dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
January 23, 2013
Figure 1 from Pérez-Rodríguez L et al., 2013.
A new study shows that the feather pattern on the chests of some birds (i.e. the bib) may be an outward sign of how healthy the bird is. The pattern the study refers to is called a fractal dimension, which is used to describe the complexity of the…
January 20, 2013
The International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University that has just come out with the top 10 new species of 2012! This is the 5th year they have come out with such a list. If you would like to nominate your favorite new species discovered in 2013, click here.
Here are my…
January 14, 2013
Lake Vostok (cross-section) prior to completion of drilling. Credit: National Science Foundation
Okay, this may not have anything to do with animal physiology...but then again maybe it does...
Russian scientists have just retrieved a core sample of frozen ice from the subsurface Lake Vostok in…
January 8, 2013
Image Credit: Stephanie Abramowicz
Image Credit: Stephanie Abramowicz
Researchers have unearthed a fossil of a robin-sized bird (Sulcavis geeorum) from the Cretaceous Period in China that had teeth! This species belonged to a class of birds with teeth (Enantiornithines) that were plentiful in…
January 3, 2013
Check out this "sculpure" of a spider discovered by Biologist Phil Torres, created by what may be a new species of Cyclosa found in the Peruvian Amazon. This is not just a pattern weaved by the spider into the web, but instead it is created from debris in the forest (dead insects, leaves, etc.). It…
January 1, 2013
Scientist Steven Wiederman from the University of Aukland (shown in image below) has recently published his work suggesting that dragonflies have the ability to focus on a target while blocking out other useless visual information. This is known as selective attention and his work is the first to…
December 25, 2012
Dr. Alex Taylor from The University of Auckland has demonstrated that New Caledonian crows have the ability to perform causal reasoning, which is the ability to infer that something you cannot see may be the cause of something. According to the article, this is the first study to experimentally…
December 20, 2012
Here are some images of Christmas Tree worms (Spirobranchus giganteus), just in time for the holidays:
Image Source: Ryan Photographic
Image Source: Ryan Photographic
Image Source: Ryan Photographic
These are tube-dwelling worms that live in coral reefs and use their spiral plumes for feeding…
December 18, 2012
Scientists have discovered just what makes Rudolph's nose turn red:
December 17, 2012
Researchers have actually trained a beagle named Cliff to detect the intestinal bacteria Clostridium difficile on patients and in stool samples that were collected from infected patients in the Netherlands. This infection is common in hospitals and long-term treatment facilities. Infection with the…
December 13, 2012
I just came across a neat blog called "CURIOUS Young Writers" from the New Jersey Assocation for Biomedical Research. The blog features articles written by high school students on how animals are helping scientists answer biomedical research questions. I found the article on how rainbow trout are…
December 10, 2012
Carol Meteyer, USGS National Wildlife Health Center
With an estimated 6.7 million bat deaths related to white nose syndrome, understanding this devastating disease is more important than ever. Wildlife Pathologist Carol Meteyer, from the USGS National Wildlife Health Center, has been…
December 5, 2012
House sparrow in Mexico City. Photo Credit: © Víctor Argaez
Researchers Suárez-Rodríguez et al., observed house finches (C. mexicanus) and sparrows (P. domesticus) on the National University of Mexico campus in Mexico City routinely pulling apart cigarette butts to obtain the filters. The birds…
November 30, 2012
Image of a cynomolgus macaque. Image credit: iStockphoto/Anna Yu
Researchers at Amgen in British Columbia and California have developed an antibody called mimAb1 that mimics the properties of fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). Having a role in regulating fat and glucose metabolism as well…
November 29, 2012
Caterpillars with fungus growing out of their heads. Image of Cordyceps sinensis fungus from http://cordyceps-sinensis-mushroom.blogspot.com/
Whoever thought that a brain-attacking fungus might actually be good for you? This particular type of fungus, cordyceps, is known for attacking and killing…
November 21, 2012
Jasper is just one of the injured dogs that this research team has been able to help walk following an injection of nasal cells:
November 21, 2012
This video from Scientific American explains how Thanksgiving dinner makes you feel sleepy:
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
November 19, 2012
The leading cause of morbidity in captive rhesus monkeys is a condition called idiopathic chronic diarrhea (ICD), a condition similar to the inflammatory disease ulcerative colitis in humans. Since parasitic worms have recently been used to treat inflammatory bowel diseases in humans, researchers…
November 14, 2012
I just read an article about conservationists in Brazil at the agricultural research agency (Embrapa) who are planning on cloning endangered animals using tissue samples collected from carcasses. The researchers want to clone animals that are not yet critically endangered in order to maintain them…
November 14, 2012
Image by He Meng, from Nature News
Bactrian camels thrive in conditions considered harsh by many standards: very dry, cold, high elevations. Researchers now suspect their physiological adaptations of high blood sugar, high salt diets, and increased body fat may have evolved to help the animals…
November 10, 2012
Check out this picture of a captive cockatoo (Cacatua goffiniana) in the Department of Cognitive Biology at the University of Vienna using a tool:
Image from: Scientific American
Figaro (shown above) was observed by a student using a piece of bamboo to try to retrieve a dropped pebble. This was…
November 7, 2012
I know what I'm doing tonight! I just heard about a special called "What Are Animals Thinking" that will be airing tonight on NOVA ScienceNOW. To check local listings, click here.
Watch What Are Animals Thinking? Preview on PBS. See more from NOVA scienceNOW.
November 2, 2012
Check out this video of an archer fish (Toxotes jaculatrix) shooting down prey by creating a water jet:
Here it is again in slow motion:
Until now, the mechanism by which the archer fish produces such a powerful jet of water was a mystery. Contrary to prior hypotheses, the fish do not have…
October 30, 2012
Image from: http://Phys.Org
Not only do bees sting, but they also bite victims that are too small for stingers (ex: wax moth larva that invade the beehive and eat pollen) and paralyze them for up to nine minutes by secreting 2-heptanone into the wound. This paralysis gives the bees time to remove…
October 25, 2012
Image of Indonesia's Komodo dragons from Scientific American.
Dr. Tim Jessop from the University of Melbourne, Australia and colleagues spent eight years following 400 Komodo dragons (Varanus komodoensis) to learn more about their growth rate, lifespan as well as differences between populations…
October 23, 2012
Image from: The Living World of Molluscs, http://Molluscs.at
Thank you to a recent comment from a reader questioning whether the proper plural form of octopus is octopuses or octopi. Here is the "official" answer from the editor at Merriam Webster:
October 19, 2012
Image of female Argonaut. Photo from Cabrillo Marine Aquarium, taken by Gary Florin.
Photo by: Brittany Murray / Staff Photographer Daily Breeze
A rarely seen species of octopus was found this week by fisherman off the coast of San Pedro, California. The baseball-sized female Argonaut (aka:…
October 19, 2012
Image from: ReptileChannel.com
Celebrate Reptile Awareness Day on October 21st! The ReptileChannel.com has listed 10 ways to celebrate the day on their website that you can view here.
According to daysoftheyear.com, this special day is dedicated to promoting awareness of reptiles and the…
October 16, 2012
Dr. Marcus Atlas, from the Ear Science Institute in Australia, and his team have pioneered a novel treatment for repairing damaged eardrums using silk obtained from silkworm cocoons, like the one pictured above.
October 11, 2012
Hair on an Asian elephant (right) compared to an African elephant's head (left). Image taken by: Conor Myhrvold
Researchers think that the hair on an elephant might actually function to keep the animals cool as opposed to keeping them warm as it does for other mammals. Living in hot climates (as…