Spokes 2: Notes

Spokes 2: The Web of Life   Research References   (Table of Contents)

Common knowledge for Spokes obtained from various encyclopedias and dictionaries, including Encyclopedia Britannica, Everipedia, New World Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, World Book Encyclopedia, Scholarpedia, Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, Oxford Dictionary, Dictionary.com, and the infotainment serpent known as the Internet.

The author especially thanks those artists and photographers who freely provide their work for reproduction. The images in the Spokes series are often incidental to the content, but do help to accent a point. The images of life especially provide a modest reminder of the wondrous beauty in Nature.

The Web of Life
David Attenborough, Life, BBC Worldwide (2010).
Steven Vogel, Life’s Devices, Princeton University Press (1988).
Defining Life – History
Nurit Bird-David, “Animism revisited: personhood, environment, and relational epistemology,” Current Anthropology 40: 67–91 (1991).
Elizabeth A. Williams, “A cultural history of medical vitalism,” in Enlightenment Montpellier, Routledge (2003).
William Bechtel & Robert C. Richardson, “Vitalism,” in Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Routledge (1998).
Peter Lipson, “The death and rebirth of vitalism,” Science-Based Medicine (24 June 2009).
Life Defined
Paul Davies, The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin and Meaning of Life, Simon & Schuster (2015).
David McFarland (editor), The Oxford Companion to Animal Behavior, Oxford University Press (1981).
Intelligence
Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, Merriam Webster (2002).
Aubrey Manning & Marian Stamp Dawkins, An Introduction to Animal Behavior, Cambridge University Press (1998).
Communication
Paul Watzlawick et al, Pragmatics of Human Communication: A Study of Interactional Patterns, Pathologies and Paradoxes, Norton (2011).
Heather M. Whitney et al, “The influence of pigmentation patterning on bumblebee foraging from flowers of Antirrhinum majus,” Naturwissenschaften (February 2013).
Katrina Alcorn et al, “Flower movement increases pollinator preference for flowers with better grip,” Functional Ecology 26(4): 941–947 (August 2012).
Ivan Marazzi et al, “Suppression of the antiviral response by an influenza histone mimic,” Nature 483: 428–433 (22 March 2012).
Justin R. Meyer et al, “Repeatability and contingency in the evolution of a key innovation in phage lambda,” Science 335(6067): 428–432 (27 January 2012).
Tal Kramer & Lynn W. Enquist, “Alphaherpesvirus infection disrupts mitochondrial transport in neurons,” Cell Host & Microbe 11(5): 504–514, (17 May 2012).
Fake Feces
Eunice J. Tan et al, “Why do orb-weaving spiders (Cyclosa ginnaga) decorate their webs with silk spirals and plant detritus?,” Animal Behaviour 79(1): 179–186 (January 2010).
Min-Hui Liu et al, “Evidence of bird dropping masquerading by a spider to avoid predators,” Scientific Reports (29 May 2014).
Sarah Zielinski, “Bird dropping disguise proves to be effective camouflage,” Science News (6 June 2014).
Telltale Smell
“Mosquitoes: how we smell is why they bite,” ScienceDaily (2 July 2012).
Allison F. Carey et al, “Odorant reception in the malaria mosquito Anopheles gambiae,” Nature 464: 66–71 (4 March 2010).
Cleaner Fish
Janine W.Y. Wong & Nico K. Michiels, “Control of social monogamy through aggression in a hermaphroditic shrimp,” Frontiers in Zoology (11 November 2011).
Cellular Communication
“Seeing cell membranes in a new light,” ScienceDaily (1 November 2018).
Zheng Shi et al, “Cell membranes resist flow,” Cell (1 November 2018).
Hyun Youk & Wendell A. Lim, “Secreting and sensing the same molecule allows cells to achieve versatile social behaviors,” Science 343: 1242782-1–1242782-9 (7 February 2014).
Arupratan Das et al, “Flippase-mediated phospholipid asymmetry promotes fast Cdc42 recycling in dynamic maintenance of cell polarity,” Nature Cell Biology (19 February 2012).
Anna Jisu Lee & Lingchong You, “Cells listen to their inner voice,” Science 343: 624–625 (7 February 2014).
Michael C. Abt et al, “Commensal bacteria calibrate the activation thresh-old of innate antiviral immunity,” Immunity (14 June 2012).
Stephanie K. Lathrop et al, “Peripheral education of the immune system by colonic commensal microbiota,” Nature 478: 250–254 (13 October 2011).
Mitch Leslie, “Gut microbes keep rare immune cells in line,” Science 335: 1428 (23 March 2012).
Vanessa Sperandio, “Virulence or competition?,” Science 336: 1238–1239 (27 January 2012).
Intracellular Communication
“A dictionary of the language of cells,” Phys.org (22 July 2015).
“Body’s own recycling system: researchers discover ‘molecular emergency brake’ in charge of regulating self-digestion,” ScienceDaily (12 October 2012).
Melissa Chesarone-Cataldo et al, The myosin passenger protein Smy1 controls actin cable structure and dynamics by acting as a formin damper,” Developmental Cell 21 (2): 217 (2011).
Pekka Lappalainen, “Protein modification fine-tunes the cell’s force producers,” Nature (9 January 2019).
Kevin Thurley et al, “Reliable encoding of stimulus intensities within random sequences of intracellular Ca2+ spikes,” Science Signaling 7(331): ra59 (24 June 2014).
Andreas Blees et al, “Structure of the human MHC-I peptide-loading complex,” Nature (November 2017).
“How cells filter status updates,” ScienceDaily (15 November 2017).
C.A. Janeway et al, “The major histocompatibility complex and its functions,” in Immunobiology: The Immune System in Health and Disease, Garland Science (2001).
Clotilde Théry et al, “Exosomes: composition, biogenesis and function,” Nature Reviews Immunology (1 August 2002).
Peter Cresswell et al, “The nature of the MHC class I peptide loading complex,” Cell Biology and Tumor Biology (1999).
“Biological signal processing: body cells – instrumentalists in a symphony orchestra,” ScienceDaily (3 July 2014).
Stephan Wagner et al, “The ef-hand ca2+ binding protein MICU choreographs mitochondrial ca2+ dynamics in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell (November 2015).
“How plant cell compartments ‘chat’ with each other,” Phys.org (4 November 2015).
Electrons
Mingyue Gou et al, “Cytochrome b5 is an obligate electron shuttle protein for syringyl lignin biosynthesis in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell (April 2019).
“‘Electron shuttle’ protein plays key role in plant cell-wall construction,” ScienceDaily (8 April 2019).
Yaohui Sun et al, “Infection-generated electric field in gut epithelium drives bidirectional migration of macrophages,” PLoS Biology (9 April 2019).
“Bacteria flip an electric switch to worsen food poisoning,” ScienceDaily (9 April 2019).
Prokaryote Palindromes
Prokaryote Palindromes
Kirstine L. Bendtsen et al, “Toxin inhibition in C. crescentus VapBC1 is mediated by a flexible pseudo-palindromic protein motif and modulated by DNA binding,” Nucleic Acids Research (19 December 2016).
“Secret code language of bacteria revealed,” ScienceDaily (21 December 2016).
Julien Guglielmini & Laurence Van Melderen, “Bacterial toxin-antitoxin systems,” Mobile Genetic Elements 1(4): 283-290 (1 November 2011).
Rebecca Page & Wolfgang Peti, “Toxin-antitoxin systems in bacterial growth arrest and persistence,” Nature Chemical Biology 12: 208-214 (18 March 2016).
Intercellular Communication
Nagarajan Nandagopal et al, “Dynamic ligand discrimination in the notch signaling pathway,” Cell 172(4): 869-880 (8 February 2018).
“Intercellular communication system is found to encode and transmit more messages than previously thought,” Phys.org (16 February 2018).
“How plants decide on a pattern for a new leaf,” ScienceDaily (27 October 2017).
Sandy Evangelista, “Cancer cells can communicate over longer distances within the body,” Phys.org (10 May 2019).
Damianos S. Skopelitis et al, “Boundary formation through a direct threshold-based readout of mobile small RNA gradients,” Developmental Cell 43(3): 265-273 (6 November 2017).
“Cells’ ‘molecular muscles’ help them sense and respond to their environments,” Phys.org (20 October 2013).
Tianzhi Luo et al, “Molecular mechanisms of cellular mechanosensing,” Nature Materials 12: 1064–1071 (20 October 2013).
Ginés Morata & Salvador C. Herrera, “Eiger triggers death from afar,” eLife 2:e01388 (24 September 2013).
Ainhoa Pérez-Garijo et al, “Apoptotic cells can induce nonautonomous apoptosis through the TNF pathway,” eLife 2:e10004 (24 September 2013).
John G. Lock et al, “Reticular adhesions are a distinct class of cell-matrix adhesions that mediate attachment during mitosis,” Nature Cell Biology (22 October 2018).
Rafael Arrojo e Drigo et al, “Age mosaicism across multiple scales in adult tissues,” Cell Metabolism (6 June 2019).
“How old are your organs? To scientists’ surprise, organs are a mix of young and old cells,” Phys.org (6 June 2019).
Sweet Talk
Nathan Sharon & Halina Lis, “Carbohydrates in cell recognition,” Scientific American 82–89 (January 1993).
Rosa M. Espinosa-Marzal et al, “Sugars communicate through water: orietned glycans induce water structuring,” Biophysical Journal 104(12): 2686–2694 (18 June 2013).
Stem Cell Conference
Junling Jia et al, “Regulation of pluripotency and self- renewal of ESCs through epigenetic-threshold modulation and mRNA pruning,” Cell 151(3): 576–589 (26 October 2012).
Wounds
Erica K. Shannon et al, “Multiple mechanisms drive calcium signal dynamics around laser-induced epithelial wounds,” Biophysical Journal 113: 1623-1635 (3 October 2017).
“Cell signals that trigger wound healing are surprisingly complex,” ScienceDaily (3 October 2017).
Communal Encyclopedia
David Scanlan, “Bacterial vesicles in the ocean,” Science 343: 143–144 (10 January 2014).
Brooke L. Deatherage & Brad T. Cookson, “Membrane vesicle release in bacteria, eukaryotes, and archaea: a conserved yet underappreciated aspect of microbial life,” Infection and Immunity 80(6): 1948–1957 (June 2012).
Steven J. Biller et al, “Bacterial vesicles in marine ecosystems,” Science 343(6167): 183–186 (10 January 2014).
Primary Cilia
James R. Davenport & Bradley K. Yoder, “An incredible decade for the primary cilium: a look at a once-forgotten organelle,” American Journal of Physiology: Renal Physiology 289 (6): F1159–F1169 (2005).
Mike Adams, “The primary cilium: an orphan organelle finds a home,” Nature Education 3(9): 54 (2010).
Sergei I. Fokin, “Life of Alexander Onufrievich Kowalevsky (1840–1901),” Evolution & Development 14(1): 3–8 (February 2012).
Mary Beth Gardiner, “The importance of being cilia,” HHMI Bulletin 18:2 (September 2005).
Communication Lines
Wallace Ravven, “Antenna on cell surface is key to development and disease,” The New York Times (19 May 2009).
Juan Song et al, “Neuronal circuitry mechanism regulating adult quiescent neural stem-cell fate decision,” Nature (29 July, 2012).
Tina Hesman Saey, “Nouveaux antennas,” Science News 16–18 (3 November 2012).
“Brain’s stem cells ‘eavesdrop’ to find out when to act,” ScienceDaily (6 August 2012).
Pernille Rørth, “Reach out and touch someone,” Science 343: 848–849 (21 February 2014).
Killer Diagrams
“Immune system fighters speak in patterns of proteins, prefer squishy partners,” ScienceDaily (26 October 2012).
Cancer Calls
Margaritis Voliotis et al, “Information transfer by leaky, heterogeneous, protein kinase signaling systems,” PNAS (6 January 2014).
“Secondary goals,” The Economist (15 February 2014).
Media
Light
M. Hagedorn & W. Heiligenberg “Court and spark: electric signals in the courtship of mating gymnotid fish,” Animal Behaviour 33: 254–265 (1985).
“Romancing the firefly,” ScienceDaily (26 June 2012).
Brian C. Leavell et al, “Fireflies thwart bat attack with multisensory warning,” Science Advances (22 August 2018).
Yvaine Ye, “Fireflies don’t just glow for sex – they do it to warn away bats too,” New Scientist (22 August 2018).
Karen Marchetti, “Dark habitats and bright birds illustrate the role of the environment in species divergence,” Nature 362: 149-152 (11 March 1993).
Sayoko Ueda et al, “A comparison of facial color pattern and gazing behavior in canid species suggests gaze communication in gray wolves (Canis lupus),” PLoS One 9(6): e98217 (June 2014).
Innes C. Cuthill et al, “The biology of color,” Science 357(6350) (4 August 2017).
Jennifer Wathan & Karen McComb, “The eyes and ears are visual indicators of attention in domestic horses,” Current Biology 4(15): R677–R679 (4 August 2014).
Juvenile cherry-crowned mangabey monkey photo courtesy of Keven Law.
Fireflies Alight
A. South & S.M. Lewis, “Determinants of reproductive success across sequential episodes of sexual selection in a firefly,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (25 April 2012).
Bioluminescence
R.E. Young & C.F. Roper, “Bioluminescent countershading in midwater animals: evidence from living squid,” Science 191 (4231): 1046–1048 (12 March 1976).
Hannah Rosen et al, “Chromogenic behaviors of the Humboldt squid (Dosidicus gigas) studied in situ with an animal-borne video package,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 218: 265–275 (2015).
Sound
Dawn D. Bennett, “Making sense of animal sounds,” Science News 127: 314–317 (18 May 1985).
Emily J. Mockford et al, “Degradation of rural and urban great tit song: testing transmission efficiency,” PLoS One 6 (12): e28242 (12 December 2011).
R.C. Paul & T.J. Walker, “Arboreal singing in a burrowing cricket, Anurogryllus arboreus,” Journal of Comparative Physiology 132: 217–223 (1979).
E. R. Staaterman et al, “Rumbling in the benthos: acoustic ecology of the California mantis shrimp Hemisquilla californiensis,” Aquatic Biology 13 (2): 97–105 (2011).
P.R. Marler & W.J. Hamilton III, Mechanisms of Animal Behavior, John Wiley & Sons (1966).
Phillip Ball, “Sounding out the science of whale song,” Nature News (5 November 1999).
Echolocation
Gloriana Chaverri & Erin H. Gillam, “Sound amplification by means of a horn-like roosting structure in Spix’s disc-winged bat,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (16 October 2013).
Eran Amichai et al, “Calling louder and longer: how bats use biosonar under severe acoustic interference from other bats,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (23 December 2015).
“How bats recognize their own ‘bat signals’,” ScienceDaily (28 January 2016).
Coen P. H. Elemans et al, “Superfast muscles set maximum call rate in echolocating bats,” Science 333: 1885-1888 (30 September 2011).
Genevieve Spanjer Wright et al, “Social calls predict foraging success in big brown bats,” Current Biology (27 March 2014).
Aaron J. Corcoran & William E. Conner, “Bats jamming bats: food competi-tion through sonar interference,” Science 346(6210): 745–747 (7 November 2014).
K.E. Jones et al, “Bats, clocks, and rocks: diversification patterns in chiroptera,” Evolution 59 (10): 2243–2255 (2005).
Annemarie Surlykke & Elisabeth K. V. Kalko, “Echolocating bats cry out loud to detect their prey,” PLoS One (30 April 2008).
Li Gao et al, “Ear deformations give bats a physical mechanism for fast adaptation of ultrasonic beam patterns,” Physical Review Letters, 107: 214301–214306 (14 November 2011).
