The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

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The personal ramblings of a marine biologist. Current news, cool research, systematics, taxonomy, history of science and more.

Kevin Zelnio
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  • August 25, 2010
  • 09:00 PM
  • 49 views

Mahjong-Induced Seizures

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

Mahjong indoctrination starts early in China.
Anyone that knows me outside of the blogosphere, knows I won’t turn down a good game of Mahjong. Part of theĀ  fun is figuring out which scoring system your host is going to use, because I swear to to this day it changes by the minute. “Oh, is that a [...]... Read more »

  • August 21, 2010
  • 08:42 AM
  • 94 views

Myrmecomorphy

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

I absolutely adore the theory of evolution. It has a divine predictive, the results so wondrous in and of themselves. During my studies into symbiosis I have seen alot of strange and unusual adaptations, but the deeper I dig they more they keep getting stranger and stranger. The word this week is:
Myrmecomorphy
Top: [...]... Read more »

  • August 19, 2010
  • 08:17 AM
  • 40 views

Jumping Spiders Prefer Vegetated Corridors

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio


Barriers to dispersal come in all shapes and sizes and not all are obvious. Baker conducted experiments with jumping spiders, Phidippus princeps (Salticidae) in which he manipulated corridors connecting patches of old growth fields (clover and alfalfa). Patches were either not connected (bare corridors), all connected, or partly connected by vegetated corridors (see schema [...]... Read more »

  • August 15, 2010
  • 04:16 PM
  • 65 views

Wolf Spider Leg Regeneration Impairs Foraging

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

Study organism, photo from Uetz Lab (click through).
Wrinn & Uetz studied how leg loss and regeneration affected the condition, growth and development time of the wolf spider, Schizocosa ocreata (Lycosidae, photo at left). Spiders may amputate their legs as a defense strategy, but it’s not clear what trade-offs exist. For instance, if a spider [...]... Read more »

  • August 10, 2010
  • 09:08 PM
  • 56 views

Some Snails Prefer Doing It Anti-Chiral

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio

Most snails walk the line and stick with doing the dirty deed missionary-style. No one even thinks about any of that kinky, low-down, unholy ways of propagating the world. But Schilthuizen and colleagues report in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology (open access!) that one disgusting species of snail actually [...]... Read more »

SCHILTHUIZEN, M., CRAZE, P., CABANBAN, A., DAVISON, A., STONE, J., GITTENBERGER, E., & SCOTT, B. (2007) Sexual selection maintains whole-body chiral dimorphism in snails. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 20(5), 1941-1949. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2007.01370.x  

  • May 26, 2010
  • 03:40 PM
  • 200 views

Tahitian Tree Snail Avoid Extinction by Heading for the Mountains

by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio


Partula spp. from Society Islands. Photo Credit: Marc Agren
In a short, but sweet, paper by Lee et al. published in the Current Biology, there is a “glimmer of hope” for montane tahitian tree snails (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Partulidae, Partula spp.). They examined the mitochondrial haplotype diversity of tree snail specimens locked away [...]... Read more »

LEE, T., BURCH, J., JUNG, Y., COOTE, T., PEARCEKELLY, P., & OFOIGHIL, D. (2007) Tahitian tree snail mitochondrial clades survived recent mass extirpation. Current Biology, 17(13). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.006  

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