The winners for this year’s BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition have just been announced, highlighting the incredible interactions between people and wildlife across the planet.
The competition was created to give ecologists and evolutionary biologists the opportunity to celebrate their research and is now in its third year.
The overall winner of this year’s competition is an image of an orange pore fungus, an invasive species that has displaced other fungi throughout the Australian rainforest. The bright orange fruiting bodies typically grow on dead wood and can spread through spores.
The impact of this spread is yet to become clear, but scientists are concerned about the possible dangers to the ecology of Australia.
Other winners include reef sharks, ants paralysed by fungus, and embryonic dinosaurs.
Plants and fungi category runner-up – Defeated by a parasitic fungus
Paleoecology category runner-up – Paradoxical preservation
Paleoecology category winner – A peak inside a hadrosaur egg
small egg. This image is based on a pair of hadrosauroid dinosaur eggs and embryos dating from the
Upper Cretaceous period. Photo by Wenyu Ren
Protecting our planet category runner-up – Releasing reef sharks
Plants and fungi category winner – Zombie ant fungus
Protecting our planet category winner – Sustainable beekeeping for chimpanzees
Research in action category runner-up – Stranded humpback whale
Research in action category winner – Exploring the deep
Overall winner – Invasive pore fungus
Read more:
- A deadly fungus attacking a fly wins Ecology and Evolution Photography award
- Little wonders from the Nikon Small World Photography competition
- Tiny killer sea sparkles image wins the Woman Science Photographer of the Year