Correction: Embargo lifted on PNAS study
Certain female fish have special mating preference (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/5288.html)
May 11,
2005 --
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| Male Bahamas mosquitofish (left) chasing a female (right). |
A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that for some fish species, females prefer males with larger sexual organs, and actually choose them for mating. That does not exclude males with an average-sized sex organ, called a gonopodium. These fish out-compete the larger-endowed males in a predator-laden environment because they have a faster burst speed than the males with larger genitalia, thus avoiding predators and staying in the mating game.
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Urgent Correction: New Embargo Date
Certain female fish have special mating preference (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/5281.html)
May 10,
2005 --
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| Male Bahamas mosquitofish (left) chasing a female (right). |
A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that for some fish species, females prefer males with larger sexual organs, and actually choose them for mating. That does not exclude males with an average-sized sex organ, called a gonopodium. These fish out-compete the larger-endowed males in a predator-laden environment because they have a faster burst speed than the males with larger genitalia, thus avoiding predators and staying in the mating game.
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Makin' time vs. stayin' alive
Tradeoff between attracting mates and avoiding predators often is death (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/5214.html)
May 9,
2005 --
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| Male Bahamas mosquitofish (left) chasing a female (right). |
A biologist at Washington University in St. Louis has shown that for some fish species, females prefer males with larger sexual organs, and actually choose them for mating. That does not exclude males with an average-sized sex organ, called a gonopodium. These fish out-compete the larger-endowed males in a predator-laden environment because they have a faster burst speed than the males with larger genitalia, thus avoiding predators and staying in the mating game.
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Old niche theory irrelevant as "Old Europe"
New book urges ecologists to think "outside the helmet" (http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/790.html)
April 7,
2004 --
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| Image courtesy of the Cellar Store, San Bernardino, CA. |
| A new book is persuading ecologists to think "outside the helmet". |
An ecologist at Washington University in St. Louis has co-authored a new book that is forcing the pith helmet set to "think outside the helmet." Jonathan M. Chase, Ph.D., assistant professor of biology in Arts& Sciences at Washington University and Mathew A. Leibold, Ph.D.,associate professor of integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, take on one of the tenets of ecology, niche theory, which holds that species evolve and thrive because of their particular environment and what activities they do to shape that environment, providing them their niche, if you will.
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Exposing evolutionary answers
Professor Jonathan Losos and his research team study lizards to understand the origins of diversification and how organisms survive (http://news-info.wustl.edu/news/page/normal/655.html)
Jan. 29,
2004 --
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| Photo by David Kilper |
| Professor Losos displays lab mascot, Morton, an Australian-bearded dragon. |
As professor of biology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University, Losos uses lizards to integrate questions of ecology and evolution. He seeks to better understand how organisms survive in their present-day environments, how they've changed over time to fit into those environments, and how they're continuing to change. "We can't go back in time," Losos says, "but we can see what happens today." And, if one sees well enough, one can extrapolate back to understand how similar changes have occurred over millions of years.
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