A landmark scientific study involving marine biologists from Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Libya, Italy, Tunisia, the UK, the US and Malta documenting instances where native Mediterranean species have preyed upon two highly invasive marine fish—the Pacific red lionfish and the silver-cheeked toadfish—has just been published. Prof. Alan Deidun, coordinator of the Spot the Alien Fish citizen science campaign and resident academic within the Department of Geosciences of the Faculty of Science, is a […]

Marine scientists aboard Schmidt Ocean Institute's research vessel Falkor have identified likely new marine species and deep sea organisms on nine seamounts that were explored for the first time in the remote Phoenix Islands Archipelago. In a 34-day expedition that ended today, scientists also conducted high-resolution seafloor mapping of more than 30,000 square kilometers and video exploration of five additional seamounts.

Our last common ancestor with the octopus existed more than 500 million years ago. So why is it that they seem to show such peculiar similarities with humans, while at the same time appearing so alien? Perhaps because despite their tentacles covered with suckers and their lack of bones, their eyes, brains and even their curiosity remind us our own thirst for knowledge.

Bobtail and bottletail squids are small marine invertebrates that are easy to collect, reproduce quickly, and can be raised together in large numbers in laboratories, making them useful model animals for research. They're cephalopods—related to true squid, octopus, and cuttlefish, which are renowned for their intelligence and complex behaviors, but of which scientists still know little. Now, in a new study, published in Communications Biology, researchers have used genetic techniques to show […]

The concentration of potentially toxic metals is increasing in the population of the franciscana dolphin—a small cetacean, endemic to the Rio de la Plata and an endangered species— according to a study led by a team of the Faculty of Biology and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio), published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.