We may be in the middle of an insect mass extinction. The once abundant Rocky Mountain locust was last seen in 1902. Under the Mikheyev Group, Peiyu Yuan used data from a related extant locust species and comparative genomics to identify artifacts in museum data of the Rocky Mountain locust.
Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU) have discovered several new species of butterflies and moths in Northern Australia, identifying a conservation stronghold of national and international significance.
The amazing diversity we see in Australian animal developed early and has slowed considerably in the last 10 million years, say Ian Brennan and Scott Keogh from the ANU Research School of Biology.
The central islands of Indonesia, between Java, Bali and Kalimantan (Borneo) on the west and Papua on the east - are a living laboratory for the study of evolution, known as the Wallacea region.
Every animal has a weapon of one sort or another, but the overwhelming majority of weapons stay small. Yet, sprinkled through the tree of life are species where weapons become extreme.
Choosing a mate is one of the most important decisions an animal can make. The fitness costs and benefits of mate choice have been analysed extensively in the context of sexual selection, and the neural and hormonal bases of mate choice have provided insights into how animals make such decisions.
Athena Aktipis discusses how an evolutionary approach to understanding and treating cancer can transform it from being a disease that threatens our lives to one we can live with.
Studying physiological responses in animals can tell us a lot about how much environmental stress animals can tolerate, helping to improve our understanding of animal biology and inform conservation management actions.