Spring isn't all it's quacked up to be. Pollen levels are high, magpies are terrorising cyclists and pedestrians alike, and protective duck parents are in attack mode.
Our new research unites genomic sequencing and museum collections to reconstruct the evolutionary tale of native rodents, including many extinct and elusive species – and they have a fascinating origin story.
If swooping season strikes fear into your heart, you're not alone. Fortunately, Dr Chaminda Ratnayake from the ANU Research School of Biology has the intel you need to navigate the great outdoors this spring.
To measure the speed of adaptive evolution in the wild, we studied 19 populations of birds and mammals over several decades. We found they were evolving at twice to four times the speed suggested by earlier work.
The cross-kingdom mimicry of female insect sex pheromones by sexually deceptive orchids has fascinated evolutionary biologists ever since the importance of chemistry in pollination by sexual deception was first recognised.
Any antagonistic interaction has the potential of favouring sex, just as predicted by the "Red Queen hypothesis" in the case of host-parasite interactions. Is it really the case?
Ecological stressors such as predation can shape ecosystems, driving prey population and community dynamics through indirect, non-consumptive effects that may cascade across generations through parental effects.