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Human-gull conflict is rife in coastal towns. Researchers tested whether urban gulls are more fearful of men shouting th...
11/12/2025

Human-gull conflict is rife in coastal towns. Researchers tested whether urban gulls are more fearful of men shouting than talking when approaching human food. Using a playback experiment, they found that gulls perceived both shouting and speaking as threatening. However, they walked away from men speaking, while they flew away from men shouting. When deterring gulls from food, shouting is thus more effective in making gulls flee – a non-violent way of mitigating human-gull conflict.

Read The Conversation article:
https://theconversation.com/yes-shouting-at-seagulls-actually-works-scientists-confirm-269317

Read the research article in Biology Letters:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0394

Preserved reptile scales retain microscopic features, revealing a new instance of convergent evolution. Small-scale feat...
10/12/2025

Preserved reptile scales retain microscopic features, revealing a new instance of convergent evolution. Small-scale features on the surfaces of animals can have profound implications on how they behave and mediate interactions that they have with the environment. Snakes are an interesting study species as their belly scales directly contact the ground as they locomote. To broaden their sample availability, researchers used atomic force microscopy to conclude that samples preserved in museum collections have retained microstructures on their skin and these remain comparable to those found on shed skin from the same species. They used this result to confirm a third evolutionary origin of a microstructure pattern unique to sidewinders in Peringuey’s adder.

Read the article in Interface:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2025.0513

Animals exhibit diverse movement strategies, ranging from migration to residency. Ecological theory suggests that these ...
10/12/2025

Animals exhibit diverse movement strategies, ranging from migration to residency. Ecological theory suggests that these strategies are determined by the predictability of resources in the environments in which animals live. Here, researchers empirically tested this theory using 21 years of GPS data from seven populations of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) and twelve populations of elk (Cervus canadensis) across Wyoming, USA. They found that the resource environment did predict the movement strategies of both pronghorn and elk, with residents experiencing less spatial and greater year-to-year variation than migratory individuals. Winter severity was also important, especially in elk, where individuals were less likely to be resident when they experienced worse winters. These findings provide a starting point for more behaviorally informed conservation strategies of free- and wide-ranging ungulate populations.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.1973

Image credit: Alex Becker

How do blind animals coordinate movement without sight? In termite tandem running, a male closely follows a female while...
09/12/2025

How do blind animals coordinate movement without sight? In termite tandem running, a male closely follows a female while exploring the environment together. Using posture tracking, researchers found that they dynamically use their antennae and palps to maintain physical contact against fluctuation. When contact is lost, males swing their antennae more and speed up to reconnect. Even with one antenna removed, they increase swinging with the remaining one to stay in touch. These results reveal a sophisticated strategy for contact-based coordination, offering insights into how collective movement can evolve in animals that rely on touch rather than vision.

Read the article in Interface:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsif.2025.0487

Some birds and mammals make more similar calls after they form social relationships. However, demonstrating this 'vocal ...
08/12/2025

Some birds and mammals make more similar calls after they form social relationships. However, demonstrating this 'vocal convergence' requires experimentally forming new relationships. Here, researchers analyzed over half a million contact calls from 95 vampire bats with relationships that varied in kinship, manipulated familiarity, and interaction history. They found that their contact calls converged in structure when they were experimentally housed together in captivity. When unrelated adult females formed cooperative food-sharing relationships, their calls converged even more than could be explained by mere familiarity. The findings suggest that vocal convergence in vampire bats might play an important role in the development of new cooperative relationships.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.1619

Image credit: Juan Cruzado Cortés

Superb fairy-wrens use alarm calls to communicate about a variety of threats. Researchers describe a new alarm call, the...
08/12/2025

Superb fairy-wrens use alarm calls to communicate about a variety of threats. Researchers describe a new alarm call, the danger call, which is produced by superb fairy-wrens when a threat is near an active nest or a vulnerable individual. The call is acoustically distinct from the aerial and terrestrial alarm call, and fairy-wrens responded differently when aerial versus danger calls were broadcast in their territory, suggesting that they can distinguish between these call types. The danger call offers a novel perspective for understanding how birds assess threats and the vulnerability of individuals under threat during reproduction.

