New Species News

July 26, 2024

Top Headlines

Ecologists Discover Rare Fiddler Crab Species on Hong Kong Coast Highlighting the Impact of Climate Change and Coastal Development

July 22, 2024 — Researchers have made an exciting discovery on the Hong Kong coast. They have identified two fiddler crab species: Tubuca dussumieri, previously recorded in old literature but never confirmed in ...

Scientists Assess How Large Dinosaurs Could Really Get

July 24, 2024 — A study looks at the maximum possible sizes of dinosaurs, using the carnivore, Tyrannosaurus rex, as an example. Using computer modelling, experts produced estimates that T. Rex might have been 70% heavier than what the fossil evidence ...

Heat-Sensitive Trees Move Uphill Seeking Climate Change Respite

July 23, 2024 — Trees in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest are migrating in search of more favourable temperatures with species in mountain forests moving uphill to escape rising heat caused by climate ...

Hundreds of New Genome Sequences Fill Gaps in the Fruit Fly Tree of Life

July 18, 2024 — A multitude of new genomic sequence data fills major gaps in the fruit fly tree of life, researchers ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:39pm EDT

The Most Endangered Fish Are the Least Studied

July 17, 2024 — The most threatened reef fishes are also the most overlooked by scientists and the general public. Scientists measured the level of human interest in 2,408 species of marine reef fish and found that ...

Introducing Co-Cultures: When Co-Habiting Animal Species Share Culture

July 11, 2024 — Cooperative hunting, resource sharing, and using the same signals to communicate the same information -- these are all examples of cultural sharing that have been observed between distinct animal ...

Mapping the World's Fungi from Air Samples

July 11, 2024 — Researchers have found that the key to a quick and cost-effective mapping of biodiversity has been right in front of our eyes all along, but at the same time invisible -- i.e., in the air that ...

Study Projects Major Changes in North Atlantic and Arctic Marine Ecosystems Due to Climate Change

July 8, 2024 — New research predicts significant shifts in marine fish communities in the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans as a result of climate ...

A New Species of Extinct Crocodile Relative Rewrites Life on the Triassic Coastline

July 10, 2024 — The surprising discovery of a new species of extinct crocodile relative from the Triassic Favret Formation of Nevada, USA, rewrites the story of life ...

Computable Species Descriptions: Scientists Develop a New Computer Language to Model Organismal Traits

June 17, 2024 — Understanding organismal traits and learning how they evolve and adapt to different environments is crucial for biologists and the battle against ...

Two New Species of Psilocybe Mushrooms Discovered in Southern Africa

July 2, 2024 — In a new paper, researchers and citizen mycologists describe the two new species as Psilocybe ingeli and Psilocybe maluti. The paper also contains information on the traditional use of P. maluti by ...

Climate Change Drives Tree Species Towards Colder, Wetter Regions

July 3, 2024 — Climate change is likely to drive tree species towards colder and wetter ...

Frog 'Saunas' a Lifeline for Endangered Frog Populations

June 26, 2024 — New biologist-designed shelters will help endangered frogs survive the devastating impacts of a deadly fungal disease by regulating their body temperature to fight off ...

New Tomato, Potato Family Tree Shows That Fruit Color and Size Evolved Together

June 24, 2024 — A new family tree of the plant genus Solanum helps explain the striking diversity of their fruit color and size. This genus includes tomatoes, ...

Non-Native Plants and Animals Expanding Ranges 100 Times Faster Than Native Species

June 19, 2024 — An international team of scientists has recently found that non-native species are expanding their ranges many orders of magnitude faster than native ones, in large part due to inadvertent human ...

Natural Hazards Threaten Over Three Thousand Species

June 18, 2024 — Natural hazards can speed up the extinction process of land animals that have limited distribution and/or small populations. But there is hope to turn the negative development around, says ...

