17 posts · 4,160 views
We present this blog with the intention to serve as a journal about the life on our planet. While we are not (yet) experts in the field, our enthusiasm and interest on the different lifeforms around this world came to provide texts and comments on new and relictic subjects. This blog came from the idea of entereing the blogroll of science writting and reviving our past sites in the subject, all in Portuguese language: BioData by Rafael and Biolista by Piter. The blog will serve as a sibling to our other existing journal, Poisor Tristesi, as well for discussing the representation of both extinct and extant life in art.
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- February 22, 2013
- 11:09 AM
- 164 views
Friday Fellow: Violaceous Longhorned Beetle
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Beetles are the most species-rich group of living beings on our planet, so it’s time for Friday Fellow bring you a representative of them. I’ve chosen my favorite species, the violaceous longhorned borer Compsocerus violaceus (White, … Continue reading →... Read more »
Garcia, H. A. (1994) Ocorrência e danos de Compsocerus violaceus (White, 1853) (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae) em pomar de citros. Anais das Escolas de Agronomia e Veterinária, 24(1), 148-153. info:/
- February 19, 2013
- 09:00 PM
- 201 views
A tree is more than just a tree
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Most ordinary people think of a tree as just that, a tree, a big plant with a hard tall stem which provides shade and oxygen and sometimes beautiful flowers or delicious fruits. So, it may not … Continue reading →... Read more »
Moeed, A., & Meads, M. J. (1983) Invertebrate fauna of four tree species in Orongorongo Valley, New Zealand, as revealed by trunk traps. New Zealand Journal of Ecology, 39-53. info:/
Zytynska, S., Fay, M., Penney, D., & Preziosi, R. (2011) Genetic variation in a tropical tree species influences the associated epiphytic plant and invertebrate communities in a complex forest ecosystem. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 366(1569), 1329-1336. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2010.0183
- February 8, 2013
- 02:13 AM
- 204 views
Friday Fellow: Corpse Flower
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll I guess most of you already know Rafflesia arnoldii, the corpse flower, as it is quite popular for a lot of reasons. But sometimes it’s nice to show the classics too, right? Described in 1822 by Robert … Continue reading →... Read more »
Brown, R. (1821) XV. An Account of a new Genus of Plants, named Rafflesia. Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, 13(1), 201-234. DOI: 10.1111/j.1095-8339.1821.tb00062.x
- January 25, 2013
- 09:16 AM
- 202 views
Where did milk come from? The mysterious origin of lactation in mammals.
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll In previous posts, I talked about two scientists who introduced “revolutionary” ideas to explain certain aspects in evolution, contradicting what other specialists use to say. But they come up with such unlikely explanations and use to … Continue reading →... Read more »
Oftedal, O. T. (2002) The origin of lactation as a water source for parchment-shelled eggs. Journal of mammary gland biology and neoplasia, 7(3), 253-66. PMID: 12751890
Oftedal, O. T. (2002) The mammary gland and its origin during synapsid evolution. Journal of mammary gland biology and neoplasia, 7(3), 225-52. PMID: 12751889
- January 4, 2013
- 05:48 AM
- 183 views
Friday Fellow: Giant Tube Worm
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Let’s dive deep into the ocean and talk about this awesome animal, the giant tube worm Riftia pachyptila. Initially classified in a separate phylum, Vestimentifera, today it is included in a family of Annelids called Sibloginidae. … Continue reading →... Read more »
Lopez-Garcia, P., Gaill, F., & Moreira, D. (2002) Wide bacterial diversity associated with tubes of the vent worm Riftia pachyptila. Environmental Microbiology, 4(4), 204-215. DOI: 10.1046/j.1462-2920.2002.00286.x
Minic, Z., & Hervé, G. (2004) Biochemical and enzymological aspects of the symbiosis between the deep-sea tubeworm Riftia pachyptila and its bacterial endosymbiont. European Journal of Biochemistry, 271(15), 3093-3102. DOI: 10.1111/j.1432-1033.2004.04248.x
Stewart FJ, & Cavanaugh CM. (2006) Symbiosis of thioautotrophic bacteria with Riftia pachyptila. Progress in molecular and subcellular biology, 197-225. PMID: 16623395
- December 23, 2012
- 11:06 AM
- 219 views
Does Retallack suffer from Williamson’s syndrome? The land-dwelling Ediacara controversy
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll As you may have heard, or read, a paper published this month in Nature claims that the famous Ediacaran biota, a set of fossils from the Ediacaran Period (ca. 635-542 Mya) of the Neoproterozoic Era, is … Continue reading →... Read more »
Retallack, G. (2012) Ediacaran life on land. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature11777
Retallack, G. (2007) Growth, decay and burial compaction of Dickinsonia, an iconic Ediacaran fossil. Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, 31(3), 215-240. DOI: 10.1080/03115510701484705
Switek, B. (2012) Controversial claim puts life on land 65 million years early. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/nature.2012.12017
- December 21, 2012
- 06:45 AM
- 154 views
Friday Fellow: American Cockroach
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Celebrating the end of the world, there would be no more suitable creature to be featured in our FF than the american cockroach, Periplaneta americana, so famous as a probable (or possible) survivor after a global cataclysm … Continue reading →... Read more »
Vianna, E. E. S., Berne, M. E. A., & Ribeiro, P. B. (2001) Desenvolvimento e longevidade de Periplaneta americana Linneu, 1758 (Blattodea: Blattidae). Revista Brasileira de Agrociências, 7(2), 111-115. info:/
- October 30, 2012
- 05:28 PM
- 206 views
Unknown whereabouts: the lack of biogeographical references of species
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Biogeography, as you may know, is the study of the distribution of species or ecosystems through the planet. The knowledge which comes from biogeographical surveys is valuable information for other areas, like ecology, evolutionary biology, geology … Continue reading →... Read more »
Froehlich, C. G. (1959) On Geoplanids from Brazil. Boletim da Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras da Universidade de São Paulo, Série Zoologia, 201-265. info:/
- October 5, 2012
- 07:37 AM
- 271 views
Friday Fellow: Grandidier’s Baobab
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Let’s expand the universe of Friday Fellow by presenting a plant for the first time! And what could be a better choice to start than the famous Grandidier’s Baobab? Belonging to the species Adansonia grandidieri, this tree is … Continue reading →... Read more »
Baum, D. A. (1995) A Systematic Revision of Adansonia (Bombacaceae). Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 440-470. DOI: 10.2307/2399893
- September 29, 2012
- 11:05 AM
- 325 views
Why thymine instead of uracil?
