A new study led by the University of Oxford has used a modelling approach to show that it is unlikely that plants would evolve to warn other plants of impending attack. Instead of using their communication networks to transmit warning signals, the findings suggest it is more likely that plants ‘eavesdrop’ on their neighbours. The study has been published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).

Around 45 million years ago, a 4.6 feet-tall (1.40 metres) flightless bird called Diatryma roamed the Geiseltal region in southern Saxony-Anhalt. An international team of researchers led by the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and the Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum in Frankfurt report on the bird's fully preserved skull in the scientific journal "Palaeontologia Electronica". The fossil was unearthed in the 1950s in a former lignite mining area in the Geiseltal in Germany. It was initially misclassified and thus led a shadowy existence until its rediscovery. The only other place that a similar skull fossil has been found is the USA.

Juvenile dolphins were found to have specialized receptors for fatty acids on their tongues, offering new insights into their growth and feeding habits.