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.
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.
The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) published a newly revised version of The pollination of cultivated plants: A compendium for practitioners, edited by STRI staff scientist, David Roubik. Its release this year coincides with the first World Bee Day, on May 20 and contributes to awareness of the importance of pollinators for food security and conservation and direct steps to save them.
STRI is hosting Dr. Anna Mežaka, originally from Latvia and currently employed at the University of Marburg (UMR), Germany, who is doing a project called “Life on a leaf: species interactions and community dynamics in epiphyll communities” funded by a Marie Skłodowska - Curie Global Fellowship from the European Union.
White-faced capuchin monkeys in Panama’s Coiba National Park habitually use hammer and anvil stones to break hermit crab shells, snail shells, coconuts and other food items, according to visiting scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI). This is the first report of habitual stone-tool use by Cebus monkeys.
Perhaps old species, like some older people, gradually lose their ability to deal with changes in their environment. Aaron O’Dea and colleagues show that when the Caribbean was cut off from the Pacific by the rise of the Panama land bridge, evolutionarily old species took longer to expand into new habitats than evolutionarily younger species did.
Join us to celebrate a few of the discoveries made in 2018.
A small bump in the ear canal of skulls from burials near the Gulf of Panama, may indicate that ancient coastal residents dove in icy waters to recover pearls and valuable orange Spondylus shells.
How flexible are bird brains in response to hormones?
The diverse community of students working in the Panamanian tropics learn from each other during STRI’s two-day fellowship symposium.
