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Earthworm
Earthworm is the common name for the larger members of the Oligochaeta (which is either a class or subclass depending on the author) in the phylum Annelida. Earthworms travel underground by the means of waves of muscular contractions which alternately shorten and lengthen the body. The shortened part is anchored to the surrounding soil by tiny claw-like bristles (setae) set along its segmented length.
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Plants & Animals News
September 26, 2025
Sep. 25, 2025 — Shark experts tested four innovative wetsuit materials to measure how well they reduce shark-bite injuries. The results show they can lessen major trauma, blood loss, and even save lives when compared to standard neoprene. While not a perfect ...
Sep. 25, 2025 — New studies show that a bacterial molecule, peptidoglycan, is present in the brain and fluctuates with sleep patterns. This challenges the idea that sleep is solely brain-driven, instead suggesting it’s a collaborative process between our bodies ...
Sep. 24, 2025 — Rice, a staple for billions, is one of the most resource-hungry crops on the planet—but scientists may have found a way to change that. By applying nanoscale selenium directly to rice plants, researchers dramatically improved nitrogen efficiency, ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — Researchers have shown that stress and retrovirus levels are tightly linked to disease in koalas. High KoRV loads make koalas more vulnerable to chlamydia, worsening epidemics in stressed populations. Protecting habitats, careful breeding, and ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — A long-term study in Colorado reveals that insect populations are plummeting even in remote, undisturbed areas. Over two decades, flying insect abundance dropped by more than 70%, closely linked to rising summer temperatures. The results suggest ...
Sep. 20, 2025 — In Texas, biologists have documented an extraordinary bird — the natural hybrid offspring of a green jay and a blue jay. Once separated by millions of years of evolution and distinct ranges, the two species were brought together as climate change ...
Sep. 20, 2025 — Insects are essential for ecosystems, but mounting evidence suggests many populations are collapsing under modern pressures. A new study used cutting-edge genomic techniques on museum specimens to track centuries of ant biodiversity across Fiji. The ...
Sep. 19, 2025 — Egg-eating worms living on Chesapeake Bay blue crabs may hold the key to smarter fishery management. Once thought to be a threat, these parasites actually serve as natural biomarkers that reveal when ...
Sep. 17, 2025 — Scientists at the University of Geneva have created the first detailed catalogue of gut bacteria at the subspecies level, unlocking powerful new ways to detect colorectal cancer. By applying machine learning to stool samples, they achieved a 90% ...
Sep. 17, 2025 — Heating alone won’t drive soil microbes to release more carbon dioxide — they need added carbon and nutrients to thrive. This finding challenges assumptions about how climate warming influences soil ...
Sep. 16, 2025 — Scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have cracked open the secrets of plant stem cells, mapping key genetic regulators in maize and Arabidopsis. By using single-cell RNA sequencing, they created a gene expression atlas that identifies rare ...
Sep. 15, 2025 — Volcanic eruptions on the remote island of Nishinoshima repeatedly wipe the land clean, giving scientists a rare chance to study life’s earliest stages. Researchers traced the genetic origins of an ...
Latest Headlines
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Sep. 26, 2025 — Scientists have identified three new species of deep-sea snailfish, including the strikingly pink “bumpy snailfish,” thanks to MBARI’s advanced technology and global collaborations. Found ...
Sep. 25, 2025 — Vincetoxicum nakaianum tricks flies into pollinating it by imitating the smell of ants attacked by spiders. Ko Mochizuki stumbled upon this finding when he noticed flies clustering around the flowers ...
Sep. 24, 2025 — Researchers found that magic mushrooms and fiber caps independently evolved different biochemical pathways to create psilocybin. This convergence shows nature’s ingenuity, but the reason why ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — Gifted dogs can categorize toys by function, not just appearance. In playful at-home tests, they linked labels like “fetch” and “pull” to toys—even ones they’d never seen before. The ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — By recording grouper grunts for 12 years, scientists discovered major shifts in how red hind spawn and compete. Courtship calls once dominated, but territorial sounds have surged, suggesting changes ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — A 95-million-year-old crocodyliform fossil, affectionately nicknamed Elton, was discovered in Montana by student Harrison Allen. Unlike most crocs, it lived on land and ate a varied diet. The find ...
Sep. 23, 2025 — For more than a century, a dazzling pink-and-yellow moth was mistaken for a common European species, but DNA analysis revealed it as entirely new: Carcina ingridmariae. Found across the eastern ...
Sep. 22, 2025 — More than a century after its discovery, a mysterious fossil from South Wales has finally been confirmed as belonging to a new species of predatory dinosaur. Using cutting-edge digital scanning, ...
Sep. 21, 2025 — In Jezero Crater’s Bright Angel formation, Perseverance has found rocks rich in organic molecules and minerals linked to microbial metabolism. Their arrangement hints at redox reactions that ...
Sep. 21, 2025 — Metabolism does more than fuel embryos—it sets their developmental rhythm. EMBL researchers found that a sugar molecule, FBP, controls the pace of spine formation, suggesting metabolism may act as ...