A Blog Around The Clock

Dinosaur Bones Reveal Ancient Bug Bites:

Paleontologists have long been perplexed by dinosaur fossils with missing pieces - sets of teeth without a jaw bone, bones that are pitted and grooved, even bones that are half gone. Now a Brigham Young University study identifies a culprit: ancient insects that munched on dinosaur bones.

Saving Frogs Before It's Too Late:

With nearly one-third of amphibian species threatened with extinction worldwide, fueled in part by the widespread emergence of the deadly chytrid fungus, effective conservation efforts could not be more urgent. In a new article, Franco Andreone and his colleagues argue that one of the best places to focus these efforts is Madagascar, a global hotspot of amphibian diversity that shows no signs of amphibian declines--or traces of the chytrid fungus.

New Reason For Bee Hive Collapse: Ecologists Tease Out Private Lives Of Plants And Their Pollinators:

The quality of pollen a plant produces is closely tied to its sexual habits, ecologists have discovered. As well as helping explain the evolution of such intimate relationships between plants and pollinators, the study -- one of the first of its kind and published online in the British Ecological Society's journal Functional Ecology -- also helps explain the recent dramatic decline in certain bumblebee species found in the shrinking areas of species-rich chalk grasslands and hay meadows across Northern Europe.

Female Jumping Spiders Find Ultraviolet B Rays 'Sexy':

A report publishing online on May 1st in the journal Current Biology, a publication of Cell Press, provides the first evidence of an animal using ultraviolet B (UVB) rays to communicate with other members of its species.

Animal Interaction Behind Cambrian Explosion? 'Missing' Ancestors Of Today's Animals May Not Be Missing After All:

An event as simple as the world's first bite may have sparked an ancient "explosion" of life 500 million years ago that led to the rise of the broad groups of animals that are still alive today.

Trouble In Paradise: Global Warming A Greater Danger To Tropical Species:

Polar bears fighting for survival in the face of a rapid decline of polar ice have made the Arctic a poster child for the negative effects of climate change. But new research shows that species living in the tropics likely face the greatest peril in a warmer world.