From roly-polies to trilobites, animals have been curling up the same way for millions of years. Simple behaviours sometimes evolve into entire lifestyles. From bugs to armadillos, thousands of animals today curl up; they are able to shape their bodies into a ball, becoming the ultimate defence strategy. Among all animals able to “roll”, arthropods…
Why do things keep evolving into ants?
Ants represent one of the most striking cases of convergent evolution on Earth. Thousands of species, from spiders to crickets have evolved to resemble ants through a process known as Myrmecomorphy. Myrmecomorphy takes different shapes: sometimes, insects are trying to enter an ant’s nest undetected, a strategy known as Wasmannian mimicry. In other cases, the goal is to fool a potential predator by looking like an ant, or Batesian mimicry. Why do animals evolve into ants?
The 500-million-year old shrimps that wore a shield: Beyond the carapace (I)
Around 500-million-years ago, all macroscopic life was still living underwater. Animals were still relatively young, and plants still had tens of millions of years to evolve and claim the land. You have probably heard about this time: the Cambrian period. The Cambrian is probably one of most popular paleontological eras without dinosaurs (in fact, almost…
Ancient languages and ancient forests, how diversity hints history
Last year I was on an adventure exploring the concept of refugia. Many animals and cultures used to be widely spread, in the past, but today, can only be found sparsely. The Canary Island flora is an example of that: ecosystems like the laurel forest used to be widespread across Europe, but went extinct during the Ice Ages, thus becoming relict species. Similarly, many Pyrenees villages still have extremely unique toponyms. The names of these villages may be related to the Euskara language. Euskara, or Basque, is only spoken today in northern Spain, but used to be widespread across the Pyrenees before languages like latin or greek arrived. These basque-related names have survived to our days, but every other trace of that language in the region is long gone.
Our croaky Gods: frogs across creational myths
Cultures around the world have created unique mythologies surrounding frogs. In ancient Egypt, Heqet and the Ogdoads were god frogs associated with fertility. For the Penobscot, a giant frog used to hoard all the water in the world, until a hero killed it and released the rivers. In ancient mongolian myths, Buddha was only able to create all elements with the help of a frog. Why do such different cultures have similar frog mythologies, always related to water, fertility or transformation? What does this tell us about humanities’ deepest worries and hopes?
Hornworts, or the nature of discovery
What is discovery made of? Which are the ingredients? And how are the different ingredients combined into “finding something new”? I’ll try to give some perspectives on this, through my personal experience with a botanical discovery (which lead to my first scientific publication). Losing the way is the way I guess most botanists/naturalists have a…
Art and science: navigating the maze in the 19th century
Let’s begin with a little quiz… Which historical character said… Classification is Ariadna’s thread in the Dedalus of nature. So concise and poetic. Any guesses? The answer is Aurore Dupin, better known by her pen name: George Sand¹. Aurore Dupin (1804 – 1876) was a French writer, socialist and feminist. Her…
Are viruses even alive? 2-Viruses and the definition of life
It is not clear whether viruses are alive or not. All life in this planet follows a series of rules that separate them from non-living beings., but viruses do not seem to follow them, exactly. We reviewed how viruses works and what constitutes life in Are viruses even alive? 1- What is life? Here, we go…
Are viruses even alive? 1- What is life?
Virus literally translates to slime or poison in latin, a sufficient word to define these organisms. It is but a highly simplistic depiction of a much more complex entity. The current coronavirus pandemic is defining everyone’s life. There are thousands of articles and videos talking about coronaviruses, and we encourage anyone to get informed only…
Strangers in the animal tree (FINALE)
It has been a long while since the latest post in Onelephantsandbacteria, but we wanted to complete the series of Strangers in the Animal tree. That may represent a new renaissance on the blog, or at least, another small step to keep it alive. Animals are fascinating examples of life on Earth and their evolutionary…
On elephants and bacteria 