The Rariphotic
Smithsonian Researchers Name New Ocean Zone
Marzo 20, 2018
New ocean zone is home to many new species of reef fish
New ocean zone is home to many new species of reef fish
To mark the beginning of an era in marine research in the Eastern Tropical Pacific, Smithsonian scientists launched numerous long-term marine ecosystem studies in Panama’s Coiba National Park.
Scientists named new blood-red species of octocoral in honor of philanthropist Ray Dalio.
Scientists propose a new method, based on underwater recordings, for estimating the population size of the Antillean manatee, an endangered marine mammal
Bats moved from a captive colony back to a tree stayed with their friends.
A trip to Jicarón Island during the Coiba Bioblitz led to a published bird checklist.
Manatees are endangered aquatic mammals. To help protect them, researchers Héctor Guzmán from STRI, Fernando Merchán, Héctor Poveda and Javier Sánchez-Galán from the Technological University of Panama (UTP), and Guillaume Ferré from ENSEIRB-MATMECA, developed a monitoring system based on hydrophones, which detects in real-time the underwater calls these animals make to communicate with each other.
Between 1944 and 1966, Dr. Alexander Wetmore, a legendary ornithologist and Sixth Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, investigated the avifauna of the Isthmus of Panama. This became the basis of his four-volume ‘The Birds of the Republic of Panama’. In this webinar, STRI anthropologist Dr. Stanley Heckadon-Moreno takes us for a historical and photographic journey across Dr. Wetmore’s expeditions in Panama, with the support of Dr. Pamela Henson, director of Institutional History at the Smithsonian Institution Archives.
As the Earth’s surface transforms, entire ecosystems come and go. The anatomy of fossil plants growing in the Andean Altiplano region 10 million years ago calls current paleoclimate models into question, suggesting that the area was more humid than models predict.
Anthropologist Fernando Santos-Granero has pieced together the story of a change agent whose life spanned an important period in South American history in his book, Slavery and Utopia, now available in English and Spanish.