Guano secrets
DNA in fringe-lipped bat poop reveals unexpected eating habits
Octubre 26, 2020
The poop of Trachops cirrhosus revealed surprising results about its foraging abilities and prey preferences.
The poop of Trachops cirrhosus revealed surprising results about its foraging abilities and prey preferences.
Coming from a humble family, Félix Rodríguez decided from a young age that he would focus on his education in order to secure a better future for himself and his family. At different points in his life he said yes to the opportunities that were presented to him, with a curious heart. This led him to learn from world-class experts, get training abroad and become a paleontologist at the Smithsonian (STRI) working in the Panama Paleontology Project. Listen to him describe his anecdotes and experiences as a paleontologist in the tropics.
As oceans warm and become more acidic and oxygen-poor, Smithsonian researchers asked how marine life on a Caribbean coral reef copes with changing conditions.
Post-doc Jarrod Scott is an active contributor to anvi’o, a set of computational tools to visualize microbial communities.
The next time you eat seafood, think about the long-term effects. Will consistently eating the biggest fish or the biggest conch, mean that only the smaller individuals will have a chance to reproduce?
At the Smithsonian’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama, marine biologist Rachel Collin runs an educational program that recruits international experts to teach and create videos about how to collect, preserve and observe marine invertebrates, passing down their very specific knowledge to aspiring taxonomists.
Large marine animals generally have unique functions for the ecosystem. They are also more susceptible to extinction when their habitats are altered. Around 3 million years ago, at least one third of the marine megafauna became extinct, possibly due to sea level fluctuations and the contraction of coastal habitats. This also led to a loss of some of their ecological functions. In the current era, many large marine animals are deemed at risk of extinction. What will be the consequences of this potential loss?
Secretary of the Smithsonian awards medal to Oris Sanjur for her exceptional work in Panama
An entrepreneur who dreamed of becoming an oceanographer teams up with STRI researchers and young Latin American biologists to find out if some coral reefs are more resilient than others. His yacht will be the center of operations as they deploy high tech sensor arrays at sites around the tropical eastern Pacific.
Most coral species fared better in the shaded environment offered by the mangrove canopy