Coen P. H. Elemans et al, “Superfast muscles set maximum call rate in echolocating bats,” Science 333 (6051): 1885–1888 (30 September 2011).
James A. Simmons, “Temporal binding of neural responses for focused attention in biosonar,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (15 August 2014).
Yossi Yovel et al, “Active control of acoustic field-of-view in a biosonar system,” PLoS Biology 9 (9): e1001150 (September 2011).
Electrical
Mohamed Y. El-Naggar et al, “Electrical transport along bacterial nanowires from ♦Shewanella oneidensis MR-1,” PNAS 107(42): 18127–18131 (19 October 2010).
Dominic Clarke et al, “Detection and learning of floral electric fields by bumblebees,” Science (21 February 2013).
Kenneth Catania, “The shocking predatory strike of the electric eel,” Science 346(6214): 1231–1234 (5 December 2014).
Susan Milius, “Electric eels remote-control nervous systems of prey,” Science News (4 December 2014).
Christine N. Bedore et al, “Freezing behaviour facilitates bioelectric crypsis in cuttlefish faced with predation risk,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (2 December 2015).
Henry Nicholls, “Zoology Notes 10: cuttlefish can hide their electrical signals,” The Guardian (3 December 2015).
Chemical
Edward O. Wilson, “Chemical communication in the social insects,” Science (3 September 1965).
“Wisdom of crowds,” The Economist (8 April 2009).
“Two ‘noses’ are necessary for flies to navigate well,” ScienceDaily (26 December 2007).
Azteca Ants & Phorid Flies
Hsun-Yi Hsieh et al, “Cascading trait-mediated interactions induced by ant pheromones,” Ecology and Evolution (27 July 2012).
“Predatory beetles eavesdrop on ants’ chemical conversations to find best egg-laying sites,” ScienceDaily (3 August 2012).
Nematodes & Fungi
Andreas H. Ludewig & Frank C. Schroeder, “Ascaroside signaling in C. elegans,” WormBook 18: 1–22 (January 2013).
Sylvia Anaid Diaz et al, “Diverse and potentially manipulative signalling with ascarosides in the model nematode C. elegans,” BMC Evolutionary Biology 14(1): 46 (11 March 2014).
Yen-Ping Hsueh et al, “Nematode-trapping fungi eavesdrop on nematode pheromones,” Current Biology 23(1): 83–86 (7 January 2013).
Moth Advertising
D.B. Dusenberry, Sensory Ecology, W.H. Freeman (1992).
Benthic Scents
Mark Hay, “Chemistry as the language of life,” The New York Times (14 October 2011).
Kerstin E. Thonhauser et al, “Scent marking increases male reproductive success in wild house mice,” Animal Behaviour 86(5): 1013–1021 (No-vember 2013).
Stimuli
D.L. Clark & G.W. Uetz, “Morph-independent mate selection in a dimorphic jumping spider: demonstration for movement bias in female choice using video-controlled courtship behaviour,” Animal Behaviour 43: 247–254 (1992).
Greg Miller, “Behavioral neuroscience uncaged,” Science 306: 432–434 (15 October 2004).
H. Proctor, “Courtship behavior in the water mite Neumania papillator,” Animal Behaviour 42: 589–598 (1991).
C. Lofstedt et al, “Diet related courtship success in the Oriental fruit moth Grapholita molesta (Tortricidae),” Oikos 55: 1402–1408 (1989).
Noise
“Underwater noise decreases whale communications in Stellwagen Bank sanctuary,” NOAA (15 August 2012).
John Pickrell, “U.S. Navy sonar may harm killer whales, expert says,” National Geographic News (31 March 2004).
“Lethal sounds,” National Resources Defense Council (6 October 2008).
Miguel Llanos, “Navy raises sonar impact on dolphins, whales dramatically,” NBC News (11 May 2012).
“How navy sonar kills whales and dolphins,” Seattle PI (2012).
Kieran Mulvaney, “Navy admits whales and dolphins in harm’s way,” Discovery News (6 July 2012).
Pete Yost, “U.S. Navy wins dispute over sonar, whales,” National Geographic News (13 November 2008).
Susan Milius, “Chicks do worse in noisy nests,” Science News 182(2): 8 (28 July 2012).
“Birds sing louder amidst the noise and structures of the urban jungle,” ScienceDaily (22 February 2012).
“Grasshoppers change their tune to stay tuned over traffic noise,” ScienceDaily (13 November 2012).
Alexandra Witze, “How to hear above the cocktail party din,” Science News (3 January 2011).
Oliver M. Bannard & Jason G. Cyster, “When less signaling is more,” Science 336(6085): 1120–1121 (1 June 2012).
Ashraf M. Khalil et al, “B cell receptor signal transduction in the gc is short-circuited by high phosphatase activity,” Science 336(6085): 1178–1181 (1 June 2012).
Evolution
John Alcock, Animal Behavior, Sinauer Associates (2005).
David Maximiliano Gómez et al, “Language universals at birth,” PNAS (8 April 2014).
Mangrove Snapper
Susan Milius, “Baby fish are noisier than expected,” Science News 186(10): 9 (15 November 2014).
Spotted Hyena
Spotted hyena drawing courtesy of Thomas Pennant (1726 – 1798).
“Spot the difference,” The Economist (22 February 2014).
Kevin R. Theis et al, “Symbiotic bacteria appear to mediate hyena social odors,” PNAS (15 October 2013).
“Bacteria may allow animals to send quick, voluminous messages,” Phys.org (11 November 2013).
Kevin R. Theis et al, “Evidence for a bacterial mechanism for group-specific social odors among hyenas,” Scientific Reports (30 August 2012).
Coinciding Interests
“Nice organisms finish first: Why cooperators always win in the long run,” Phys.org (1 August 2013).
J.R. Krebs & R. Dawkins, “Animal signals: mind reading and manipula-tion,” in Behavioural Ecology: An Evolutionary Approach, 2nd edition 380–402, Blackwell Scientific Publications (1984).
Springbok stotting photo courtesy of Yathin sk.
John W. Wilson et al, “Cheetahs, Acinonyx jubatus, balance turn capacity with pace when chasing prey,” Biology Letters (4 September 2013).
Melissa Hellmann, “And the world’s new fastest land animal is…,” TIME (30 April 2014).
R. Kilner & R.A. Johnstone, “Begging the question: are offspring solicita-tion behaviours signals of need?” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 12(1): 11–15 (1997).
Recognition
Susan Milius, “Impatiens plants are more patient with siblings,” Science News (12 November 2009).
“Plants recognize their siblings, biologists discover,” ScienceDaily (13 June 2007).
Susan Milius, “Face smarts,” Science News (6 October 2012).
D. Baracchi et al, “Speed and accuracy in nest-mate recognition: a hover wasp prioritizes face recognition over colony odour cues to minimize intrusion by outsiders,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (4 February 2015).
“These wasps remember a friend’s face,” Nature World News (10 February 2015).
Helen Thompson, “Tropical wasps memorize friendly faces,” Science News (5 February 2015).
Michael J. Sheehan, et al, “Specialized face learning is associated with individual recognition in paper wasps,” Science 334: 1272–1274 (4 December 2011).
Alla Katsnelson, “Wasp clock faces like humans,” Nature News (1 December 2011).
Markus Boeckie & Thomas Bugnyar, “Long-term memory for affiliates in ravens,” Current Biology 22: 1–6 (8 May 2012).
Yossi Yovel et al, “The voice of bats: how greater mouse-eared bats recognize individuals based on their echolocation calls,” PLoS Computational Biology (5 June 2009).
Kinship
David W. Pfennig & Paul W. Sherman, “Kin recognition,” Scientific American 98–103 (June 1995).
Sage Rats
Belding’s ground squirrel photo courtesy of Alan Vernon.
Status Sniff
Daniel W. Wesson, “Sniffing behavior communicates social hierarchy,” Current Biology (7 March 2013).
Tina Hesman Saey, “Yeast use scents to entice fruit flies,” Science News 186(10): 13 (15 November 2014).
Audience Effect
Davy Ung et al, “Heaven it’s my wife! Male canaries conceal extra-pair courtships but increase aggressions when their mate watches,” PLoS One (9 August 2011).
Anne C. Keddy Hector et al, “Male parental care, female choice and the effect of an audience in vervet monkeys,” Animal Behaviour 38: 262–271 (August 1989).
Simon W. Townsend & Klaus Zuberbuhler, “Audience effects in chimpanzee copulation calls,” Communicative & Integrative Biology 2: 282–284 (15 June 2009).
Gabrielle Tachon et al, “Agonistic displays and the benefits of fighting in the field cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus,” Journal of Insect Behavior 12(4): 533-543 (July 1999).
Anna C. Price & F. Helen Rodd, “The effect of social environment on male–male competition in guppies (Poecilia reticulata),” Ethology (12 January 2006).
Rui F. Oliveira et al, “Know thine enemy: fighting fish gather information from observing conspecific interactions,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (22 June 1998).
Claire Doutrelant & Peter K. McGregor, “Eavesdropping and mate choice in female fighting fish,” Behaviour 137(12): 1655–1668 (2000).
Marc Naguib & Dietmar Todt, “Effects of dyadic vocal interactions on other conspecific receivers in nightingales,” Animal Behaviour 54(6): 1535–1543 (December 1997).
Mathieu Amy & Gérard Leboucher, “Effects of eavesdropping on subse-quent signalling behaviours in male canaries,” Ethology (29 January 2009).
Honesty
James P. Higham, “How does honest costly signaling work?,” Behavioral Ecology 25(1): 8-11 (1 January 2014).
Ryan J. Weaver et al, “What maintains signal honesty in animal colour displays used in mate choice?,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (22 May 2017).
Positive Polarization
Amina Khan, “Before mating with peacocks, females check out males’ backsides,” Los Angeles Times (14 November 1986).
Angela R.Freeman & James F.Hare, “Infrasound in mating displays: a peacock’s tale,” Animal Behaviour 102: 241-250 (April 2015).
Gina M. Calabrese et al, “Polarization signaling in swordtails alters female mate preference,” PNAS (2 September 2014).
Timothy York et al, “Bioinspired polarization imaging sensors: from circuits and optics to signal processing algorithms and biomedical applications,” Proceedings of the IEEE 102(10): 1450-1469 (October 2014).
Beth Miller, “New camera sheds light on mate choice of swordtail fish,” Phys.org (16 September 2014).
Doekele G. Stavenga et al, “Polarized iridescence of the multilayered elytra of the Japanese jewel beetle, Chrysochroa fulgidissima,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (31 January 2011).
Roaring Deer
T.H. Clutton-Brock & S.D. Albon, “The roaring of red deer and the evolution of honest advertisement,” Behaviour 69: 145-170 (1979).
Benjamin J. Pitcher et al, “Fallow bucks attend to vocal cues of motivation and fatigue,” Behavioral Ecology (9 Feburary 2014).
Cricket Song
Natash Mhatre et al, “Changing resonator geometry to boost sound power decouples size and song frequency in a small insect,” PNAS (30 April 2012).
Lizard Flashes and Dances
Russell A. Ligon & Kevin J. McGraw, “Chameleons communicate with complex colour changes during contests: different body regions convey different information,” Biology Letters (11 December 2013).
Y. Brandt, “Lizard threat display handicaps endurance,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 2070: 1061–1068 (2003).
Hyrax Songs
“The song of songs,” The Economist (15 January 2009).
Douglas J. Emlen et al, “A mechanism of extreme growth and reliable signaling in sexually selected ornaments and weapons,” Science 337(6096): 860–864 (17 August 2012).
Deception
Martin Stevens, Cheats and Deceits, Oxford University Press (2016).
Kariem Ezzat et al, “The viral protein corona directs viral pathogenesis and amyloid aggregation,” Nature Communications (27 May 2019).
“Coat of proteins makes viruses more infectious and links them to Alzheimer’s disease,” ScienceDaily (27 May 2019).
Phil Gates, “Weevil wheeze: staying alive by feigning death ,” The Guardian (19 May 2016).
Hendrik J.T. Hoving et al, “First in situ observations of the deep-sea squid Grimalditeuthis bonplandi reveal unique use of tentacles,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (28 August 2013).
William Calvin, The Ascent of Mind: Ice Age Climates and the Evolution of Intelligence, iUniverse (2001).
Michael Lewis & Carolyn Saami (editors), Lying and Deception in Everyday Life, The Guilford Press (1993).
Susana Martinez-Conde & Stephen L. Macknik, “Animal magicians,” Scientific American Mind 27(2): 18-19 (March/April 2016).
Natalie Angier, “Surviving by disguising: nature’s game of charades,” The New York Times (6 September 2010).
Parachute Plant
J. Lorang et al, “Tricking the guard: exploiting plant defense for disease susceptibility,” Science 338: 659–662 (2 November 2012).
Annemarie Heiduk et al, “Ceropegia sandersonii mimics attacked honeybees to attract kleptoparasitic flies for pollination,” Current Biology (6 October 2016).
“This flower smells like a bee under attack,” Cell Press (6 October 2016).
Female Dragonflies Fake Death
Rassim Khelifa, “Faking death to avoid male coercion: extreme sexual conflict resolution in a dragonfly,” Ecology (24 April 2017).
“Female dragonflies found to fake death to avoid male advances,” Phys.org (1 May 2017).
Walk Like an Ant
Paul S. Shamble et al, “Walking like an ant: a quantitative and experimental approach to understanding locomotor mimicry in the jumping spider Myrmarachne formicaria,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (12 July 2017).
“Walking like ants gives spiders a chance,” ScienceDaily (14 July 2017).
Backstabbing Butterfly
Richa Malhotra, “Back-stabbing butterflies rob the ants that once protected them,” New Scientist (17 June 2016).
Phillip J. Torres, “Butterfly kleptoparasitism and first account of immature stages, myrmecophily, and bamboo host plant of the metalmark Adelotypa annulifera (Riodinidae),” Journal of the Lepidopterists’ Society 70(2): 130–138 (2016).
Nir Drayman et al, “Pathogens use structural mimicry of native host ligands as a mechanism for host receptor engagement,” Cell 14(1): 63–73 (17 July 2013).
Matthew F. Barber & Nels C. Elde, “Evolutionary biology: Mimicry all the way down,” Nature 501: 38–39 (5 September 2013).
Wintergreen Oil
Xavier Martini et al, “Plant pathogen-induced volatiles attract parasitoids to increase parasitism of an insect vector,” Frontiers in Ecology and Evo-lution (29 May 2014).
“UF/IFAS researchers find chemicals that treat citrus greening in the lab,” University of Florida News (4 June 2014).
Camouflage
Martin Stevens et al, “Improvement of individual camouflage through background choice in ground-nesting birds,” Nature Ecology & Evolution (31 July 2017).
“How camouflaged birds decide where to blend in,” ScienceDaily (31 July 2017).
Ed Yong, “Invisible: the high-vis trick that blinds the eye,” New Scientist (24 March 2014).
Fish Scales
Parrish C. Brady et al, “Open-ocean fish reveal an omnidirectional solution to camouflage in polarized environments,” Science 350(6263): 965-969 (20 November 2015).
“New camouflage mechanism fish use in the open ocean,” ScienceDaily (19 November 2015).
Alternate Concealment
Onychoteuthis banksii image courtesy of L. Joubin & Ch. Richard.
Japetella image courtesy of Ewald Rübsamen.
Sarah Zylinski & Sönke Johnsen, “Mesopelagic cephalopods switch between transparency and pigmentation to optimize camouflage in the deep,” Current Biology (10 November 2011).
Ritchie S. King, “Cloaks of invisibility, switched in a flash,” The New York Times (14 November 2011).
