An enormous herd of bison, described by scientists as the largest they have ever seen, has been spotted in the Białowieża forest in eastern Poland.

Parental involvement affects the brain size of chicks even before they start interacting with other birds, researchers have found.

Scientists from the Polish Academy of Sciences have developed a key for identifying the talons of diurnal birds of prey and owls. They presented it in the International Journal of Osteoarchaeol. Their tool can be helpful during the study of bird remains found at archaeological sites.

Not only delicious fruits, but also appetizing leaves sometimes 'advertise' certain species of plants to animals so that they carry their seeds. The old hypothesis that 'foliage is the fruit' was first tested by an international team of researchers who examined elk droppings. It turned out that nettle was one of the plants that evolutionarily adapted to be spread by ruminants.

Polish scientists have found that a species of moss (Syntrichia sarconeurum) has survived in Antarctica for at least two million years, making ‘a significant contribution to understanding the history of Antarctic biodiversity.’

Scientists from Poland, Germany and the US examined the unusual-looking bones of prehistoric marine reptiles from a site near Winterswijk in the Netherlands. According to the researchers, the record of pathologies such as diseases and injuries can provide insight into the functioning of healthy individuals from 250 million years ago.

A scientist from Kraków who discovered two new species of tardigrade has named one of them after popular TV chef Robert Makłowicz.

Malignant tumours, sometimes considered to be diseases related to environmental pollution, also affected prehistoric animals. A team led by a palaeontologist from the University of Silesia described the results of research on vertebral cancer of a Triassic amphibian discovered in Krasiejów near Opole.

Blue tits flexibly respond to the changing climate. Collared flycatchers cannot do this, which may lead to the extinction of their population, shows research by an international team including Polish scientists. Their results have been published in Nature Communications.