Ecology & Zoology

Viet Nam Testing Dengue-Blocking Mosquitoes

Dengue fever is the most common vector-borne disease in the world, the World Health Organization estimates that 2.5 billion people at risk and that up to 390 million people are infected with the virus each year. There's no medication and no vaccine, s ...

Blog Post - Hank Campbell - Nov 5 2013 - 11:03am

Ecological Jenga: Which Creatures Of Influence Need To Be Preserved From Extinction?

We can't identify 99 percent of the species that have gone extinct so trying to keep everything we do know about from going extinct is tilting at nature's windmill. But if we played Noah and had a giant ark and wanted to engage in ecological Jen ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2013 - 10:57am

Sexual Dimorphism Trend: Male Fence Lizards Don't Like 'Bearded Ladies'

Which do male lizards find sexiest, the more feminine kind or the masculine? Researchers recently tackled this question by examining the mating behavior and blue-color patterns of fence lizards in Arkansas, Alabama, and Mississippi and offer some insight ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2013 - 6:00am

Euscorpius Lycius: A New Scorpion Species In Southwestern Turkey

Scientists have described a new species of scorpion, Euscorpius lycius, from  the regions of the Muğla and Antalya Provinces in Southwestern Turkey, what was once known as ancient Lycia, fought over by Persians and Greeks for centuries due to it being a g ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 10 2013 - 7:45pm

Panthera Blytheae Fossil Is Oldest Big Cat Species Ever Discovered

Panthera blytheae is the oldest big cat fossil ever found and fills a significant gap in the fossil record, according to results announced today. The Panthera blytheae skull was excavated and described by a team led by Jack Tseng, a postdoctoral fellow at ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 13 2013 - 6:58pm

Dogs Are Nicer Wolves- And Likely Started Originating In Europe 18,000 Years Ago

Wolves likely were likely domesticated by European hunter–gatherers over 18,000 years ago and gradually evolved into dogs, according to a genetic analysis. There is debate over when dogs were domesticated and whether it was linked with the development of ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 14 2013 - 10:42pm

Promiscuous Moms Bear Sexier Sons

When mother mice compete socially for mates in a promiscuous environment, their sons play hard- they also die young. More urinary pheromones attract more females but smelling sexier shortens their lives. ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 18 2013 - 6:30pm

Has Darwin's Frog Croaked Its Last?

The deadly amphibian disease chytridiomycosis has caused the extinction of Darwin's frogs, according to scientists from the Zoological Society of Londonand Universidad Andrés Bello in Chile.  Conservation scientists found evidence of amphibian chytri ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 20 2013 - 8:57pm

Why Is Type E Botulism Killing Great Lakes Waterfowl?

 Type E botulism, a neuromuscular disease caused when birds eat fish infected with toxin-producing bacteria, has become a deadly menace that stalks the loons, gulls and other water birds of the Great Lakes region. Cases of the disease are on the rise, kil ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 1 2013 - 5:30am

Too Hot To Swim? Reef Fish Get Lazy When It's Warm

Will fish stop swimming due to global warming? It's not the craziest mainstream media headline you are likely to read, but researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University say that fish share something in ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 27 2013 - 11:22am