Nic Fleming, “Squid and octopus switch camouflage according to which enemies are close,” The Guardian (10 November 2011).
“Now you see me… species of octopus uses dual camouflage system to baffle all predators,” Daily Mail (11 November 2011).
Looking Dangerous
Susan Milius, “It’s true: butterfly spots can mimic scary eyes,” Science News (7 April 2015).
C.A. Ristau, editor, Cognitive Ethology: the Minds of other Animals, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (1991).
Rohan M. Brooker et al, “You are what you eat: diet-induced chemical crypsis in a coral-feeding reef fish,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (10 December 2014).
Jeanna Iacurci, “Clever filefish play hide-and-seek in smelly corals,” Nature World News (11 December 2014).
G.A. Sonerud, “To distract display or not: grouse hens and foxes,” Oikos 51: 233–237 (1988).
Mocking Weevils
Pachyrhynchus argus photo courtesy of Hectonichus.
Lu-Yi Wang et al, “Too hard to swallow: a secret secondary defence of an aposematic insect,” Journal of Experimental Biology (27 November 2017).
“Not all warning colouration signals toxicity,” The Economist (19 December 2017).
Drongos
Charles A. Munn, “Birds that ‘cry wolf’,” Nature 319: 143–145 (9 January 1986).
Virginia Morell, “African bird ‘cries wolf’ to steal food,” Science (1 May 2014).
African drongo photo courtesy of Mats Carnmarker.
Bruce D. Baigrie et al, “Interspecific signalling between mutualists: food-thieving drongos use a cooperative sentinel call to manipulate foraging partners,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (30 July 2014).
Sarah Zielinski, “Drongos deceive but weavers let them,” Science News (4 August 2014).
Susan Milius, “Bird mimicry lets hustlers keep cheating,” Science News (1 May 2014).
“Two-faced cuttlefish,” Nature 487: 143 (12 July 2012).
Jakob Bro-Jørgensen & Wiline M. Pangle, “Male topi antelopes alarm snort deceptively to retain females for mating,” The American Naturalist 176(1) (July 2010).
M.D. Morris, “Large scale deceit: deception by captive elephants?,” in Deception: Perspectives on Human and Nonhuman Deceit, edited by R.W. Mitchell & N.S. Thompson, State University of New York, Albany (1986).
Dan Vergano, ” Study: Dogs can dig through human deception,” USA Today (17 August 2009).
Biosphere
Arnold H. Taylor, The Dance Of Air And Sea : How Oceans, Weather, And Life Link Together, Oxford University Press (2011).
J.E. Lovelock, “Gaia as seen through the atmosphere,” Atmospheric Environment 6(8): 579–580 (August 1972).
James E. Lovelock & Lynn Margulis, “Atmospheric homeostasis by and for the biosphere: the Gaia hypothesis,” Tellus XXVI (1974).
James Lovelock, Gaia: The Practical Science of Planetary Medicine, Gaia Books (1991).
Bradley J. Cardinale et al, “Biodiversity loss and its impact on humanity,” Nature 486: 59–67 (7 June 2012).
“Earth’s interior cycles contribute to long-term sea-level and climate change, researchers find,” ScienceDaily (18 May 2013).
Steffen. Kutterolf et al, “A detection of Milankovitch frequencies in global volcanic activity,” Geology (30 November 2012).
Michael R. Rampino et al, “Can rapid climatic change cause volcanic eruptions?,” Science 206(4420): 826–829 (16 November 1979).
David B. Rowley et al, “Dynamic topography change of the eastern United States since 3 million years ago,” Science (16 May 2013).
Michael Ruse, The Gaia Hypothesis: Science on a Pagan Planet, University of Chicago Press (2013).
Toby Tyrell, “My verdict on Gaia hypothesis: beautiful but flawed,” New Scientist (30 October 2013).
Michael Bond, “Exploring our love/hate relationship with Gaia,” New Scientist (26 August 2013).
Lynn Margulis & Dorian Sagan, What Is Life?, Simon & Schuster (1995).
Rainmaker
Theodore W. Wilson et al, “A marine biogenic source of atmospheric ice-nucleating particles,” Nature 525: 234–238 (10 September 2015).
Biomes – Classification
Stuart A. Harris, “Comments on the application of the Holdridge system for classification of world life zones as applied to Costa Rica,” Arctic and Alpine Research 5 (3): A187–A191 (1973).
Nobuhito Ohte & Naoko Tokuchi, “Hydrology and biogeochemistry of temperate forests,” Ecological Studies, 216(3): 261–283 (2011).
Heinrich Walter & Elgene Box, “Global classification of natural terrestrial ecosystems,” Plant Ecology 32(2): 75–81 (1976).
David M. Olson et al, “Terrestrial ecoregions of the world: a new map of life on Earth,” BioScience, 51(11): 933–938 (2001).
Ecosystems
Bastian Steudel et al, “Biodiversity effects on ecosystem functioning change along environmental stress gradients,” Ecology Letters (2012).
Jonathan S. Lefcheck et al, “Biodiversity enhances ecosystem multifunctionality across trophic levels and habitats,” Nature Communications (24 April 2015).
“Biodiversity promotes multitasking in ecosystems,” ScienceDaily (24 April 2015).
Ecology Gyre
Jane J. Lee, “Tropical oceans dried out East Africa,” Science (17 February 2012).
Soil
Steve Banwart, “Save our soils,” Nature 474: 151–152 (9 June 2011).
Cameron Wagg et al, “Soil biodiversity and soil community composition determine ecosystem multifunctionality,” PNAS 111(14): (8 April 2014).
E.H. Polak & J. Provasi, “Odor sensitivity to geosmin enantiomers,” Chemical Senses 17(1): 23–26 (January 1992).
Kyla M. Dahlina et al, “Environmental and community controls on plant canopy chemistry in a Mediterranean-type ecosystem,” PNAS (8 April 2013).
Benoit P. Guillod et al, “Reconciling spatial and temporal soil moisture effects on afternoon rainfall,” Nature Communications (5 March 2015).
“Forests lose essential nitrogen in surprising way, find scientists,” Phys.org (3 November 2014).
Sarah K. Wexler et al, “Isotopic signals of summer denitrification in a northern hardwood forested catchment,” PNAS (4 November 2014).
Melissa A. Donaldson et al, “Soil surface acidity plays a determining role in the atmospheric-terrestrial exchange of nitrous acid,” PNAS (15 De-cember 2014).
Chris Greening et al, “A soil actinobacterium scavenges atmospheric H2 using two membrane-associated, oxygen-dependent [NiFe] hydrogenas-es,” PNAS 111(11): 4257–4261 (18 March 2014).
Jenna Iacurci, “Creepy crawlers crucial to grasslands,” Nature World News (3 October 2014).
Mark A. Bradford et al, ” Discontinuity in the responses of ecosystem processes and multifunctionality to altered soil community composition,” PNAS (3 October 2014).
Termites
Juan A. Bonachela et al, “Termite mounds can increase the robustness of dryland ecosystems to climatic change,” Science 347(6222): 651–655 (6 February 2015).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Africa’s soil engineers: termites,” Science 347(6222): 596–597 (6 February 2015).
Natalie Angier, “Termites: guardians of the soil,” The New York Times (2 March 2015).
Community Ecology
José M. Montoya et al, “Ecologial networks and their fragility,” Nature 442: 259–264 (20 July 2006).
Samir Suweis et al, “Emergence of structural and dynamical properties of ecological mutualistic networks,” Nature 500: 449–452 (22 August 2013).
Colin Fontaine, “Ecology: abundant equals nested,” Nature 500: 411–412 (22 August 2013).
Roger Ardditi & Lev R. Ginburg, How Species Interact, Oxford University Press (2012).
Luis Santamaría & Miguel A Rodríguez-Gironés, “Linkage rules for plant–pollinator networks: trait complementarity or exploitation barriers?” PLoS Biology (23 January 2007).
Kelly J. Benoit-Bird & Margaret A. McManus, “Bottom-up regulation of a pelagic community through spatial aggregations,” Biology Letters (2 May 2012).
Samraat Pawar et al, “Dimensionality of consumer search space drives trophic interaction strengths,” Nature 486: 485–489 (28 June 2012).
Daniel B. Stouffer et al, “Evolutionary conservation of species’ roles in food webs,” Science 335: 1489–1493 (23 March 2012).
Stefano Allesina & Si Tang, “Stability criteria for complex ecosystems,” Nature 483: 205–208 (8 March 2012).
Sean R. Connolly et al, “Commonness and rarity in the marine biosphere,” PNAS (27 May 2014).
“Pelagic predators face double jeopardy, too,” Science 33: 268 (15 July 2011).
“Loss of big predators disrupts Earth ecosystem: study,” AFP (15 July 2011).
Plant Stress
Sara L. Jackrel & J. Timothy Wootton, “Cascading effects of induced terrestrial plant defences on aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem function,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (18 March 2015).
“Plants:stressed parents, stronger offspring,” ScienceDaily (7 October 2014).
Ecosystem Self-Organized Criticality
Stephen R. Carpenter, “Complex systems: spatial signatures of resilience,” Nature 496: 308–309 (18 April 2013).
Lei Dai et al, “Slower recovery in space before collapse of connected populations,” Nature 496: 355–358 (18 April 2013).
Dror Hawlena et al, “Fear of predation slows plant-litter decomposition,” Science 15(336) 1434–1438 (15 June 2012).
Island Biomes
Manuel Jonas Steinbauer et al, “Increase of island endemism with altitude – speciation processes on oceanic islands,” Ecography 35(1): 23 (5 April 2012).
Atmosphere
“The storm that never was: why meteorologists are often wrong,” ScienceDaily (25 January 2013).
Stratosphere
Thomas Reichler et al, “A stratospheric connection to Atlantic climate variability,” Nature Geoscience (23 September 2012).
Polar Vortex
“Stratosphere targets deep sea to shape climate: North Atlantic ‘Achilles heel’ let’s upper atmosphere affect the abyss,” ScienceDaily (23 Septem-ber 2012).
Climate & Weather
“Past tropical climate change linked to ocean circulation,” ScienceDaily (23 August 2012).
Dust
Sid Perkins, “Dust, the thermostat,” Science News (25 September 2001).
Jeffrey Bartholet, “Swept from Africa to the Amazon,” Scientific American 306(2): 44–49 (February 2012).
Paul H. Glaser, “Holocene dynamics of the Florida Everglades with respect to climate, dustfall, and tropical storms,” PNAS 110(43): 17211–17216 (22 October 2013).
Beth Mole, “African dust fertilized Everglades,” Science News (16 Novem-ber 2013).
V Vinoj et al, “Short-term modulation of Indian summer monsoon rainfall by West Asian dust,” Nature Geoscience (16 March 2014).
Joseph M. Prospero et al, “High-latitude dust over the North Atlantic: inputs from Icelandic proglacial dust storms,” Science 335(6072): 1078–1082 (2 March 2012).
F. Lamy et al, “Increased dust deposition in the Pacific Southern Ocean during glacial periods,” Science 343: 403–407 (24 January 2014).
Lake Chad
“Lake Chad complex emergency fact sheet #25 FY2017,” US Aid (21 September 2017).
Ahmad Salkida, “Africa’s vanishing Lake Chad,” Africa Renewal (April 2012).
Andrew Bomford, “Slow death of Africa’s Lake Chad,” BBC News (14 April 2006).
The Sahara Desert
Sid Perkins & Quirin Schiermeier, “Climate simulation doubles Sahara’s age,” Nature (17 September 2014).
Zhongshi Zhang et al, “Aridification of the Sahara desert caused by Tethys Sea shrinkage during the Late Miocene,” Nature 513: 401–404 (18 Sep-tember 2014).
Clouds
Cloud cover photo courtesy of NASA Earth Observations (2015).
Stuart Gary, “Two-thirds of Earth is covered in clouds,” ABC Science (12 May 2015).
Daniel J. Cziczo et al, “Clarifying the dominant sources and mechanisms of cirrus cloud formation,” Science 340(6138): 1320–1324 (14 June 2013).
rolling cloud photo courtesy of Benjamin Foster.
Shiva Kavosi & Joachim Raeder, “Ubiquity of Kelvin–Helmholtz waves at Earth’s magnetopause,” Nature Communications (11 May 2015).
Jenna Iacurci, “‘Breaking waves’ disturb earth’s magnetic field surprising-ly often,” Nature World News (12 May 2015).
“UNH scientists show ‘breaking waves’ perturb Earth’s magnetic field,” University of New Hampshire (11 May 2015).
Hydrosphere
Douglas Palmer, A History of Earth, Firefly Books (2011).
John Farndon, Atlas of Oceans, Yale University Press (2011).
D.G. Pearson et al, “Hydrous mantle transition zone indicated by ring-woodite included within diamond,” Nature 507: 221–224 (13 March 2014).
Birger Schmitz, “Earth science: how a world came to be,” Nature 485: 39 (3 May 2012).
Catriona D. Menzies et al, “Incursion of meteoric waters into the ductile regime in an active orogen,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 399: 1–13 (1 August 2014).
Mark Denny, How the Ocean Works, Princeton University Press (2008).
David Attenborough, Frozen Planet, BBC (2012).
“One Third less life on planet Earth? Scientists offer better estimate of living biomass,” ScienceDaily (26 August 2012).
Jens Kallmeyer et al, “Global distribution of microbial abundance and biomass in subseafloor sediment,” PNAS (26 August 2012).
Donna J. Shillington, “Water takes a deep dive into an oceanic tectonic plate,” Nature (14 November 2018).
Chen Cai et al, “Water input into the Mariana subduction zone estimated from ocean-bottom seismic data,” Nature 563: 389-392 (14 November 2018).
Microbes in the Rain
Natasha DeLeon-Rodriguez et al, “Microbiome of the upper troposphere: Species composition and prevalence, effects of tropical storms, and atmospheric implications,” PNAS (28 January 2013).
David L. Bones et al, “Comparing the mechanism of water condensation and evaporation in glassy aerosol,” PNAS (2 July 2012).
Kate Ravilious, “Rain makers: How high-flying bacteria could control the clouds,” New Scientist (13 April 2016).
“New link between ocean microbes and atmosphere uncovered,” Scripps Institution of Oceanography (14 May 2015).
Microbes in the Ocean
Mary Ann Moran, “The global ocean microbiome,” Science 350(6266) (11 December 2013).
Alan Flurry, “Functions of global ocean microbiome key to understanding environmental changes,” University of Georgia (10 December 2015).
Roman Stocker, “Marine microbes see a sea of gradients,” Science 338(6107): 628–633 (2 November 2012).
Shinichi Sunagawa et al, “Structure and function of the global ocean microbiome,” Science 348(6237)(22 May 2015).
E. Virginia Armbrust & Stephen R. Palumbi, “Uncovering hidden worlds of ocean biodiversity,” Science 348(6237): 865-867 (22 May 2015).
Jessica Mackaro, “Plankton: a small, but important, player in life on Earth,” GLOBE Scientist’s Blog (10 July 2013).
Carl Zimmer, “Scientists find a microbe haven at ocean’s surface,” The New York Times (28 July 2009).
William M. Durham et al, “Turbulence drives microscale patches of motile phytoplankton,” Nature Communications (15 July 2013).
Brandon K. Swan et al, “Prevalent genome streamlining and latitudinal divergence of planktonic bacteria in the surface ocean,” PNAS (24 June 2013).
Nick Dygert et al, “Spatial variations in cooling rate in the mantle section of the Samail ophiolite in Oman: Implications for formation of lithosphere at mid-ocean ridges,” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 465: 134–144 (1 May 2017).
“Rock samples indicate water is key ingredient for crust formation,” Phys.org (1 May 2017).
