All of the figures above show an organisms’ life stages. Yet one is more likely to produce accurate responses to questions of survival, genetic variation, and change over time. Can you guess which one? Life cycles morphed over time. Early textbooks included plates (A) or scenic images with an animal’s life stages scattered throughout (B). … More Ecology, Evolution, & the Life Cycle Figure
By analyzing 57 biology textbooks published over the past 50 years, Rabiya Ansari and I found that climate change content is, well, rather understated. Our paper appears in PLOS ONE. The main takeaways are:1) the average amount of content in the 2010s is just 67 sentences (about 3 pages in a 1000+ page textbook), and … More Biology Textbooks Fall Short on Climate Change
Could the tales of giant serpent beings all over the world be inspired by whales?We’re still working on the research, but we won a Research Visualization contest! There were many EXCELLENT entries. We are honored!
If you walked into a party full of animals, only one in 40 party animals would have a backbone. And that one would probably be a fish. Furry and feathered animals are great, but they make up 15,000 species out of almost 10 million (that’s less than 1% for any of you without a calculator … More Animal Diversity Personality Quiz
I love microscopes. The obsession started when I was a junior in college. I landed this awesome job identifying rotifers and other tiny organisms in many water samples (the project compared these animal assemblages in the river upstream and downstream of a nuclear power plant). It’s awe-inspiring to think that this whole world exists, with … More I LOVE MICROSCOPES
While the world is focused on a pandemic, there’s an even larger set of problems that we’d prefer to ignore. Human resource consumption passed the world’s ability to sustain it over 50 years ago. We’re in an extinction event (only the 6th one since in 600 million years). Glaciers melting, freshwater supplies decreasing, soil fertility … More A New Project: Immersive Experience in Sustainable Living (IESL)
Each year, as my Biological Illustration class wraps up, we hold an End-of-Semester Exhibit. The students frame their favorite illustration, write artist statements, and display their work on easels throughout the biology building. I enjoy seeing the students’ well-deserved pride in their work. THIS is the result of intrinsic motivation, something I wish I could … More Virtual Exhibit
Our guest blogger and student illustrator this week is L. Howard. Download a pdf of this illustration to color! The arm bones of a dolphin match the arm bones of a human – a case of homology. Dolphin ancestors were once land-dwelling mammals. Even though they look very fish-like today, they still contain remnants of … More Dolphins, Fins, and Change
Our Guest Artist is L. Ciccone, who looked into plant-animal mutualism. Download a coloring book page of this illustration! Plants have many diverse ways of repelling predators, including developing beneficial partnerships This species, Japanese cherry is commonly used as a decorative tree throughout the eastern United States. In order to defend new leaves from being … More A Little Give and Take
Our guest illustrator is P. Martineau, who drew this skeleton of a red-eared slider. Download a page to color and learn how the turtle moves with its hips and shoulders inside its ribs! (Hint: look at those curved arm bones)
J.M. Landin 