Terrestrial Zoology – Page 42

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Snakes Alive! An Evolutionary Tale

April 3, 2010

Blind snakes that look like worms: they rule the world. They’re everywhere. Where did they come from? “Blindsnakes are not very pretty, are rarely noticed, and are often mistaken for earthworms,” admits Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University. “Nonetheless, they tell a very interesting evolutionary story.” So reported Science Daily. National Geographic […]

Amazing Facts

Biomimetics: Science for Now

March 27, 2010

Do you want science that makes a difference in our lives? Look at real plants and animals with real solutions to practical problems. That’s where researchers are making amazing discoveries with practical spinoffs. Shellfish materials: Strong, lightweight structures are coming, thanks to the imitation of oysters and shellfish. PhysOrg reported that researchers at the University […]

Amazing Facts

Beetle Pulls 1,141 Times Its Weight

March 23, 2010

Ever watch those contest shows for the World’s Strongest Man? Compared to dung beetles, they’re wimps. Scientists at Queen Mary, University of London found that the strongest beetle tested could pull an astonishing 1,141 times its own weight – “the equivalent of a 70kg person lifting 80 tonnes (the same as six full double-decker buses),” […]

Amazing Facts

Fruit Flies: From Darwin to Design

March 13, 2010

The fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster is an icon of evolution. Since the 1930s these poor little bugs have been mutated endlessly and watched for signs of Darwinian change. So far, though, only useless mutants, unable to survive in the wild, have been produced. Recently, scientists seem more enamored with their design. Two recent articles had […]

Amazing Facts

Flight Design: Flies and Birds Get it Wright

March 3, 2010

Parse the following sentence for logical consistency: “Just as the Wright brothers implemented controls to achieve stable airplane flight, flying insects have evolved behavioral strategies that ensure recovery from flight disturbances.” That is the first sentence from a paper in PNAS yesterday about the stabilizers in fly wings.1 Ristroph et al just compared design principles […]

Amazing Facts

Spider Hair: The Perfect Water Repellant Surface

February 24, 2010

To keep dry, make like a spider. “Engineering researchers have crafted a flat surface that refuses to get wet,” began a press release from University of Florida. “Water droplets skitter across it like ball bearings tossed on ice. The inspiration? Not wax. Not glass. Not even Teflon.” The audience waits breathlessly for the answer. “Instead, […]

Amazing Facts

Life Is Smarter Than We Know

February 15, 2010

How can toads calculate? How can cells without a brain or central nervous system figure out a balanced diet? How can bugs navigate the wind for optimum flight time? These are some of the questions that can arise from observations of the living world. The more we learn about life, the more we find unexpected […]

Darwin and Evolution

For His Birthday, Darwin Gets a Scrambled Arthropod Tree

February 12, 2010

If Darwin lost his tree last year (01/22/2009), it would seem any corrections or rearrangements would be academic. Nevertheless, eight evolutionary biologists at Duke University tried rearranging one of the biggest branches on Darwin’s tree of common ancestry – the highly diverse group known as arthropods (animals with jointed appendages). Arthropods comprise the largest number […]

Darwin and Evolution

More Surprises for Darwin

February 11, 2010

It’s not uncommon for theories to have to deal with anomalies, but Darwinism sure seems to get more than its share. Here are some recent examples. Fossils lie: Fossils preserve unmistakable clues about past life, right? Not so fast. Nature reported that “Non-random decay of chordate characters causes bias in fossil interpretation.”1 The way early […]

Amazing Facts

Life Masters Physics

February 10, 2010

Living things, especially cells, have mastered the forces of advanced physics in ingenious ways. This ingenuity sometimes inspires physicists to try to copy it. Here are some recent examples: Photosynthesis and quantum mechanics: Nature reported that plants take advantage of quantum mechanics in photosynthesis.1 “The photosynthetic apparatus of cryptophyte algae is odd – its pigments […]

Fossils

Incredible Preservation of Beetle Wings Found

February 9, 2010

Beetle wings with their original shimmering luster have been found preserved in fossilized peat in Japan. The strata in which they were found have been labeled middle Pleistocene and dated at 600,000 years old. Yet these same wings, when dried in the sun, lose their luster within hours. The authors of the paper […]

Amazing Facts

Spider Webs Are Precision Dew Collectors

February 4, 2010

Photographs of dew drops on spider webs are favorite targets for nature photographers, because they resemble strings of pearls on fine jewelry (example 1, example 2). But did you know the reason dewdrops bead up so well on webs is due to the fine microstructure of the spider silk? A team of Chinese scientists studied […]

Darwin and Evolution

Evolutionary Biogeography Requires Imagination

January 22, 2010

Biogeography – the study of the distribution of species – has been an important part of evolutionary theory, and has often been used as evidence for evolution. Some recent findings about plants and animals should give scientists caution about trying to divine too much evolutionary history from locations of present-day organisms and fossils. […]

Fossils

Specious Theories Obey the Law of Inertia

January 15, 2010

Last March, scientists publishing in Geology falsified the so-called “Permian Extinction,” calling it a “non-event.” (see 03/09/2009). Not only was there no smoking gun of a catastrophe in the rocks, the scientists said that the “claims of rapid vertebrate recovery… also must be called into question.” Our commentary at the time wondered how long it […]

Fossils

Flying Fossils Found

January 7, 2010

A population of insects called “living fossils” has been located in Australia. These tiny insects, called ancient greenling damselflies, have no living relatives. Their closest relatives disappeared from the fossil record 250 to 300 million years ago in the geological column, according to The Age and Heidelberg Leader. The wingspan of the insects is only […]

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