Canal grass
Smithsonian scientist clears up Panamanian urban legend
Noviembre 30, 2020
How did canal grass arrive in Panama? STRI staff scientist Kristin Saltonstall compared the DNA of sugar cane relatives from around the world to find out.
How did canal grass arrive in Panama? STRI staff scientist Kristin Saltonstall compared the DNA of sugar cane relatives from around the world to find out.
“Her unification of developmental plasticity and genetics is a huge advance in our understanding of evolution. Her decades-long work with tropical social wasps focusing on careful field observation is testimony to what a careful observer of natural history can contribute to evolutionary biology.”-the Linnean Society
Sharks’ bodies are covered with tiny, tooth-like scales called denticles. Shed denticles settle to the ocean floor, where they remain in sediments for years and can be used to understand which sharks lived on a reef in the past.
Long-term monitoring of the bat species Saccopteryx bilineata in their natural setting revealed that pups display babbling behavior strikingly similar to that of human infants
Colorful female Jacobins in the wild may feed more frequently and for longer periods than their drab counterparts
Nine articles explore impacts of ancient human societies on tropical ecosystems, revealing the importance of incorporating the paleosciences, social sciences and Indigenous traditional knowledge to solve contemporary environmental challenges.
The adaptation of certain plants to drought and high temperatures involves a fundamental reprogramming of their metabolism, not just a simple adjustment that can be made by regular plants.
Traditionally, we highlight the richness of the fauna that lives in the forests of Panama. However, the complex Panamanian forests also hide a diversity in the behavior of this fauna. Considering how small Panama is, for these same species, the behavior can vary according to its environment. In this talk we will talk about how camera traps provide us with pieces of the puzzle of the ecology and behavior of the fauna in Panama.
Young entomologist Sol Parra uses gene editing technology to understand how color pattern mimicry evolves in butterflies.
Researcher May Dixon discovered that frog-eating bats could recognize ringtones indicating a food reward up to four years later.