Ecology & Zoology

Ants Show Us How To Make Super-highways

Certain army ants in the rainforests of Central and South America conduct spectacular predatory raids containing up to 200,000 foraging ants. Remarkably, some ants use their bodies to plug potholes in the trail leading back to the nest, making a flatter su ...

Article - News Staff - May 27 2007 - 6:32pm

Snake Explodes After Swallowing Alligator

Thanks to Janine for pointing out this story of a python which burst open after gobbling up a Florida gator. The strange scene was found by park rangers in the Everglades National Park. The Burmese python is likely an escaped pet or perhaps a descendant o ...

Article - Sarda Sahney - May 29 2007 - 12:14pm

Sharks Use Their Noses And Bodies To Locate Smells

Sharks are known to have a keen sense of smell, which in many species is critical for finding food. However, according to new research from Boston University marine biologists, sharks can not use just their noses to locate prey; they also need their skin – ...

Article - News Staff - May 29 2007 - 2:59pm

Moths Mimic Sounds To Survive

In a night sky filled with hungry bats, good-tasting moths increase their chances of survival by mimicking the sounds of their bad-tasting cousins, according to a new Wake Forest University study. The study is the first to definitively show how an animal s ...

Article - News Staff - May 30 2007 - 10:38pm

Scientists Discover 5 New Species Of Sea Slugs From The Tropical Eastern Pacific

The Tropical Eastern Pacific, a discrete biogeographic region that has an extremely high rate of endemism among its marine organisms, continues to yield a wealth of never-before-described marine animals to visiting scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Re ...

Article - News Staff - May 31 2007 - 12:20pm

GM Field Trials 'underestimate Potential For Cross-pollination', Says Study

Field trials could be underestimating the potential for cross-pollination between GM and conventional crops, according to new research by the University of Exeter. The research team recommends a new method for predicting the potential for cross-pollination ...

Article - News Staff - May 31 2007 - 7:12pm

Pesticides May Be Hurting Rather Than Helping Crop Yields

According to years of research both in the test tube and, now, with real plants, a team of scientists reports that artificial chemicals in pesticides – through application or exposure to crops through runoff – disrupt natural nitrogen-fixing communications ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 6 2007 - 12:11am

Caribbean Frogs Started With A Single, Ancient Voyage On A Raft From South America

Nearly all of the 162 land-breeding frog species on Caribbean islands, including the coqui frogs of Puerto Rico, originated from a single frog species that rafted on a sea voyage from South America about 30-to-50-million years ago, according to DNA-sequenc ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 6 2007 - 3:24pm

In Columbine Flowers, Nectar Spurs Evolved To Match The Tongues Of Pollinators, Study Says

In flowers called columbines, evolution of the length of nectar spurs--the long tubes leading to plants' nectar--happens in a way that allows flowers to match the tongue lengths of the pollinators that drink their nectar, biologists have found. Darwin ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 7 2007 - 9:36pm

Ancient Long-necked Gliding Reptile Discovered

A remarkable new long-necked, gliding reptile discovered in 220 million-year old sediments of eastern north America has been discovered, scientists report. Mecistotrachelos apeoros (meaning "soaring, long-necked") is based on two fossils excavate ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 23 2007 - 10:20pm