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Slow Life from BioQuest Studios on Vimeo. ck to set custom HTML |
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Food Web PowerpointFrom A Dejong, powerpoints highlighting food web and energy pyramics
Breathing EarthNitrogen Cycle text reference
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Antibiotic laden shrimp farmsAntibiotic Resistance-more links from Wired Magazine
Elsewhere, antibiotic Tb rages on
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One Plastic Beach |
ClassificationTaxonomy, maybe thought of as already firmly established and unchanging, is anything but static. Researchers from the American Natural History Museum have recently completed the largest analysis ever of vertebrates. The results are a revised taxonomy for Amphibians. http://www.livescience.com/11286-amphibian-tree-life.html
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Yoda Worms and Beyonce is FlyThe lips on either side of the acorn worm's head reminded scientists of Yoda's floppy ears. Photograph: Allstar/David Shale
A worm from an ecosystem far, far away has been named after the Star Wars character Yoda. Yoda purpurata is one of three new species of deep-sea acorn worms discovered 1.5 miles beneath the Atlantic. Scientists coined the genus name because the large lips on either side of the creature's head reminded them of the Jedi master's floppy ears. The creature is a dark reddish-purple – hence the other part of the worm's name, which is Latin for purple.The Yoda worm, technically known as an enteropneust, is described in the latest issue of the journal Invertebrate Biology.A remotely operated submersible collected the specimen during a research mission along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Iceland and the Azores.Professor Monty Priede, from the University of Aberdeen, said: "Our colleague in California, Nick Holland, the world authority on enteropneusts, chose the name Yoda for the new genus characterised by its large, ear-like lips. There is much interest in acorn worms from the point of view of understanding the early evolution of the vertebrates. Whilst they are not strictly a missing link in our own evolution, they give an insight into what the lifestyle of our remote ancestors might have been like." The pint-sized Star Wars character joins a long list of other famous people and characters who have had a new species named after them, including a fish parasite named after Bob Marley; a horse fly named after Beyoncé and a trio of slime-mold beetles named after George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. For more about Beyonce Fly and other celebrity animals. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18889495 |