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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Tuesday, 04 December 2007 |
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 A ragworm with its pharynx (or jaws) extended as viewed under the microscope.
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Tuesday, 20 November 2007 |
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Pet owners have known all along that animals are not alike, but have distinct personalities in a way similar to what we see in humans. However, it is first recently that researchers have become interested in the topic. In the past decade, biologists have found personality traits in more and more different animal species. One of the most tested personality traits is the shyness-boldness continuum, where bold individuals take risks and quickly explore new conditions, whereas shy individuals are risk averse. Scientists from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland have investigated the shyness-boldness continuum in fish in order to learn more about how personality is affected by experiences, physiological condition and heredity.
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Tuesday, 23 October 2007 |
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The world is full of large and especially small plant-eating animals, so most plants have developed some kind of defence. It can be something as simple as growing fast and the ability to re-grow eaten parts or it can involve low nitrogen concentration, low moisture content or complicated toxins or deterrents. Some plants also possess structural and morphological defences such as spines, hairs and toughened leaves. However, researchers have so far shown too little attention to structural defence mechanisms compared to chemical defences. Scientists from Australia have now begun to rectify this by synthesising the available data.
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Monday, 03 September 2007 |
When the topic is long-distance animal migration, most people probably thinks about the amazing round-trips taken by birds, the arctic terns for instance traverse twice a year almost the globe when they fly from their northern breeding grounds near the Arctic to the Antarctica and back. Alternatively we might remember the amazing feat of the eels as they right after emerging from the eggs swim from the Sargasso Sea to inland lakes and rivers in Northern Europe, a distance of more than 5000 km which they repeat once they are ready to reproduce. However, not only vertebrates are capable of long distance migration, so are the insects. Indeed the distances covered by some butterfly species is comparable to what is seen in birds and fish. Like the eels make use of the Gulf Stream to power their migration, so do the butterflies make use of high altitude wind currents according to new research.
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Written by Thomas Hesselberg
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Thursday, 23 August 2007 |
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Usually we think of parasites as organisms that are very harmful to their host and indeed a parasite is defined as having a negative impact on its host. However, there are also certain situations where parasites can have a positive effect on their host. A French research team investigated a freshwater amphipod, Gammarus roeseli, a small crustacean, and its parasite, a worm belonging to the group of acanthocephalans.
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