Coastal plants and animals have found a new way to survive in the open ocean—by colonizing plastic pollution. A new commentary published Dec. 2 in Nature Communications reports coastal species growing on trash hundreds ...
Environment
Dec 2, 2021
0
696
New research co-authored by Nicholas Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, shows evidence that the world's largest whales have been sold short. The study, published ...
Plants & Animals
Nov 3, 2021
0
602
A new long-term study led by Sahas Barve, a Peter Buck Fellow at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, finds that male acorn woodpeckers breeding polygamously in duos or trios of males actually fathered more ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 17, 2021
0
501
Actively restoring oyster reefs—beyond simply protecting them from harvest—can create big payoffs for habitat quality and the other species that flock to them. A new study from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 10, 2021
1
2
Scientists led by Michael Ackerson, a research geologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, provide new evidence that modern plate tectonics, a defining feature of Earth and its unique ability to support ...
Earth Sciences
May 14, 2021
2
529
When it comes to recreational crabbing—one of the most iconic pastimes along Maryland's shores—the current estimate of 8% of "total male commercial harvest" runs just a little too low. Biologists, with local community ...
Plants & Animals
Mar 18, 2021
0
9
Early exposure to tough conditions—particularly warmer waters and nightly swings of low oxygen—could leave lasting scars on oysters' ability to grow meaty tissue. A team of biologists at the Smithsonian Environmental ...
Ecology
Mar 2, 2021
1
19
Feathers are a sleek, intricate evolutionary innovation that makes flight possible for birds, but in addition to their stiff, aerodynamic feathers used for flight, birds also keep a layer of soft, fluffy down feathers between ...
Evolution
Feb 15, 2021
0
67
The Atala butterfly (Eumaeus atala) and its five closest relatives in the genus Eumaeus like to display their toxicity. This sextet's toxicity comes from what they eat as caterpillars: plants called cycads that have been ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 8, 2021
0
970
Deep in the Brazilian Amazon River basin, scientists led by the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History fish research associate C. David de Santana discovered a small, river-fed lake filled with more than 100 adult ...
Plants & Animals
Jan 14, 2021
0
961
