Barn swallow (Hirundo rustica), found throughout N. America,Europe, Asia, and Africa. They’re a natural form of pest control. Estimates suggest that they can consume around 60 insects per hour, including lots of mosquitoes 🦟 #birds#nature#ecology#NotMyPersonalPhoto#photography#biology#wildlife
Ever wonder how soft bodied creatures exert forces as they move? Now a new theory by @mchtweet & co reveals how starfish feet propel the echinoderms, how worms burrow & how squid propel their tentacles.
"Stranger than science fiction." That's how an ecologist describes a strange fungus that hijacks cicadas’ bodies and behavior, turning them into "zombies."
CNN reports on the the fungus Massospora cicadina and how it's impacting some of the cicadas emerging this year: https://flip.it/cxfw5K
Small but mighty, plankton are some of the most powerful creatures on Earth.
For @TheConversationUS, a marine conservationist writes: "Plankton are critical to marine ecosystems and to humans, but often glide under the radar of our interest."
Many years ago, on another platform, someone said that humans are digestive tracts that eventually evolved nervous systems and brains, and not the other way around.
And that has forever changed how I think about being human.
"The insect world is full of species of parasitic wasps that spend their infancy eating other insects alive. And for reasons that scientists don’t fully understand, they have repeatedly adopted and tamed wild, disease-causing viruses and turned them into biological weapons. Half a dozen examples already are described, and new research hints at many more."
Not sure, but feels like one thing about genes that is generally not popular knowledge is that it is all about interacting chemical gradients over time. So uhh if trying an analogy here… more like building sounds with a synth than blueprints of a building. Maybe someone actually expert in this has a better popularization? #genetics#biology
American geneticist Nettie Stevens died #OTD in 1912.
In 1905, Stevens published a pivotal paper detailing her observations on the mealworm beetle, Tenebrio molitor. She identified that male mealworms had a pair of unequal-sized chromosomes, while females had two X chromosomes. This discovery supported the theory that sex is determined by specific chromosomes, a significant advancement in the field of genetics.
Tip of a butterfly tongue. Dr. Stephen S. Nagy. Montana, USA. 750x.
Butterflies have chemoreceptors, or nerve cells that open onto the surface of their exoskeleton & react to the presence of different chemicals. #butterflies#biology#science#photography#nature#wildlife
Live water mount of Hydra viridissima (freshwater cnidarian) capturing Daphnia pulex (freshwater crustacean). Dr. Stephen Lowry. University of Ulster. Darkfield.
Magnification
10x #biology#science#microscopic#ecology#photography#nature