When it comes to the biological imperatives of survival and reproduction, nature often finds a way—sometimes more than one way. For a species of flycatcher in the remote Solomon Islands, scientists have so far found at ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 1, 2022
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54
Zoologists from Trinity College Dublin, working with a research team in Indonesia, have found several new species of colorful, tropical sunbirds.
Plants & Animals
Oct 24, 2022
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1227
White-necked jacobin hummingbirds sport a colorful blue-and-white plumage as juveniles. When they grow into adulthood, males retain this dazzling pattern, while females develop a more "muted" palette of green and white—at ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 7, 2022
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194
Scientists from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, together with colleagues from the U.S. and Australia, have succeeded in demonstrating the complexity of species evolution and evolutionary processes by studying the genomic ...
Evolution
Aug 11, 2022
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7
Yale ornithologist Richard Prum has spent years studying the molecules and nanostructures that give many bird species their rich colorful plumage, but nothing prepared him for what he found in hummingbirds.
Plants & Animals
Jun 23, 2022
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100
The iridescent shimmer that makes birds such as peacocks and hummingbirds so striking is rooted in a natural nanostructure so complex that people are only just beginning to replicate it technologically. The secret to how ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 21, 2021
0
119
Migratory birds are specially adapted to find their way over extreme distances that represent remarkable tests of endurance. Now, researchers reporting December 6 in the journal Current Biology have discovered an unexpected ...
Plants & Animals
Dec 6, 2021
0
73
In many animals, female preference for males with the most elaborate appearance is an important factor in the evolution of bright and dramatic colors.
Ecology
Dec 22, 2020
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8
Although carrion crows and hooded crows are almost indistinguishable genetically, they avoid mating with each other. LMU researchers have now identified a mutation that appears to contribute to this instance of reproductive ...
Plants & Animals
Jul 14, 2020
0
19
A team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in Portugal and the U.S. has found that a single enzyme is responsible for gender-based plumage color differences in mosaic canaries. In their paper published in ...
