The Arctic landscape during the Cretaceous Period may have been dominated by the dinosaurs, but the rivers and streams held something more familiar. Alaska’s fresh waters 73 million years ago were teeming with the ancient relatives of today’s salmon, pike and other northern fish. A new paper published this week in the journal Papers in Palaeontology has named three new species of fish from that time period, including a salmonid, dubbed Sivulliusalmo alaskensis.

A study of starlings in Africa shows that they form long-term social bonds similar to human friendships.

Brain researchers have identified a bridge between the thalamus and the cortex as the key area that is modified during motor learning functions. They found that such learning does much more than adjust activity levels, it sculpts the circuit’s wiring, refining the conversation between brain regions.

MIT physicists captured the first images of individual atoms freely interacting in space. The pictures reveal correlations among the “free-range” particles that until now were predicted but never directly observed.

Termites — infamous for their ability to destroy wood — are rarely welcomed into rainforests that have been painstakingly replanted. But a new paper suggests that termite transplants may be necessary to help regenerating forests to thrive. 

Published May 6 in the Journal of Applied Ecology and led by scientists from Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies, the study found that termites are not thriving in replanted rainforests in Australia. Because decomposers like termites are essential for recycling nutrients and carbon, the researchers worry that the insect’s slow recovery could hinder the growth and health of the young forests.