https://www.livescience.com/animals/birds/do-parrots-actually-understand-what-theyre-sa...

"In the wild, parrots squeak, squawk, whistle and trill to communicate with their flockmates. These highly social birds rely on their complex communication systems to get food and warn of potential dangers, and research even suggests parrots use "signature contact calls" to refer to each other, similar to how humans call each other by name.

***

"...when parrots talk, do they really understand what they're saying, or are they just masters of mimicry?

"The answer depends on the individual parrot and how it's trained — though research points toward parrots having a surprising ability to understand human speech and use words and phrases appropriately.

***

"Pepperberg has spent her career training parrots to use human language. Her most famous study participant, Alex the African gray parrot, was known for his prolific communication skills.

"Alex understood more than 100 words for different objects, actions and colors. He could count up to six and had a basic understanding of the concept of zero. When given an object, Alex could identify its color, shape and material, as well as accurately compare multiple objects using terms like "bigger" or "smaller" and "same" or "different."

"Alex was trained using a careful methodology that ensured he understood that specific words applied to certain objects or concepts. But experts say that even everyday pet parrots can pick up on certain features of human language.

"Erin Colbert-White, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Puget Sound, said parrots can definitely learn words that refer to real-world objects.

"'If you say 'peanut' enough times and you hand them a peanut, just like with a kid, they're going to learn that word label," Colbert-White said.

"To test whether parrots really understand that the word "peanut" refers to a peanut — and not that they just want to be fed any type of food — Colbert-White said you can wait until the bird requests a peanut and then hand them a different food. If the parrot knows exactly what "peanut" means, there's a good chance they'll drop the unrequested food and ask for a peanut again.

"Colbert-White said this type of learning applies more to concrete, real-world objects than to abstract words or phrases. However, parrots can pick up on contextual cues related to more abstract words.

***

"For example, a parrot might learn that people say "hello" when they walk into a room and then start saying "hello" to greet people. They may not understand the deeper conceptual meaning of the word, but their owner will probably find the behavior entertaining and reward it by giving them more attention. Parrots form strong bonds with their owners and are very responsive to their feedback, so this creates a cycle of reinforcement where the parrot learns to use words in the correct context.

"In another example, Pepperberg describes Alex learning how to say "I'm sorry." African gray parrots are notoriously mischievous, and Alex would often break or chew objects around the lab. When he shredded an important stack of papers, Pepperberg wrote in her book "Alex & Me" (Harper, 2008), she became upset and started yelling at him.

"Alex responded with the words "I'm sorry," a phrase Pepperberg believes he picked up from her. Shortly before the paper shredding incident, Pepperberg had caught Alex with a broken coffee mug. She was angry at first and reprimanded him, but quickly realized Alex could have been hurt, and told him "I'm sorry" while making sure he was okay. After that, Alex continued to say "I'm sorry" after getting into trouble and whenever Pepperberg threatened him with a time out.

"'He made the connection between the phrase and defusing a fraught situation," Pepperberg said in an email. "There was no contrition (I know a lot of people like that!), but he knew the appropriate context."

"The same goes for a phrase like "I love you." To a parrot, "what 'I love you' means isn't this abstract concept of love," Colbert-White said, "but rather, 'I have learned that when I say this, I get showered with attention; I get physical affection; I get to connect with my pair-bonded individual.'

"'I don't know that there's anything particularly fascinating about the fact that they don't understand it, because there are people that say it and don't understand it," she added. "You know, it just serves a function.'"

Comment: parrots might beat Corvid smartness. That little brain does a lot.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/mollusks/scaly-foot-snail-the-armor-plated-hermaphr...

"The scaly-foot snail, or volcano snail, possesses something unique among gastropods: a coat of protective armor covering its foot, made from hundreds of overlapping iron-infused scales. It fortifies these scales with minerals absorbed from the hot liquid spewed by hydrothermal vents and black smoker chimneys at the bottom of the Indian Ocean, where water can reach temperatures of 752 degrees Fahrenheit (400 degrees Celsius).

"Within the snail's scales, sulfur reacts with iron ions to form iron sulfide nanoparticles. Further toughening the snail's defenses is an outer layer of iron sulfide in its shell, making it the only known multicellular animal to strengthen its skeleton with iron. When the National Museum of Wales acquired a pair of specimens in 2015, curators were told to avoid using any water in the preservative solution, because otherwise the snails would start to rust.

"Underneath all that armor, the scaly-foot snail has a big heart — the largest in the Animal Kingdom relative to the animal's size — making up about 4% of the volume of its entire body. In waters where oxygen levels are low, that enormous heart also supplies oxygen to the symbiotic bacteria that live in the snail's esophageal gland and act as a built-in food factory.

***

"Individuals have both male and female sex organs. They creep along the ocean bottom at depths of approximately 1.7 miles (2,780 meters), and are known from just three hydrothermal vent fields to the east of Mauritius, an island off the southeastern coast of Africa.

***

"In 2019, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) added scaly-foot snails to its Red List of life at risk of extinction. The snails became the first animal to be listed as "endangered" due to threats to two of its three habitat locations from deep sea mining."

Comment: this could just as well be listed under extremophiles, as they show life survives by using whatever materials are available as well as using symbiotic bacteria for food.

dhw: An article in yesterday’s Times: Flowers turn sweet at the sound of bees

QUOTES: “Scientists have discovered that snapdragon plants can “hear” the buzz of preferred pollinators and respond by boosting the sugar content of their nectar. They also seem able to tell friend from foe. When the plants were exposed to the sounds of “freeloader” insects that planned to sip their nectar without providing pollinating services, they withheld the sugary reward!”

