https://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. Most shark fossils are just teeth—their cartilage skeletons usually decay long before they can fossilize. But in northwestern Arkansas, a series of geological sites known as the Fayetteville Shale has preserved dozens of rare, three-dimensional shark skeletons dating back more than 300 million years. In a new study published in Geobios, researchers reveal why: These fossils formed on a low-oxygen, highly acidic seafloor that preserved cartilage instead of destroying it. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-ancient-seafloor-arkansas-sharkansas-shark.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 09 Feb 2026 09:31:39 EST news689851861 Fish across Britain's seas face ever-smaller meals as warmer seas and commercial fishing squeeze ocean food webs, new research suggests. Research by the University of Essex and the UK Government's Centre for Environment, Fisheries, and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) found strains across warm and highly fished areas of the Northeast Atlantic, leaving predators such as cod, haddock and thorny skate with less energy from every meal. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-warmer-northeast-atlantic-heavy-fishing.html Plants & Animals Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:40:01 EST news689348302 Kemp's ridley sea turtles are among the most endangered species of sea turtles in the world. They reside along the east and Gulf coasts of North America, alongside some of the world's most active shipping lanes. While the threats from fishing, pollution, and vessel collisions are well understood, it is less clear how disruptive human-caused noise is to their survival. https://phys.org/news/2026-02-world-rarest-sea-turtle-vulnerability.html Plants & Animals Tue, 03 Feb 2026 11:00:04 EST news689243521 Have you ever wished you could swim like a fish? How about speak like one? In a paper recently published in the Journal of Fish Biology, our team from the University of Victoria deciphered some of the strange and unique sounds made by different fish species along the coast of British Columbia. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-scientists-unique-fish-species.html Plants & Animals Sun, 01 Feb 2026 13:10:01 EST news688828238 A hunk of romaine was easy pickings for Porkchop and her three flippers. On a rainy day last week, the green sea turtle pumped her limbs and stretched her beak up to chomp a lettuce leaf floating on the surface of a tank at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. That's where she's been on the mend since early March, when she arrived with a hook lodged in her throat and a flipper that was mostly dead from fishing line that had choked off circulation. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-sea-turtles-porkchop-southern-california.html Plants & Animals Thu, 29 Jan 2026 21:30:01 EST news688901219 The age of humans is increasingly an age of sameness. Across the planet, distinctive plants and animals are disappearing, replaced by species that are lucky enough to thrive alongside humans and travel with us easily. Some scientists have a word for this reshuffling of life: the Homogenocene. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-homogenocene-humans-world-wildlife-dangerously.html Social Sciences Thu, 29 Jan 2026 12:29:34 EST news688912142 A third of fish living in the remote coastal waters of the Pacific Island Countries and Territories are contaminated with microplastics, with especially high rates in Fiji, according to an analysis published in PLOS One by Jasha Dehm at the University of the South Pacific and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-microplastics-surveyed-fish-coasts-remote.html Environment Wed, 28 Jan 2026 14:00:05 EST news688730341 A new study led by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), along with international partners, finds that proposed commercial fishing in the deep ocean could have serious consequences for bigeye tuna, one of the world's most valuable and widely consumed fish. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-deep-sea-fishing-undermine-valuable.html Ecology Wed, 28 Jan 2026 09:48:40 EST news688816081 How can some fish, like tuna, achieve remarkable speed while others, like eels, excel in maneuverability? A research team from Peking University (PKU) has developed a novel robotic platform that sheds new light on this classic biomechanical puzzle. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-reconfigurable-robotic-fish-reveals-stiffness.html Plants & Animals Tue, 27 Jan 2026 13:17:32 EST news688742221 The ocean is under increasing pressure. Everyday human activities, from shipping to oil and gas exploration to urban pollution, are affecting the marine environment. Extensive research shows how this combination of stressors represents one of the greatest threats to marine wildlife, potentially affecting biodiversity on a global scale. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-marine-areas-safeguard-dolphins-whales.html Plants & Animals Mon, 26 Jan 2026 15:57:31 EST news688665421 Nine months ago, President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum instructing his administration to "achieve maximum speed and efficiency" in moving to block invasive Asian carp from reaching the Great Lakes. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-asian-carp-barrier-illinois-snag.html Ecology Wed, 21 Jan 2026 21:20:01 EST news688202169 New UBC Okanagan research shows that wildfire can change how much water remains in streams during the driest months of the year. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-creeks-temporarily-stronger-wildfire.html Earth Sciences Tue, 20 Jan 2026 16:31:41 EST news688149062 Forensics experts gather DNA to understand who was present at a crime scene. But what if the crime occurred in the middle of a lake, where DNA could be carried far and wide by wind and waves? That's the challenge faced by aquatic ecologists who study environmental DNA (eDNA) to monitor endangered animals, track invasive species, or monitor fish populations. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-tracer-reveals-environmental-dna-lakes.html Ecology Tue, 20 Jan 2026 14:50:01 EST news688142653 Freshwater browning is stunting fish growth of some species, shrinking populations of others and changing the composition of fish communities, McGill-led research suggests. "Browning" refers to freshwater bodies turning tea-colored, a phenomenon driven by higher levels of dissolved organic matter and/or higher levels of iron in the water. Causes include changes in land use and climate, and reduced acid precipitation. