How the ability to clone itself may empower a mystery globetrotter
It always pays to think outside of the box. Rachel Collin decided to look further afield to find the adult form that matched a larvae from a plankton sample in Panama and was surprised by the result.
A journey of growth and discovery
The first time Dumas Gálvez saw the ant species Ectatomma ruidum under a microscope, he was just a little boy. He was immediately fascinated. A few decades later, as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), a professor in the entomology department at the University of Panama and a mentor to young scientists, he does research on that same ant species. Listen...
Unequal migration across the land-bridge millions of years ago
The disproportionate extinction of South American mammals when the Americas collided is still evident today
A new nemertean species discovered in Panama’s Bocas del Toro archipelago was named after a local biologist
The novel ribbon worm was found as part of STRI’s Training in Tropical Taxonomy program and represents the first species of its genus from the Caribbean
Why do small marine organisms matter for the future of our oceans?
Beneficial partnerships between diverse marine organisms are often favorable to the health of marine ecosystems as well. Listen to STRI postdoctoral fellow and marine and evolutionary biologist Matthieu Leray describe how mutualistic relationships among coral reefs and small marine species or microorganisms may help them cope with climate change.
How do Giraffes and Elephants alter the african savanna landscape?
Through their foraging behavior across the diverse topography of the African savanna, megaherbivores may be unknowingly influencing the growth and survival of vegetation on valleys and plateaus, while preserving steep slopes as habitat refugia.
Peruvian Amazonian shaman rose to power on promises of liberation and immortality
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.
Animated maps of sea level rise: the Isthmus of Panama during the last 26,000 years
These maps dramatically illustrate how rising sea levels completely altered the shape of Panama’s coastline, creating islands and submerging large areas of land.
An untraditional path for science
For Panamanian marine biologist Yehudi Rodríguez, her curiosity about sharks began early in life, watching the National Geographic programs and listening to her father’s stories as an underwater fisherman. This persistent interest led her to pave a path where there were not many opportunities, and to learn as much as possible from the people she encountered during her research projects in the...
Fossil trees on Peru’s Central Andean Plateau tell a tale of dramatic environmental change
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.
