A tiny, uniquely shaped diatom, Climaconeis heteropolaris, has been discovered in the estuaries of Udupi, Karnataka in India's southwestern coast, offering new insights into marine biodiversity.

In a recent study, researchers from Agharkar Research Institute, India, Harbin Normal University, China and the University of Colorado, USA, have described a new genus of diatoms called Kulikovskiyia. Diatoms belonging to this genus are currently found only in the Western Ghats of India and Hainan Province of China. The study, funded by the Science and Engineering Research Board, was published in the journal Phycological Research.

Researchers from NIAS, Bengaluru, Kyoto University, Japan, University of Colorado, and the Northwestern University, USA, have tried to understand what causes of the strange preference of  ‘geophagy’, or ‘eating the earth’ in primates.