“Professor Francesca Barbero of the University of Turin […] said she had been “astonished” to find evidence that plants were […] tailoring their hospitality accordingly. “It means they sense, discriminate and react to the sounds of different insects.”

Like every other life form, plants are composed of cells/cell communities. Yet more evidence, then, that cells possess different levels of autonomous intelligence? Presumably this talent is not universal among flowers – so one up for the snapdragon?

Fascinating. It can be a designed response.

QUOTES: “Scientists have discovered that snapdragon plants can “hear” the buzz of preferred pollinators and respond by boosting the sugar content of their nectar. They also seem able to tell friend from foe. When the plants were exposed to the sounds of “freeloader” insects that planned to sip their nectar without providing pollinating services, they withheld the sugary reward!”

“Professor Francesca Barbero of the University of Turin […] said she had been “astonished” to find evidence that plants were […] tailoring their hospitality accordingly. “It means they sense, discriminate and react to the sounds of different insects.”

Like every other life form, plants are composed of cells/cell communities. Yet more evidence, then, that cells possess different levels of autonomous intelligence? Presumably this talent is not universal among flowers – so one up for the snapdragon?

dhw: Wonderment too at our human ability to study these miraculous feats and explain the processes which make them possible.

DAVID: This raises questions; how do unguided birds learn to fly such long distances? How do mitochondria change in anticipation of the flights? Changing as a result of the flights is understandable. It all looks planned and designed to me.

dhw: I agree. But the follow-up question is what does the designing and the planning, and what is the history leading up to the miracles now being achieved? These may well be the result of millions of years in which birds gradually extended their search for better living conditions, and their intelligent cells gradually adapted to the requirements of these journeys. Or do you think your God did one of his “de novo” acts, and in order to ensure the existence and survival of humans, performed operations on the cells of certain birds so they could immediately fly thousands of miles unharmed?

Can a bird think "there must be a warm place in which I can over-winter in?" Why some at 10,000 miles? And which came first, mighty mitochondria, or extended flight to build them up? This is why design is so appealing.

I love these articles on Nature’s Wonders, and I can only thank you yet again for the pleasure they give me (and I’m sure other readers too).

QUOTE: Their studies show how small changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of mitochondria can have huge physiological consequences that contribute to birds’ long-duration, continent-spanning flights.

Wonderment too at our human ability to study these miraculous feats and explain the processes which make them possible.

DAVID: This raises questions; how do unguided birds learn to fly such long distances? How do mitochondria change in anticipation of the flights? Changing as a result of the flights is understandable. It all looks planned and designed to me.

I agree. But the follow-up question is what does the designing and the planning, and what is the history leading up to the miracles now being achieved? These may well be the result of millions of years in which birds gradually extended their search for better living conditions, and their intelligent cells gradually adapted to the requirements of these journeys. Or do you think your God did one of his “de novo” acts, and in order to ensure the existence and survival of humans, performed operations on the cells of certain birds so they could immediately fly thousands of miles unharmed?

https://www.quantamagazine.org/turbocharged-mitochondria-power-birds-epic-migratory-jou...

Weighing in at a single ounce, the white-crowned sparrow can fly 2,600 miles, from Mexico to Alaska, on its annual spring migration, sometimes traveling 300 miles in a single night. Arctic terns make even longer journeys of 10,000 miles and more from the Arctic Circle to Antarctica, while great snipes fly over food-poor deserts and seas, sometimes covering 4,200 miles in four days without stopping.

During migration season, many bird species become continent-spanning, high-endurance athletes. “They’re flapping their wings several times a second for up to eight hours at a time,” said Soren Coulson(opens a new tab), who studies migration physiology at the University of Memphis. For humans, an equivalent feat — say, running nonstop without food, water or rest for days at a time — would be unimaginable.

***

Their studies show how small changes in the number, shape, efficiency and interconnectedness of mitochondria can have huge physiological consequences that contribute to birds’ long-duration, continent-spanning flights.

***

These pioneering studies on mitochondrial performance and bird migration highlight the fact that a seasonal response to changing light levels, not physical preparation, triggers crucial subcellular changes, said Wendy Hood(opens a new tab), who studies physiological ecology at Auburn University in Alabama;

***

The scientists found that birds experiencing the “migration” condition had more mitochondria, and that those mitochondria had a greater capacity to make energy(opens a new tab), compared to those in the “nonmigratory” birds. This suggested that during migration, the birds’ mitochondria are “turbocharged,” Coulson said. Then, after the journey is done, the mitochondrial landscape reverts to its usual state....

“All those turbocharged mitochondria become regular-charged mitochondria, [and] they get rid of the excess ones,” Coulson said. “That way, they can stop potentially wasting energy on traits that they no longer need for that time of the year.”

***

Rhodes and her colleagues found that the flight muscles of migratory white-crowned sparrows had more numerous and more efficient mitochondria(opens a new tab), which used more oxygen, compared to the birds that didn’t migrate. While mitochondrial oxygen consumption was highest during migration, researchers observed that it ramped up before the birds began migrating.

***

The findings suggest that changes in mitochondrial shape could play a direct role in giving birds their energy boost for long flights — a cellular adaptation that helps explain how such small birds can migrate such vast distances.

