Ecology & Zoology

Mymaridae, commonly known as fairyflies, are one of about 18 families of chalcid wasps. Fairyflies are everywhere except Antarctica and include the world's smallest known insect - Kikiki huna, the…

Male and female birds often show differences in body size, with males typically being larger. Some birds, like many ratites – large, flightless species such as emus and cassowaries – are the opposite…

Many factors can push a wild animal population to the brink of collapse and ecologists have long sought ways to measure the risk of such a collapse. Last year, MIT physicists demonstrated that they…

Researchers visiting South Sudan identified a new genus of bat after discovering a rare specimen and determining the bat was the same as one originally captured in nearby Democratic Republic of the…

Two new symbionts living in the gut of termites have been discovered.   These single-cell protists, Cthulhu macrofasciculumque and Cthylla microfasciculumque, help termites digest wood. And now…

OK, here's the premise.  The Audubon Nature Institute has something they call a "frozen zoo" (1) which contains genetic material from endangered species.  In this way recently extinct…

The giant squid is extremely rarely seen but remains are found in the formalin or ethanol collections of various museums.  An international team has learned that no matter where in the world…

Fertilizer that comes from cows or other animals does not really originate with them.  Manure from cows and other animals has been used as a crop fertilizer for millennia, and it is still used…

 Marsupials represent approximately 6% of all mammal species and include iconic pouched mammals like the kangaroo, wombat and koala. Compared to eutherian mammals like the dog, cow and human,…

CITES today overruled objections from countries like Japan, China and India and listed five species of highly traded sharks under the CITES Appendices, along with both manta rays and one species of…