Eddies
Zhengguang Zhang et al, “Oceanic mass transport by mesoscale eddies,” Science 345(6194): 322–324 (18 July 2014).
Diane K. Adams et al, “Surface-generated mesoscale eddies transport deep-sea products from hydrothermal vents,” Science 332: 580–583 (29 April 2011).
Sandrine Ceurstemont, “‘Black holes’ of the ocean could curb climate change,” New Scientist (26 September 2013).
I. Frenger et al, “Imprint of Southern Ocean eddies on winds, clouds and rainfall,” Nature Geoscience (7 July 2013).
Eiji Watanabe et al, “Enhanced role of eddies in the Arctic marine biological pump,” Nature Communications (27 May 2014).
Ocean Conveyor Belt
Matthew W. Schmidt et al, “Impact of abrupt deglacial climate change on tropical Atlantic subsurface temperatures,” PNAS (4 September 2012).
John Marshall & Kevin Speer, “Closure of the meridional overturning circulation through Southern Ocean upwelling,” Nature Geoscience 5: 171–180 (26 February 2012).
Peter J. Webster & Judith A. Curry, “The oceans and weather,” in The Oceans, Scientific American (1998).
Dargan M.W. Frierson et al, “Contribution of ocean overturning circulation to tropical rainfall peak in the Northern Hemisphere,” Nature Geoscience (20 October 2013).
David J. R. Thornalley et al, “The deglacial evolution of North Atlantic deep convection, ” Science 331(6014): 202–205 (14 January 2011).
Andrew J. Weaver et al, “Stability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation: a model intercomparison,” Geophysical Research Letters (24 October 2012).
“Deep ocean is a heat sink,” Nature 503: 9 (7 November 2013).
Water Cycle
Tom Garth & Andreas Rietbrock, “Order of magnitude increase in subducted H2O due to hydrated normal,” Geology (10 January 2014).
Alexandra Witze, “Rivers in the sky,” Science News 179(5): 20–21 (26 February 2011).
Fiona Tomkinson, “How raindrops fall,” Nature (20 July 2009).
Olivier Pauluis & Juliana Dias, “Satellite estimates of precipitation-induced dissipation in the atmosphere,” Science 335 (6071): 953–956 (24 February 2012).
Philip Ball, “Rainfall calms storms,” Nature (23 February 2012).
Michael L. Roderick et al, “Water cycle varies over land and sea,” Science 336(6086): 1230–1231 (8 June 2012).
Sharon La Bonde Hanks, Ecology and the Biosphere 113, St. Lucie Press (1996).
Luiz E.O.C. Aragão, “The rainforest’s water pump,” Nature 489: 217–218 (13 September 2012).
Sid Perkins, “Amazon seeds its own rain,” Science (30 August 2012).
D.V. Spracklen et al, “Observations of increased tropical rainfall preceded by air passage over forests,” Nature (5 September 2012).
Paul J. Durack et al, “Ocean salinities reveal strong global water cycle intensification during 1950 to 2000,” Science 336(6080): 455–458 (27 April 2012).
Janet Raloff, “Marsh sediment analysis reveals fastest sea level rise in 2,000 years,” Science News 180(2): 13 (16 July 2011).
Richard A. Kerr, “The greenhouse is making the water-poor even poorer,” Science 336(6080): 405 (27 April 2012).
Asthenosphere
Don L. Anderson & Scott D. King, “Driving the Earth machine?,” Science 346(6214): 1184–1185 (5 December 2014).
Rob L. Evans, “Making the Earth move,” Nature 509: 40–41 (1 May 2014).
David Sifré et al, “Electrical conductivity during incipient melting in the oceanic low-velocity zone,” Nature 509: 81–85 (1 May 2014).
Tectonics
Natalie Angier, “The Earth’s shell has cracked, and we’re drifting on the pieces,” The New York Times (18 December 2018).
Chris J. Hawkesworth & Michael Brown, “Earth dynamics and the development of plate tectonics,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical And Engineering Sciences (1 October 2018).
Laura Schaefer & Linda T. Elkins-Tanton, “Magma oceans as a critical stage in the tectonic development of rocky planets,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
A. Lenardic, “The diversity of tectonic modes and thoughts about transitions between them,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
Anthony I.S. Kemp, “Early earth geodynamics: cross examining the geological testimony,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
Robert J. Stern, “The evolution of plate tectonics,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
Bradford J. Foley, “The dependence of planetary tectonics on mantle thermal state: applications to early Earth evolution,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
Jun Korenaga, “Crustal evolution and mantle dynamics through Earth history,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
Aubrey L. Zerkle, “Biogeodynamics: bridging the gap between surface and deep Earth processes,” Philosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society A (1 October 2018).
David B. Rowley et al, “Kinematics and dynamics of the East Pacific Rise linked to a stable, deep-mantle upwelling,” Science Advances 2:e1601107 (2016).
“Heat from Earth’s core could be underlying force in plate tectonics,” ScienceDaily (18 January 2017).
Rob L. Evans, “Geophysics: making the Earth move,” Nature 509: 40–41 (1 May 2014).
Continental Drift
Alexandra Witze, “Evidence falls into place for once and future supercontinents,” Science News (11 January 2017).
Naomi Lubick, “Tiny minerals may have shaped Earth’s first plate boundaries,” Science News (6 April 2014).
David Bercovici & Yanick Ricard, “Plate tectonics, damage and inheritance,” Nature 508: 513–516 (24 April 2014).
Alexandra Witze, “Plate tectonics got a bumpy start,” Science News 11 (2 June 2012).
Chen Cai et al, “Water input into the Mariana subduction zone estimated from ocean-bottom seismic data,” Nature 563: 389–392 (14 November 2018).
“Seismic study reveals huge amount of water dragged into Earth’s interior,” ScienceDaily (14 November 2018).
“The Nd of the innocence,” Science 340: 1142 (7 June 2013).
“Studies show movements of continents speeding up after slow ‘middle age’,” Phys.org (13 June 2014).
Jeff Hecht, “Why did evolution stall during the ‘boring billion’?,” New Scientist (1 May 2014).
“Continental formation more complicated than previously understood,” Phys.org (24 October 2014).
N. Rawlinson, “Complex continental growth along the proto-Pacific margin of East Gondwana,” Geology 42: 783–786 (September 2014).
Katherine A. Kelley, “Inside earth runs hot and cold,” Science 344(6179): 51–52 (4 April 2014).
Colleen A. Dalton et al, “Geophysical and geochemical evidence for deep temperature variations beneath mid-ocean ridges,” Science 344(6179): 80–83 (4 April 2014).
“A stiff new layer in Earth’s mantle,” ScienceDaily (23 March 2015).
“Geologists discover new layer in Earth’s mantle,” Sci-News.com (24 March 2015).
W.P. Schellart, “Andean mountain building and magmatic arc migration driven by subduction-induced whole mantle flow,” Nature Communications (8 December 2017).
“The origin of the Andes unravelled,” ScienceDaily (11 December 2017).
Hauke Marquardt & Lowell Miyagi, “Slab stagnation in the shallow lower mantle linked to an increase in mantle viscosity,” Nature Geoscience (23 March 2015).
David Bercovici et al, “Abrupt tectonics and rapid slab detachment with grain damage,” PNAS 112(5): 1287–1291 (3 February 2015).
David Sifré et al, “Electrical conductivity during incipient melting in the oceanic low-velocity zone,” Nature 509: 81–85 (1 May 2014).
T. A. Stern et al, “A seismic reflection image for the base of a tectonic plate,” Nature 518: 85–88 (05 February 2015).
Thomas Sumner, “Geologists discover tectonic plate’s slippery underbelly,” Science News (4 February 2015).
W.L. van Mierlo et al, “Stagnation of subducting slabs in the transition zone due to slow diffusion in majoritic garnet,” Nature Geoscience (31 March 2013).
Maxwell L. Rudolph et al, “Viscosity jump in Earth’s mid-mantle,” Science 350(6266): 1349–1352 (11 December 2015).
Thomas Sumner, “Gooey rock in mantle thickens 1,000 kilometers down,” Science News 189(1): 11 (9 January 2016).
Sid Perkins, “Gravity lows mark rock burial sites,” Science News 177(12): 13 (5 June 2010).
Vincent Courtillot, Evolutionary Catastrophes, Cambridge University Press (1999).
David Huddart & Tim Stott, Earth Environments, Wiley-Blackwell (2010).
Clinton P. Conrad et al, “Stability of active mantle upwelling revealed by net characteristics of plate tectonics,” Nature 498: 479–481 (27 June 2013).
Supercontinents
Fraser Keppie, “How the closure of paleo-Tethys and Tethys oceans controlled the early breakup of Pangaea,” Geology (27 February 2015).
Thomas Sumner, “Tethys Ocean implicated in Pangaea breakup,” Science News (8 March 2015).
Submerged Continents
Elizabeth M. Dowding & Malte C. Ebach, “Geography: Zealandia is not a continent,” Nature (8 March 2017).
The HUGO Pan-Asian SNP Consortium, “Mapping human genetic diversity in Asia,” Science 326(5959): 1541–1545 (11 December 2009).
Till Hanebuth et al, “Rapid flooding of the Sunda Shelf: a late-glacial sea-level record ,” Science 288(5468): 1033–1035 (12 May 2000).
Sunil Prasannan, “Where was Atlantis? Sundaland fits the bill, surely!,” Free Republic (29 October 2004).
Sea Level
Kenneth G. Miller et al, “The Phanerozoic record of global sea-level change,” Science 310(5752): 1293–1298 (25 November 2005).
Ross N. Mitchell et al, “Supercontinent cycles and the calculation of absolute palaeolongitude in deep time,” Nature 482: 208-211 (9 February 2012).
Masaki Yoshida, “Formation of a future supercontinent through plate motion–driven flow coupled with mantle downwelling flow,” Geology (July 2016).
Evolutionary Effects
Carrie Arnold, “When Earth was a snowball,” Scientific American 304(2): 32 (February 2011).
Stephen L. Brusatte et al, “Dinosaur morphological diversity and the end-Cretaceous extinction,” Nature Communications 3: 804 (1 May 2012).
Roger Lewin, Human Evolution: An Illustrated Introduction, Blackwell Publishing (2005).
Continental Rift
E.M. Roberts et al, “Initiation of the western branch of the East African Rift coeval with the eastern branch,” Nature Geoscience 5: 289–294 (25 March 2012).
Alexandra Witze, “Continent prepares to do the splits,” Science News 179(8): 12 (9 April 2011).
“Geologists correct a ‘rift’ in Africa,” ScienceDaily (26 March 2012).
Heading to Hothouse
M.J. Siegert, Ice Sheets and Late Quaternary Environmental Chang, John Wiley & Sons (2001).
John Carey, “Global warming: faster than expected?,” Scientific American 51–55 (November 2012).
E. Rignot et al, “Ice-shelf melting around Antarctica,” Science (June 13 2013).
Catherine Brahic & Aviva Hope Rutkin, “Blame slow jet stream for US deep freeze,” New Scientist (7 January 2014).
“Fire and ice: wildfires darkening Greenland snowpack, increasing melting,” ScienceDaily (6 December 2012).
Antarctic Gyre
Jane Qiu, “Winds of change,” Science 338: 879–881 (16 November 2012).
El Niño & La Niña
Emily Becker, “On the trail of El Niño,” Scientific American 315(4): 68–75 (October 2016).
Katinka Bellomo & Amy C. Clement, “Evidence for weakening of the Walker circulation from cloud observations,” Geophysical Research Letters (21 September 2015).
“Study of cloud cover in tropical Pacific reveals future climate changes,” ScienceDaily (4 November 2015).
Aaron F.Z. Levine & Michael J. McPhaden, “How the July 2014 Easterly wind burst gave the 2015-6 El Niño a head start,” Geophysical Research Letters (26 April 2016).
Thomas Sumner, “Fizzled 2014 El Niño fired up ongoing monster El Niño,” Science News (2 May 2016).
Thomas Sumner, “Failure spurred current El Niño,” Science News (28 May 2016).
“Global warming: in the red,” The Economist (28 May 2016).
Dennis Normile, “El Niño’s warmth devastating reefs worldwide,” Science 352(6281): 15–16 (1 April 2016).
“El Niño prolongs longest global coral bleaching event,” ScienceDaily (23 February 2016).
Climatic Patterns
Steffen Kutterolf et al, “A detection of Milankovitch frequencies in global volcanic activity,” Geology (30 November 2012).
N. Nakata & R. Snieder, “Estimating near-surface shear wave velocities in Japan by applying seismic interferometry to KiK-net data,” Journal of Geophysical Research 117: B01308–B01321 (2012).
John R. Taylor & Roman Stocker, “Trade-offs of chemotactic foraging in turbulent water,” Science 338(6107): 675–679 (2 November 2012).
Biota
Food Web
Martin J. Ingrouille & Bill Eddie, Plants – Diversity and Evolution, Cambridge University Press (2006).
Jennifer A. Dunne et al, “Parasites affect food web structure primarily through increased diversity and complexity,” PLoS Biology 11(6): e1001579 (June 2013).
Pacific Salmon
Leyland Cecco, “‘We’re sounding the alarm’: half of Canada’s chinook salmon endangered,” The Guardian (5 December 2018).
Nathan F. Putman et al, “An inherited magnetic map guides ocean navigation in juvenile Pacific salmon,” Current Biology (6 February 2014).
Nathan F. Putman et al, “Evidence for geomagnetic imprinting as a homing mechanism in Pacific salmon,” Current Biology (7 February 2013).
David Attenborough, Nature’s Great Events, BBC Worldwide (2009).
Joel Greenberg, “Animal behaviour: nomads of necessity,” Nature 508: 317–318 (17 April 2014).
“How sounds make goldfish skittish,” Nature (5 October 2011).
Leif Ristroph et al, “Lateral line layout correlates with the differential hydrodynamic pressure on swimming fish,” Physical Review Letters (6 January 2015).
Robert H. Busch, Salmon Country, Key Porter Books Limited (2000).
photo of a bear cub carrying a salmon courtesy of Jitze Couperus.
Peter Coates, Salmon, Reakton Books (2006).
“Bears, scavengers count on all-you-can-eat salmon buffet lasting for months,” ScienceDaily (3 August 2012).
Thomas P. Quinn, The Behavior and Ecology of Pacific Salmon and Trout, University of Washington Press (2005).
“Bears, scavengers count on all-you-can-eat salmon buffet lasting for months,” ScienceDaily (3 August 2012).
Oceanic Life
James Lovelock, Gaia, Oxford University Press (2000).
James W. Nybakken & Steven K. Webster, “Life in the ocean,” in The Oceans, Scientific American (1998).
Sergio A. Sañudo-Wilhelmy et al, “Multiple B-vitamin depletion in large areas of the coastal ocean,” PNAS (23 July 2012).
Jellyfish horde photo courtesy of Linnaea Mallette.
Graeme C. Hays et al, “A paradigm shift in the trophic importance of jellyfish?,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution (20 September 2018).
Carl Zimmer, “Who wants to eat a gooey jellyfish? Pretty much everyone in the ocean,” The New York Times (2 October 2018).
Kakani Katija1 & John O. Dabiri, “A viscosity-enhanced mechanism for biogenic ocean mixing,” Nature 460: 624–626 (30 July 2009).
Till Bayer et al, “The microbiome of the red sea coral Stylophora pistillata is dominated by tissue-associated Endozoicomonas bacteria,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology (24 May 2013).
C. Kopp et al, “Highly dynamic cellular-level response of symbiotic coral to a sudden increase in environmental nitrogen,” mBio 4(3): e00052-13 (14 May 2013).
Coral Gardeners
Hiroki Hata et al, “Geographic variation in the damselfish-red alga cultivation mutualism in the Indo-West Pacific,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (18 June 2010).
