How did people survive in the tropics, hundreds and even thousands of years ago? Where did they live, and what did they eat? What diseases did they encounter? New methods allow archaeologists to reconstruct the individual lives of people in more detail than ever before. Listen to Smithsonian archaeologists Ashley Sharpe and Nicole Smith-Guzmán examine the lives and histories of three very different villages in ancient Panama.
STRI mourns the loss of natural historian and colleague, George Angehr.
Analyses of microbial communities in streams across different land use types suggests that passive reforestation rapidly restores water quality in lowland tropical watersheds.
Genetic population connectivity study of the endangered whale shark in Pacific Panama provides important data for conservation efforts.
The longest continuous study of euglossines in the tropics found relatively stable populations of these wild bees over four decades.
Over the last 50 years, since 1972, Panama has lost almost 50% of its mangroves primarily due to urban expansion and the conversion of mangroves into agricultural land.
The Panamanian cumbia is the result of a complex process of cultural dialogue that was unified in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this webinar, the Panamanian composer and musicologist Samuel Robles, a researcher at the Centro de Investigaciones Históricas, Antropológicas y Culturales AIP (Historical, Anthropological and Cultural Research Center CIHAC AIP), examines the various influences — musical and social — that converged on the Azuero of the early 20th century and that resulted in a vibrant musical culture, constantly innovative and deeply influential in the identity perception of Panamanians.
The oldest and most complete fossil crab ever discovered suggests that these animals ventured onto land at least 25 to 50 million years earlier than previously thought
