A Quick Refresher of Species Concepts: 1. Biological Species Concept (Mayr) A species = “A group of actually or potentially interbreeding natural populations which are reproductively isolated from other such groups” (Source) Advantages: – Objective, testable criteria Disadvantages: – Applies to only sexually-reproducing species – Hard to test for populations that don’t overlap (i.e. islands) – Messy when species hybridize
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DANTA is delighted to announce a new course offering for winter 2016! Birds of Costa Rica will be held from January 1-15, 2016 at Osa Conservation‘s Piro Research Station in Costa Rica’s spectacular Osa peninsula. As the one of the largest tracts of rain forest north of the Amazon (roughly 400,000 acres in the Osa Conservation Area), it is renowned for high species
Read moreAt the end of January Putnam books released, “Team Dog: How to Train Your Dog – The Navy SEAL Way” by Mike Ritland with Gary Brozek. The press release states that with 83.3 million canine companions living in an estimated 47 percent of households in the U.S. it is clear that Americans love their dogs. The press release then says,
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Exciting news guys! BBC News released an article Wednesday revealing the unearthing of an important jawbone for human evolution in Ethiopia. This jawbone is claimed to be one of the very first humans. The most interesting piece of this discovery is that the jawbone has been dated at 2.8 million years, 400,000 years older than researchers have thought that humans
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Encyclia cordigera is an orchid species native to Central America, with a range that expands into Northern South America and north into Mexico. This orchid is prized by orchid collectors and botanists due to its tolerance to a wide range of conditions, as well as its rich color and sweet fragrance, both of which can vary
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Olive Ridley Sea Turtle Lepidochelys olivacea Taxonomy Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Reptilia Order: Testudines Family: Cheloniidae Genus: Lepidochelys Species: L. olivacea Overview An adult Olive Ridley Sea Turtle weighs around 100 pounds and is 22-31 inches long, while hatchlings weigh less than 1 ounce and are on average 1.5 inches long (NOAA, 2014). They spend most of their time at
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DANTA is delighted to announce a new course offering for winter 2016! Neotropical Bat Biology will be held from January 1-15, 2016 at Osa Conservation‘s Piro Research Station in Costa Rica’s spectacular Osa peninsula. As the one of the largest tracts of rain forest north of the Amazon (roughly 400,000 acres in the Osa Conservation Area), it is renowned for high species
Read moreby Lisa Barrett In a previous blog post, I wrote about how Asian elephants are endangered and that there are only about 3,000 left in the wild. I discussed how, in reality, the best way to conserve them is through education about conserving (and mitigating the decline) of extant populations while giving current captive populations the best life possible. In
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Sometimes writing a vegetarian recipe is so easy, it feels like cheating. But sometimes, easy is just what you need! As a busy vet student balancing school, taking care of my animals, and extracurricular activities, there are some days when I just don’t have much time to devote for dinner. I prefer saving takeout for special occasions, both because
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Scientists, working for the Department of Energy’s ARM (Atmospheric Radiation Measurement) Program, have for the first time observed an increase in carbon dioxide’s greenhouse effect at the Earth’s surface (Nature Article, 2015). The research was conducted using data from the ARM Climate Research Facility. The data was used by the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory scientists
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