Biology Bytes
amphibians
Getting Your Hands Dirty through Citizen Biology
Do you like to bird watch using your backyard bird feeder? Or maybe you have fun going bug hunting at a local nature preserve. However you enjoy taking in the natural world around you, there may be a way you can help scientists with important research at the same time! It’s thanks to citizen science, … Continue reading
Shell-Swept Beaches: What’s the Cost?
When you’re vacationing on a beach, it might seem like a harmless act to pick up a shell and take it home with you as a souvenir. Especially if there are a lot of shells on the beach – how could taking one, or just a few, be a bad thing? But a recently published … Continue reading
Ranaviruses: Ravaging Amphibian Populations
Over the past few years, amphibians have been hit hard on a global scale. (Amphibians include frogs, toads, salamanders, and the lesser-known caecilians, which are tropical, limbless, worm-like critters.) A few months ago, I wrote a post about the chytrid fungus, which may have already caused 125 to 500 amphibian species to become extinct. Another … Continue reading
Many Animals Don’t “Age”
Why do we have to visibly age as we get older? It might sound like a silly question – the terms “aging” and “growing old” are virtually synonymous – but for many organisms on the planet, this question actually does not need to be asked. Earlier this week, a paper was published in the journal … Continue reading
Amphibians Facing Extinction: Fighting the Chytrid Fungus to Survive
A chytrid fungus has been ravaging amphibian populations worldwide for years, and the situation has only been getting worse. (Amphibians include frogs, toads, salamanders, and the lesser-known caecilians, which are tropical, limbless, worm-like critters.) Identified in 1998 as parasitizing and killing amphibians, the chytrid fungus species Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (“Bd” for short) grows within the infected … Continue reading
Under Their Skin: How the Surinam Toad Hatches its Eggs
If you’ve ever gone tadpole hunting, you may have seen some frog or toad eggs sitting in the water. Often they’ll be clinging to a piece of vegetation, or something else, to keep them from drifting far. The parents usually abandon the eggs shortly after they’re laid, and the eggs sit and develop, basically alone, … Continue reading