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
A spider seemingly defeated by a parasitic fungus. Photo by Roberto Garcia-Roa
A microscope image of an extracted diplodocid dinosaur blood vessel surrounded by a preserved extracellular matrix containing remnants of cells that are approximately 150 million years old. Photo by Dr Jasmina Wiemann
Paleoecology category winner – A peak inside a hadrosaur egg
A digital image depicts an example of a ‘primitive’ hadrosaur developing within the safety of its 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
Professor Jodie Rummer, from James Cook University in Australia, releases a newborn black-tip reef shark (Carcharhinus melanopterus) in Mo’orea, French Polynesia, after tagging it and collecting biometric data. Photo by Victor Huertas
Plants and fungi category winner – Zombie ant fungus
A fungus parasitises the fruiting body of a zombie-ant fungus. Zombie-ant fungi possess the remarkable ability to manipulate the behaviour of their insect hosts, compelling them to migrate to a more favourable location for their growth. Photo by João Araujo
Protecting our planet category winner – Sustainable beekeeping for chimpanzees
Beekeepers in action at the Chimpanzee Conservation Center in Guinea. The honey produced by these bees is sold to locals, and the proceeds help to pay for the conservation of chimpanzees. Photo by Roberto Garcia-Roa
Research in action category runner-up – Stranded humpback whale
Researchers conduct a necropsy on a stranded humpback whale that beached itself at the Loch Fleet Nature Reserve, Scotland, UK, in May 2023. Photo by James Bunyan/Tracks Ecology
Research in action category winner – Exploring the deep
A team from the Hoey Reef Ecology Lab deploy an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) at Diamond Reef within the Coral Sea Marine Park, off the coast of Queensland, Australia. This advanced ROV, equipped with multiple photo and video cameras, serves as a vital tool enabling surveys at depths beyond the reach of divers. Photo by Victor Huertas
Overall winner – Invasive pore fungus
The fruiting bodies of an orange pore fungus (Favolaschia calocera) grow on deadwood in the Australian rainforest. Photo by Cornelia Sattler/Macquarie University
James Cutmore is the picture editor of BBC Science Focus Magazine. He has worked on the magazine and website for over a decade, telling compelling science stories through the use of striking imagery. He holds a degree in Fine Art, and has been nominated for the British Society of Magazine Editors Talent Awards, being highly commended in 2020. His main areas of interest include photography that highlights positive technology and the natural world. For many years he was a judge for the Wellcome Trust's image competition, as well as judging for the Royal Photographic Society.
