Starry eyes on the reef: Color-changing brittle stars can see
Scientists have shown for the first time that brittle stars use vision to guide them through vibrant coral reefs, thanks to a neat colour-changing trick.
Scientists have shown for the first time that brittle stars use vision to guide them through vibrant coral reefs, thanks to a neat colour-changing trick.
Plants & Animals
Jan 2, 2020
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476
A small team of paleontologists with members from Rhodes University, in South Africa, the National Museum of Natural History, Luxembourg City, and the University of Oxford, in the U.K., has discovered the oldest known brittle ...
We humans are fixated on big brains as a proxy for smarts. But headless animals called brittle stars have no brains at all and still manage to learn through experience, new research reveals.
Plants & Animals
Nov 30, 2023
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59
A team of paleontologists from Germany and Austria reports that a brittle star fossil found in Germany shows evidence of clonal fragmentation (fissiparity) 150 million years ago. Their paper is published in the journal Proceedings ...
Researchers have described a new species of brittle star, which are closely related to starfish, and showed how these sea creatures evolved in response to the rise of shell-crushing predators during the late Palaeozoic Era. ...
Archaeology
Aug 14, 2017
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201
Scientists have discovered the first evidence that brittle stars living in vibrant coral reefs use thousands of light sensors to navigate their way through their complex environments.
Astronomy
Jan 24, 2018
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125
An international team lead by researchers at Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, together with colleagues from the European Synchrotron, Grenoble, France, have discovered how an echinoderm called Ophiocoma wendtii, known ...
Condensed Matter
Dec 8, 2017
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38
One of the largest and most important finds of exquisitely preserved Jurassic echinoderms—spiny-skinned marine animals such as starfish and sea urchins—has been uncovered by a University of Birmingham Research Associate.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 22, 2021
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333
New research published in Nature overturns previous theories about how the stunning biodiversity of the oceans evolved, with important implications for conservation.
Ecology
Jan 24, 2019
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234
One of the wildest wonders of nature is the ability of some animals to reproduce by splitting in half. There is still so much we don't know about this process. So the discovery of a 155-million-year-old starfish fossil frozen ...
Paleontology & Fossils
May 16, 2024
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11