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll About a year ago, while I was in my class of Techniques of Molecular Diagnosis, an interesting doubt sprouted: why does DNA use thymine instead of uracil as RNA does? I hope everybody reading this knows … Continue reading →... Read more »
Jonsson, J. (1996) The Evolutionary Transition from Uracil to Thymine Balances the Genetic Code. Journal of Chemometrics, 163-170. DOI: 10.1002/(SICI)1099-128X(199603)10:2
- September 7, 2012
- 01:18 PM
- 153 views
Friday Fellow: Cramer’s Eighty Eight
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll This Friday I’ll talk about one of the most charismatic species of butterflies, at least here in Southern Brazil. Diaethria clymena, known as Cramer’s Eighty Eight or simply 88 Butterfly, is a small species which features a … Continue reading →... Read more »
Barbosa, E. P., Kaminski, L. A., & Freitas, A. V. L. (2010) Immature stages of the butterfly Diaethria clymena janeira (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae: Biblidinae) . Zoologia, 27(5), 696-702. DOI: 10.1590/S1984-46702010000500005
- August 10, 2012
- 12:38 PM
- 204 views
Friday Fellow: Bleeding Tooth Fungus
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Our species today is a beautiful fungus, Hydnellum peckii, the bleeding tooth fungus. It was described in 1913 by Howard J. Banker and named after the botanist C. H. Peck who collected it at North Elba, New … Continue reading →... Read more »
Banker, H. J. (1913) Type Studies in the Hydnaceae: V. The Genus Hydnellum. Mycologia, 5(4), 194-205. DOI: 10.2307/3753385
Shiryaev, A. (2008) Diversity and distribution of thelephoroid fungi (Basidiomycota, Thelephorales) in the Sverdlovsk region, Russia. Folia Cryptogamica Estonica, 131-141. info:/
- August 10, 2012
- 01:09 AM
- 199 views
How are little flatworms colored? A Geoplana vaginuloides analysis
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll As you already know, I work with land planarians, so there’s nothing more natural than seeing me talking about them. Today I’ll make a brief comment about the type species of the genus Geoplana which gives … Continue reading →... Read more »
Darwin, C. (1844) Brief Description of several Terrestrial Planariae, and of some remarkable Marine Species, with an Account of their Habits. Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 241-251. info:/
Prudhoe, S. (1949) Some roundworms and flatworms from the West Indies and Surinam. – IV. Land Planarians. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology, 41(281), 420-433. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1940.tb02415.x
- August 3, 2012
- 07:38 AM
- 162 views
Friday Fellow: ‘Soft Snake’
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll Our Friday Fellow today was chosen because it was seen in the last days in Brazilian news websites and blogs. Its name is Atretochoana eiselti and it is a rare species of caecilian amphibian found in Brazil. … Continue reading →... Read more »
Hoogmoed, M. S.; Maciel, A. O. and Coragem, J. T. (2011) Discovery of the largest lungless tetrapod, Atretochoana eiselti (Taylor, 1968) (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae), in its natural habitat in Brazilian Amazonia. Boletim do Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi : Ciências Naturais, 6(3), 241-262. info:/
Wilkinson, M.; Sebben, A; Schwartz, E. N. F. and Schwartz, C. A. (1998) The largest lungless tetrapod: report on a second specimen of Atretochoana eiselti (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Typhlonectidae) from Brazil. Journal of Natural History, 617-627. DOI: 10.1080/00222939800770321
- March 27, 2012
- 07:17 PM
- 319 views
What’s a species 1: Horizontal species concepts
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
by Piter Kehoma Boll What’s a species? Maybe to you that may sound like something too obvious to think about, but actually the concept of species is one of the most intriguing and controversial topics in biology. Sometimes it’s not … Continue reading →... Read more »
SMITH, D., LUSHAI, G., & ALLEN, J. (2005) A classification of Danaus butterflies (Lepidoptera: Nymphalidae) based upon data from morphology and DNA. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 144(2), 191-212. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.2005.00169.x
- January 16, 2012
- 12:37 PM
- 446 views
Why I Don’t Trust Jack Horner 1: The Holes in the Old Triceratops Idea
by Pangeia King in Earthling Nature
By Carlos Augusto Chamarelli As my friends know very well, I’m a fervent opponent of Jack Horner’s ideas. So naturally I had to start a series for analyzing and counter attacking some of his wackiest theories about dinosaur which, I … Continue reading →... Read more »
Scannella, J., & Horner, J. (2011) ‘Nedoceratops’: An Example of a Transitional Morphology. PLoS ONE, 6(12). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0028705
- December 18, 2011
- 02:43 AM
- 548 views
The Macaw of Dominica
by Piter Boll in Earthling Nature
Extinct Macaw from Dominica known only from a single report... Read more »
Clark, A. H. (1908) The Macaw of Dominica. Auk, 309-311. info:/
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