Pinpointing when early land plants colonized terrestrial environments and began influencing Earth's systems is a core question in the evolution of the Earth system. A research team led by Prof. Zhao Mingyu at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) has uncovered evidence indicating that land plants may have started reshaping Earth's surface environments far earlier than previously recognized. Their findings are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

There is a long history of the mechanical thinning of forests in standard forestry operations. Thinning typically involves removing some 30–50% of the standing volume of trees with commercially valued logs removed via tracked or wheeled machinery. More recently, thinning has been proposed to limit wildfire, drought, insect outbreaks, and increase water yields in many forests around the world. But is thinning in this regard effective and what are the associated costs and benefits?

The indigenous Bugkalot people of Nueva Ecija call it "kelli": a plant with white, starburst-like flowers and oval-shaped leaves that are traditionally mashed and mixed with food to treat ailing dogs. But despite this local familiarity, science has only now been able to identify it as a distinct species and given it a formal scientific name.

Biochemists at Caltech have identified how viruses have converged on a method for killing bacteria. The researchers have homed in on an underexplored small transporter called MurJ that is a vital part of the pathway bacteria use to build their chain-mail-like cell wall. An essential component of the cell wall, called peptidoglycan, provides the strength that allows bacteria to resist pressure. Using advanced tools, the scientists have determined the common mechanism used by three different bacteria-killing viruses to block MurJ from doing its job. The findings reveal a novel target for designing new antibiotics.

A team co-led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities researcher Peter Makovicky and Argentinean colleague Sebastian Apesteguía has identified a 90-million-year-old fossil that provides the "missing link" for a mysterious group of prehistoric animals. The study, published in Nature, details the discovery of a complete skeleton of Alnashetri cerropoliciensis.

In the canals, marshes, and swamps of the Florida Everglades, invasive fish are silently slipping into new waterways. Among them are the Asian swamp eel and the bullseye snakehead, two air-breathing predators that live in the region and pose growing risks to native wildlife and fragile ecosystems like the Everglades.

There is a tiny cyclops among your oldest ancestors, and humans share these remarkable ancestral roots with all other vertebrates. Researchers from Lund University and University of Sussex have found that all vertebrates evolved from a distant ancestor that had a single eye located at the top of its head. The study, published in Current Biology, also reveals that the remnants of this so-called median eye have today become the pineal gland in our brains.

Humans differ from other primates due to their relatively large, permanent breasts, and their development has so far not been conclusively explained. According to a study conducted at the University of Oulu, Finland, the surface temperature of the breasts combined with their size and shape may help a newborn maintain body temperature.

Deep in the heart of Martu Country lies Karlamilyi National Park. Red rock and red sand stretch as far as the eye can see. Within some of these rocky outcrops, live a small population of wiminyji (northern quolls). But they haven't always been restricted to such a small area.

According to a new study by the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC) and the National University of Colombia, chronic ocean warming is driving a nearly 20% annual decline in fish biomass. However, the researchers have found that extreme marine heat waves can sometimes mask this trend by causing temporary population increases in certain areas. The work appears in Nature Ecology & Evolution.

Horses have a vocal trick no one fully understood until now. Scientists have discovered that when a horse whinnies, it produces two completely different sounds at the same time. One is a deep tone created by vibrating the vocal folds, similar to how humans sing. The other is a high-pitched whistle generated inside the larynx, something never before confirmed in a large mammal. This rare ability, known as biphonation, likely helps horses send multiple emotional signals in a single call.

Research from the University of Warwick has revealed that butterfly caterpillars use sophisticated rhythmic signals to communicate with ants, helping them gain protection, food, and access to ant nests. The work appears in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

Bottlenose dolphins usually live in small to medium-sized groups in coastal and open-sea waters, but every once in a while, a dolphin might leave its pod behind, flock to coastal areas and approach human settlements. While this is a relatively rare occurrence, cases of dolphins entering coastal or urban areas are well documented.

All animals need to eat to survive, grow and reproduce. To do so, they also need to avoid being eaten. This is a big challenge for many of Australia's native mammals, because when they search for food, they must also escape the attention of introduced predators, namely, feral cats and red foxes.

Biologists have long wondered why caribou are the only deer in the world in which females—like males—have antlers. A study of shed antlers collected from calving grounds in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge provides a new answer. The study is published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

Aleksey Maro knows far more than he cares to know about the urination habits of chimpanzees. But if you want to measure the alcohol intake of chimps in a Ugandan rain forest, where a breathalyzer is impractical, collecting urine for analysis is your only choice.