Turbocharged mitochondria come with a downside(opens a new tab), however. In the process of providing energy, mitochondria produce damaging molecules, known as reactive oxygen species, that can lead to health effects such as cardiovascular disease. If migratory birds build up more numerous and more powerful mitochondria, how do they deal with this tradeoff?

Diet may be one answer. Research by McWilliams and colleagues has shown that migratory birds are keen to eat fruits rich in antioxidants, which counteract these harmful molecules. Their experiments also demonstrated that the antioxidant vitamin E can enter mitochondria(opens a new tab) in the flight muscles of lab-raised birds, but only those trained to fly. This potentially counteracts the oxidative stress even at the level of the tiny organelle. Understanding more fundamentally how mitochondria provide birds with additional energy without overproducing reactive oxygen species is “a necessary next step” in this line of research, McWilliams said.

Comment: this raises questions; how do unguided birds learn to fly such long distances? How do mitochondria change in anticipation of the flights? Changing as a result of the flights is understandable. It all looks planned and designed to me.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/birds/hoatzin-the-strange-stinkbird-born-with-clawe...

"Why it's awesome: The hoatzin is often regarded as one of the world's strangest birds. Hatchlings are born with clawed wings — a rare, prehistoric trait — and adults give off a strong, unpleasant smell due to their cow-like, fermenting digestive system, earning them the nickname "stinkbird."

"Hoatzin have some pretty weird traits, with mohican crests, blue facial skin, red eyes and large, fan-shaped tails, which they used to maintain balance while navigating dense vegetation.

"But these tropical birds are most notable for their pungent odor, which is commonly compared to manure or rotting vegetation. This unpleasant smell is the result of a highly unusual digestive process that sets them apart from almost every other bird species.

"Unlike most birds, the hoatzin has a foregut fermentation system, similar to the one found in cows. It primarily feeds on leaves, which it stores and ferments in a large, chambered crop — a temporary food storage pouch located in the esophagus. Then, the food is passed to the stomach for fermentation, where bacteria break down the tough plant material, releasing gases via burps that produce the bird's distinctive manure-like odor.

{"This digestive process is highly efficient for breaking down the high levels of cellulose found in leaves. But, it makes the hoatzin both smelly and clumsy, as its enlarged gut makes it difficult to fly. However, the hoatzin's unusual smell acts as a natural defence mechanism, as predators tend to avoid the bird because they think it is rotten or poisonous.

***

"In 2024, biologists analyzed and mapped the genomes of more than 360 bird species to create a family tree of major bird groups, but where hoatzin fit into the picture is unclear. The researchers added hoatzins to a category called "orphans" along with shorebirds and cranes — because it’s unclear where hoatzins sit within the avian family tree."

Comment: this is a best example of an inefficient, cumbersome evolutionary system. One weird bird!

https://knowablemagazine.org/content/article/living-world/2025/how-thermogenic-plants-w...

"These are the flowers of the Eastern skunk cabbage (Symplocarpus foetidus), and flies and other pollinators are drawn by their putrid odor as well as by the flowers’ warmth. Skunk cabbage is one of a smattering of plants that can generate remarkable amounts of heat, an ability called thermogenesis: Its floral tissues can reach a toasty 84 degrees Fahrenheit (28.9 degrees Celsius), even on days that are near freezing.

***

"Yet thermogenesis has been documented in 14 different plant families, some of them with more than a hundred heat-generating species. The sacred lotus (Nelumbo nucifera) can crank up its flowers to 95°F (35°C) and maintain that heat over days; the famed giant corpse flower (Amorphophallus titanum) reaches similar steamy temperatures, generating its heat in pulses.

“'Thermogenesis should be energetically costly for an organism, right? You’re just burning energy; you’re burning carbohydrates that you made,” says chemical ecologist Shayla Salzman of the University of Georgia in Athens. “So, if it is energetically costly, then it is something that you should have lost over evolutionary time — unless it had some equally valuable benefit.”

***

"...for plants studied thus far, the benefit seems to be that warm flowers help them to have sex.

***

"Among the most famous of thermogenic plants are those in the arum family (Araceae), which counts among its members skunk cabbage and the giant titan arum or corpse plant. Both these plants have large, darkly colored floral parts that, along with their heat generation, are a ruse: They are disguising themselves as decomposing carcasses and thus cozy, food-rich places to lay eggs. The hoodwinked flies or beetles crawl about and get dusted with pollen that they deliver to other flowers as their hunt continues for a proper brood site.

***

"It’s well-established that carbon dioxide attracts insects (that’s what attracts mosquitos to people, for example). The gas bubbles out of decaying matter, including decomposing bodies, and in Claudel’s studies, it was present in the cloud of chemicals released by all the investigated thermogenic Amorphophallus species.

***

"Plants that employ brood-site mimicry as the corpse plant does are cheaters — they lure pollinators with the scent and look of decay, but offer no food reward. Yet some plants offer real brood sites rich with nutritious pollen as part of a mutualistic relationship. These mutualisms are common among the cycads, an evolutionarily ancient plant group of nearly 400 species, almost all of them thermogenic.

***

"...and tested their responses to various concentrations of 1,3-octadiene, the primary chemical attractant emitted by the cones.

"Sure enough, in male cones, the concentration of 1,3-octadiene reached its peak each evening, prompting a mass exodus of weevils, Salzman and her colleagues reported in 2020 in Science Advances. In female cones, the emission of 1,3-octadiene peaked at milder, attractive levels that beckoned pollen-bearing weevils fleeing the male cones.

