Ecology & Zoology

"Tasmanian Tiger" is a common name of the extinct thylacine species (Thylacinus cynocephalus), which is more closely related to kangaroos and koalas than to dogs or tigers.   In 1902, the National Zoo brought the endangered animal. By the mid-1930s, the thylacine was extinct, leaving behind only preserved museum specimens. In a new study, researchers used DNA sequencing to analyze preserved thylacines, including one brought to the National Zoo, making novel discoveries in thylacine genomics and the burgeoning field of "museomics."  Thylacines have played a central role in…

The eyes of deep-ocean dwelling creatures are always fascinating - in the near darkness of thousands of feet underwater, a very dim flash of light can mean an organism has found its meal for the month (or has become a meal for another fish). Detecting these flashes of light is difficult for a biological system, simply because of the extremely low energy of the light source. Some deep-sea creatures have abandoned eyesight altogether, relying instead on other sensory systems to find food. In the case of the spookfish, a creature that inhabits the murky depths 3000 feet below the surface of the…

Herbicide use should increase crop yields, that's the whole point, and herbicides and pesticides do that, given the output in food production that has matched the population increases over the last two centuries.  But there may be a problem in how some herbicides impact reproduction and tests may not be accounting for that, says a study in the Journal of Environmental Quality. Currently, plant testing in the United States to determine potential ecological risks from chemical pesticides to nontarget plants requires two tests, both of which use immature plants. Protection of the…

During the 1990’s there was a lot of discussion (yelling?) over the question of whether or not Dinosaurs were endothermic, that is, warm blooded. In the regular media there is still a pretty solid leaning toward the idea that they were. I’m inclined to say they weren’t. Here are two reasons why:Turbinate Bones Endothermic (warm blooded) animals have a problem: water loss. In an effort to maintain a constant body temperature (in contrast to cold blooded animals who “go with the flow” of the ambient temperature outside), their metabolisms (the sum total of all chemical reactions in an organism…

A team of scientists from the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has reported a rapid recovery of coral reefs in areas of Indonesia, following the tsunami that devastated coastal regions throughout the Indian Ocean four years ago today. The WCS team, working in conjunction with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (ARCCoERS) along with government, community and non-government partners, has documented high densities of "baby corals" in areas that were severely impacted by the tsunami. The team, which has surveyed the region's coral reefs…

First, a neat little toy:  build your own squid! I won't give anything else away... Second, in the spirit of ending the old year and beginning the new, I like this synopsis of the best science stories of 2008, from Science.  Some nice videos too.

The 12th edition of Berry Go Round, the botanical blog carnival, is now online at Foothills Fancies.  Lots of good reading to be had.

There's a discussion going on over at Wikipedia regarding the naming convention for articles about plants.  In general, article titles are supposed to be the "most common" name for the thing in English.  But when you're trying to compile "the sum total of human knowledge", that simple rule can be problematic.  Do you really want to use "the most common" name, or do you want to use the most accurate name?  After all, Wikipedia seeks to be an encyclopaedia. Things get far worse when you try to write articles about plant species.  There are about a quarter million…

As I discussed in my last post, the principle of limiting similarity suggests that species that can coexist must be somewhat different in their requirements for survival.  This

In a closed system (and the biosphere as a whole is a closed system) the only way to generate additional species is through evolution.  While the evolution of new species is a necessary condition for the generation of diversity, it isn't good enough on its own.  If a species splits into two daughter lineages that are unable to interbreed, you should have two species.  But in order for them to coexist in a given area, some sort of ecological difference needs to have evolved.  If two species occupy the same area, they are in a position to compete for resources.  The…