Latest Biology News
Chirping sounds lead airport officials to bag filled with smuggled parrot eggs
LOXAHATCHEE, Fla. (AP) — The 24 bright green baby parrots began chirping and bobbing their heads the second anyone neared the large cages that have been their homes since hatching in March. The Central American natives, seized from a smuggler at Miami International Airport, are...
Editorial Roundup: Tennessee
Kingsport Times News. May 20, 2023. Editorial: Region fortunate to have Gray fossil site Since a highway realignment project on State Route 75 in Washington County revealed black and gray layered clays 23 years ago, Northeast Tennessee has been making paleontological...
When you adopt a desert tortoise, prepare for a surprisingly social and zippy pet
PHOENIX (AP) — They’re not fluffy, they don’t play fetch and they certainly don’t roll over. But there is such a thing as a lap tortoise. What’s more, pet tortoises can wag their tails, will plod on up to greet you and some can even recognize their own names. The surprising...
Book Review: In 'Brave the Wild River,' the true story of 2 scientists who explored the Grand Canyon
PHOENIX (AP) — “Brave the Wild River: The Untold Story of Two Women Who Mapped the Botany of the Grand Canyon” by Melissa L. Sevigny (W. W. Norton & Company) Long before climate change threatened the very existence of the Colorado River, two women botanists set off with a...
Tennessee man runs possum rehab facility
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) — Chattanooga is home to one of the nation’s largest possum rehabilitation facilities, Opie Acres, where the number of possums and other small mammals is growing every day thanks to a steady influx of babies arriving this spring. “Just within the past...
DNA project gives scientists diverse genome for comparison
For two decades, scientists have been comparing every person’s full set of DNA they study to a template that relies mostly on genetic material from one man affectionately known as “the guy from Buffalo.” But they've long known that this template for comparison, or “reference...
Zoonomia: Genetic research reveals all we share with animals
By comparing the genetic blueprints of an array of animals, scientists are gaining new insights into our own species and all we share with other creatures. One of the most striking revelations is that certain passages in the instructions for life have persisted across evolutionary...
Ants march, whales swoop in Museum of Natural History update
NEW YORK (AP) — The American Museum of Natural History in New York is set to open its new building, a sweeping piece of architecture designed to connect visitors with their place in the natural world. Tiny ants march along a glass bridge overhead in the new museum wing, The Richard...
Guyana birdsong competitions flourish amid oil boom
METEN-MEER-ZORG, Guyana (AP) — The judges leaned in, hands clasped behind their backs. Everyone grew quiet as they stared at the two tiny black birds flitting before them, wondering which one would break the silence. “One. Two,” a judge called out softly as the...
Mystery solved: Scientists ID Caribbean sea urchin killer
NEW YORK (AP) — Last year, sea urchins in the Caribbean started getting sick — shedding their spines, dying off and throwing reef ecosystems into chaos. Now, scientists think they’ve caught the killer in this marine murder mystery. A tiny single-celled parasite is to blame for...
