Ecology & Zoology

4,000 Year Old Coral Beds Are The World's Oldest Living Things (So Far)

Researchers have discovered coral beds off the coast of Hawaii that are more than 4,200 years old, making them among the oldest living creatures on Earth. The team was directed by Brendan Roark of Texas A&M's College of Geosciences and included c ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:55pm

Math Separates Magicicadas From Regularcicadas

Cicadas are nature’s candy—fat meaty bugs straight out of a Temple of Doom buffet.  Though most cicadas worldwide live typical insect lives, the Magicicada genus in the eastern US has a special power move to counterbalance its deliciousness: periodicity.  ...

Article - Stephanie Pulford - Mar 30 2009 - 3:00am

'Holy Grail' Of Plant Biology- Gene Responsible For Global Warming Growth

Researchers at the universities of Leicester and Oxford have made a discovery about plant growth which could potentially have an enormous impact on crop production as global warming increases. Dr Kerry Franklin, from the University of Leicester Department ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 30 2009 - 9:37am

Rats 0, Mice 1

I  often like to watch Dog Whisperer, and am fascianated by how a very small dog can often dominate a much larger one, simply through being of higher “energy”, as Cesar Millan calls it.  Watchers of that programme can see that this works across species too ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Mar 30 2009 - 1:37pm

Those Pesky Cane Toads...

If you don't know the story of the cane toads, here's the short version: imported to Australia in hopes of controlling the cane beetle, which came to the continent with the sugar cane when *it* was imported (are you sensing an unfortunate pattern ...

Blog Post - Mrs. H. - Mar 30 2009 - 7:14pm

Are My Wings Sexy Or Repulsive? Butterflies Can Be Just As Confusing As People

Butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators using different sides of their wings, according to new research in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.   Trying to find the balance between these two crucia ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 1 2009 - 10:19am

Singing Cicadas: Now I Know How John Bonham’s Neighbors Felt

Welcome to what has become Inadvertent Cicada Week in this column.  Obviously, I'm fascinated by them.  This started around the summer of 2003, when I was completely addicted to a certain farm-simulator game for the Nintendo SP.  During virtual summer ...

Article - Stephanie Pulford - Apr 2 2009 - 9:48am

Inadvertent Cicada Week Part 4- Male Katydids Score Meals With Their Sexy Lady-Talk

Remember when Bugs Bunny dressed as Brunhilda to mess with opera viking Elmer Fudd? If the What's Opera, Doc? ended with Bugs biting off half of Elmer Fudd’s head to keep him hanging around as an immobile food source, then the "Kill The Wabbit&qu ...

Article - Stephanie Pulford - Apr 3 2009 - 4:15pm

New Ophionyssus Schreibericolus Parasite Found In Iberian Black Green Lizards

An international team of scientists has discovered a new acarine species (Ophionyssus schreibericolus) that lives off black green lizards from the Iberian Peninsula. This involves the first recording of the Ophionyssus genus that feeds off and lives on an ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 4 2009 - 9:34am

Noblella Pygmaea- The Dwarf In The Elfin Forests

It fits on a fingertip: Noblella pygmaea is a midget frog, the smallest ever found in the Andes and among the smallest amphibians in the world. Only its croaking was to be heard from the leaves on the mossier ground of the “elfin forests” in the highlands ...

Article - News Staff - Apr 6 2009 - 10:57pm