Hatchling sea turtle heads toward the North Hartsville Gyre (Photo Credit: Josh Witten; CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)
Ever wonder where baby sea turtles go to grow up – those awkward middle years between hatchlings racing through a seagull flock of attrition and being nearly impervious adults?
My kids have. Until now, I had to tell them “I don’t know.” Not just because I didn’t know, but because no one really knew. There were guesses, but there wasn’t evidence.
Recently, the genome of the American hookworm, Necator americanus was completed (read more here). In celebration of this achievement, the American hookworm is our cool animal of the week. Also, parasitic nematodes just really don’t get enough love and attention, so it is time to honor them.
The American hookworm is picked up by humans and other mammals from the soil and then feeds on blood before making a home in the small intestine. An estimated 700 million people are affected by this parasite worldwide and unfortunately none are investment bankers or other financial district employees (because that would be amazing–parasites living within the parasites of society….soo meta and karmic).
You can protect yourself from hookworm, by simply wearing shoes which means that poor people from developing nations are overwhelmingly the afflicted majority.
If you want to help–donate money to a world health organization, which can build proper latrines and put down cement, instead of buying a pair of TOMS shoes.
Reproductive modes in frogs vary greatly, as do the ways in which they deposit their eggs. The túngara frog, Physalaemus pustulosus (=Engystomops), which is the main focus in my lab constructs a “foam” nest–an adaptive character which I’ve become interested in exploring. Foamy substances are produced by some insects, tunicates, fish and, perhaps most famously, frogs.
Foam nests may be constructed by frogs in trees, underground burrows, on top of water, or nearby water sources. This phenomenon has evolved independently several times in both old and new world frogs, living in tropical and subtropical areas. Continue reading “Meet the Foam Nest”
While not the actual title or tag-line on a recent Nature Neuroscience paper, it is certainly a punchline that first comes to mind upon reading the title “The endocannabinoid system controls food intake via olfactory processes”. The endocannabinoid system responds to the active components in marijuana among other signaling molecules in the body including endocannabinoids made by the body. However, even if you’re not partaking of marijuana, this system is active in regulating how your body responds when it begins to get hungry.
Fig 1 A: Onymacris unguicularis, B: O. laeviceps, C: Stenocara gracilipes, and D: Physterna cribripes (from Norgaard and Dacke 2010)Elytra Structures Fig 2 A: O. unguicularis, B: O. laeviceps, C: S. gracilipes, and D: P. cribripes (from Norgaard and Dacke 2010)Fig 4 Fog basking posture of Onymacris unguicularis (from Norgaard and Dacke 2010)
The Namib desert is inhabited by a number of fantastic organisms that have adaptations for desert life. In particular, there are a few tenebrionids or Darkling beetles which call this locale their home. Beetles in the desert need to collect water and while some dig trenches others bask in the fog.
Most beetles have smooth elytra, but ones that bask in fog are covered in raised bumps and are also hydrophobic. Fog basking is akin to basking in the sun to increase body temperature, but in this case the beetle uses the elytra to collect water. The increased surface area and hydrophobicity of the elytra increase the amount of water that can be extracted from the fog. This water is then funneled to the head of the beetle as a result of the adopted head-down stance.
Watch this behavior in action below:
This adaptation is so cool that humans are trying to adopt the technology to make a self-filling water bottle!
The Finch and Pea 