Cleaner Fish
Sean B. Carroll, “For fish in coral reefs, it’s useful to be smart,” The New York Times (20 October 2009).
Nichola J. Raihani et al, ” Female cleaner fish cooperate more with unfamiliar males,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (22 February 2012).
Redouan Bshary, “Biting cleaner fish use altruism to deceive image–scoring client reef fish,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (22 October 2002)
Nichola J. Raihani et al, “Male cleaner wrasses adjust punishment of female partners according to the stakes,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (15 June 2011).
Laura E. Stummer et al, “Size and stripes: how fish clients recognize cleaners,” Animal Behaviour 68(10): 145–150 (July 2004).
Vampire Squid
Hendrik J. T. Hoving & Bruce H. Robison, “Vampire squid: detritivores in the oxygen minimum zone,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (26 September 2012).
Henk-Jan T. Hoving et al, “Vampire squid reproductive strategy is unique among coleoid cephalopods,” Current Biology 25(8): R322–R32 (20 April 2015).
Bruce H. Robison, “Light in the ocean’s midwaters,” Scientific American, 59–64 (July 1995).
Relations
Mariano A. Rodriguez-Cabal et al, “Node-by-node disassembly of a mutualistic interaction web driven by species introductions,” PNAS 110(41): 16503–16507 (8 October 2013).
Rudolf P. Rohr et al, “On the structural stability of mutualistic systems,” Science 345(6195) (25 July 2014).
Marine Microbes
Joakim Stenhammar et al, “Role of correlations in the collective behavior of microswimmer suspensions,” Physical Review Letters (13 July 2017).
“Synopsis: bacteria never swim alone,” APS Physics (13 July 2017).
“Bacteria never swim alone,” Lund University (14 July 2017).
Elizabeth A. Ottesen et al, “Multispecies diel transcriptional oscillations in open ocean heterotrophic bacterial assemblages,” Science 345(6193): 207–212 (11 July 2014).
Lauren Hitchings, “Marine microbes march to the beat of the same drum,” New Scientist (11 July 2014).
Frank O Aylward et al, “Microbial community transcriptional networks are conserved in three domains at ocean basin scales,” PNAS (16 March 2015).
“Oceanic microbes behave in a synchrony across ocean basins,” ScienceDaily (16 March 2015).
Lily R. Lewis et al, “First evidence of bryophyte diaspores in the plumage of transequatorial migrant birds,” PeerJ (2014).
Witches’ Broom
“The sorceress’s apprentice,” The Economist (12 April 2014).
Christin Siewert et al, “Analysis of expressed genes of the bacterium ‘candidatus phytoplasma mali’ highlights key features of virulence and metabolism,” PLoS One (11 April 2014).
Wan-Chia Chung et al, “Comparative analysis of the peanut witches’-broom phytoplasma genome reveals horizontal transfer of potential mobile units and effectors,” PLoS One (23 April 2013).
Kenro Oshima et al, “Dramatic transcriptional changes in an intracellular parasite enable host switching between plant and insect,” PLoS One (16 April 2011).
“Ants ‘screen’ for beneficial bacteria to assist them,” ScienceDaily (21 August 2012).
Endosymbiotic Exploitation
Vittorio Boscaro et al, “Parallel genome reduction in symbionts descended from closely related free-living bacteria,” Nature Ecology & Evolution (21 July 2017).
“Hostage situation or harmony? Researchers rethink symbiosis,” ScienceDaily(27 July 2017).
Christopher D. Lowe et al, “Shining a light on exploitative host control in a photosynthetic endosymbiosis,” Current Biology 26:1-5 (25 January 2016).
“A far from perfect host,” ScienceDaily (4 January 2016).
Power Grid
Shawn E. McGlynn et al, “Single cell activity reveals direct electron transfer in methanotrophic consortia,” Nature (16 September 2015).
“Microorganisms in the sea organize their power supply via nanowire power cables,” Phys.org (21 October 2015).
Jessica Stoller-Conrad, “Flowing electrons help ocean microbes gulp methane,” Phys.org (18 September 2015).
Hydrothermal Vents
Victoria J. Orphan & Tori M. Hoehler, “Microbiology: hydrogen for dinner,” Nature 476: 154–155 (11 August 2011).
Jillian M. Petersen et al, “Hydrogen is an energy source for hydrothermal vent symbioses,” Nature 476: 176–180 (11 August 2011).
Bean Bugs & Burkholderia
Yoshitomo Kikuchi et al, “Symbiont-mediated insecticide resistance,” PNAS 109(22): 8618–8622 (29 May 2012).
Yoshitomo Kikuchi & Isao Yumoto, “Efficient colonization of the bean bug Riptortus pedestris by an environmentally transmitted Burkholderia symbiont,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology (4 January 2013).
Jiyeun Kate Kim et al, “Polyester synthesis genes associated with stress resistance are involved in an insect–bacterium symbiosis,” PNAS 110(26): E2381–E2389 (25 June 2013).
The Nematode & Its Killer Bacteria
Vishal S. Somvanshi et al, “A single promoter inversion switches Photorhabdus between pathogenic and mutualistic states,” Science 337(6090): 88–93 (6 July 2012).
Plant Pollination Networks
Samraat Pawar, “Why are plant-pollinator networks nested?,” Science 345(6195) (25 July 2014).
Agricultural Ants
Gillaume Chomicki & Susanne S. Renner, “Obligate plant farming by a specialized ant,” Nature Plants (21 November 2016).
Tree Police
Tiffany L. Weir et al, “Plant-inhabiting ant utilizes chemical cues for host discrimination,” Biotropica (12 May 2011).
Nicholas Bakalar, “Polite guests, ants pick host trees out of a crowd,” The New York Times (13 May 2011).
Philip S. Ward, “Systematics, biogeography and host plant associations of the Pseudomyrmex viduus group (Hymenoptera: Formicidae), Triplaris– and Tachigali-inhabiting ants,” Zoological Journal 136(4): 451-540 (August 1999).
Amazonian Ant-Plant
Alain Dejean et al, “Arboreal ants build traps to capture prey,” Nature 434: 973 (21 April 2005).
Pierre-Jean G. Malé et al, “Retaliation in response to castration promotes a low level of virulence in an ant–plant mutualism,” Evolutionary Biology (July 2013).
Reef Police
Christie Wilcox, “Clever coral,” Scientific American, 22 (January 2013).
Loïc M. Thibaut et al, “Diversity and stability of herbivorous fishes on coral reefs,” ESA Ecology 93(4): 891–901 (April 2012).
Clownfish & Anemone
Clownfish amidst an anemone photo courtesy of Nick Hobgood.
Joseph T. Szczebak et al, “Anemonefish oxygenate their anemone hosts at night,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216: 970–976 (15 March 2013).
Marea Martlew, “Humble plants may save the planet,” Phys.org (16 August 2013).
Seagrass & Clams
Tjisse van der Heide et al, “A three-stage symbiosis forms the foundation of seagrass ecosystems,” Science 336: 1432–1434 (15 June 2012).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Seagrasses partner with clams to stay healthy,” Science 336: 1367–1368 (15 June 2012).
Donna Hesterman, “Little clams play big part in keeping seagrass ecosystems healthy, new study finds,” Phys.org (14 June 2012).
Michelle Waycott et al, “Accelerating loss of seagrasses across the globe threatens coastal ecosystems,” PNAS 106(30): 12377–12381 (28 July 2009).
Seagrass Comeback
“Sea otters promote recovery of seagrass beds,” Phys.org (26 August 2013).
Brent B. Hughes et al, “Recovery of a top predator mediates negative eutrophic effects on seagrass,” PNAS 110(38): 153137–15318 (17 September 2013).
“Correction for Hughes et al, Recovery of a top predator mediates negative eutrophic effects on seagrass,” PNAS 111(9): 3644 (4 March 2014).
Sloths & Moths et cetera
Three-toed sloth photo courtesy of Stefan Laube (Tauchgurke).
Rebecca Cliffe, Sloths: Life in the Slow Lane The Sloth Conservation Foundation (2017).
Jason Bittel, “Busy doing nothing: How sloths mastered life in the slow lane,” New Scientist (19 December 2017).
Jonathan N. Pauli et al, “A syndrome of mutualism reinforces the lifestyle of a sloth,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (22 January 22 2014).
Nicholas Wade, “The sloth’s busy inner life,” The New York Times (27 January 2014).
“Slow food movement,” The Economist (1 February 2014).
Helen Briggs, “Sloth’s lazy image ‘a myth’,” BBC News (13 May 2008).
Eduardo Garcia, “Laziness: an evolutionary trait,” Scientific American (December 2016).
Take a Load Off (pitcher plants)
Nepenthes hemsleyana photo courtesy of Vincent Bazile.
“Pitcher plants,” Science 360 News (3 April 2015).
“Carnivorous pitcher plants use a clever strategy to lure their prey,” Sci News (14 January 2015).
Ulrike Bauer et al, “How to catch more prey with less effective traps: explaining the evolution of temporarily inactive traps in carnivorous pitcher plants,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (14 January 2015).
Stephanie Pain, “The Borneo hills diet: pitcher plants’ strange prey,” New Scientist (3 February 2014).
Melinda Greenwood et al, “A unique resource mutualism between the giant bornean pitcher plant, Nepenthes rajah, and members of a small mammal community,” PLoS One (14 June 2011).
Charles M. Clarke et al, “Tree shrew lavatories: a novel nitrogen seques-tration strategy in a tropical pitcher plant,” Biology Letters 5(5): 632–635 (23 October 2009).
Caroline R. Schöner et al, “Supply determines demand: influence of partner quality and quantity on the interactions between bats and pitcher plants,” Oecologia 173(1): 191–202 (September 2013).
Michael G. Schoner et al, “Bats are acoustically attracted to mutualistic carnivorous plants,” Current Biology (9 July 2015).
“With acoustic reflector, carnivorous pitcher plants advertise themselves to bats,” Cell Press (9 July 2015).
Mico Tatalovic, “Tiny bat makes home in a carnivorous plant,” New Scientist (24 February 2015).
Birds & Alligators
Lucas A. Nell et al, “Presence of breeding birds improves body condition for a crocodilian nest protector,” PLoS One (2 March 2016).
“Breeding birds use alligators to protect nests from raccoons, opossums,” Phys.org (2 March 2016).
***
Tim A. Hoek et al, “Resource availability modulates the cooperative and competitive nature of a microbial cross-feeding mutualism,” PLoS Biology (24 August 2016).
“Mutually helpful species become competitors in benign environments,” Phys.org (24 August 2016).
Sardine Tongue Trap
Karen Bass, editor, “The great tide,” Nature’s Great Events, The University of Chicago Press (2009).
Amensalism
Jacke Kominek et al, “Eukaryotic acquisition of a bacterial operon,” Cell (21 February 2019).
“Yeasts reach across tree of life to domesticate suite of bacterial genes,” ScienceDaily (21 February 2019).
Parasitism
Albert O. Bush et al, Parasitism: The diversity and ecology of animal parasites, Cambridge University Press (2001).
Janice Moore, Parasites and the Behavior of Animals, Oxford University Press (2002).
Fluke life cycle drawing based upon a similar drawing by Conery Calhoon.
Parasitic Plants
“Root radar: How parasitic plants know when to attack,” ScienceDaily (30 July 2015).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “How crop-killing witchweed senses its victims,” Science 350: 146-147 (9 October 2015).
“How parasites hack victims to seize control of genes in plant—to—plant warfare,” Virginia Tech (3 January 2018).
Caitlin E. Conn et al, “Convergent evolution of strigolactone perception enabled host detection in parasitic plants,” Science 349(6247): 540-543 (31 July 2015).
Gunjune Kim et al, “Genomic-scale exchange of mRNA between a parasitic plant and its hosts,” Science 345(6198): 808–811 (15 August 2014).
Cape Sumach
Jan Schnitzler et al, “Causes of plant diversification in the cape biodiversity hotspot of South Africa,” Systematic Biology (28 February 2011).
Parasite Zombies
Carl Zimmer, “How to control an army of zombies,” The New York Times (5 December 2012).
Shelley A. Adamo & Joanne P. Webster, “Neural parasitology: how parasites manipulate host behaviour,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 1–2 (1 January 2013).
Shelley Anne Adamo, “Parasites: evolution’s neurobiologists,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216(1): 3–10 (1 January 2013).
Fish Eye Fluke
Mikhail Gopko et al, “Deterioration of basic components of the anti-predator behavior in fish harboring eye fluke larvae,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 71: 68 (April 2017).
Andrew Lee, “Parasite living inside fish eyeball controls its behaviour,” New Scientist (10 May 2017).
John Kuroski, “Zombie parasite lives inside fish’s eyeball and controls its behavior, new study show,” ATI (17 November 2017).
Tangle Web Spider
William G. Eberhard, “Recovery of spiders from the effects of parasitic wasps: implications for fine-tuned mechanisms of manipulation,” Animal Behavior 79(2): 375–383 (February 2010).
William G. Eberhard, “Spider manipulation by a wasp larva,” Nature 406: 255–256 (20 July 2000).
Nicholas Wade, “Wasp invades a spider and puts it to work,” The New York Times (25 July 2000).
Carl Zimmer, “Deciphering the tools of nature’s zombies,” The New York Times (5 December 2012).
S.P. Yanoviak et al, “Parasite-induced fruit mimicry in a tropical canopy ant,” The American Naturalist 171(4): 536–544 (April 2008).
Ant Berry
Infected Cephalotes atratus ant photo courtesy of Steve Yanoviak.
Robert Sanders, “Ant parasite turns host into ripe red berry, biologists discover,” UC Berkeley News 434 (16 January 2008).
Robert Poulin, “Parasite manipulation of host personality and behavioural syndromes,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 18–26 (1 Janu-ary 2013).
Hired Protection
Masaru K. Hojo et al, “Lycaenid caterpillar secretions manipulate attendant ant behavior,” Current Biology 25(17): 2260–2264 (31 August 2015).
Richard Gray, “Caterpillar drugs ants to enslave them as bodyguards: sugary snack from butterfly larvae alters brains of insects,” Daily Mail (31 July 2015).
Susan Milius, “Caterpillar treats and tricks ants by oozing spiked juice,” Science News (30 July 2015).
Toxoplasma gondii
Barbara A. Butcher et al, “Toxoplasma gondii rhoptry kinase rop16 activates stat3 and stat6 resulting in cytokine inhibition and arginase-1-dependent growth control,” PLoS Pathogens (8 September 2011).
Carly Hodes, “Researchers discover how ‘promiscuous parasites’ hijack host immune cells,” Cornell Chronicle (19 September 2011).
J.G. Montoya & O. Liesenfeld, “Toxoplasmosis,” The Lancet 363(9425): 1965–1976 (12 June 2004).
M. Berdoy et al, “Fatal attraction in rats infected with Toxoplasma gondii,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 267: 1591–1594 (2000).
Joanne P. Webster, “The effect of Toxoplasma gondii on animal behavior: playing cat and mouse,” Schizophrenia Bulletin (11 January 2007).
Gustavo Arrizabalaga & Bill Sullivan, “Played by a parasite,” Scientific American Mind 26(2):63-67 (March/April 2015).
Ajai Vyas, “Parasite-augmented mate choice and reduction in innate fear in rats infected by Toxoplasma gondii,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 120–126 (1 January 2013).
Glenn A. McConkey et al, “Toxoplasma gondii infection and behaviour – location, location, location?” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 113–119 (1 January 2013).
Jaroslav Flegr, “Influence of latent Toxoplasma infection on human personality, physiology and morphology: pros and cons of the Toxoplasma–human model in studying the manipulation hypothesis,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 127–133 (1 January 2013).
