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Optogenetic study shows that male flies find ejaculation pleasurable

Researchers reporting in Current Biology on April 19 show that male fruit flies find sex -- and more specifically ejaculation -- to be an inherently rewarding experience. The study is the first to show that the rewarding nature of ejaculation is conserved among animals, from flies and mammals. It also adds to evidence that manipulating...

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Better species mapping can improve conservation efforts

The scientific models that ecologists and conservation biologists rely on to determine which species and habitats to protect lack critical information to help them make effective decisions, according to a new study.

Angela Strecker, an environmental science professor at Portland State University and the study's co-lead author, said that species distribution models can help predict all...

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Solving a pollinator puzzle

Welsh scientists piecing together the giant jigsaw puzzle of plant pollination are a step closer to knowing how it all fits thanks to a new paper by Swansea University PhD researcher Andrew Lucas.

Andrew has spent the past seven years studying a much under-appreciated and regularly mis-identified player in the complex world of pollinators: the hoverfly.

Vital...

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How well does the greater sage grouse habitat protects other species?

Researchers in the University of Wyoming's Department of Zoology and Physiology and Program in Ecology discovered that size does matter -- as it pertains to the effectiveness of secondary species' wildlife protection relative to the size of a wildlife reserve set aside for an umbrella species.

The umbrella species concept is defined as multiple wildlife species...

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New new genus and species of extinct baleen whale identified

University of Otago palaeontologists are rewriting the history of New Zealand's ancient whales by describing a previously unknown genus of baleen whale, alive more than 27.5 million years ago and found in the Hakataramea Valley.

The new genus and species of extinct baleen whale is based on a skull and associated bones unearthed from the Kokoamu...

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