Male Fringe-Lipped bats smear a sticky, odorous substance on their forearms. When this was discovered, researchers guessed that it might play a role in mating. Post-doctoral fellow Mariana Muñoz-Romo has confirmed that the presence and size of the forearm "crust" is, indeed correlated with other reproductive traits.
The seminar series via Zoom titled How did I get here? Scientific Stories is carried out thanks to the support of the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB). For the 6th seminar on January 2021, Smithsonian invited Ricardo Moreno, Director of the Yaguará Panama Foundation, STRI Associate Researcher and National Geographic Emerging Explorer with the talk entitled, Advances in scientific research and jaguar conservation in Panama.
The strong relationship formed between two female adult vampire bats may have motivated one of the bats to adopt the other’s baby.
At the Smithsonian’s Bocas del Toro Research Station, in Panama, marine biologist Rachel Collin runs an educational program that recruits international experts to teach and create videos about how to collect, preserve and observe marine invertebrates, passing down their very specific knowledge to aspiring taxonomists.
“Her unification of developmental plasticity and genetics is a huge advance in our understanding of evolution. Her decades-long work with tropical social wasps focusing on careful field observation is testimony to what a careful observer of natural history can contribute to evolutionary biology.”-the Linnean Society
How does having a third choice (a decoy) change the way fruit-eating bats choose what to eat?
How can larger animals bear the increased energetic costs of maintaining disproportionately large weapons?
A mobile hearing test determined that the hearing sensitivity of Neotropical bats is associated with the sounds generated by their prey, demonstrating how hearing ability may relate directly to niche differentiation.
Self-professed spider-fan and arachnid systematist Stephany Arizala would like more people to study this megadiverse group, so that we can do a better job of protecting them.
Tiny, fruit-eating bats take over the roost of larger, carnivorous bats at the edge of Panama’s Soberanía National Park.
