Hidden Marine Species
Buckets of biodiversity
June 06, 2014
Aboard a research vessel in the Gulf of Panama, a Smithsonian research fellow explores the hidden biodiversity of the tropical ocean.
Aboard a research vessel in the Gulf of Panama, a Smithsonian research fellow explores the hidden biodiversity of the tropical ocean.
A visiting researcher uses a movie set studio to record how the larvae of sea urchins, starfish, shellfish and corals respond to conditions in a changing ocean.
Male fiddler crabs’ large claws may look unwieldly, but a new study demonstrates that these large weapons are not only for show.
After a half century of pioneering research on evolutionary developmental biology and induction into the National Academy of Sciences, a long-time Smithsonian scientist retires.
Veteran Smithsonian evolutionary biologist Haris Lessios has made major contributions to the understanding of how new marine species arose following separation by the Isthmus of Panama.
With multiple projects in both the Pacific and the Caribbean, the Collin Lab pieces together the complex life histories of marine invertebrates.
From tiny banana seeds to giant coconuts, it’s tough for seeds to survive in tropical soils where they are under attack by fungi, bacteria, insects and animals. By understanding how seeds defend themselves, tropical biologists contribute to reforestation, crop management and sustainable agriculture in the tropics.
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.
The epidemic of obesity-related diseases such as heart disease and type-2 diabetes may be a result of an advantageous process gone awry as the body stores excess energy as visceral adipose tissue, fat surrounding the internal organs in the abdomen.