A Clockwork Naturalist
Biologist-in-training, alien of letters.
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ScienceDaily (May 6, 2011) -
For more than two hundred years, the question of why there are more species in the tropics has been a biological enigma. A particularly perplexing aspect is why so many species live together in a small area in the tropics, especially at some sites in the rainforests of the Amazon Basin in South America.
New research on the evolution and ecology of treefrogs, published online in the journal Ecology Letters, sheds new light on the puzzle. The patterns found in treefrogs may also help to explain the high species richness of other groups of organisms — such as trees, birds and insects — in the Amazon rainforests. [full story].
A treefrog (Osteocephalus heyeri) from the Amazonian rainforest. (Credit: Photo by Dan Moen) -
¡Piraña!
They were so still in the water, they didn’t seem real.
Taken by chimaeriste, New York Aquarium, Coney Island, NY April 30, 2011.