***

"The heater itself — the enzyme that most plants seem to use to crank up the temperatures of their tissues — is evolutionarily ancient. All plants seem to have it, even non-thermogenic species, says biochemist Anthony Moore...In fact, the heater enzyme also is found in many bacteria and fungi, he notes, and even some primitive animals such as sponges (Moore did much of the research on the structure of the enzyme and coauthored a paper on its role in the Annual Review of Plant Biology). That spread suggests the enzyme arose quite early on life’s family tree.

***

"Harnessing the heater to attract pollinators may have first happened more than 300 million years ago, scientists recently proposed in Nature Plants. This was before the grand explosion of diversity in pollinating insects — before butterflies, before bees — and before the dramatic rise of flowering plants.

"So perhaps, at the dawn of pollination, heat was the original enticement. It may have lured early insects like beetles and thrips with a toasty respite from the outside world and quickly become intertwined with fragrance. The astonishing diversity of showy, elaborate flowers that attract pollinators of many plants today? Those visual bells and whistles would have come later, buoyed by the warmth and perfumes of plants past.

Comment: an amazing complexity of ways that plants arrange to have a sexual reproduction. Looks designed to me.

https://www.sciencealert.com/bone-collector-caterpillar-wears-dead-bugs-to-steal-prey-f...

"A species of caterpillar that scientists are calling the 'bone collector' is not only a carnivore, and a cannibal, it also dresses itself in the body parts of dead insects so it can sneak around undetected and steal prey right from the jaws of spiders.

"No other species of caterpillar has been observed behaving this way, and only 62 individuals of the species have been seen in 20 years of fieldwork.

***

"Caterpillars are the larval stage for insects of the Lepidoptera order – you know, butterflies and moths. As adults, most of these insects primarily feed on plant matter (mostly), and their larvae do the same. It's common to see caterpillars merrily munching away on a leaf.

"Carnivorous species are rare. Just 0.1 percent of the known butterfly and moth species have caterpillars that like to munch on other animals. Caterpillars aren't exactly the most nimble of creatures, so the food of carnivorous species often includes slow-moving or stationary prey such as scale insects that cling to trees, wasp and ant larvae, and the eggs of other insects.

"The bone collector's strategy involves cozying up to a spider. A research team led by entomologist Daniel Rubinoff of the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa observed the species in the wild, and collected several specimens to observe their behavior in a laboratory setting. The way they live their lives is very strange for a caterpillar.

"In the wild, a bone collector caterpillar will find an enclosed spider web – one that's safely concealed under tree bark, for example – and collect inedible pieces of insect to make themselves a little coat, bound together with silk.

"Once there, they'll happily chow down on any insects caught in the web, even chewing through the silk wrappers of snacks that the spider has stashed for later.

"The researchers found them living this way with multiple species of spiders, none of which were native to Hawaii, suggesting that the caterpillar is somewhat adaptable.

"In the lab, the researchers gave the caterpillars a variety of detritus to choose from to build their little nests. The caterpillars noticeably only chose the body parts of other insects, or shed spider skin, eschewing bits of twig or leaf or bark. And when no insect parts were offered, the caterpillars did not accept anything else: it's bug bits or nothing.

"'Given the context," the researchers write, "it is possible that the array of partially consumed body parts and shed spider skins covering the case forms effective camouflage from a spider landlord; the caterpillars have never been found predated by spiders or wrapped in spider silk.'"

Comment: considering this bug changes to mush in becoming a flying insect, this learned behavior caries through the metamorphosis process. This certainly looks like learned behavior, but conssidering the complexity of cozing up to spiders it may well be designed.

https://www.sciencealert.com/crows-are-so-smart-they-can-identify-geometric-shapes-stud...

"Crows have a sense of geometric intuition much like our own, a new study reveals.

"They can detect the 'odd one out' in a set of geometric shapes, and have an affinity for geometric regularity – shapes with consistent features, like squares, as opposed to irregular ones, like rhombuses.

"Crows are the first non-human animals to demonstrate these abilities, which were once thought to be uniquely human.

"This suggests that recognizing geometric shape regularity may be deeply ingrained in evolution, and could be more common in the animal kingdom than we've realized.

***

"The crows were trained to detect a single outlier shape that didn't match the five otherwise identical two-dimensional shapes displayed on a computer screen. To demonstrate which shape they determined to be the 'intruder', the crows pecked on its on-screen position.

***

"The crows found it easier to detect an outlier among four-sided shapes with regular features, like the even length of sides in a square, or the consistent 90-degree angles of a rectangle. The more regular the shape's angles and sides, the more accurate 'intruder' detections the crows made.

"In a sort of progression from easy to hard mode, the trials featured such quadrilaterals as the classic square, rhombus, isosceles trapezoid, right hinge (shown above), and an arbitrary irregular quadrilateral.

"The more wacky the quadrilaterals, the harder it was for the crows to figure out which one was different from the rest, which, looking at the array they were given, is quite relatable.

"'The crows, just like humans, had the most difficulty detecting geometric regularity in a rhombus. This highlights the similarities of the geometric capabilities between crows and humans," Nieder said.

***

"'Birds utilize [spatial regularities], for instance, for orientation and navigation in larger environments and in doing so have a survival advantage," Nieder said.

"'This basic intuition in crows, their ability to grasp geometric properties in two-dimensional shapes, exemplifies how core knowledge of magnitudes and geometry is rooted in biological evolution."

