Ecology & Zoology

For serious, you guys, look at this! Just in from The Epoch Times, Science in Pics: Bobtail squid burying itself in sand at Seraya in Bali, Indonesia. (Matthew Oldfield) The little fins seem to be waving furiously as this chap was caught mid-burrow. SO CUT ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Aug 16 2011 - 7:32pm

Protoanguilla Palau: Primitive Eel Is A 'living Fossil'

Scientists at the Smithsonian and partnering organizations have discovered a remarkably primitive eel they have named Protoanguilla palau in a fringing reef off the coast of the Republic of Palau. This fish exhibits many primitive anatomical features unkno ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2011 - 12:04pm

Revealed: Source Of Spider Silk's Extreme Strength

What is five times the tensile strength of steel and the best currently available synthetic fibers? If you read the title you already know. Spider thread is a fascinating and often-studied material but no one has managed to produce it on an industrial ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 17 2011 - 12:18pm

Cheating Death... By Aging Backwards

On one of my recent safari’s through the internet jungle, I came across a remarkable little creature. It’s a small (maximum diameter about 4.5 millimeters) bell-shaped jellyfish, with a number of tentacles ranging from 8 in young specimens to 90 in adult ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Aug 21 2011 - 3:53am

Fossil Whales Slurped Squid

The paper announces, in charmingly thick academese: The titanic baleen whales (Cetacea, Mysticeti) have a bizarre skull morphology, including an elastic mandibular symphysis, which permits dynamic oral cavity expansion during bulk feeding. How this key in ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Aug 20 2011 - 11:43pm

Madame Argonaut

Miriam over at Deep-Sea News recently posted a lovely write-up on the argonaut, or paper nautilus. This reminded me that I, too, once felt the delight of finding a live argonaut in a manta tow cod end. So I went digging through my grad school archives and ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Aug 22 2011 - 4:43pm

How Many Species?

How many organisms live on this little planet of ours? A pretty straight-forward question. The answer, however, is much more enigmatic. Estimates range from a careful 3 million to a huge 100 million. Now, a new approach, published in PLoS Biology, has yie ...

Article - Gunnar De Winter - Aug 24 2011 - 6:56pm

Giant Squid Duet

A couple of dead giant squid have turned up--almost exactly on opposite sides of the globe! Surely this is some kind of portent? Architeuthis #1 was spotted off the coast of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands: "The animal was in good general condition al ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Aug 25 2011 - 1:27am

Limiting Squid Fishing in Chile

So, it's a bit tricky to figure out exactly what this means, but it could be big news for Humboldt squid in Chile--and therefore Humboldt squid everywhere, since the ocean doesn't exactly control immigration. Jumbo squid fishery requested to be a ...

Blog Post - Danna Staaf - Aug 26 2011 - 7:25pm

Asian Longhorned Beetle Puts New England Maple Trees At Risk

Results from the first study of the Asian longhorned beetle (ALB) in forests show that the invasive insect can easily spread from tree-lined city streets to neighboring forests. Successful ALB eradication efforts in Chicago, and ongoing eradication effor ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 29 2011 - 10:27am