Honeybees have unique personalities, like us
Being an individual is good for the whole.
Individuals shape a community and its collective patterns of behaviour – and not just in humans, it turns out. Sci...
NatureWrap: Dolphins are clever breathers
Plus helpful rats, jaguar threats and acoustic wings.
Dolphins actively slow their hearts before diving and can even adjust their heart rate to suit how long they plan to ...
Naming that plant just got easier
Researchers streamline the list of known vascular species.
A major difficulty in plant research is the sheer abundance of names. Most databases contain multiple or archaic ...
The evolution of an aggressive tumour
Genomic study may help save the Tasmanian Devil.
Australia’s iconic Tasmanian Devil (Sarcophilus harrisii) is particularly prone to a cancer that spreads through biti...
Ants with armour
Biominerals provide a unique level of protection.
Scientists have discovered another clue to the evolutionary success of leaf-cutter ants: they have biomineral armour,...
Rethinking the origins of complex life
Studies shift timeline by 100 million years.
Scientists from Australia, Germany, France and the US have shifted the timeline of the origin of complex life, overtu...
NatureWrap: Blue whales return to South Georgia
Plus plants that hide, toxic fur and tough love.
Critically endangered Antarctic blue whales are returning to the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia five decades a...
Where to look for bees of different types
Hint: think temperate zones and more to the north.
There’s a lot more to bees than you might think, because there’s a lot of them. Around 20,000 different species, in f...
A glimmer of hope on vertebrate biodiversity
You have to look at the numbers differently, researchers say.
It’s been estimated that half to two-thirds of the world’s vertebrate populations, from birds and marine animals to e...
Living life in the fast lane
Migratory animals reproduce earlier and die younger.
Lots of animals love to travel with the seasons while others prefer to stay at home. But there’s a trade-off, accordi...
Genes help some coral cope with low oxygen
Researchers study varied stress susceptibility on reefs.
Low oxygen levels in the ocean prevent coral from respiring properly and could be as much of a threat to the world’s ...
Sea sponge with quite a story to tell
Unravelling a very old mystery of evolution.
By Emily S Wong, UNSW, Australia Many human traits, such as height and disease susceptibility, depend on genes tha...