Latest Species Stories

  In one of the first taxonomic revisions of Neotropical butterflies that utilizes 'DNA barcoding', Andrei Sourakov (University of Florida, Florida Museum of Natural History) and Evgeny Zakharov (University of Guelph, Canadian Centre for DNA Barcoding at the Biodiversity Institute of Ontario) uncovered a spectacular degree of evolutionary divergence within the satyrine butterfly genus Calisto. The study was published in the open-access journal Comparative Cytogenetics. The Caribbean...

  A new study by scientists from the Census of Marine Life has placed the number of species of animals on planet Earth to about 8.7 million, a number based on a validated analytical technique that narrows the range much more than the previous estimate of between 3 million and 100 million. The scientists also noted that only about a quarter of all species on the planet have been discovered, and they say that many could exist in our own backyard. So far, only 1.9 million species have...

  The Iberian lynx, one of the most endangered cats in the world and Europe’s most endangered carnivore, may not be doomed by its small population size, according to a study published Monday in the journal Molecular Ecology. Just 250 Iberian lynx are believed to exist in the wild, raising the risks of inbreeding and low genetic diversity.  However, the current study suggests the lynx has had little genetic variability over the last 50,000 years, and that this has not hindered the...

A Stanford University scientist is claiming that interbreeding between human ancestors and Neanderthals that took place between 65,000 and 90,000 years ago may have helped our kind survive and gain evolutionary dominance. According to Peter Parham, an immunology expert at the California university's medical school, crossbreeding between the two species "provided humans with a ready-mixed cocktail of disease-resistant genes when the species first ventured out of its native Africa," Graeme...

When you're a tiny creature in a vast ocean it pays to hang out with the right crowd, regardless of whether they are related to you or not, a new study into the amazingly diverse world of marine microbes has found.For bacteria at least, it seems that what matters more than your species identity is whether you have specific genes that let you work with other species to form a functioning community.The study looked at the rich communities of bacteria that form on the surface of a common seaweed...

International team's discovery in Philippines showcases biodiversity, evolutionary wondersAfter living incognito for millions of years in a remote area of a forested mountain range in the Philippines, seven newfound species of mice owe their recent discovery to DNA evidence and the Florida State University biologist who deciphered it.What's more, the DNA drawn from the reclusive "new" mammals told FSU Associate Professor Scott J. Steppan an unusual evolutionary story. As he analyzed...

Lungless salamanders (Ensatina eschscholtzii) live in a horseshoe-shape region in California (a 'ring') which circles around the central valley. The species is an example of evolution in action because, while neighboring populations may be able to breed, the two populations at the ends of the arms of the horseshoe are effectively unable to reproduce. New research published in BioMed Central's open access journal BMC Evolutionary Biology showed that this reproductive isolation was driven by...

The natural world contains great diversity in the shape and size of organisms.  But how does this variety evolve?  The group of David Stern at Princeton University is investigating changes in morphology in fruit flies and has managed to show how a gene enhancer (a piece of DNA that controls the timing and level of a gene's expression) can change its function through stepwise changes in DNA sequence to give rise to differences in animals' appearance.  Alistair McGregor of the...

A new genetic study by a team of Cuban and American researchers confirms that American crocodiles are hybridizing with wild populations of critically endangered Cuban crocodiles, which may cause a population decline of this species found only in the Cuban Archipelago.Cuban crocodiles and American crocodiles have been confirmed to interbreed in captivity and were suspected to hybridize in the wild. This is the first genetic study that confirms wild hybridization.The study, which appears in the...

A new study provides support for Darwin's hypothesis that the struggle for existence is stronger between more closely related species than those distantly related. While ecologists generally accept the premise, this new study contains the strongest direct experimental evidence yet to support its validity."We found that species extinction occurred more frequently and more rapidly between species of microorganisms that were more closely related, providing strong support for Darwin's...