Category: Anatomy
Environmental Stress Hypothesis
November 10, 2022The past 2.000.000 years have seen an increase in estimated body size among most Homo species from an average of 50 to 70 kg. Environmental challenges, such as arid conditions and low resource availability or habitat instability and resource fluctuation, faced by hominin species, are often overcome by…
Big Hand Hug
June 29, 2022Micro Insects
April 20, 2022There are clear advantages to becoming very small. Micro-organisms gain access to new niches, acquire new food sources and avoid predation. They shrink towards abundance. Yet there are limiting factors to how small an animal can become including the disruption of thermoregulation or respiration, water…
Lancelot’s Pony
January 22, 2022Butterfly Goalie
January 18, 2022MCR3
November 7, 2021Short-Tongued Bombus
April 10, 2021A study in Science shows that in a period of just 40 years two alpine bumblebee species (Bombus balteatus and Bombus sylvicola) rapidly evolved significantly shorter tongues. Short-tongued species are more generalist foragers, able to feed on many different types of flowers. They are replacing more specialised, long-tongued…