Comment: this adds to the known intelligence of crows.

https://www.the-scientist.com/how-tiny-organisms-control-minds-create-zombies-and-shape...

"Miniature zombies are all around us, scuttling through the underbrush or flying through the air in nearly every continent on Earth. In Brazil, a fungus takes over ant brains, altering their circadian rhythms and social behaviors. In England, a virus forces caterpillars to climb high into the canopy, then slowly liquefies their bodies, which drip onto the leaves below. In Indonesia, a parasitoid wasp uses specialized venom to alter a cockroach’s brain chemistry, turning it into the perfect host for her young.

***

"While many parasites are content to complete their entire lifecycles inside a single host, Leucochloridium species have evolved a more complex—and horrifying—way of life.1 Birds infected with these particular parasites excrete Leucochloridium eggs in their droppings, which are picked up by hapless snails. The worm larvae make their way through the snail’s tissues to its eyestalks, where they form broodsacs, pouches that can contain hundreds of individual larvae. Because the worms need to get back into a bird to complete their lifecycle, while the snail host would very much prefer not to be eaten, the worms have developed the ability to alter the behavior of their hosts via as-yet-unknown mechanisms. Worm-infected snails become more active and seem to prefer higher, more brightly lit perches, increasing their accessibility to avian predators. To further tempt the birds, the stripey broodsacs begin to pulse rapidly, giving them the characteristic disco-eyed appearance. Scientists think their strange, pulsing eyestalks mimic the movement of a tasty caterpillar. When a bird takes the bait, the parasites take up residence in its gut, mature into adults, and reproduce, beginning the cycle all over again.

"Throughout the book, Weisberger reveals the uncomfortable pervasiveness of this zombie phenomenon: Fruit flies, cicadas, ants, bees, caterpillars, spiders, grasshoppers, and ladybugs can all be victims of these tiny, parasitic puppet masters. “The zombifiers are diverse. The hosts that they zombify are diverse. The mechanisms that they use are very diverse,” said Weisberger. “So individually, all of these examples are really exciting, but together, they also added up to this really interesting picture. Just what is behavior manipulation? Why is this strategy so successful? And why are so many organisms doing it?

***

"Because many of these zombifying agents have fine-tuned their manipulation abilities to the point that they specialize in just one type of host, scientists are exploring how they might be used to develop more ecologically-friendly pest control strategies that target crop pests or invasive species, while sparing bees and other insects that provide important ecosystem services.

"The emerald cockroach wasp, Ampulex compressa, hijacks the motor centers of a cockroach brain using specialized peptides in its venom.

"The bioactive compounds produced by zombifying organisms could also be useful in medicine. For example, the emerald cockroach wasp’s venom, which interacts with dopamine receptors in the cockroach brain to influence motor behaviors, could help inspire new treatments for movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. And Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, the fungus famous for creating zombie ants, produces secondary metabolites that may influence neurological function in mammals."

Comment: from a book review. These are weird parasitic lifecycles, and one can only wonder as to how they evolve. The review shows how we might medically use the controlling compounds.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/04/250402181317.htm

"The flowerpot snake, one of the world's smallest snakes, has some unusual distinctions. Also known as the Brahminy blind snake, it's the only known snake species with three sets of chromosomes instead of two -- and it can reproduce without a mate.

"By analyzing the flowerpot snake's unique genome, scientists at The University of Texas at Arlington are uncovering how the tiny reptile repairs its DNA and prevents harmful mutations. The findings, published recently in the journal Science Advances, provides valuable insights into genetic repair mechanisms that could deepen our understanding of human gene evolution.

"'This DNA repair and replication activity supports a fascinating mechanism called premeiotic endoreplication, a process through which the snake duplicates its chromosomes before dividing them, sidestepping the need for the typical pairing of chromosomes seen in sexual reproduction," said Matthew Fujita, a professor of biology at UTA and a co-author on the paper along with researchers from China and Myanmar. "This mechanism allows the snake to produce offspring that are exact genetic clones of itself."

***

"Using advanced genomic technology, the research team discovered that the flowerpot snake, native to Africa and Asia, has 40 chromosomes, organized into three subgenomes. These subgenomes formed through complex genetic events, including chromosome fusion in ancestral species. The researchers hypothesize that this genetic structure enables the snake to reproduce without needing sperm from a male partner.

"One major question the scientists explored was whether this reproductive strategy comes with evolutionary drawbacks. Asexual species typically struggle because they lack genetic shuffling, which helps eliminate harmful mutations over time. However, the flowerpot snake appears to have developed a way to counteract this risk. The researchers believe its slow but steady evolutionary pace helps limit the accumulation of harmful mutations.

"They also examined how genetic variations across different flowerpot snake populations suggest chromosome exchanges between the subgenomes. These exchanges appear to balance genetic diversity and stability -- maintaining enough variation for adaptation while preventing incompatibilities that could disrupt reproduction.

"'The study also revealed something unexpected -- many of the flowerpot snake's immune-related and sexually selected genes, such as those involved in sperm development, have lost their functions," Fujita said. "This finding provides key insights into how reproduction without a mate works in reptiles, but it also reshapes some of our long-held views about the limitations of asexual species. Rather than being an evolutionary 'dead end' as researchers have thought, the flowerpot snake shows how nature can innovate and adapt in extraordinary ways.'"

Comment: this may be a weird dead end. Providing "exact genetic clones" does not advance evolution of this species. That different species share chromosomes does help in providing variations.

