For millions of people with diabetes, insulin is essential medicine. But for some ocean-dwelling predators, insulin is a weapon. With a burst of venom, a fish-hunting cone snail can drop the blood sugar of its prey so precipitously ...
Biochemistry
Mar 15, 2022
0
359
A new report in the journal Nature unveils three of the first genomes from a vast, understudied swath of the animal kingdom that includes as many as one-quarter of Earth's marine species. By publishing the genomes of a leech, ...
Biotechnology
Dec 19, 2012
0
1
The "Margaritaville" in Jimmy Buffett's famous song isn't a real place, but it's long been associated with the Florida Keys. This string of tropical islands is home to the only living coral barrier reef in the continental ...
Plants & Animals
Oct 9, 2023
0
113
With mighty jaws and plate-like teeth, the whitespotted eagle ray (Aetobatus narinari) can pretty much crunch on anything. In fact, hard clam farmers in Florida's Indian River Lagoon have considered this species a threat ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 1, 2023
0
97
The history of life on Earth has been marked five times by events of mass biodiversity extinction caused by extreme natural phenomena. Today, many experts warn that a Sixth Mass Extinction crisis is underway, this time entirely ...
Ecology
Jan 14, 2022
34
2302
In the world's oceans, billions of tiny marine snails (a form of plankton) commute daily between surface waters, where they feed at night, to depths of several hundred meters during the day to rest while avoiding predators. ...
Soft Matter
Sep 7, 2020
0
194
New UCLA research indicates that an evolutionary phenomenon never before observed among marine life could help explain why there is such immense biodiversity in the world's coral reefs and the ocean beyond.
Ecology
Jul 9, 2020
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303
With the use of ultra-high-speed videography, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Associate Professor Emanuel Azizi and colleagues from Occidental College Los Angeles have shed light on the hunting mechanism of the cone snail ...
Plants & Animals
Aug 30, 2019
2
160
Dozens of species of sea slugs, jellyfish and other marine life from toastier southern waters migrated into the Northern California region over an unusually long two-year period of severe heatwaves, says a new scientific ...
Ecology
Mar 12, 2019
0
62
A previously overlooked predator— a thumbnail-sized snail—could be increasing the pressure on coral reefs already weakened by the effects of overfishing, rising ocean temperatures, pollution and other threats. The snail ...
Environment
Jul 26, 2018
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94
