News & Events

New research of oxygen isotopes in clamshells is providing valuable data. The level of oxygen isotopes vary with the temperature of the water in which they live. The colder the water, the higher the proportion of oxygen-18. Because the shells of the animals grow continuously they allow scientists to determine not only changes in average annual temperatures, but also how these changes affect individual summers and winters.

So far wild gorillas have been known to abstain from eating animals and feast mostly on plants, fruit and the occasional insect. But recent testing of the animals' feces found DNA of monkeys and duikers, small forest antelopes. However, gorillas are known to eat ants that scavenge the carcasses and bones of monkey and other animals so more research must be done to prove they do indeed occasionally eat other mammals.

Researchers have found that mammals who spend the majority of their time up a tree enjoy longevity over those who scurry along the ground. By looking at 776 species of mammals, scientists have found that on average, tree-dwellers live longer than their similarly sized land-hugging counterparts. Animals that spend only part of their time in trees have lifespans that either lie somewhere between two extremes or cluster at one end.

DNA from a 110,000-130,000-year-old polar bear jawbone fossil has been successfully sequenced. The genome indicates when polar bears diverged from their nearest common relative, the brown bear.

Biological oceanographer Andrew Pershing is lobbying for carbon credits for whale conservation.

Recently grizzly bears have been spotted in Manitoba, Canada, where biologists say only polar bears are usually found.