Ecology & Zoology

The first video of tool use by a fish has been published in the journal Coral Reefs by Giacomo Bernardi, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz. In the video, an orange-dotted tuskfish digs a clam out of the sand, carries it over to a rock, and repeatedly throws the clam against the rock to crush it. Tool use was once considered an exclusively human trait, but Jane Goodall's reports of tool use in chimpanzees in the 1960s changed that. Since then, many other animals have been observed using tools, including various primates, several…

I'm so used to calling computers, phones, and all sorts of other devices "electronics" that I tend to forget that word means something very specific. It means those toys are manipulating the flow of electrons--everyone's favorite itty-bitty negatively charged particles. That's particularly notable in contrast to biological systems, like you and me. Of course, our bodies are constantly manipulating all kinds of things, from lipids and proteins to vitamins and minerals, but when you get down to the really small stuff, we tend to rely on protons and ions. Protons, of course, are everyone's…

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and performed by researchers at the university of Oxford, has shown that larger groups of birds are better at solving problems. The researchers suggest this effect may be explained through the higher chance that a ‘bright’ or ‘experienced’ bird is included in a larger group rather than in a smaller one. This effect, also known as the ‘pool of competence’ is suggested to occur in human beings, but this study is the first one that hints it might also play a role in other animals. By examining the problem-solving…

People concerned about climate change recently can look no farther than the world's rainforests to see the diversity that arises from different ecological conditions.  History and geology, not current ecology, are likely what has made tropical forests so variable from site to site, according to a new study published in Science. Measurements of variation in biodiversity from place to place, called beta diversity, are actually very similar as you move from the tropics to the poles when you account for the number of species present in the first place.  And forests in Canada and…

To be specific, the Humboldt squid are back in California. Their opening act was a mass stranding on Black's Beach in San Diego last Saturday. A lifeguard had the most poetic commentary on the matter: "Of course, as you might imagine, there were some odors associated with that," he said. "The only thing left on the beach right now is the scent of dead squid and seagull footprints." As usual, everyone seems to be afflicted with amnesia regarding the regularity of such strandings over the past decade. “I was just walking out of the water and it just freaked me out,” said Adam Ehdaid who was…

Octopoteuthis is a curious animal. As the name suggests, it's a squid that looks like an octopus. Babies have eight arms and two tentacles, but they lose the tentacles as they grow up--becoming the only adult squid with eight appendages. They have other intriguing features as well. We tend to think of squid as relatively sociable animals traveling in schools or shoals, but Octopoteuthis lives a solitary life in the deep sea, rarely coming across another member of the same species. Which brings us to this very cool study. Henk-Jan Hoving (with whom I have had the pleasure to drink lemonade and…

A new plant species is appropriately named Spigelia genuflexa because after fruits are formed, the fruiting branches 'bend down' and deposit  the capsules with seeds on the ground and sometimes burying them in the soft cover of moss, a phenomenon called geocarpy. Geocarpy ensures that the seeds end up as close to the mother plant as possible, facilitating its propagation the following season. A famous example of geocarpy, a rare adaptation to growing in harsh or ephemeral environments, is the well-known peanut, which is from from the legume family and buries its fruits in the ground.…

A new species of large predatory fish named Laccognathus embryi that prowled ancient North American waterways during the Devonian Period, before backboned animals existed on land, has been announced. The Devonian Period (415 to 360 million years ago) is often described as the Age of Fishes because of the rich variety of aquatic forms that populated the ancient seas, lagoons and streams. Laccognathus embryi is a lobe-finned fish whose closest living relative is the lungfish. The creature probably grew to about 5 or 6 feet long and had a wide head with small eyes and robust jaws lined…

An interesting fellow is doing an interesting thing. Scott Cassell aims to "raise awareness around the detrimental state of the ocean along the Southern California coastline" with a specific focus on the decline of sharks. Says Cassell, If we lose an apex predator from the food chain it causes other species to then have population explosions. For example, Sharks and Tuna are the natural predators of the Humboldt squid. If you kill off all the sharks, the squid population (each female can potentially have 20 million "babies") will begin to overpower the part of the food chain below…

I know I keep talking about the incredible unpredictability of squids, but it's an endlessly fascinating topic! Every time you think you've got them figured out, they surprise you--and I'd say that goes for pretty much all squid species. Of course, I'm particularly familiar with the Humboldt squid's propensity for perplexity. For a while, they were so abundant off California that sport fishermen were reeling them in as fast as they could throw jigs in the water. Now, the squid have disappeared. This summer I got mail from a researcher in Brisbane, Australia, who wanted to come to California…