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-reveals-tool-tropical-fish-species.html

"Scientists have debunked the belief that using tools is unique to mammals and birds, after documenting tropical fish that smash shellfish against rocks to open and eat the meat, in a fascinating new study published in the journal Coral Reefs on 26 March 2025.

***

"The study logs fish deliberately picking up hard-shelled prey like crabs and mollusks, smashing them against hard surfaces like rocks to access the meal inside.

"Tool use is typically associated with humans, but this behavior is proof that fish are far cleverer than they get credit for," says Dr. Tariel-Adam.

***

"Wrasses use hard surfaces, also called 'anvils,' to crack open hard-shelled prey such as crabs and mollusks. Through a citizen science initiative Fish Tool Use, researchers gathered 16 new observations across five species of Halichoeres wrasses.

These findings mark the first evidence of anvil use for three species and the first video evidence for the other two, and extend the known range of anvil use to the western Atlantic.

"'With these newly discovered tool-using species, it becomes clear that many species of wrasses use tools that we previously didn't know about," said Dr. Tariel-Adam.

"Professor Culum Brown, head of the Fish Lab at Macquarie University and senior author of the study says the study adds to research into fish intelligence. "They demonstrate flexible and dexterous tool use, expanding our understanding of tool use evolution in the animal kingdom.'"

Comment: the wrasses are brainy fish picking parasites off bigger fish. This is no surprise.

https://www.the-scientist.com/hair-oils-prevent-polar-bear-fur-from-freezing-up-72782

"...they analyzed the polar bear sebum’s composition to identify which components might be responsible for the oil’s ice resistance. Sebum is comprised of lipids and other hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds that determine its physical properties. Using multiple analytical chemistry techniques, they found that the sebum was rich in glycerol species, waxes, and cholesterols, but was lacking in hydrocarbons, specifically squalene, a common component of sebum in other mammals.

"Using in silico modeling, the team assessed how these molecules interacted with ice molecules. They also investigated this for polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and squalene as comparisons.

"...they analyzed the polar bear sebum’s composition to identify which components might be responsible for the oil’s ice resistance. Sebum is comprised of lipids and other hydrophobic and hydrophilic compounds that determine its physical properties. Using multiple analytical chemistry techniques, they found that the sebum was rich in glycerol species, waxes, and cholesterols, but was lacking in hydrocarbons, specifically squalene, a common component of sebum in other mammals.

"Using in silico modeling, the team assessed how these molecules interacted with ice molecules. They also investigated this for polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) and squalene as comparisons.

"They showed that diacyl glycerol species, cholesterols, and long chain fatty acids resisted adhering to ice comparably to PFAS, whereas squalene exhibited high ice adhesion. “[It was exciting] seeing how well polar bear hair oils did compared to the fluorocarbons, because they're very nasty chemicals,” Carolan said. Although PFAS have many useful properties, these compounds do not decompose in the environment or in animals that eat them, leading to accumulation that becomes toxic.

“'The most striking thing for me was just how effective the anti-icing property seemed to be,” said Whiteman, who was not involved with the study.

***

“'[Polar bears] are very different than grizzly bears,” Derocher said. For example, unlike polar bears, which he said remain dry down by their skin when they emerge from water, grizzly bears do not. “They're like a wet dog,” he added. “If grizzly bear hair either doesn't have as much of these oils, or they're constructed differently, that would give us a little bit more insight as what's going on.”

***

"While the team showed that polar bears resist icing through this chemical method, other animals, such as penguins, rely upon structural properties of their fur or feathers for ice resistance."

Comment: I wonder about diving birds in the Arctic and other animals who are partially aquatic in their lifestyles. The evolutionary process has a solution for every challenge.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/green-spoonworm-the-female-tentacle-monsters-that-t...

"This bright green sea creature contains a toxic pigment that protects it from predators, kills bacteria and determines the sex of larvae, turning males into a "living testacle."

"Where it lives: Seabeds in the northeast Atlantic, from the Mediterranean to northern Norway

"What it eats: Organic matter filtered from the water and small invertebrates.

"Why it's awesome: Green spoonworms are named for their spoon-shaped proboscis — a long,sucking mouthpart used for feeding — which stretches out into the water to catch food floating by.

"'They basically look like a tentacle monster from a sci-fi film," Trond Roger Oskars, a research scientist specializing in marine invertebrates at Møreforsking Research Institute, told Live Science in an email.

"The rest of their thick, sausage-shaped body remains buried in the seafloor — sometimes in burrows created by other animals — while their ribbon-like proboscis flutters in the water to fish for tiny pieces of organic matter to eat, including algae, rotten materials and even poop. "They're like vacuum cleaners sweeping over the ocean floor," Oskars said.

"While green spoonworms' bodies are around 6 or 7 inches (15 to 18 centimeters) long, "that wavy proboscis can extend up to 10 times longer," he said.

"Their iconic bright green color, which comes from a toxic pigment called bonellin, warns predators to stay away. But not all green spoonworms look like this. "Here's the twist!" Oskars said. "The green specimens you see are only the females."

"The sex of an individual relies on chemistry rather than genetics. If a larva floats through the ocean and settles on the seafloor, it develops into a female. But if a larva lands on a female, it reacts to the bonellin in her body and turns into a male. Like some species of anglerfish, these males are microscopic and are absorbed into her body, becoming a parasite with the sole purpose of fertilizing her eggs. "It's basically reduced to a living testicle," he said.
"
As well as protecting spoonworms from predators and turning males into living gonads, bonellin kills bacteria. "It is being targeted as a potential new antibiotic but may have a whole host of other interesting uses," Oskars said."

