In biological sciences, morphology is the branch that studies the form, external structure, and macroscopic organization of organisms and their parts, independent of function. It encompasses comparative morphology, which analyzes homologous structures across taxa; functional morphology, which relates structural features to mechanical or biomechanical constraints; and developmental morphology, which examines changes in form during ontogeny. Morphological data, including body plans, organ systems, and patterning of tissues, are central to systematics, phylogenetic inference, and taxonomy, and are integrated with molecular and genetic information to elucidate evolutionary relationships, phenotypic variation, and constraints on organismal design.
Made entirely of muscle, with no rigid skeleton, muscular hydrostats like octopus arms, elephant trunks and human tongues can move in ways traditional mechanical systems cannot. Between crawling across the seafloor, picking ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 13, 2026
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Scientists from Brazil and other countries have discovered a new species of frog in the flooded forests of the western Amazon. They named it Adenomera varcena. This finding significantly advances our understanding of Amazonian ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 12, 2026
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In the Midwestern summer, humans and plants have to breathe through the heat and humidity. Researchers hope that a retooled crop plant—one with an improved ventilation system within its leaves—could thrive while avoiding ...
Biotechnology
Aug 11, 2026
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A new archaeobotanical study by researchers from the University of Oxford and Kiel University (CAU) has revealed that increases in cereal grain size at the dawn of agriculture, more than 11,000 years ago, were initially driven ...
Evolution
Aug 11, 2026
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Snakes are highly modified lizards, with more than 4,000 living species today. The origin of snakes has long been one of evolutionary biology's most debated questions. Their sparse fossil record has made it hard to pin down ...
Evolution
Aug 9, 2026
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The dodo has been extinct for more than 300 years, wiped out within decades of humans arriving on its home island of Mauritius, but it lives on in the public imagination.
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 8, 2026
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Only two complete dodo skulls are known to exist anywhere in the world: one at the Natural History Museum Denmark and one at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The specimen housed in Copenhagen has been preserved ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 5, 2026
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Snakes are seemingly simple in structure: a head attached to a long, unremarkable noodle. They do have some pretty cool features at the front end, with venomous fangs and the ability to stretch their mouths and swallow large ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
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A new study of bonnethead sharks (Sphyrna tiburo) in Florida dispelled a previous hypothesis about how the distinctive head shapes of males and females develop, offering new insight into one of the species' most unusual biological ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 4, 2026
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A new study provides quantitative data on cranial vault thickness in Homo antecessor, based on the analysis of three parietal fragments recovered from the Gran Dolina site in the Sierra de Atapuerca, Burgos, Spain.
Evolution
Aug 3, 2026
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