A parasitic haunting: When snakes are eaten from within
Amidst the sawgrass and cypress swamps of Everglades National Park, a 16-foot Burmese python slithers in search of its next meal. But something else is preying on the python from within......»»
Mapping the sex life of malaria parasites at single cell resolution reveals genetics underlying transmission
Malaria is caused by a eukaryotic microbe of the Plasmodium genus, and is responsible for more deaths than all other parasitic diseases combined. In order to transmit from the human host to the mosquito vector, the parasite has to differentiate into.....»»
Bearded fireworm stalks shallows as Mediterranean warms
The fish in Alfonso Barone's net are hauled aboard off Sicily half- eaten, ravaged by bearded fireworms, a voracious predator flourishing in the increasingly warm Mediterranean sea......»»
Tunisia"s sandy beaches eaten away by coastal erosion
In Tunisia's seaside town of Hammamet, bulldozers diligently shovel sand from a nearby desert onto a popular beach in an attempt to stop it from disappearing due to erosion......»»
New fossil snake species provides insight into reptile social behavior and development
A newly discovered snake species, Hibernophis breithaupti, provides rare insight into the social behavior of snakes and fills some gaps in our knowledge of the evolution of boas, or boidae. The quartet of fossilized snakes discovered in western Wyomi.....»»
Snakes on a plate: Pythons touted as protein alternative
In a warehouse in the lush humid farmlands of central Thailand, thousands of pythons lie coiled in containers, rearing and striking at the glass as people pass by......»»
Animals use physics? Let us count the ways
Cats twist and snakes slide, exploiting and negotiating physical laws. Enlarge (credit: Fernando Trabanco Fotografía via Getty Images) Isaac Newton would never have discovered the laws of motion had he studied only cats.....»»
Advanced imaging reveals how a parasitic "kiss" alters cell metabolism
Toxoplasma gondii is a parasite responsible for toxoplasmosis, a lifelong chronic infection prevalent in about 30% of the human population. It poses little harm to healthy individuals, but can result in severe consequences for immunocompromised peopl.....»»
Blue and great tits deploy surprisingly powerful memories to find food, finds study
Blue and great tits recall what they have eaten in the past, where they found the food and when they found it, a new study shows. In the first experiment of its kind to involve wild animals, blue and great tits demonstrated 'episodic-like' memory to.....»»
Video: This edible mushroom could kill you
Morels are one of the most commonly eaten wild mushrooms. So how did two people die from eating them at a single restaurant in Bozeman, Montana?.....»»
DNA analysis reveals that there are more species of parasitoid wasps than anticipated
When Charles Darwin first encountered parasitoid wasps, he was horrified. In an 1860 letter to American botanist Asa Gray, he wrote: "I cannot persuade myself that a beneficent and omnipotent God would have designedly created parasitic wasps with the.....»»
Heatmaps show trematodes congregate in certain parts of amphibians" bodies, often to dire physical consequences
Trematodes, also known as flukes, are a class of parasitic flatworms with intricate lifecycles. This makes them interesting to scientists, but they are also significant to both human health and wildlife conservation......»»
DNA analysis reveals that Jamestown Colony residents ate dogs with Indigenous ancestry
Dogs with Indigenous ancestry were eaten during a period of starvation at Jamestown, the first English settlement in North America in the 17th century, according to new research in American Antiquity......»»
Dice snakes found to use a variety of techniques to more effectively fake their own deaths
A pair of biologists at the University of Belgrade, in Serbia, has found that dice snakes use a variety of techniques to fool predators into believing they have died. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, Vukašin Bjelica and Ana G.....»»
In Defense of Parasitic Worms
Nature can’t run without parasites, and climate change is driving some to extinction. What happens when they start to disappear?.....»»
Researchers discovery family of natural compounds that selectively kill parasites
An international team led by researchers at the University of Toronto has found a family of natural compounds with potential as new and more effective treatments for parasitic worms. The compounds stall the unique metabolic process that worms use to.....»»
Scientists find ancient, endangered lamprey fish in Queensland, 1400 km north of its previous known range
The Australian brook lamprey (Mordacia praecox) is part of a group of primitive jawless fish. It's up to 15 cm long, with rows of sharp teeth. Surprisingly, it doesn't use these teeth to suck blood like most lamprey species—it's non-parasitic......»»
Collecting live snakes in remote Amazon regions for study is no easy task—here"s how we do it
Brazil records an average of 29,000 snakebites a year, leading to around 130 deaths. And it is in the Amazon that the greatest number of cases occur. This region is home to 38 of the 75 species of venomous snakes recorded in Brazil......»»
Nanotech opens door to future of insulin medication
An international team, led by researchers from Australia, have developed a system using nanotechnology that could allow people with diabetes to take oral insulin in the future. The researchers say the new insulin could be eaten by taking a tablet or.....»»
Archaea can be "picky eaters": Study shows a group of parasitic microbes can change host metabolism
A parasite that not only feeds off its host, but also makes the host change its own metabolism and thus biology: NIOZ microbiologists Su Ding and Joshua Hamm, Nicole Bale, Jaap Damsté and Anja Spang have shown this for the very first time in a speci.....»»
Discovery of new ancient giant snake in India
A new ancient species of snake dubbed Vasuki Indicus, which lived around 47 million years ago in the state of Gujarat in India, may have been one of the largest snakes to have ever lived, suggests new research published in Scientific Reports. The new.....»»