When studying how organisms evolve, biologists consider most traits, or features, as derived from some earlier version already present in their ancestors. Few traits are regarded as truly "novel."
Plants & Animals
Nov 21, 2019
3
1024
An international team of researchers has found what appears to be one of the secrets to evolutionary success for beetles—genes stolen from bacteria and fungi. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy ...
Bark beetles, heat, drought, storms, and fires have damaged the German forests. Those who go for a walk there often encounter dead spruces and dried beech trees. "The forests are affected in all regions and need quick help," ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 2, 2019
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86
The immune system fends off pathogens in a wide variety of ways. For example, the immune system's memory is able to distinguish a foreign protein it has encountered before and to react with a corresponding antibody. Researchers ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 25, 2019
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40
Germany's forests have long been treasured by its people, so the country has reacted with alarm and dismay as a beetle infestation has turned climate-stressed woodlands into brown ecological graveyards.
Ecology
Sep 25, 2019
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42
You mightn't think that the life of a dung beetle, a creature who eats poop every day of its short life, could get any worse, but you'd be wrong. Dung beetles, also known as rollers, pretty much live in manure. They can be ...
Ecology
Sep 24, 2019
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5
It's easy to imagine an adult bird standing over youngsters whose mouths are open wide for a pre-mashed meal. It's more difficult to picture a beetle doing the same thing, but the burying beetle Nicrophorus quadripunctatus ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 11, 2019
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21
There are more different kinds of beetle than just about any other kind of animal—scientists have described about 5,800 different species of mammals, compared with nearly 400,000 species of beetles. Of those 400,000 kinds ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 9, 2019
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46
Researchers from the University of Kansas have described three genera and 17 new species of water scavenger beetles from the Guiana and Brazilian Shield regions of South America, areas seen as treasure houses of biodiversity. ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2019
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6
You look around the garden and see aphids suck the life out of your rose buds, flea beetles chomp on the cauliflower and cabbage butterflies lay eggs that will turn into voracious caterpillars. What to do?
Plants & Animals
Aug 12, 2019
0
6
