Whale Shark Logs Longest-Recorded Migration
April 30, 2018
A whale shark named Anne swam all the way across the Pacific from Coiba National Park in Panama to the Marianas Trench.
News
Archive
Ira Rubinoff, Emeritus Director, retires from STRI
April 27, 2018
After more than 50 years at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, director emeritus Ira Rubinoff has announced his retirement. He will travel to Vienna with his wife, Anabella, who was recently designated Panama’s ambassador to Austria.
“Tropical forests are the result of an accident of history.” - Carlos Jaramillo.
April 23, 2018
About 66 million years ago, a radical change on the Earth filled tropical forests with flowers. A new catalog of fossil pollen grains may hold an explanation.
Free Online Tree-Planting Guides
April 19, 2018
Now that the rainy season has started, it is the perfect time to plant trees in Panama. We offer smart, science-based advice for choosing the perfect trees for your site and helping them to grow.
New book offers deep-time tour of Colombia
April 18, 2018
STRI’s Carlos Jaramillo and a team of 25 co-authors explore themes from fossil formation to the bridging of the Americas to the role of humans in modern ecosystems.
Tracking Aedes Mosquito Invasions in Panama
April 09, 2018
Mosquitoes in the genus Aedes, which can carry dangerous viruses causing yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika, invaded the crossroads of the Americas multiple times, by land and by sea.
Lessons From Amphibian Die-off in Panama
March 30, 2018
What slows or stops a disease epidemic if the pathogen is still present? It appears that wild frogs are becoming increasingly resistant to the chytrid fungal disease that has decimated amphibian populations around the world.
Predators learn to identify prey from other predators
March 21, 2018
It is much faster to learn to recognize a new prey item from a neighboring species, than to learn by trial and error.
First Evidence of Live-traded Dogs for Maya Ceremonies
March 21, 2018
At one of the oldest Maya sites, STRI staff archaeologist, Ashley Sharpe, discovered dog bones from the Guatemalan highlands deep within two pyramids.
Smithsonian Researchers Name New Ocean Zone
March 20, 2018
New ocean zone is home to many new species of reef fish
