Ecology & Zoology

Andale! Arriba! The Mexican Free-Tailed Bat: Speedy Gonzales Of The Bat World

Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana, or the Mexican Free-Tailed Bat to you and I, is a  superlative species.  Not only do they form the largest congregations of mammals in the world, but less well known is that these little guys are also the fastest bats on th ...

Article - Jane de Lartigue - Jul 30 2010 - 4:48pm

Stress Hormone Discovered In 500 Million Year Old Fish

A new corticosteroid hormone in the sea lamprey, an eel-like fish and one of the earliest vertebrates dating back 500 million years, may shed light on the evolution of steroid hormones. Principal investigator and lead author David Close of the University o ...

Article - News Staff - Jul 31 2010 - 11:46pm

Drakozoon- The Blob From 400 Million Years Ago

A blob-like creature that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago was revealed in research published today. The scientists developed a detailed 3D model of the only known fossilized specimen in the world of a creature called Drakozoon. The s ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 4 2010 - 11:19am

Squid Refuse To Be Outdone By Octopuses, Film Themselves

Remember the octopus that stole a diver's camera and filmed itself swimming away? Ha ha ha, very nice--but it's only a few minutes of footage of only one octopus. Can you top that, Humboldt squid? Why yes, I think you can! ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Aug 7 2010 - 10:01am

Extremophiles: Searching For The Coolest Life On Earth

One way to understand how life similar to that on Earth could exist on other planets is to travel to one of the coldest places on Earth and find the planet's coolest creatures. Professor Liane Benning from the University of Leeds and Dr. Dominique Tob ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 7 2010 - 1:38pm

Love, War and Heterocycles

I probably first heard of the McMahon Line in 1962, when there was a brief war between China and India for control of the Himalayan border between them.   My chief memory of this is a Giles cartoon of the time, showing a policeman investigating a dispute b ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Aug 10 2010 - 3:31pm

Jellyfish Reporting By Citizen Scientists In Malta

Growing up in the Midwest of the United States, and taking several trips over my lifetime to an Atlantic or Gulf of Mexico beach, I recall the vague consideration of the floating jellyfish. ...

Article - Matthew T. Dearing - Aug 11 2010 - 8:05am

Zombie Invasion In Its 48 Millionth Year

'Zombies', most famous from Haitian folklore, have actually been witnessed in nature and a new fossil study has them extending back 48 million years.   This sort of zombie control happens when a parasite takes control of its host and  many types ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 18 2010 - 10:13am

I Simposio de Biodiversidad Marina y Costera de Latinoamerica y El Caribe

...

Blog Post - Víctor Aramayo - Aug 24 2010 - 3:45pm

Why Don't Fish In The Arctic Ocean Freeze?

If the freezing point of fish blood is-0.9 ° Celsius, how are Antarctic fish able to keep moving at a temperature like- 1.8 ° C? You're not the only one to ask, researchers have wondered for 50 years, and it known that fish in the Arctic have a specia ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 25 2010 - 11:53am