Acanthurus chirurgus This pancake-shaped reef fish is blue-gray to brown colored with thin, dark bars down its sides. It is sometimes offered as a fresh catch locally, but can cause ciguatera poisoning in humans. Handle with care during an encounter because of the sharp spines hidden in the c
Danger to Humans An unwary human who tries to handle the doctorfish risks the chances
Mycteroperca bonaci This oblong reef fish has small eyes over a protruding lower jaw, and a continuous dorsal fin that leads back to its square caudal (tail) fin. It’s an olive gray color with dark blotches and bronze hexagonal shapes on its head and sides. Like most groupers, these all start out
Danger to Humans There have been reported cases of ciguatera from human consumption
Ornithologists at the Florida Museum of Natural History are preparing to digitize nearly all of the museum’s analog bird-sound field recordings, one of the largest collections in the Western Hemisphere with 23,650 cataloged recordings representing about 3,000 species. Funded by the National Scien
Life on Earth Unique dove species is the dodo of the Caribbean and in similar danger
Pyrrolizidine alkaloids are as bitter and toxic as they are hard to pronounce. They’re produced by several different types of plants and are among the leading causes of accidental death in cattle. Plants that contain these alkaloids have made it very clear they don’t want to be consumed, but that
If bella moths perceive themselves to be in danger, they exude a frothy sphere of
The saying “Birds of a feather flock together” is being given new meaning by a study published in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society b. Flocking birds often travel in groups made up of a single species, in which individuals are nearly indistinguishable from one another, as noted by
For small to medium flocking birds, the biggest source of danger comes from above
Mobula hypostoma This smaller eagle ray looks like its cousins, with its diamond-shaped pectoral disc that is twice as wide as it is long, and its dark gray black top and ivory white underside. But the Atlantic devil ray is smaller, growing to only about 48 inches wide, and its long tail lacks a
Danger to Humans Rays in general are considered harmless and inoffensive.
From the jungles of Southeast Asia to the Greek Islands, Florida Museum of Natural History botanist Nico Cellinese has searched for the answers to how evolution works. But during fieldwork in the Mediterranean Basin—a biodiversity hotspot—she found more questions than answers. “There are so many
the Roucela group rare, Crowl is the first to point out they may actually be in danger
In November 2019, visitors to Joshua Tree National Park in California encountered a strange sight. Joshua trees and closely related Mojave yuccas, which normally remain reproductively dormant until late spring, were in full bloom at the tail end of autumn. In a new study, researchers at the Flori
Life on Earth Unique dove species is the dodo of the Caribbean and in similar danger
In a new study published in PNAS, researchers have extracted the first ancient DNA from Caribbean parrots, which they compared with genetic sequences from modern birds. Working with fossils and archaeological specimens, they showed that two species thought to be endemic to particular islands were on
They’re one of the only native parrots in the region not in imminent danger of extinction
Hypanus americanus These diamond-shaped rays are olive-brown to green-grey on top and creamy white underneath. Their pectoral fins can grow up to a total width of 79 inches, which they use to stir up the sandy ocean floor to either reveal crustaceans and small fish, or bury themselves to hide fro
Danger to Humans The southern stingray is a non-aggressive animal, posing little
