EurekAlert! News by Subject: Biology

Biology

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 24-Oct-2026 22:16 ET (25-Oct-2026 02:16 GMT/UTC)

29-Jul-2026

NIH grants $2.8M to develop tools for study of mosquito-microbe interactions

Penn State researchers will use $2.8 million in funding from the National Institutes of Health’s Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease to develop new tools to investigate the genetics underpinning the relationships between mosquitoes and various microbes.

29-Jul-2026

Ancient turtle hunting could inform modern conservation throughout Southern Caribbean, SFU study

Simon Fraser University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Despite the promise of rebounding green sea turtle numbers, many sea turtle populations continue to flounder under the pressures of changing climates, overfishing and urbanization.

Working with Caribbean partner organization, National Archaeological Anthropological Memory Management, Simon Fraser University researchers are shedding light on longstanding relationships between humans and sea turtles in the Southern Caribbean in hopes of informing modern-day conservation practices.

A new study, published in The Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports, is the first to complete a species-specific identification analysis of sea turtle bones at centuries-old archaeological sites across Curaçao and Bonaire.

Journal: Journal of Archaeological Science

29-Jul-2026

Scientists discover an antidote to lethal snake bites that comes straight from the source

University of Maryland
Peer-Reviewed Publication

University of Maryland researchers discovered a new approach to treating venomous snake bites—using the same toxin-blocking proteins that snakes evolved to protect themselves.

The team, led by UMD Distinguished University Professor of Biology Sean B. Carroll, found that specific combinations of blood proteins from western diamondback rattlesnakes provided unprecedented neutralizing power against the venom of multiple dangerous snake species. It's a giant step toward a new and more effective approach to antivenom design and production.

Journal: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Funder: Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Viper Resource Center

29-Jul-2026

Elephants develop successful coping mechanisms when returning to the wild from human care

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Ex-captive elephants released into the wild adapt quite well to the return to wild environments, according to a study published July 29, 2026 in the open access journal PLOS One by Tenisha Roos and Tamara Eggeling of the Elephant Reintegration Trust of South Africa and colleagues.

Journal: PLOS One

29-Jul-2026

Support from animals may feel stronger for women and those spending more time with them

PLOS
Peer-Reviewed Publication

In a study of Swiss adults, women and people who spent more time with a pet or another animal they might feel close to reported feeling more attached to the animal and receiving more socio-emotional support from it. However, the study found little evidence for links between pet ownership and participants’ overall wellbeing. Rahel Marti of the University of Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues present these findings in the open access journal PLOS One on July 29, 2026.

Journal: PLOS One

29-Jul-2026

Spectacular discovery provides insight into the internal organs of a marine reptile

Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Scientists from China, Europe, and the USA, including Dr. Stephan Spiekman, a paleontologist at the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart and the University of Hohenheim, have described a remarkable fossil of the long-necked marine reptile Austronaga minuta from China. Although this reptile descended from land-dwelling reptiles, it was already superbly adapted to life in the water around 245 million years ago. This almost completely preserved fossil provides the first detailed view of this prehistoric animal's entire skeleton and large parts of its digestive system. Various internal organs, such as the stomach, liver and intestines, have been clearly identified using modern analytical methods. This is the oldest known example of a largely complete digestive system in a reptile to date. The research results on this extraordinary find have now been published in the journal “Science Advances”.

Journal: Science Advances
Funder: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft