http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org Sat, 21 Nov 2009 00:35:04 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It has been a busy couple of months, hence no posts on THE RACE.  In my last one, I hope I made it clear that scientists have senses of humor (my favorite ones do, anyway).  Here’s another fact you might not know; regardless of what he or she ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/11/20/the-race-critter-and-people-updates/ Ever wonder why biologists use weird, hard-to-pronounce names for animal and plant species?  Well, it all started with Carl Linnaeus, the famous Swedish 18th Century botanist pictured below. In the 10th edition of his great work, Systema Naturae (1758), Linnaeus established a system  wherein  every living species is ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/08/18/the-race-new-species-or-whats-in-a-name/ Our colleague, Ricardo Lima, currently working on São Tomé has sent us another exciting photo; not of another São Tomé shrew this time, but of a large fish that we somehow missed during the island river surveys of GG I and GG II. Led by Dr. Tomio Iwamoto, we ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/07/09/the-race-new-fish-excitement/ Things have been very busy. Our flower people, Dr. Tom Daniel and Rebecca Wenk have been very active. Rebecca successfully completed her M.Sc . degree at San Francisco State University, based in part on plants she collected in the islands during GG III (A). She then published her research, ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/06/24/the-race-taming-of-the-shrew-and-updates/ Snakes are not great over-ocean dispersers; they are certainly better than frogs or freshwater fish but not as successful as spiders, geckos and skinks. For instance there are no native snakes in the Hawaiian Islands although they do occur in the Galapagos, but these are much closer to a source ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/05/05/within-the-house-of-slytherin-ii-some-snakes/ I have some bad news (maybe) and some good news:    The image below is what might be our bad news.  During GG III after the zoologists returned to Príncipe, our botanists and mycologists, Tom, Rebecca, Dennis and Brian did a little more work on the big island before flying home.  ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/03/16/the-race-bad-newsgood-news/ I have just heard that Alex Kim, the student at Thomas Jefferson High School of Science and Technology in Virginia has received the new freshwater prawns GG III (B) collected for him and is in the process of extracting DNA from the fresh tissues. As I mentioned in the last ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/02/20/the-race-return-of-the-marines-redux/  This is a brief update on the return of our people last weekend from Gulf of Guinea III (B). They were the marine component of the 2008-2009 expeditions (see Send in the Marines).  The focus of four of the group was the waters of Príncipe, the much older of the ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/02/10/the-race-return-of-the-marines/ Our race to discover and describe the unique fauna and flora of São Tomé and Príncipe continues, and the six members of Gulf of Guinea Expedition III (B) are diving in the ancient waters of Príncipe as I write; they return to the Academy next week.  As I wrote earlier, ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2009/01/26/the-race-within-the-house-of-slytherin-i-lizards/  Sorry, I love titles like this… and I have more!  Actually, there are no toads (Bufonidae) on São Tomé and Príncipe; interesting in itself because seven other amphibian species of five different families have survived the ocean crossing during the many millions of years since the islands first emerged. Moreover, ... http://islandbiodiversityrace.wildlifedirect.org/2008/12/15/the-race-a-toad-less-traveled/