Read the article in Royal Society Open Science:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.251100

Image credit: Caroline Jones

We’re in Philadelphia this week for Cell Bio 2025! If you’re attending, come find us at Booth #1131 where you can chat ...
08/12/2025

We’re in Philadelphia this week for Cell Bio 2025! If you’re attending, come find us at Booth #1131 where you can chat with our team about our journals, learn more about how we support researchers across cell and molecular biology, and find out more about the Open Biology Open Questions competition - now open for submissions. We’re also running a special giveaway for a framed Robert Hooke print, so don’t forget to stop by and enter!
Visit us, say hello, and join us in celebrating the exciting science being shared at the meeting. https://royalsociety.org/blog/2025/12/royal-society-publishing-cell-bio-2025/

Thylacocephalans are among the most puzzling fossil marine arthropods. They are characterised by particular body traits ...
07/12/2025

Thylacocephalans are among the most puzzling fossil marine arthropods. They are characterised by particular body traits such as a shield enveloping most of the body, hypertrophied compound eyes or three pairs of raptorial appendages. However, several aspects of their anatomy remain unknown, preventing from placing them with certainty within pancrustaceans. To re-explore their anatomy in 3D, synchrotron X-ray tomography was applied to exceptionally preserved thylacocephalans from the Middle Jurassic (~165 Ma) of France. Unique details such as their mouthparts or internal organs were discovered, which allowed researchers to confirm their placement within pancrustaceans, close to malacostracans (e.g. shrimps, lobsters, crabs).

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.1612

Eurypterids, or sea scorpions, are iconic fossil invertebrates and include the largest arthropods to ever live, exceedin...
06/12/2025

Eurypterids, or sea scorpions, are iconic fossil invertebrates and include the largest arthropods to ever live, exceeding 2.5 m in length. Eurypterids were ecologically diverse in marine and freshwater environments, some even capable of short land excursions. Thought to have evolved in a region centered on North America and Europe during the mid-Ordovician, new 479-million-year-old eurypterid remains from Morocco pre-date the previously oldest record by 15 million years, implying Cambrian origins for the group off the supercontinent of Gondwana. The close evolutionary relationship between eurypterids and arachnids (e.g. scorpions, spiders, mites) suggests similarly early, Cambrian origins for the latter group.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.2061

A new theme issue expands the field of cultural evolution and shows why it matters for today’s biggest challenges - from...
05/12/2025

A new theme issue expands the field of cultural evolution and shows why it matters for today’s biggest challenges - from inequality and cooperation to conservation and education. Read: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rstb/issue/380/1940

Studies in the issue showcase how traditions adapt to new pressures, how cooperation can be sustained across groups, and how cultural practices shape relations with wildlife, natural resources, and even grief. Others reveal cultural dynamics in gender beliefs, youth values, medieval music, and education for marginalized communities. Together, these findings show that cultural evolution research can inform fairer policies, more effective conservation, and stronger global cooperation—making it a timely tool for navigating rapid social and environmental change.

Does genetic rescue disrupt local adaptation? Genetic rescue -introducing an individual from another related population ...
05/12/2025

Does genetic rescue disrupt local adaptation? Genetic rescue -introducing an individual from another related population into an endangered population to improve its genetic diversity and thus productivity- is an important conservation tool. However, its use is limited by concerns that introducing this ‘rescuer’ might have negative effects, making the endangered population less adapted to local conditions. Researchers tested this theory using in**ed populations of red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum). They found that rescue always resulted in more healthy offspring being produced, even if the rescuer was not locally adapted, although using an adapted rescuer was better. It is hoped that these results will encourage the wider use of genetic rescue in conservation.

Read the article in Proceedings B:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2025.2036

Image credit: Eric Day, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Va

04/12/2025

Why do eagle rays and manta rays have such long, whip-like tails? A new study shows these tails help keep their bodies stable while gliding through the water. Using 3D-printed models in flow tanks, researchers discovered that, like the tails of kites, long tails add drag behind the body to dampen wobbles and maintain balance. Crucially, a minimum tail length of about the body’s own length was needed for stability, matching the shortest tails seen in giant manta rays. Longer tails, such as those of eagle rays, likely serve additional roles, including sensing, defense and communication.

Read the article in Royal Society Open Science:
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.251269

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Royal Society Publishing

We publish 10 journals across the life and physical sciences, plus the history of science, including the longest running journal in the world since 1665.