Natural History

Caecilians are limbless amphibians that, to the untrained eye, can be easily mistaken for snakes.

A new study on the origins of the sledge dog by the University of Copenhagen suggests they adapted to the Artic much earlier than previously thought.

In recent years, there has been a rise in foreign and domestic large-scale land acquisitions--defined as being at least roughly one square mile--in Latin America, Asia, and Africa where investing countries and multinational investors take out long-term contracts to use the land for various enterprises.

A new study maps for the first time the evolutionary history of the world's terrestrial vertebrates: amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles.

Research from Curtin University has found that pre-historic climate change does not explain the extinction of megafauna in North America at the end of the last Ice Age.

Mexican cavefish spend their entire lives in the dark. With no need for vision, many of them lost functional eyes.

Advances in neuroscience research and microscopy: a collaborative project driven by researchers of the Max Perutz Labs Vienna, a joint venture of the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna, and the TU Wien (Vienna) allows researchers to look deep into organs and nervous systems of animals, ranging from squids and worms to fish and salamanders.

Spring is in full swing. Trees are leafing out, flowers are blooming, bees are buzzing, and birds are singing. But a recent study published in Proceedings...

Maximizing the protection of life on Earth requires knowledge of the global patterns of biodiversity at multiple dimensions, from genetic diversity within species, to species and ecosystem diversity.

Researchers from Cornell University have studied the genome of a single-celled alga that belongs to the closest lineage to terrestrial plants and provides many clues to how aquatic plants first colonized land.

Scientists used to think that the processes that drive the evolution of a new species were geographic separation or spatial barriers.

New research by the University of Bristol has revealed how birds adapted for long-distance flight which is linked to their environment and behaviour.