Dads in the animal world often get a bad rep, probably because the majority of them are only interested in mating, mating, and more mating. After the deed is done, the dad-to-be moves on to other mates, leaving the mother to raise her offspring as a single mom who must feed them, protect them, and …
Category: Biology
All of our blog topics in biology and their related topics from the foundation to applied biology concepts and ideas.
Canada’s Experimental Lakes
There are drawbacks, of course, to doing environmental experiments in a laboratory setting. Small-scale experimentation may not yield the same results as a large-scale, real-world experiment. In a sterile lab, scientists may not be able to predict the impact of other environmental factors. A more accurate way of conducting research would be to experiments in …
Record Number of Right Whales Visit Cape Cod
They may be endangered, but that doesn’t mean they’re impossible to spot in the wild. The North Atlantic right whales are in Cape Cod Bay, feeding on plankton and putting on a show for locals. According to an aerial survey team, there are 112 of them swimming between the Cape Cod Canal and Provincetown, Massachusetts. …
Mice Were “Domesticated” About 15,000 Years Ago By Humans
You might say “Eek!” when you think of a mouse potentially residing in your house, but what if you knew that these little creatures were actually domesticated by humans? They might not be your standard household pet, but mice have been groomed over time to live alongside us in our humble abodes. At least this …
Nothing Like it on Earth: The Giraffe Family Tree
The graceful giraffe, with its trademark long legs and neck and uniquely patterned coat, is a beloved feature of the African savanna. Giraffes are one-of-a-kind…there’s nothing like them on earth. Or is there? The giraffe family tree is admittedly small, with most of its members long extinct, but the giraffe does have one living cousin, …
The Rusty Patched Bumble Bee is an Endangered Species…Again
The rusty patched bumble bee is once again making headlines, and it’s for the same reason as before – its endangered species status. (“Rusty patched bumble bee recommended for endangered list,” n.d.) But let’s back up for a moment and take a look at why the bee is endangered, as well as the reasons behind the …
Pyrophile plants
We often think of fire as the ultimate destructive force but for pyrophile trees, fire is necessary to reproduce. Although several pyrophile plants – plants that have adapted to tolerate fire – exist worldwide, some species of trees have taken this relationship a step further. They have adapted to harness the power of fire to …
Researchers Say Eyes – Not Legs – Initially Prompted Water Creatures to Move Onto Land
What encouraged some water species to evolve into land-based creatures? This is what some scientists attempted to determine by analyzing the bodies of terrestrial vertebrates that existed about 385 million years ago. (MacIver, Schmitz, Mugan, Murphey, & Mobley, 2017) They found that their eyes – rather than their limbs – may have played a large …
How Can You Start Flexing Your Memory Muscles?
What if you could improve your memory over time? Many of us assume that our memories deteriorate as we age, and while that may be true for some, it doesn’t have to be our ultimate fate. This is what some scientists hypothesize now that they’ve examined others with excellent memories. In a recent study published …
Evolutionary Misfits: The Zebra Swallowtail and the Pawpaw Tree
The Zebra Swallowtail (Eurytides Marcellus) and the Common Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) are both evolutionary misfits. A cursory glance at both may fail to yield a connection but a closer look shows a complex relationship between the butterfly and the fruit tree that gives us insight into the evolutionary path of both. Let us first examine …