Comment: Another strange organism that plays a role in its ecosystem, but it may help us in the fight with antibiotic resistant bacteria.

https://phys.org/news/2025-03-male-blue-lined-octopuses-paralyze.html

"A team of neurologists, environmentalists and bioengineers at the University of Queensland, in Australia, has found that male blue-lined octopuses paralyze females prior to mating to avoid being eaten. In their study published in the journal Current Biology, the group captured several octopus samples and studied their behavior and vital signs as they mated.

"Prior research has shown that some male octopuses have evolved a means to prevent being eaten by females when mating; one species, for example, has developed a sperm transfer arm to allow itself some distance during intercourse. In this new study, the research team focused their efforts on blue-lined octopuses. Female blue-lined octopuses are much larger than the males and have been known to eat their partners after copulation.

"The researchers captured several male and female specimens and observed them during mating. They found that the males bit the females in a way that slightly punctured the aorta, allowing entry of a small amount of poison.

"The poison, tetrodotoxin, the same poison used by pufferfish, paralyzed the female while the male copulated with her. His efforts continued until the female began to recover. The poison used by the male was made by bacteria that lived in its body.

"Monitoring of their vital signs during copulation showed that the female stopped breathing altogether after eight minutes—not long enough to kill her, but long enough to be mounted. Her skin color also paled noticeably and her pupils constricted; all of the females tested were unable to respond to bright flashes of light or other stimuli. In short, all nerve control was lost.

"The researchers found that envenomating the females rendered them completely immobile and therefore unable to participate in copulation, and more importantly, to the male, unable to cause him harm afterward.

"After mating, all females lived to lay their eggs three to 29 days later, though they all showed evidence of the bite, such as bumps and wounds."

Comment: I guess it is better than being eaten, although a participating partner makes it all more enjoyable.

https://www.livescience.com/animals/crustaceans/animal-kingdoms-most-powerful-puncher-g...

"The mantis shrimp's club uses a built-in vibration shield that filters out damaging shock waves to enable it to strike with bullet-like force without breaking.

"Mantis shrimps pack a powerful punch — and scientists have finally figured out how this super-strong strike doesn't obliterate the shrimps themselves as they lash out. Turns out, these shrimp have a special shock-absorbing "shield" to help them survive as they deliver shell-crushing blows.

"The punch of a peacock mantis shrimp (Odontodactylus scyllarus) is the strongest self-powered strike by an animal. They use hammer-like fists, or dactyl clubs, to shatter prey's shells. The strike is so strong it can even break aquarium glass, delivering a force comparable to a .22 caliber bullet.

"But because these high-impact strikes generate a lot of force, scientists have puzzled over how the critters can withstand the intense shock waves generated by their own attack.

"In a new study published Feb. 6 in the journal Science, researchers examined the structure of the shrimps' clubs. Their findings revealed that the microstructure of these clubs act as natural shock absorbers to limit damage.

"'We found it uses phononic mechanisms — structures that selectively filter stress waves," study co-author Horacio Dante Espinosa, a professor of mechanical engineering and biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, said in a statement. "This enables the shrimp to preserve its striking ability over multiple impacts and prevent soft tissue damage."

"Peacock mantis shrimp use a complex system of biological latches and springs in their dactyl clubs to unleash a punch at a speed of 75 feet per second (23 meters per second), according to a 2004 study — 50 times faster than the blink of an eye.

"While this immense speed helps deliver a powerful blow, it also creates dangerous shock waves.

***

"The findings revealed two important regions in these clubs that help them survive their own strikes: the impact region and the periodic region.

The impact region is composed of a layer of chitin fibers arranged in a herringbone pattern that reinforces the club against fractures.

"Beneath this layer is the periodic region, made from twisted arrangements of layered chitin fibers. This type of helicoidal structure is known as a Bouligand structure and is found in fish scales and lobster exoskeletons to provide strength and fracture toughness.

"The laser tests measured the speed of acoustic stress waves through both regions. These waves passed through the impact region unchanged but moved at varying speeds through the periodic region — suggesting the latter region causes high-frequency waves to disperse to reduce the intensity.

"The researchers also discovered that the periodic region filtered out high-frequency shock waves — which can cause significant damage to tissues, according to the statement.

"The high-frequency waves were likely generated when the cavitation bubbles collapsed.

***

"The bundles of fibers in the periodic region act like a "phononic shield," actively blocking, redirecting and scattering waves, and ultimately preventing any harmful shock waves from traveling efficiently through the layer. This protects the delicate tissues of the mantis shrimp from the resulting shock waves of the cavitation bubble.

"'The research provided experimental evidence that the Bouligand structure of the mantis shrimp's dactyl club functions as a phononic shield, selectively filtering high-frequency shear waves generated during impact," Espinosa said.

"'These features help protect the mantis shrimp's club from damage by mitigating high-frequency stress waves, making it a naturally optimized impact-resistant structure," Epinosa said."

Comment: obviously this will be copied as nature teaches us a new technique for protection. Not by chance. I can't imagine naturally occurring mutations designed this.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/sea-turtles-dance-magnetic-fields-160000481.html?guccounter=...

"Even with their roughly 8,000-mile-long migrations across oceans, they consistently return to the same feeding and nesting sites. Sea turtles can travel these distances by remembering the magnetic signatures of an area and storing that knowledge in a mental map.

