Echinoderms are starfish, brittle stars, sea cucumbers and sea urchins. Chordates are fish and birds, reptiles, amphibians and mammals. What is there to compare? What do they have in common? Surprisingly, echinoderms may in fact be the chordates’ closest invertebrate…
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Biological success, as measured in terms of Darwinian fitness, refers to the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce successfully. Differential reproductive success is the key to a species’ evolution over time. Individuals with the most favorable traits in…
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Environmental changes make a difference with humans as well as with animals. Both were meant to be biological successes and they would be if their natural habitats remained undisturbed. But time changes everything and some animals adapt more easily than…
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Pandas, native to China, are known to the Giant cat bear. They are so named because in their actions they behave as cats. At least in some of their actions. The one that wins for them this alternative name is…
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Every living organism on Earth has a scientific name. These don’t just exist to give scientists long words in order to look clever, but have an important role in understanding the living world around us. Not only do these names…
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Viruses comprise one of the groups of causative agents of plant infections, the others being fungi, bacteria, some parasitic higher plants, and nematodes. Plant viruses, other than those few that may cause disease in both the insect vectors and the…
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The main thing that there is to know about language acquisition among gorillas is that there really isn’t any to speak of. Language seems to be one of the skills that we as humans gain access to from their enormously…
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The Western Red cedar is one of the most well known trees of the pacific northwest region of North America. Known botanically as Thuja plicata, it is not actually a true cedar but a member of the Cypress family that…
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The Western hemlock can be found in the western region North America and is one of the most beautiful trees of the Pacific Northwest. It is the state tree of Washington and can be found as far north as southern…
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Most people are intimately familiar with the telltale signs of allergies during spring or early summer. Some of the best indicators of changes in seasons seem to be the puffy, watery, itchy eyes, along with stuffy noses. People with these…
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