Ecology & Zoology
from Terry Priest Firefly Photography
Fireflies have been flashing into a broader public awareness lately, well beyond those simple childhood summer evening memories of running through the yard capturing these little creatures into temporary glass prisons.
In particular, the Firefly Watch program from Boston's Museum of Science (read Dynamic Patterns Research's review from 2008) has been bringing more people together across the country to measure current back-yard populations of fire flies. Their numbers seem to be declining significantly in recent years, and the researchers guiding this…
On my way home last night, motoring the red Jeep down Ohio Rt 53, out in the middle of nowhere, only a bunch of farm fields, oncoming traffic and darkness, I saw a bright flash of light in my left eye. I realized, with a familiar guilty pleasure that a death, and an opportunity to observe bizarre evidence of an incredible natural phenomenon had occurred.
A Firefly had crashed into the proverbial windshield on the freeway. My proverbial windshield.
I find it hard to believe I have only seen this happen a few times, but now I look forward to it! If you have ever noticed what happens when a…
Benguela-goby, or bearded goby, is a fish species that has adapted to a hostile environment poisonous to most other organisms.
This little goby-fish (Sufflogobius bibarbatus) reaches a maximum length of 13 cm and is only found in the Benguela ecosystem, the anoxic continental shelf outside Namibia and South-Africa, and one of the world’s most productive fisheries areas. Since the collapse of the sardine fisheries, this goby has become the new predominant prey species for larger fish, birds and mammals in the region.
Scientists from Norway, South Africa and Namibia have…
The Falkland Islands' own Sasha Arkhipkin (whom I missed meeting on his last trip to California--sorrow!) has discovered that males of a particular deep-sea squid species have penises as long as their bodies. And they can stretch even longer.
It's a wild story, but for those unaccustomed to staring at squid innards, the photos may not be particularly striking. Therefore, I provide this helpful contrast: the reproductive organs of a male Humboldt squid. (Note that the penis is hiding slyly underneath one of the gills--but still, it's nowhere near Onykia-sized.)
Male Humboldts do have a…
What's the best way to swim?
If "best" is the same as "tried and recommended by the majority of fish," then the answer is easy. Think of your basic sardine beating its tail back and forth propel itself forward, and you've got it. This undulatory swimming is used by aquatic animals from the size of a pencil eraser to the size of a house, and it is by far the dominant method of locomotion in the ocean (at macroscopic scales, at least).
But there is one whopping exception to the rule: squid, of course. Although they do have fins, and various species undulate these fins to various degrees, they…
Hank |
Extinction is nothing new; more than 99% of all species that have ever lived we will never know about. Extinction is entirely natural and, if you've ever watched someone's car weaving on the highway while they talk on the phone and drink a coffee, you have probably hoped it will remain a fundamental process of evolution.
But survival of the fitter(1) can be a fickle mistress. Why, after 800,000 years of successful survival did the Hundsheim rhino (Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis) suddenly and irrecoverably disappear?
These hearty guys survived the Ice Age. They were spread…
Scientists from Tübingen say they have revealed an evolutionary dilemma - plants that are more resistant to disease grow more slowly and are less competitive than susceptible relatives when enemies are rare.
Individuals of one and the same plant species often differ greatly in their ability to resist pathogens. While one rose succumbs to bacterial infection, its neighbor thrives. Scientists from the Max Planck Institute of Developmental Biology in Germany say they have tracked down an explanation for this common phenomenon. Their conclusion: disease resistance can incur high costs. Especially…
PopSci |
The development of genetically modified organisms has been a potentially explosive topic for those who see themselves as scientists, environmentalists, or just plain eaters-of-food.
Although some evidence suggests that GMOs can be enormously beneficial, particularly in developing countries (1), others have suggested that most of the gains are attributable to other factors than the engineered traits (2). Ever since I first learned about genetic engineering and the court battles between farmers and biotech giants, I have generally thought of the controversy of GMOs as more socially…
Male antelopes, observed in southwest Kenya, send a false signal that a predator is nearby only when females in heat are in their territories. When the females react to the signal, they remain in the territory long enough for some males to fit in a quick mating opportunity.
The signal in this case, an alarm snort, is not a warning to other antelopes to beware, but instead tells a predator that it has been seen and lost its element of surprise, the researchers found.
When the scientists observed the animals misusing the snort in the presence of sexually receptive females, they knew they were…
The International Institute for Species Exploration has announced their top 10 new species described in 2009.
Making the cut are a minnow with fangs, golden orb spider and carnivorous sponge. The 2009 top 10 new species also include a deep-sea worm that, when threatened, releases green luminescent "bombs," a sea slug that eats insects, a flat-faced frogfish with an unusual psychedelic pattern, and a two-inch mushroom that was the subject of a "Bluff the Listener" segment on the National Public Radio quiz show "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me."
Rounding out the top 10 list are a banded…