Yearly Archives: 2019

Size matters: To livebearer fish, big fins are a big deal

To female molly and Limia fish, nothing is hotter than a male with a large dorsal fin. But these fins aren't just decorations to attract females.

Males also use them to fight or intimidate rivals. For scientists who study evolution, the fins present a chicken-and-egg dilemma. Which came first -- ornamental fins for courtship displays, or...

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More animal species under threat of extinction, new method shows

Currently approximately 600 species might be inaccurately assessed as non-threatened on the Red List of Threatened Species. More than a hundred others that couldn't be assessed before, also appear to be threatened. A new more efficient, systematic and comprehensive approach to assess the extinction risk of animals has shown this. The method, designed by Radboud...

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Fruit fly promiscuity alters the evolutionary forces on males

Researchers in the Department of Zoology at Oxford University have demonstrated for the first time what effect female fruit flies having multiple partners has on sexual selection -- before and after mating. Sexual selection is the branch of natural selection concerned with obtaining mates and fertility, rather than survival.

Results, published in Nature Communications, have shown...

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Ozaena ground beetles likely parasitize ants throughout their life cycle

Ozaena ground beetles likely have anatomical adaptations enabling them to parasitize ant nests throughout their life cycle, according to a study published January 16, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Wendy Moore from the University of Arizona, USA, and colleagues.

Some ground beetles in the genus Paussus ("ant nest beetles") are known to live...

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