biology of animals lacking a vertebral column, encompassing the vast majority of animal diversity across numerous phyla such as Arthropoda, Mollusca, Annelida, Cnidaria, and Echinodermata. It investigates morphological organization, developmental processes, phylogenetic relationships, functional anatomy, physiology, behavior, and ecological interactions of invertebrates. Research in this field often integrates comparative and evolutionary approaches, including systematics, genomics, and developmental biology, to elucidate patterns of body plan diversification, adaptation, and speciation, and to clarify the evolutionary relationships within and among major invertebrate lineages.
A research team from the Natural History Museum of Denmark has published a compelling new study in insect taxonomy in the open-access journal ZooKeys, officially establishing a new genus of rove beetle: Luffy gen. nov. The ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 7, 2026
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Superworms, a mealworm-like form of beetle larva commonly used as pet food, are efficient cleaners of skeletons, according to a study published in PLOS One by Fatemeh Rastekar of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran, and ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 1, 2026
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The earliest evidence of spiders' fangs has been identified in a 518-million-year-old fossil by scientists at the University of Leicester and Yunnan University.
Evolution
Jul 1, 2026
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280
A new estimate of insect species globally finds that there may be 8 million to 14 million more species than people thought, with few of them discovered.
Plants & Animals
Jun 29, 2026
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Anesthesia makes life-saving procedures as painless and stress-free as possible for the animals we love and care for. But not a lot is known about the effects of anesthesia on animals that we don't typically consider pets—like ...
Plants & Animals
May 22, 2026
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It's easy to take our eyes for granted. But our recent research shows they took an incredible evolutionary journey to reach their current familiar form.
Evolution
Apr 4, 2026
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The diversity of water strider species apparently developed as early as the Cretaceous period, much earlier than previously thought. SNSB researchers have succeeded in clarifying the phylogenetic history of this insect family, ...
Evolution
Jan 22, 2026
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21
Researchers from the University of Konstanz have studied how insect brains take in complex light stimuli and process them in parallel. They are the first to have found evidence that information is processed in different layers ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 21, 2026
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29
Penicillin, X-rays, vulcanized rubber—some of the greatest scientific discoveries happened by accident. Thanks to his love of invertebrates, William & Mary Biology Professor Jon Allen has added another entry to that list ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 9, 2025
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30
In a fruit fly, nerve cells that detect limb movement are silenced when the insect walks or grooms. This on-off switch may help the nervous system to shift between two states: one helps keep the body steady and the other ...
Cell & Microbiology
Sep 18, 2025
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