Ecology & Zoology

The last flight of the space shuttle Endeavour will be both manned and squidded. The most famous science experiment on board, of course, will be the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, which will set up…

It's not exactly news--the Navy's decision to fund a huge, interdisciplinary research project on squid skin is so last year--but the topic cropped up again and started me wondering: why do squid use…

So this is puzzling. The headline is Jumbo flying squid feels impact of tsunami, but after reading the article about a dozen times, I still can't tell what the "impact" is. The situation of the jumbo…

Discovery Communications' Science Channel recently launched a new iPhone application to engage citizen scientists as mobile field observers right from their own back yard. With the "sci.spy" app,…

Hot new squid research has the world of cephalopod reporting all abuzz! The press release came out last Monday, so I'm a bit late to the game, but hey, that means I get to meta-report on the way…

Earlier this year, paleontologists gave us a glimpse into the diets of ammonites, those ancient cousins to squid. I had always thought of ammonites as aggressive predators, so I was charmed to learn…

Ants and termites have a significant positive impact on crop yields in dryland agriculture, according to a paper published in Nature Communications.   The authors say it is the first study to…

Okay, I know I won't shut up about the Argentine shortfin squid, but the situation is just so weird and complicated, and there's always new news for me to puzzle over. We make a lot of people a lot…

This week's "Smithsonian Snapshot" is a giant squid eye from their collection, not currently on display at the museum, i.e. ONLY AVAILABLE ONLINE: But they TOTALLY should have put it in a smaller…

Fisherfolk can be tremendous founts of information about marine animals. They know where to find different species, what sort of baits they like best, what sizes to expect, and how all these things…