ScienceDaily: Plants & Animals News

While climate change is causing some animals to shrink, a new study shows urbanization is causing many mammal species to grow both bigger and longer, possibly because of readily available food in places packed with people.

New research is shedding light on how the nasal passage of dolphins and whales shifts during embryonic development from emerging at the tip of the snout to emerging at the top of the head as a blowhole. The findings are an integrative model for this developmental transition for cetaceans.

The antiviral agent incorporates RNA-like building blocks into the genome of the virus.

Disappearing habitats and use of pesticides are driving the loss of pollinator species around the world, posing a threat to 'ecosystem services' that provide food and wellbeing to many millions – particularly in the Global South – as well as billions of dollars in crop productivity.

A gene called PfAP2-HS allows the malaria parasite to defend itself from adverse conditions in the host, including febrile temperatures, according to new research. The study resolves a long-standing question on how the parasite responds to changes in its environment.

As the Arctic Ocean warms and sea ice shrinks, will the newly exposed sea surface see a plankton population boom and a burgeoning ecosystem in the open Arctic Ocean? Not likely, say a team of scientists who have examined the history and supply rate of nitrogen, a key nutrient. Stratification of the open Arctic waters, especially in the areas fed by the Pacific Ocean via the Bering Strait, will prevent surface plankton from receiving enough nitrogen to grow abundantly.

What if life evolved not just once, but multiple times independently?  Researchers now argue that in order to recognize life's full range of forms, we must develop a new theoretical frame that permits 'multiple paths' to life.

Artificial nest experiments demonstrated that the raccoon dog, an alien species abundant in Finland, is a more common duck nest predator than any indigenous mammalian species. The species depredated nests on shorelines as well as in forests, rural landscapes and urban areas.

A new study identifies two ways in which APOBEC3A -- a vital enzyme that is responsible for genetic changes resulting in a variety of cancers while protecting our cells against viral infection -- is controlled.