Ray

Even with plenty of fish in the sea, sea dragons stand out from the crowd.

The human middle ear—which houses three tiny, vibrating bones—is key to transporting sound vibrations into the inner ear, where they become nerve impulses that allow us to hear.

What's the relationship between people's perception of beauty and animals' conservation needs? According to a machine-learning study by Nicolas Mouquet at the University of Montpellier, France, and colleagues, publishing June 7th in the open-access journal PLOS Biology, the reef fishes that people find most beautiful tend to be the lowest priority for conservation support.

Mosquitofish and guppies, though known to be cannibalistic in captivity, are extremely unlikely to be cannibals in wild settings, and the rare instances of cannibalism in these fish are likely due to strong competition for food. The findings, from a new Ecology and Evolution study led by U.S. and U.K. researchers, could have implications not only for fish enthusiasts and scientists who use mosquitofish as models for ecological and evolutionary studies, but could also help explain the causes and […]

The Evolutionary Morphology Laboratory led by Shigeru Kuratani at the RIKEN Cluster for Pioneering Research (CPR) in Japan, along with collaborators, has found evidence that the mysterious ancient fish-like vertebrate Palaeospondylus was likely one of the earliest ancestors of four-limbed animals, including humans. Published May 25 in the scientific journal Nature, the study unmasks this strange animal from the deep past and sets its position on the evolutionary tree.