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-freshwater-browning-threatens-growth-populations.html Ecology Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:24:29 EST news688044242 Around the world, wildlife and environmental crime is surging. It is estimated to be the fourth largest organized transnational crime sector, and to be growing at a rate two to three times faster than the global economy. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-crime-wildlife-surging-australia-reforms.html Ecology Mon, 19 Jan 2026 11:00:01 EST news688042485 Tidal turbines harbor the potential to provide a natural, inexhaustible source of power, but have faced some regulatory hurdles and scientific uncertainty about risks to marine life. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-marine-wildlife-rarely-interact-tidal.html Plants & Animals Mon, 19 Jan 2026 09:19:46 EST news688036762 New research has found that roughly half of Australia's freshwater fish are fond of snacking on animal and plant material, including fruits, from outside their aquatic habitats. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-australian-freshwater-fish-dine-based.html Plants & Animals Fri, 16 Jan 2026 11:10:06 EST news687783025 Oceans shape everyday life in powerful ways. They cover 70% of the planet, carry 90% of global trade, and support millions of jobs and the diets of billions of people. As global competition intensifies and climate change accelerates, the world's oceans are also becoming the front line of 21st-century geopolitics. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-global-power-struggles-ocean-finite.html Economics & Business Fri, 16 Jan 2026 08:52:41 EST news687775922 A small revolution is happening in the fishing industry. Freshly frozen fish can now be thawed in a new way, and that means you will have access to super-fresh food from the sea—even if you live thousands of miles away. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-freezer-fork-method-dock-fresh.html Biotechnology Thu, 15 Jan 2026 22:20:02 EST news687705074 Long-term exposure to low levels of a common agricultural pesticide can accelerate physiological aging and shorten lifespan in fish—a finding from new research led by University of Notre Dame biologist Jason Rohr with potentially far-reaching implications for environmental regulations and human health. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-term-pesticide-exposure-aging-shortens.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Jan 2026 14:00:06 EST news687616502 Perth's two dolphin groups in the Swan-Canning Rivers and further south in Cockburn Sound have been studied for more than a decade by Murdoch University researcher Dr. Delphine Chabanne, who is a passionate champion of the marine mammals' welfare. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-perth-dolphins-season-loyal-groups.html Plants & Animals Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:06:18 EST news687690362 A ground-breaking study reinforces that flapper skates are beginning to recover in Scotland. The study—led by Rosie Ashworth, a Research Assistant at The Lyell Center for Earth and marine sciences—involved interviews with commercial fishers about their interactions with flapper skate and their perceptions of changes in numbers in recent years. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ground-evidences-flapper-skate-recovery.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Jan 2026 08:12:21 EST news687600722 Charophytes are extremely beneficial to lakes, improving water quality and biodiversity. However, their abundance was found to decline in many lakes without clear signs of eutrophication during recent decades. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-reintroducing-charophytes-quality-biodiversity-lakes.html Plants & Animals Sat, 10 Jan 2026 16:10:01 EST news687110509 A research team led by Hiroshima University and Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have proposed a neuroendocrine mechanism in bony fish that signals ovulation from the ovaries to the brain, using the medaka fish as a model; the first step to elucidate the neural circuits for facilitation of sexual receptivity in female teleosts. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-neural-progesterone-receptors-link-ovulation.html Plants & Animals Thu, 08 Jan 2026 20:00:05 EST news686920669 With a human population of 8.3 billion people worldwide and millions facing malnutrition, food security is something to think about. But imagine if the ocean could help with that. https://phys.org/news/2026-01-coral-reef-fish-recovery-boost.html Ecology Sun, 04 Jan 2026 12:21:44 EST news686751657 Eating fish may well be good for you, but it carries a hidden risk of exposure to so-called "forever chemicals." A new study published in the journal Science has revealed that the global seafood trade is acting as a massive delivery system for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), industrial pollutants that persist in the environment for decades. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-global-fish-chemicals-world.html Environment Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:40:04 EST news685704831 About 300 years ago, Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus set out on a bold quest: to identify and name every living organism on Earth. Now celebrated as the father of modern taxonomy, he developed the binomial naming system and described more than 10,000 species of plants and animals. Since his time, scientists have continued to describe new species in the quest to uncover Earth's biodiversity. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-species-faster.html Plants & Animals Tue, 23 Dec 2025 09:16:29 EST news685703761 Four years after the Fundão dam collapse—the world's largest mining disaster, which occurred in 2015 in the city of Mariana in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil—a study found that fish in the Doce River were still highly contaminated by metals and other toxic substances. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-years-mariana-disaster-brazil-river.html Environment Fri, 19 Dec 2025 13:43:16 EST news685374182 University of Victoria (UVic) biologists have discovered that even closely related fish species make unique and distinctive sounds and determined that it's possible to differentiate between the sounds of different species. The discovery opens the door to identifying fish based on sound alone. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-ai-deciphers-fish-grunts-growls.html Plants & Animals Fri, 19 Dec 2025 08:56:27 EST news685356962 Whether a caught fish is released back into the water or removed for consumption depends on more than just the fish species and size. Researchers from the Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB) have analyzed the role of anglers' personal characteristics and the influence of the fishing context in a diary study. https://phys.org/news/2025-12-angler-characteristics-fish.html Plants & Animals Thu, 18 Dec 2025 14:42:14 EST news685291321