"However, the internal mechanisms behind this have been a bit of a mystery. New lab experiments reveal that they do a “turtle dance” when they reach an area that they associate with food, indicating how they are using magnetic fields to memorize where ecologically important areas are located.

"Turtle dance behavior is a distinctive food-anticipatory behavior of captive-reared sea turtles. Hallmarks of the behavior include some or all of the following: tilting the body vertically, raising the head near to or above the water surface, opening the mouth, paddling alternately with the front flippers (‘dogpaddling’), and occasionally spinning in place. Turtles typically display most elements of this behavior in the presence of food. During experimental trials when food is absent, turtle dance behavior is typically more subdued and limited to elements such as tilting towards the vertical, approaching the surface, and opening the mouth. The video shows one sequence of vigorous turtle dance behavior in the presence of food, followed by several more subtle instances of turtle dance behavior when a turtle was in the rewarded magnetic field but food was absent. Turtles swimming in the unrewarded field are also shown to illustrate baseline behavior for comparative purposes. CREDIT: Goforth et al., Nature (2025).

"Migratory species like turtles, birds, and some fish tend to use two senses together to find their way. They can use the strength of the Earth’s magnetic field to identify where they are–map sense–and where they need to go, or compass sense.

“Map sense is a positional sense. It’s similar to a GPS system,” Kayla Goforth, a study co-author and biologist at Texas A&M University, tells Popular Science. “Compass sense is more directional and enables them to maintain a consistent heading.”

"They appear to use both their map sense and compass sense to create mental maps of where they go to feed and nest that they can store over time. However, the mechanisms behind both are still a bit mysterious.

"To see if turtles can learn the magnetic signatures of specific places, Goforth and her colleagues set up two large tanks about eight to 10-feet-tall. In the tanks, the magnetic signatures related to specific geographic locations were recreated with large coils. Juvenile sea turtles from beaches in North Carolina were then temporarily placed in the tanks. The turtles spent an equal amount of time in both magnetic fields, but were only fed in one of them.

"When they reached the area they associated with feeding, the turtles started to “dance” in anticipation.

“'The turtle dance is a food seeking behavior that they exhibit in captivity, and it’s really quite adorable,” says Goforth. “They stick their head stuff out of the water with their mouths and they start to move their clippers rapidly and spin around.”

"According to Goforth, they do this in captivity because their food is generally coming from above them. In the wild, sea turtles are primarily foraging downward on the sea floor for their food.

"The turtles’ reactions to the areas where food is present is some compelling evidence that they can learn to distinguish between magnetic fields.

“'Since they have the ability to learn magnetic fields, they can likely incorporate that information into a magnetic map, or into their larger navigational system,” says Goforth. “They can then use that information to get back to a feeding, nesting, or other ecologically important area. It’s similar to how we might memorize where our favorite pizza place is.”

"For the team, observing that the turtles might rely on a mechanism called magnetoreception was surprising. Magnetoreception is theorized to be a still unknown chemical reaction that they used to facilitate their navigation.

"When the team ran a second experiment in the tanks using different radio frequencies, they observed how the change in frequency was affecting their internal compass. The turtles could not orient themselves properly while swimming.

“'This suggests that their compass sense does rely on chemical magnetoreception, but the map sense relies on some other mechanism,” says Goforth.

"Birds are believed to also rely on chemical magnetoreception to navigate in a similar way. These tools for navigation are likely present in other vertebrate species, but more study is needed."

Comment: this is further conformation of how they use the magnetic fields.

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2459008-plants-laced-with-a-variety-of-fungi-are-m...

"Plants treated with diverse species of fungi that live on roots grew larger flowers, prompting bees to visit them more often and spend more time there.

“'[These fungi] might not only have benefits for the plant itself, or for the soil, but also for the pollinators,” says Aidee Guzman at Stanford University in California.

"Guzman and her colleagues grew squash plants (Cucurbita pepo) inoculated with four combinations of different species of mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi live on roots, giving the plant nutrients scavenged from the soil in exchange for carbon.

"Once the plants flowered, the researchers moved them from a greenhouse to an outdoor field. They then followed bees around the field for a week, counting their visits to each plant and how long they spent on them.

"Plants inoculated with fungi received an average of 28 per cent more bee visits than plants that hadn’t been treated. The bees also spent 47 per cent more time on their flowers.

An increase in the treated plants’ flower size was the only trait clearly associated with more bee visits, the researchers found. Given that plants and mycorrhizal fungi have evolved together for hundreds of millions of years, it makes sense that the fungi could prompt the plants to grow larger flowers that are better at attracting pollinators. “It’s no surprise that their role goes beyond plant growth,” says Guzman.

"Not every fungal treatment worked in the same way, though. The plants inoculated with the most diverse group of fungi saw the most bee visits, but other combinations had different effects. Some prompted the plant to divert nutrients away from flowers to their roots, resulting in fewer bee visits. Other treated plants grew more flowers and produced more nutritious pollen, but these changes weren’t linked to more bee visits.

“"It’s nice to see that they found this variability among different types of fungi,” says Jon Bennett at the University of Saskatchewan in Canada. That there can be a trade-off between a plant attracting pollinators and supporting fungi suggests these two different symbiotic relationships could have influenced one another’s evolution, he says."

Comment: an ecosystem that produces this type of result shows the value of such systems. That bees can respond to differentials in flowers is not surprising.