Ecology & Zoology

I'm at a conference. It's keeping me busy. Today my friend and fellow conspirator^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H grad student Julie gave an awesome talk about Humboldt squid in the California Current. Also, there…

The Monterey Herald hit close to home today with Turning the tables on giant, predatory squid: These fascinatingly grotesque creatures can reach 7 feet in length and weigh in excess of 100 pounds,…

It doesn't get much better than strung-out spiders and a white dude using ghetto slang. And Canada. Two caveats: one, you may want to watch this out of hearing from impressionable young children. It…

One of my favorite zoologist habits is to gesture on one's own body when describing an animal's anatomy. The weirder the animal, the funnier the implicit analogy. "These worms have a ventral nerve…

My friend and colleague Stephalopod published this cool paper a couple of years ago about how deep-sea squids use their ink. The fun fact from this paper that I trot out most often in social…

I live in an academic bubble into which very little pop culture penetrates. I guess a few years ago there was a movie called The Squid and the Whale? I have just learned of its existence.…

A couple of years ago, Dr. Kubodera, who has a remarkable talent for filming large, unusual squid underwater, got some footage of Taningia danae. This octopoteuthid squid is notable for a) being…

Biologists say they have found a population of tropical butterflies that may be on its way to a split into two distinct species. The cause of this particular break-up? A shift in wing color and mate…

Female water striders don't like the bad boys and they don't even have to reach the age of 30 before they wise up about choices in males. Water striders are those insects commonly seen skittering…

But you wouldn't know that from reading this article in the Winnipeg Free Press. It's like the definition of irresponsible journalism: repeating rumor as fact, failing to interview experts, and just…