Strepsipterans
Strepsiptera halictophagida drawing courtesy of Halvard Hatlen.
Jeyaraney Kathirithamby, “Host-parasitoid associations in Strepsiptera,” Annual Review of Entomology 54: 227–249 (January 2009).
Daniel P. Wojcik, “Behavioral interactions between ants and their parasites,” The Florida Entomologist 72(1):43–51 (1989).
Charles Choi, “Newfound parasite could fight fire ants,” UPI (30 Septem-ber 2003).
Jeyaraney Kathirithamby & David P. Hughes, “Caenocholax fenyesi (Strepsiptera: Myrmecolacidae) parasitic in Camponotus planatus (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) in Mexico: is this the original host?,” Ecology & Population Biology (2002).
Joanne P. Webster et al, “Toxoplasma gondii infection, from predation to schizophrenia: can animal behaviour help us understand human behaviour?,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216 (1): 99–112 (1 January 2013).
Microparasitism
“Single-cell parasites co-opt ‘ready-made’ genes from host,” ScienceDaily (18 July 2012).
Jean-François Pombert et al, “Gain and loss of multiple functionally related, horizontally transferred genes in the reduced genomes of two microsporidian parasites,” PNAS 109(31): 12638–12643 (31 July 2012).
Andrew F Read et al, “Animal defenses against infectious agents: is damage control more important than pathogen control,” PLoS Biology (23 December 2008).
Microsporidia
Karen L. Haag et al, “Evolution of a morphological novelty occurred before genome compaction in a lineage of extreme parasites,” PNAS (13 October 2014).
Epiparasitism
Erik H. Poelman et al, “Hyperparasitoids use herbivore-induced plant volatiles to locate their parasitoid host,” PLoS Biology (27 November 2012).
Energy Flow
Alexandra Witze, “Deep life,” Science News 181(3): 18–21 (11 February 2012).
John R. Taylor & Roman Stocker, “Trade-offs of chemotactic foraging in turbulent water,” Science 338(6107): 675–679 (2 November 2012).
Trophic Loops
Mark Denny, How the Ocean Works, Princeton University Press (2008).
Death for Life
Bernd Heinrich, Life Everlasting: The Animal Way of Death, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2012).
Marine Food Webs
Craig A. Lyaman et al, “Thresholds of ecosystem response to nutrient enrichment from fish aggregations,” Ecology 94(2): 521–529 (February 2013).
Jacob E. Allgeier et al, “Consumers regulate nutrient limitation regimes and primary production in seagrass ecosystems,” Ecology 94(2): 485–496 (February 2013).
“Fish have enormous nutrient impacts on marine ecosystems, study finds,” ScienceDaily (11 December 2012).
Yellowstone Wolves
William J. Ripple & Robert L. Beschta, “Wolves, elk, willows, and trophic cascades in the upper Gallatin Range of Southwestern Montana, USA,” Forest Ecology and Management 200: 161–181 (2004).
Mary Ellen Hannibal, “Why the beaver should thank the wolf,” The New York Times (28 September 2012).
Biotic Webs
José M. Montoya et al, “Ecological networks and their fragility,” Nature 442: 259–264 (20 July 2006).
Michael J. O. Pocock et al, “The robustness and restoration of a network of ecological networks,” Science 335(6071): 973–977 (24 February 2012).
Keystones
Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz & Steve Blake, “Megagardeners of the forest – the role of elephants in seed dispersal,”Acta Oecologica 37(6): 542–553 (November–December 2011).
Ahimsa Campos-Arceiz et al, “Asian tapirs are no elephants when it comes to seed dispersal,” Biotropica 44(2): 220–227 (March 2012).
“Absence of elephants and rhinoceroses reduces biodiversity in tropical forests,” ScienceDaily (11 May 2012).
Arnold H. Taylor, The Dance of Air & Sea, Oxford University Press (2011).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “The river masters,” Science 346(6211): 802–805 (14 November 2014).
Matt Soniak, Elephants are really messy eaters – and that’s great for other animals,” The Week (10 March 2014).
Rainforest Ants
Hannah M. Griffiths et al, “Ants are the major agents of resource removal from tropical rainforests,” Journal of Animal Ecology (8 August 2017).
“Ants dominate waste management in tropical rainforests,” ScienceDaily (9 August 2017).
Sagebrush
Jeffrey L. Beck et al, “Consequences of treating Wyoming big sagebrush to enhance wildlife habitats,” Rangeland Ecology & Management 65(5):444–455 (September 2012).
Marshes
Carl Zimmer, “When predators vanish, so does the ecosystem,” The New York Times (15 May 2014).
Marco Marani et al, “Vegetation engineers marsh morphology through multiple competing stable states,” PNAS (11 February 2013).
Mark D. Bertness et al, “Experimental predator removal causes rapid salt marsh die-off,” Ecology Letters (28 April 2014).
Giulio Mariottia & Sergio Fagherazzia, “Critical width of tidal flats triggers marsh collapse in the absence of sea-level rise,” PNAS (19 March 2013).
Rarities
David Mouillot et al, “Rare species support vulnerable functions in high-diversity ecosystems,” PLoS Biology (28 May 2013).
Jonathan Chase, “An inordinate fondness of rarity,” PLoS Biology (28 May 2013).
Takuya Sato et al, “Nematomorph parasites drive energy flow through a riparian ecosystem,” Ecology 92(1): 201–207 (January 2011).
Parasites
Albert O. Bush et al, Parasitism: The diversity and ecology of animal parasites, Cambridge University Press (2001).
Tommy Leung, “Good parasite, bad parasite: nature has a job for everyone,” Phys.org (14 March 2014).
Diana Crow, “Keystone pathogen,” Scientific American 311(5): 24 (November 2014).
Kim N. Mouritsen & Robert Poulin, “Parasitism as a determinant of community structure on intertidal flats,” Marine Biology 157(1): 201–213 (January 2010).
Dennis Gordon & Maggy Wassilieff, “Marine animals without backbones – simple worms,” Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand (13 July 2012).
“Horsehair worm,” Iowa State University – Horticulture and Home Pest News (undated).
Mistletoe
Olivia Judson, “The hemiparasite season,” The New York Times (25 December 2014).
“Under the mistletoe,” The Economist (14 July 2012).
David M. Watson & Matthew Herring, “Mistletoe as a keystone resource: an experimental test,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (11 July 2012).
Helene C. Muller-Landau, “Ecology: plant diversity rooted in pathogens,” Nature 506: 44–45 (6 February 2014).
Robert Bagchi et al, “Pathogens and insect herbivores drive rainforest plant diversity and composition,” Nature 506: 85–88 (6 February 2014).
Invasive Species
“Nature’s marauders,” The Week (10 December 2010).
Balise Petitpierre et al, “Climatic niche shifts are rare among terrestrial plant invaders,” Science 335: 1334–1348 (16 March 2013).
Reid Tingley et al, “Establishment success of introduced amphibians increases in the presence of congeneric species,” The American Naturalist 177(3): 382–388 (March 2011).
Robert I. Colautti & Spencer C.H. Barrett, “Rapid adaptation to climate facilitates range expansion of an invasive plant,” Science 342: 364–366 (18 October 2013).
Abhineshwar V. Prasad & Simon Hodge, “Factors influencing the foraging activity of the allodapine bee Braunsapis puangensis on creeping daisy (Sphagneticola trilobata) in Fiji,” Journal of Hymenoptera Research 35: 56–69 (25 October 2013).
Jennifer Firn et al, “Abundance of introduced species at home predicts abundance away in herbaceous communities,” Ecology Letters 14(3): 274–281 (March 2011).
Plants
Linda Chalker-Scott, How Plants Work, Timber Press (2015).
Michael J. Cawley (editor), Plant Ecology, Blackwell Science (1997).
Matthew J. Heard & Dov F. Sax, “Coexistence between native and exotic species is facilitated by asymmetries in competitive ability and susceptibility to herbivores,” Ecology Letters 16(2): 206–213 (February 2013).
“Desert invaders,” Science 338: 1264 (7 December 2012).
Adam Hinterthuer, “Following the money,” Scientific American, 27–28 (May 2008).
“Climate change opens new avenue for spread of invasive plants,” ScienceDaily (30 November 2008).
“Home and away: how do invasive plant species dominate native species?,” ScienceDaily (8 February 2011).
King Crabs Under Antarctica
Brian Merchant, “King crabs invade Antarctica for first time in 40 million years,” TreeHugger (21 March 2011).
Douglas Fox, “Polar research: Trouble bares its claws,” Nature (12 December 2012).
Wynne Parry, “King crabs encroach on Antarctica, scientists warn,” LiveScience (7 September 2011).
“King crabs threaten seafloor life near Antarctica,” ScienceDaily (8 September 2011).
Jaimie T. A. Dick et al, “Parasitism may enhance rather than reduce the predatory impact of an invader,” Biology Letters (14 April 2010).

Life’s Diversity
Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., The Genius Within. Discovering The Intelligence Of Every Living Thing, Harcourt (2002).
Classification
Tom A. Williams et al, “An archaeal origin of eukaryotes supports only two primary domains of life,” Nature 504: 231-236 (12 December 2013).
Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy, Cambridge University Press (1994).
John S. Wilkins, Species: The Evolution of the Idea, CRC Press (2018).
Arshan Nasir & Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, “A phylogenomic data-driven exploration of viral origins and evolution,” Science Advances (25 September 2015).
“Cross species transfer of genes has driven evolution,” EurekAlert! (8 July 2018).
Atma M. Ivancevic et al, “Horizontal transfer of BovB and L1 retrotransposons in eukaryotes,” Genome Biology 19:85 (9 July 2018).
Susan Milius, “Defining ‘species’ is a fuzzy art,” Science News (1 November 2017).
Laura Wegener Parfrey et al, “Evaluating support for the current classification of eukaryotic diversity,” PLoS Genetics 2(12): e220 (22 December 2006).
Suzanne Goldenberg, “Planet Earth is home to 8.7 million species, scientists estimate,” The Guardian (23 August 2011).
“Just how many species are there, anyway?,” ScienceDaily (26 May 2003).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “New way to look at life,” Science 338: 317 (19 October 2012).
W. Ford Doolittle, “Uprooting the tree of life,” Scientific American (February 2000).
“Wealth of unsuspected new microbes expands tree of life: bacteria make up nearly two-thirds of all biodiversity on Earth, half of them uncultivable,” ScienceDaily (11 April 2016).
R.H. Whittaker, “New concepts of kingdoms of organisms,” Science 163(3863): 150–160 (10 January 1969).
Martin Schlegel & Norbert Hülsman, “Protists – A textbook example for a paraphyletic taxa,” Organisms Diversity & Evolution 7(2): 166-172 (2 August 2007).
Susan Milius, “The name of the fungus,” Science News (18 April 2014).
Susan Milius, “The tree of life gets a makeover,” Science News (29 July 2015).
Lynn Margulis, Origin of Eukaryotic Cells, Yale University Press (1971).
Romain Derelle et al, “Bacterial proteins pinpoint a single eukaryotic root,” PNAS 112(7): E693–E699 (17 February 2015).
Portuguese man o’ war drawing courtesy of Peri Coleman.
E. Sally Chang et al, “Genomic insights into the evolutionary origin of Myxozoa within Cnidaria,” PNAS (16 November 2015).
“New discovery may redefine classifications in the animal kingdom,” ScienceDaily (18 November 2015).
Colin Barras, “Human or hybrid? The big debate over what a species really is,” New Scientist (23 January 2019).
SuperGroups
Fabien Burki et al, “Phylogenomics reshuffles the eukaryotic supergroups,” PLoS One (29 August 2007).
Gordon Lax et al, “Hemimastigophora is a novel supra-kingdom-level lineage of eukaryotes,” Nature (14 December 2018).
Andrew J. Roger & Alastair G.B. Simpson, “Evolution: revisiting the root of the eukaryote tree,” Current Biology 19(4): R165–R167 (24 February 2009).
Fabien Burki, “The eukaryotic tree of life from a global phylogenomic perspective,” Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology (August 2014).
Sina M. Adl et al, “The revised classification of eukaryotes,” Journal of Eukaryotic Microbiology 59(5): 429–514 (September 2012).
Linnaeus’ Curse
Peter de Knijff, “How carrion and hooded crows defeat Linnaeus’s curse,” Science 344(6190): 1345–1346 (20 June 2014).
Classifying Crows
Hooded crow photo courtesy of Snowmanradio.
J.W. Poelstra et al, “The genomic landscape underlying phenotypic integrity in the face of gene flow in crows,” Science 344(6190): 1410–1414 (20 June 2014).
Misidentification
Zoë A. Goodwin et al, “Widespread mistaken identity in tropical plant collections,” Current Biology 25(22): R1066–R1067 (16 November 2015).
“Half the world’s natural history specimens may have the wrong name,” ScienceDaily (16 November 2015).
Karyotype
Vladimir A. Lukhtanov et al, “Unprecedented within-species chromosome number cline in the Wood White butterfly Leptidea sinapis and its significance for karyotype evolution and speciation,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (20 April 2011).
Mauro Mandrioli et al, “Karyotype rearrangements and telomere analysis in Myzus persicae (Hemiptera, Aphididae) strains collected on Lavandula sp. plants,” Comparative Cytogenetics 8(4): 259–274 (31 October 2014).
Domains
Carl R. Woese & George E. Fox, “Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms,” PNAS 74(11): 5088–5090 (1 November 1977).
Cymon J. Cox et al, “The archaebacterial origin of eukaryotes,” PNAS 105(51): 20356–20361 (23 December 2008).
J.A. Lake et al, “Eocytes: a new ribosome structure indicates a kingdom with a close relationship to eukaryotes,” PNAS 81(12): 3786–3790 (1 June 1984).
Tom A. Williams et al, “An archaeal origin of eukaryotes supports only two primary domains of life,” Nature 504: 231–236 (12 December 2013).
John M. Archibald, “The eocyte hypothesis and the origin of eukaryotic cells,” PNAS 105(51): 20049–20050 (23 December 2008).
Laura A. Hug et al, “A new view of the tree of life,” Nature Microbiology (11 April 2016).
Microbes
John L. Ingraham & Roberto Kolter, March of the Microbes, Belknap Press (2010).
Bernard Dixon, Power Unseen: How Microbes Rule the World W.E. Freeman – Spektrum (1994).
Rene Fester Kratz, Barron’s E-Z Microbiology, Barron’s (2011).
John Morgan Allman, Evolving Brains, Scientific American Library (1999).
Ethne Barnes, Diseases and Human Evolution, University of New Mexico Press (2005).
Numbers
Kenneth J. Locey & Jay T. Lennon, “Scaling laws predict global microbial diversity,” PNAS (2 May 2016).
Helen Shen, “High-flying bacteria spark interest in possible climate effects,” Nature (28 January 2013).
John Postgate, Microbes and Man, Cambridge University Press (2000).
James Gorman, “Scientists find life in the cold and dark under Antarctic ice,” The New York Times (6 February 2013).
Brent C. Christner et al, “Biogeochemistry: microbes eat rock under ice,” Nature 512: 256–257 (21 August 2014).
Martyn Tranter, “A microbial ecosystem beneath the West Antarctic ice sheet,” Nature 512: 310–313 (21 August 2014).
Marine Microbes
“How microbes survive at bare minimum: archaea eat protein,” ScienceDaily (27 March 2013).
Karen G. Lloyd et al, “Predominant archaea in marine sediments degrade detrital proteins,” Nature 496: 215–218 (11 April 2013).
Erin Loury, “Barely breathing microbes still living in 86-million-year-old clay,” Science (17 May 2012).