Previously Uncharacterized Parasite Uncovered in Fish Worldwide

June 17, 2024 — Using genome reconstruction, scientists unveiled a once 'invisible' fish parasite present in many marine fish world-wide that belongs to the apicomplexans, one of the most important groups ...

'Lost' Birds List Will Aid in Protecting Species

June 17, 2024 — A group of scientists has released the first comprehensive list of birds that haven't been documented with sound or video in more than a ...

Paleontology: New Fossil Fish Genus Discovered

June 13, 2024 — Paleontologists have identified a new genus of fossil goby, revealing evolutionary secrets of a lineage that stretches back millions of ...

Lazy Predator: A New Species of Mountain Pitviper from China

June 13, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new species of medium-sized venomous snake in Yunnan, China. Ovophis jenkinsi is dark brownish-grey in color with trapezoidal patches on its back. It is endemic to ...

No Bones About It: 100-Million-Year-Old Bones Reveal New Species of Pterosaur

June 12, 2024 — New research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in western Queensland as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile that ...

Novel Genetic Clock Discovers Oldest Known Marine Plant

June 10, 2024 — An international research team has discovered the oldest known marine plant using a novel genetic clock. This 1400-year-old seagrass clone from the Baltic Sea dates back to the Migration Period. The ...

Tiny New Species of Great Ape Lived in Germany 11 Million Years Ago

June 7, 2024 — Ancient apes in Germany co-existed by partitioning resources in their environment, according to a new ...

Captivating Blue-Colored Ant Discovered in India's Remote Siang Valley

June 3, 2024 — A new species of blue ant was discovered in Yingku village in Arunachal Pradesh, Northeastern India. It was named Paraparatrechina neela, after the word 'neela' which means blue in various ...

The Missing Puzzle Piece: A Striking New Snake Species from the Arabian Peninsula

May 30, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a new distinctive and secretive snake species in the Hejaz region of Saudi Arabia. The new species is widely distributed and fills much of the existing distribution gap ...

What Makes Some Plant Groups So Successful?

May 29, 2024 — Researchers involved in cataloguing the world's plant species are hunting for answers as to what makes some groups of plants so successful. One of their major goals is to predict more accurately ...

Some Species May Tolerate Climate Change Better Than Expected

May 29, 2024 — A new model reassesses the proportion of terrestrial and marine species threatened with extinction by climate change. While the forecasts of traditional models estimate that the diversity of ...

Slugs and Snails Love the City, Unlike Other Animals

May 29, 2024 — Most native species avoid more urbanized areas of Los Angeles, but slugs and snails may actually prefer these environments, according to a new ...

Marine Protected Areas Don't Line Up With Core Habitats of Rare Migratory Fish, Finds New Research

May 29, 2024 — 62% of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) designated to protect rare migratory fish species are outside of their core habitats, according to a new modeling ...

Bringing Back an Ancient Bird

May 28, 2024 — Using ancient DNA extracted from the toe bone of a museum specimen, biologists have sequenced the genome of an extinct, flightless bird called the little bush moa, shedding light into an unknown ...

Evolutionary History of Extinct Duck Revealed

May 20, 2024 — The study's findings show mergansers arrived in the New Zealand region at least seven million years ago from the Northern Hemisphere, in a separate colonisation event to that which led to the ...

Scale Matters in Determining Vulnerability of Freshwater Fish to Climate Changes

May 17, 2024 — A team explored the influence the spatial extent of research -- the geographical coverage of data collected -- has on evaluating the sensitivity of different fish species to climate ...

Some Mice May Owe Their Monogamy to a Newly Evolved Type of Cell

May 15, 2024 — What makes the oldfield mouse steadfastly monogamous throughout its life while its closest rodent relatives are promiscuous? The answer may be a previously unknown hormone-generating cell. Scientists ...

Island Birds More Adaptable Than Previously Thought

May 13, 2024 — The researchers found that birds were more evolutionarily similar on smaller, more isolated islands than on larger, less remote places. The team had expected to find that forested areas had more ...