Flesh rendering of the 85 million-year-old meat-eater, Aerosteon ("air bones"), discovered in Mendoza Province, Argentina. More than any other dinosaur, Aerosteon helps to prove that dinosaurs breathed like birds with air sacs and stiff bird-like lungs. Credit: Drawing:Todd Marshall c 2008, courtesy of Project Exploration The remains of a new 10-meter-long predatory dinosaur discovered along the banks of Argentina's Rio Colorado is helping to unravel how birds evolved their unusual breathing system.

An adult froghopper. Froghoppers, also known as spittlebugs, are the champion insect jumpers, capable of reaching heights of 700 mm - more than 100 times their own body length. Research published today in the open access journal BMC Biology reveals that they achieve their prowess by flexing bow-like structures between their hind legs and wings and releasing the energy in one giant leap in a catapult-like action.

The roadmap to the future of the gorgeously-decorated fish which throng Australia's coral reefs and help earn the nation $5 billion a year from tourism may well be written in their genes.