Hans Røy et al, “Aerobic microbial respiration in 86-million-year-old deep-sea red clay,” Science 336(6083): 922–925 (18 May 2012).
In the Soil
Fernando Puente-Sánchez et al, “Viable cyanobacteria in the deep continental subsurface,” PNAS 115(42): 10702-10707 (1 October 2018).
Jonathan Watts, “Scientists identify vast underground ecosystem containing billions of micro-organisms,” The Guardian (10 December 2018).
Travel
Isabel Reche et al, “Deposition rates of viruses and bacteria above the atmospheric boundary layer,” The ISME Journal (29 January 2018).
Jim Robbins, “Trillions upon trillions of viruses fall from the sky each day,” The New York Times (13 April 2018).
“Plumes Across the Pacific deliver thousands of microbial species to North American west coast,” ScienceDaily (17 December 2012).
David J. Smith et al, “Intercontinental dispersal of bacteria and archaea by transpacific winds,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology (7 December 2012).
Marc-André Lachance et al, “Saccharomycopsis fodiens sp. nov., a rare predacious yeast from three distant localities,” International Journal of Systematic and Evolution Microbiology (12 June 2012).
Sociality
Jeffrey Marlow & Rogier Braakman, “Team players,” Scientific American 319(5): 32-39 (November 2018).
Bernard J. Crespi, “The evolution of social behavior in microorganisms,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 16(4): 178–183 (1 April 2001).
Eshel Ben Jacob et al, “Bacterial linguistic communication and social intelligence,” Trends in Microbiology 12(8): 366–372 (1 August 2004).
Stuart A. West et al, “The social lives of microbes,” Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 38: 53–77 (December 2007).
Michael T. Mee et al, “Syntrophic exchange in synthetic microbial communities,” PNAS 111(20): E2149–E2156 (20 May 2014).
Elizabeth A. Ottesen et al, “Pattern and synchrony of gene expression among sympatric marine microbial populations,” PNAS 110(6): E488–E497 (5 February 2013).
Jens Heller et al, “Characterization of greenbeard genes involved in long-distance kind discrimination in a microbial eukaryote,” PLoS Biology (14 April 2016).
“The secret language of microbes,” Phys.org (14 April 2016).
Joan Strassman, “Bacterial cheaters,” Nature 404: 555-556 (6 April 2000).
Gregory J. Velicer, “Social strife in the microbial world,” 11(7): 330–337 Trends in Microbiology (July 2003).
Gregory J. Velicer et al, “Developmental cheating in the social bacterium Myxococcus xanthus,” Nature 404: 598-601 (6 April 2000).
Hélène Morlon, “Microbial cooperative warfare,” Science 337: 1184–1885 (7 September 2012).
Yongfei Hu et al, “The transfer network of bacterial mobile resistome connecting animal and human microbiome,” Applied and Environmental Microbiology (9 September 2016).
“Investigators characterize world of resistance gene exchange among bacteria,” ScienceDaily (9 September 2016).
Alexander Harms et al, “Mechanisms of bacterial persistence during stress and antibiotic exposure,” Science 354(6318): 1390 (16 December 2016).
“How bacteria survive antibiotic treatment,” Phys.org (20 December 2016).
Stuart A. West et al, “The social lives of microbes,” The Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics (2007).
Ben Raymond et al, “The dynamics of cooperative bacterial virulence in the field,” Science 337: 85–88 (6 July 2012).
Biofilms
Jintao Liu et al, “Coupling between distant biolfilms and emergence of nutrient time-sharing,” Science (6 April 2017).
Charles Bankhead, “Biologists discover timesharing strategy in bacteria: communities found to coordinate feeding to streamline efficiency,” ScienceDaily (7 April 2017).
Ute Römling, “Microbiology: Bacterial communities as capitalist economies,” Nature 497: 321–322 (16 May 2013).
Eshel Ben-Jacob et al, “Seeking the foundations of cognition in bacteria: From Schrödinger’s negative entropy to latent information,” Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications 369(1):495-524 (January 2006).
Lars Plate & Michael A. Marleta, “Nitric oxide modulates bacterial biofilm formation through a multicomponent cyclic-di-gmp signaling network,” Molecular Cell 46(4): 449–460 (25 May 2012).
Jintao Liu et al, “Metabolic co-dependence gives rise to collective oscillations within biofilms,” Nature (22 July 2015).
Kun Zhao et al, “Psl trails guide exploration and microcolony formation in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms,” Nature 497: 388–391 (16 May 2013).
Joseph A. Newman et al, “Molecular basis of the activity of SinR protein, the master regulator of biofilm formation in Bacillus subtilis,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry 288: 10766–10778 (12 April 2013).
J.W. Costerton & Philip S. Stewart, “Battling biofilms,” Scientific American 75–81 (July 2001).
Gwyneth Dickey, “Hints of altruism among bacteria,” Science News (1 September 2010).
Quorum Sensing
Melinda Wenner, “Don’t talk, reproduce,” Scientific American 19–20 (May 2009).
Robert Czajkowski & Sylwia Jafra, “Quenching of acyl-homoserine lactone-dependent quorum sensing by enzymatic disruption of signal molecules,” Acta Biochimica Polonica 56(1): 1–16 (17 February 2009).
Michiko E. Taga & Bonnie L. Bassler, “Chemical communication among bacteria,” PNAS (25 November 2003).
Bonnie L Bassler, “Small talk: cell-to-cell communication in bacteria,” Cell 109(4):421-4 (June 2002).
Marguerite Holloway, “Talking bacteria,” Scientific American 34–35 (February 2004).
Thommie Karlsson et al, “The Pseudomonas aeruginosa N-acylhomoserine lactone quorum sensing molecules target iqgap1 and modulate epithelial cell migration,” PLoS Pathogens (11 October 2012).
Sophie E. Darch et al, “Density-dependent fitness benefits in quorum-sensing bacterial populations,” PNAS 109(21): 8259–8263 (22 May 2012).
Adrian G. Patterson et al, “Quorum sensing controls adaptive immunity through the regulation of multiple CRISPR-Cas systems,” Molecular Cell (18 November 2016).
“Bacteria communicate to ramp up collective immune response to viral threats,” ScienceDaily (18 November 2016).
Edze R. Westra et al, “CRISPR–Cas systems: beyond adaptive immunity,” Nature Reviews Microbiology (7 April 2014).
Cheating
William W. Driscoll et al, “Allelopathy as an emergent, exploitable public good in the bloom-forming microalga Prymnesium parvum,” Evolution 67(6): 1582–1590 (June 2013).
Stephen P. Diggle et al, “Cooperation and conflict in quorum-sensing bacterial populations,” Nature 450: 411–414 (15 November 2007).
Ajai A. Dandekar et al, “Bacterial quorum sensing and metabolic incentives to cooperate,” 338(6104): 264–266 Science (12 October 2012).
Knut Drescher et al, “Solutions to the public goods dilemma in bacterial biofilms,” Current Biology 24(1): 50–55 (6 January 2014).
Warfare
B. Brett Finlay, “The art of bacterial warfare,” Scientific American 302(2): 56–63 (February 2010).
Nuno M. Oliveira et al, “Biofilm formation as a response to ecological competition,” PLoS Biology (9 July 2015).
Associations
Dominik K. Großkinsky et al, “Cytokinin production by Pseudomonas fluorescens G20-18 determines biocontrol activity against Pseudomonas syringae in Arabidopsis,” Scientific Reports (17 March 2016).
Ayelet Caspi-Fluger et al, “Horizontal transmission of the insect symbiont Rickettsia is plant-mediated,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (23 November 2011).
Funky Viral Con
Kerry E. Mauck et al, “Deceptive chemical signals induced by a plant virus attract insect vectors to inferior hosts,” PNAS 107(8): 3600–3605 (23 February 2010).
Susan Milius, “Virus makes plants lie to insects,” Science News (15 December 2009).
Simon C. Groen et al, “Virus infection of plants alters pollinator preference: a payback for susceptible hosts?,” PLoS Pathogens (11 August 2016).
Tim Radford, “Cunning cucumber virus alters plant aromas to attract bees,” The Guardian (11 August 2016).
Microbiome
Tina Hesman Saey, “Body’s bacteria don’t outnumber human cells so much after all,” Science News (8 January 2016).
Ron Sender et al, “Revised estimates for the number of human and bacteria cells in the body,” bioRxiv (6 January 2016).
Michael Greshko, “How many cells are in the human body—and how many microbes?,” National Geographic (13 January 2016).
Caroline Ayinon, “Mythbusters: Human microbiota,” Yale Scientific (2 April 2016).
“Microbes in the human body,” The Marshal Protocol Knowledge Base (undated).
Melinda Wenner, “Humans carry more bacterial cells than human ones,” Scientific American (30 November 2007).
Les Dethlefsen et al, “An ecological and evolutionary perspective on human–microbe mutualism and disease,” Nature 449: 811–818 (18 October 2007).
Susan Milius, “Microscopic menagerie,” Science News (11 January 2014).
“Bacteria blossom in apple flowers,” Nature 495: 144 (14 March 2013).
Elizabeth A.C. Heath-Heckman et al, “Bacterial bioluminescence regulates expression of a host cryptochrome gene in the squid-vibrio symbiosis,” mBio 4(2): e00167–13 (2 April 2013).
James M. Davison et al, “Microbiota regulate intestinal epithelial gene expression by suppressing the transcription factor Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha,” Genome Research (May 2017).
“Microbes seen controlling action of host’s genes,” ScienceDaily (17 May 2017).
Jun Abe et al, “Atomic-scale origins of slowness in the cyanobacterial circadian clock,” Science (25 June 2015).
Vanessa O. Ezenwa, “Animal behavior and the microbiome,” Science 338: 198–199 (12 October 2012).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “How do microbes shape animal development,” Science 340: 1159–1660 (7 June 2013).
Julie Reveillaud et al, “Host-specificity among abundant and rare taxa in the sponge microbiome,” The ISME Journal (9 January 2014).
“Teeming with life,” Science360 (15 July 2014)
“Microbes control immune cells,” Nature (22 January 2014).
Dingding An et al, “Sphingolipids from a symbiotic microbe regulate homeostasis of host intestinal natural killer T cells,” Cell 156(1-2): 123–133 (16 January 2014).
Arya Khosravi et al, “Gut microbiota promote hematopoiesis to control bacterial infection,” Cell Host & Microbe 15(3): 374–381 (12 March 2014).
Vanessa O. Ezenwa et al, “Animal behavior and the microbiome,” Science 338(6104): 198–199 (12 October 2012).
Javier A. Bravo et al, “Ingestion of Lactobacillus strain regulates emotion-al behavior and central GABA receptor expression in a mouse via the vagus nerve,” PNAS 108(38): 16050–16055 (20 September 2011).
Rochellys Diaz Heijtz et al, “Normal gut microbiota modulates brain development and behavior,” PNAS 108(7): 3047–3052 (15 February 2011).
Gil Sharon et al, “Commensal bacteria play a role in mating preference of Drosophila melanogaster,” PNAS 106(46): 20051–20056 (16 November 2010).
Gut Flora
Azeen Ghorayshi, “The super-abundant virus controlling your gut bacteria,” New Scientist (25 July 2014).
Johan Larsbrink et al, “A discrete genetic locus confers xyloglucan metabolism in select human gut Bacteroidetes,” Nature (19 January 2014).
Hassan Salem et al, “Actinobacteria as essential symbionts in firebugs and cotton stainers (Hemiptera, Pyrrhocoridae),” Environmental Microbiology (19 October 2012).
Joe Alcock et al, “Is eating behavior manipulated by the gastrointestinal microbiota? evolutionary pressures and potential mechanisms,” BioEssays (7 August 2014).
Régis Stentz et al, “A bacterial homolog of a eukaryotic inositol phosphate signaling enzyme mediates cross-kingdom dialog in the mammalian gut,” Cell Reports (13 February 2014).
Rheinallt M. Jones et al, “Symbiotic lactobacilli stimulate gut epithelial proliferation via Nox-mediated generation of reactive oxygen species,” The EMBO Journal 32(23): 3009–3105 (27 November 2013).
“Gut microbes browse along a gene buffet,” Duke University (7 August 2014).
Gina Kolata, “In good health? Thank your 100 trillion bacteria,” The New York Times (13 June 2012).
Habitats
Eric Epping, “Ocean ecology: life in an oceanic extreme,” Nature Geoscience (17 March 2013).
Matthew Z. DeMaere et al, “High level of intergenera gene exchange shapes the evolution of haloarchaea in an isolated Antarctic lake,” PNAS (1 October 2013).
Laura Sanders, “Microbe’s survival manual,” Science News (3 February 2010).
E.F. Delong & N.R. Pace, “Environmental diversity of bacteria and archaea,” Systems Biology 50(4): 470–478 (August 2001).
Sarah E. DeWeerdt, “The world’s toughest bacterium,” Genome News Network (5 July 2002).
Bacteria
Gutam Naik, “Deep inside bacteria, a germ of human personality,” The Wall Street Journal (8 September 2009).
Jeremy L. England, “Statistical physics of self-replication,” arXiv: 1209.1179 [physics.bio-ph] (6 September 2012).
Phillip Ball, “Bacteria replicate close to the physical limit of efficiency,” Nature (20 September 2012).
“Bacteria’s hidden traffic control,” ScienceDaily (8 February 2015).
Isabell Hug et al, “Second messenger–mediated tactile response by a bacterial rotary motor,” Science 358(6362): 531-534 (27 October 2017).
Diversity
Bin Liu et al, “Helical motion of the cell body enhances Caulobacter crescentus motilitym,” PNAS (22 July 2014).
Senses
“Bacteria can have a ‘sense of smell’,” ScienceDaily (16 August 2010).
Loo Chien Wang et al, “The inner membrane histidine kinase EnvZ senses osmolality via helix-coil transitions in the cytoplasm,” The EMBO Journal (27 April 2012).
Franz Narberhaus, “RNAs at fever pitch,” Nature 502: 178–179 (10 October 2013).
Ewen Callaway, “How bacteria break a magnet,” Nature (15 December 2011).
Intelligence
Conghui You et al, “Coordination of bacterial proteome with metabolism by cyclic AMP signaling,” Nature 500: 301–306 (15 August 2013).
Nicole M. Vega et al, “Salmonella typhimurium intercepts Escherichia coli signaling to enhance antibiotic tolerance,” PNAS 110(35): 14420–14425 (27 August 2013).
“How Salmonella bounces back,” Nature (20 August 2014).
“‘Smart’ bacteria remodel their genes to infect our intestines,” Phys.org (22 February 2017).
Naama Katsowich et al, “Host cell attachment elicits posttranscriptional regulation in infecting enteropathogenic bacteria,” Science 355: 735-739 (17 February 2017).
Médéric Diard et al, “Antibiotic treatment selects for cooperative virulence of Salmonella typhimurium,” Current Biology (20 August 2014).
Naama Katsowich et al, “Host cell attachment elicits posttranscriptional regulation in infecting enteropathogenic bacteria,” Science 355: 735-739 (17 February 2017).
Jeongjoon Choi & Eduardo A. Groisman, “The lipopolysaccharide modification regulator PmrA limits Salmonella virulence by repressing the type three-secretion system Spi/Ssa,” PNAS 110(23): 9499–9504 (4 June 2013).
“Salmonella uses protective switch during infection,” ScienceDaily (27 May 2013).
Yury S. Polikanov et al, “How hibernation factors RMF, HPF, and YfiA turn off protein synthesis,” Science 336: 916–918 (18 May 2012).
“Formation of bacterial spores,” ScienceDaily (8 March 2018).
Alper Mutlu et al, “Phenotypic memory in Bacillus subtilis links dormancy entry and exit by a spore quantity-quality tradeoff,” Nature Communications (4 January 2018).
Ido Yosef & Udi Qimron, “How bacteria get spacers from invaders,” Nature 519: 166-167 (12 March 2015).
Gómez GómezJosé María et al, “Drying bacterial biosaline patterns capable of vital reanimation upon rehydration: novel hibernating bio-mineralogical life formations,” Astrobiology (30 June 2014).
Karine A. Gibbs et al, “Genetic determinants of self identity and social recognition in bacteria,” Science 321: 256–259 (11 July 2008).
Ram Maharjan et al, “The form of a trade-off determines the response to competition,” Ecology Letters (31 July 2013).
Matthias Reiter et al, “Range expansion of heterogeneous populations,” Physical Review Letters (11 April 2014).
“Bacteria use chat to play the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ game in deciding their fate,” ScienceDaily (27 March 2012).
Victor Nizet & Tony Taksh, “Bacteria get on your nerves,” Nature 501: 43–44 (5 September 2013).
Isaac M. Chiu et al, “Bacteria activate sensory neurons that modulate pain and inflammation,” Nature 501: 52–57 (5 September 2013).
“Menacing microbes drain host cells with stealthy ‘straw’,” Nature (28 March 2019).
“Bacterial nanosized speargun works like a power drill,” Phys.org (26 September 2017).
Work Uniform
Theophile Grebert et al, “Light color acclimation is a key process in the global ocean distribution of Synechococcus cyanobacteria,” PNAS (12 February 2018).
“‘Chameleon’ ocean bacteria can shift their colors,” ScienceDaily (21 February 2018).
“Stanford researchers unravel secrets of shape-shifting bacteria,” Stanford News (16 March 2015).
Genetic Uptake
Courtney K. Ellison et al, “Retraction of DNA-bound type IV competence pili initiates DNA uptake during natural transformation in Vibrio cholerae,” Nature Microbiology (14 June 2018).
Steph Yin, “Using harpoon-like appendages, bacteria ‘fish’ for new DNA,” The New York Times (14 June 2018).
Bacterium snatching DNA images courtesy of Ankur Dalia & Indiana University.
Michael Marshall, “DNA-grabbing bacteria hint at early phase of evolution,” New Scientist (26 Septemer 2013).
Søren Overballe-Petersen et al, “Bacterial natural transformation by highly fragmented and damaged DNA,” PNAS (18 November 2013).
Robert V. Miller, “Bacterial gene swapping in nature,” Scientific American 278(1): 66–71 (January 1998).
Stuart B. Levy, “The challenge of antibiotic resistance,” Scientific American 278(3): 46–53 (March 1998).
Kevin J. Forsberg et al, “Bacterial phylogeny structures soil resistomes across habitats,” Nature (21 May 2014).
Kevin J. Forsberg et al, “The shared antibiotic resistome of soil bacteria and human pathogens,” Science 337(6098): 1107–1111 (31 August 2012).
Tom Berthold et al, “Mycelia as a focal point for horizontal gene transfer among soil bacteria,” Scientific Reports (4 November 2016).
“Gene transfer on the fungal highway,” Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (14 December 2016).
Altruism
Tamim Al Jubair et al, “Haemophilus influenzae stores and distributes hemin by using Protein E,” International Journal of Medical Microbiology 304(5–6): 662–668 (July 2014).
Nicole M Vega et al, “Signaling-mediated bacterial persister formation,” Nature Chemical Biology (18 March 2012).
Melinda Wenner Moyer, “Nice germs finish last,” Scientific American (November 2010).
Sociality
E.J. Diner et al, “Identification of a target cell permissive factor required for contact-dependent growth inhibition (CDI),” Genes & Development (March 2012).
Luke McNally et al, “Cooperative secretions facilitate host range expan-sion in bacteria,” Nature Communications (5 August 2014).
Claude Saint-Ruf et al, “Massive diversification in aging colonies of Escherichia coli,” Journal of Bacteriology (30 June 2014).
“Bacterial colonies evolve amazing diversity,” ScienceDaily (30 June 2014).
Otto X. Cordero et al, “Ecological populations of bacteria act as socially cohesive units of antibiotic production and resistance,” Science 337: 1228–1231 (7 September 2012).
Myxococcus xanthus
Marlene Cimons, “‘Social’ bacteria cooperate to hunt for food and survive under harsh conditions,” Phys.org (23 December 2013).
Oleksii Sliusarenko et al, “Accordion waves in Myxococcus xanthus,” PNAS 103(5): 1534–1539 (31 January 2006).
“Study finds molecular recognition mechanism that assists outer mem-brane fusion in myxobacteria,” Phys.org (13 November 2013).
Lawrence J. Shimket et al, “Developmental cell interactions in Myxococcus xanthus and the spoC locus,” PNAS 80(5): 1406–1410 (1 March 1983).
Dan Krotz, “Even bacteria use social networks,” Phys.org (19 July 2013).
Jonathan P. Remis et al, “Bacterial social networks: structure and composition of Myxococcus xanthus outer membrane vesicle chains,” Environmental Microbiology (15 July 2013).
Maxsim L. Gibiansky et al, “Earthquake-like dynamics in Myxococcus xanthus social motility,” PNAS 110(6): 2330–2335 (5 February 2013).
Haiyang Zhang et al, “The mechanistic basis of Myxococcus xanthus rippling behavior and its physiological role during predation,” PLoS Computational Biology 8(9): e1002715 (September 2012).
Haiyang Zhang et al, “Quantifying aggregation dynamics during Myxococ-cus xanthus development,” Journal of Bacteriology (22 July 2011).
James E. Berleman et al, “Predataxis behavior in Myxococcus xanthus,” PNAS 105(44): 17127–17132 (4 November 2008).
Gregory J. Velicer & Yuen-tsu N. Yu, “Evolution of novel cooperative swarming in the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus,” Nature 425: 75–78 (4 September 2003).
Oleg A. Igoshin et al, “Pattern formation and traveling waves in myxobac-teria: Theory and modeling,” PNAS 98(26): 14913–14918 (18 December 2001).
Darshankumar T. Pathak et al, “Molecular recognition by a polymorphic cell surface receptor governs cooperative behaviors in bacteria,” PLoS Genetics (7 December 2013).
Richard Losick & Dale Kaiser, “Why and how bacteria communicate,” Scientific American 68–73 (February 1997).
Eating With the Enemy
Emmo Hmann et al, “Environmental Breviatea harbour mutualistic Arcobacter epibionts,” Nature 534: 254–258 (9 June 2016).
“Some bacteria love their foes,” Max Planck Gesellschaft (10 June 2016).
“Bacteria probably formed symbioses with protists early in evolution,” Phys.org (10 June 2016).
Energetic Drinker (Rhodopseudomonas palustris)
A. Bose et al, “Electron uptake by iron-oxidizing phototrophic bacteria,” Nature Communications (26 February 2014).
“A shocking diet: Researchers describe microbe that ‘eats’ electricity,” ScienceDaily (10 March 2014).
Philip E. Ross, “Ancient sleepers,” Scientific American 33 (April 1993).
Diet
Samay Pande et al, “Metabolic cross-feeding via intercellular nanotubes among bacteria,” Nature Communications (23 February 2015).
“Bacteria network for food,” (23 February 2015).
Robustness
Kathleen Park Talaro & Barry Chess, Foundations in Microbiology, McGraw-Hill (2008).
Viruses
Joseph Panno, Viruses, Facts on File (2011).
David P. Barash & Ilona A. Barsh, The Mammal in the Mirror, W.H. Freeman and Company (2000).
Ed Rybicki, “Where did viruses come from?,” Scientific American (27 March 2008).
Nadège Philippe et al, “Pandoraviruses: amoeba viruses with genomes up to 2.5 Mb reaching that of parasitic eukaryotes,” Science 341(6143): 281–286 (19 July 2013).
Johanna E Baschek et al, “Stochastic dynamics of virus capsid formation: direct versus hierarchical self-assembly,” BMC Biophysics 5:22 (17 De-cember 2012).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Ever-bigger viruses shake tree of life,” Science 341(6143): 226–227 (19 July 2013).
Bernard La Scola et al, “A giant virus in amoebae,” Science 299(5615): 2033 (28 March 2003).
Matthieu Legendre et al, “Thirty-thousand-year-old distant relative of giant icosahedral DNA viruses with a pandoravirus morphology,” PNAS 111(11): 4274–4279 (18 March 2014).
Michael Slezak, “Origin of organs: thank viruses for your skin and bone,” New Scientist (27 February 2014).
Natalie Angier, “Ebola and the vast viral universe,” The New York Times (27 October 2014).
Catherine Mary, “Giant viruses revive old questions about viral origins,” Science 335: 1035 (2 March 2012).
Marine Combe et al, “Single-cell analysis of RNA virus infection identifies multiple genetically diverse viral genomes within single infectious units,” Cell Host & Microbe 18(4): 424–432 (14 October 2015).
Helen C. Leggett et al, “Experimental evolution of adaptive phenotypic plasticity in a parasite,” Current Biology 23(2): 139–142 (21 January 2013).
“Viruses work together to attack their hosts,” ScienceDaily (8 April 2016).
“Viruses cooperate or conquer to cause maximum destruction,” ScienceDaily (13 December 2012).
Carl Zimmer, “An infinity of viruses,” Natural Geographic (20 February 2013).
Yishay Pinto et al, “Clustered mutations in hominid genome evolution are consistent with APOBEC3G enzymatic activity,” Genome Research (7 April 2016).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Virus fighter may have played a key role in human evolution,” Science (7 April 2016).
Tina Hesman Saey, “The vast virome,” Science News (27 December 2013).
Hans-Jörg Rheinberger, An Epistemology of the Concrete: Twentieth-Century Histories of Life, Duke University Press (2010).
Mimivirus
Anthony Levasseur et al, “MIMIVIRE is a defence system in mimivirus that confers resistance to virophage,” Nature (3 March 2016).
“Some giant viruses found to have an immune system similar to bacteria,” Phys.org (2 March 2016).
Alfred Nobel
Juan Jose Sanchez Arreseigor, “The conundrum of Alfred Nobel,” National Geographic History (July/August 2017).
Alive?
Arshan Nasir & Gustavo Caetano-Anollés, “A phylogenomic data-driven exploration of viral origins and evolution,” Science Advances (25 September 2015).
“Study adds to evidence that viruses are alive,” ScienceDaily (25 September 2015).
Luis P. Villarreal, “Are viruses alive?,” Scientific American, 100–105 (December 2004).
Klosneuvirus
Mitch Leslie, “Cell-like giant virus found,” Science 356(6333): 16-17 (7 April 2017).
Frederik Schulz et al, “Giant viruses with an expanded complement of translation system components,” Science 356(6333): 82-85 (7 April 2017).
“Discovered: novel group of giant viruses,” DOE Joint Genome Institute (6 April 2017).
Paul Seaburn, “Giant Frankenstein viruses discovered in Austrian sewer,” Mysterious Universe (12 April 2017).
Subvirals
Matthias G. Fischer & Curtis A. Suttle, “A virophage at the origin of large DNA transposons,” Science 332(6026): 231–234 (8 April 2011).
Mama & Sputnik
Helen Pearson, “‘Virophage’ suggests viruses are alive,” Nature (6 August 2008).
Bernard La Scola et al, “The virophage as a unique parasite of the giant mimivirus,” Nature 455: 100–104 (4 September 2008).
Cafeteria Style
Matthias G. Fischer et al, “Giant virus with a remarkable complement of genes infects marine zooplankton,” PNAS 107(45): 19508–19513 (9 November 2010).
Matthias G. Fischer & Thomas Hackl, “Host genome integration and giant virus-induced reactivation of the virophage mavirus,” Nature 540: 288–291 (8 December 2016).
Intrigue at Organic Lake
Sheree Yau et al, “Virophage control of antarctic algal host–virus dynamics,” PNAS 108(15): 6163–6168 (12 April 2011).
Virginia Gewin, “‘Virus-eater’ discovered in Antarctic lake,” Nature (28 March 2011).
Infection
Elie Dolgin, “The secret social lives of viruses,” Nature (18 June 2019).
Zohar Erez et al, “Communication between viruses guides lysis–lysogeny decisions,” Nature 541: 488-493 (26 January 2017).
Laura Sanders, “Measles erases immune memory,” Science News (8 June 2019).
“Microbes scared to death by virus presence,” Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (3 April 2015).
Maria A. Bautista et al, “Virus-induced dormancy in the Archaeon Sulfolobus islandicus,” mBio (31 March 2015).
Martha R. J. Clokie, “Bacterial defence molecules target viral DNA,” Nature (5 December 2018).
Ji Lian Li et al, “Systemic spread and propagation of a plant-pathogenic virus in European honeybees, Apis mellifera,” mBio 5(1): e00898–e00913 (21 January 2014).
Bo Hu et al, “The bacteriophage T7 virion undergoes extensive structural remodeling during infection,” Science 339(6119): 576–579 (1 February 2013).
Sten Strunze et al, “Kinesin-1-mediated capsid disassembly and disruption of the nuclear pore complex promote virus infection,” Cell Host & Microbe 10(3): 210–2013 (15 September 2011).
“Flu virus is a master shape-shifter,” Nature (3 December 2018).
Wenjun Tong et al, “Mapping the Integrase bridges in the nucleopro-teinHolliday junction intermediates of viral integrative and excisive recombination,” PNAS (11 August 2014).
“Elusive viral ‘machine’ architecture finally rendered,” ScienceDaily (11 August 2014).
“Viruses use ‘fake’ proteins to hide in our cells,” ScienceDaily (7 July 2014).
Ivan Marazzi et al, “Suppression of the antiviral response by an influenza histone mimic,” Nature 483: 428–433 (22 March 2012).
Richard Berry et al, “The structure of the cytomegalovirus-encoded m04 glycoprotein, a prototypical member of the m02 family of immunoevasins,” The Journal of Biological Chemistry (30 June 2014).
Herpes
Dorothy H. Crawford, The Invisible Enemy: A Natural History of Viruses, Oxford University Press (2000).
Rebecca L. Vega Thurber & Adrienne M.S. Correa, “Viruses of reef-building scleractinian coral,” Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 408(1–2): 102–113 (8 September 2011).
“Herpes, not quite so species specific after all,” ScienceDaily (8 November 2016).
Marina Escalera-Zamudio et al, “Bats, primates, and the evolutionary origins and diversification of mammalian gammaherpesviruses,” mBio (8 November 2016).
“Herpes viruses with an unusual broad host range,” ScienceDaily (2 November 2015).
Azza Abdelgawad et al, “Comprehensive serology based on a peptide ELISA to assess the prevalence of closely related equine herpesviruses in zoo and wild animals,” PLoS One (17 September 2015).
Simon J. Underdown et al, “Network analysis of the hominin origin of Herpes Simplex virus 2 from fossil data,” Virus Evolution (1 October 2017).
“Meet the hominin species that gave us genital herpes,” ScienceDaily (1 October 2017).
“Herpes virus infected hominids six million years ago,” Nature World News (11 June 2014).
“Health scare of the week: the insidious spread of herpes,” The Week (21 April 2011).
Alka Prasad et al, “Activation of human herpesvirus replication by apoptosis,” Journal of Virology (24 July 2013).
Jonathan Campbell et al, “Transient CD8-memory contraction: a potential contributor to latent cytomegalovirus reactivation,” Journal of Leukocyte Biology 92 (5): 933 (November 2012).
Tal Kramer & Lynn W. Enquist, “Alphaherpesvirus infection disrupts mitochondrial transport in neurons,” Cell Host & Microbe 11(5): 504–514 (17 May 2012).
Sofia V. Zaichick et al, “The herpesvirus VP1/2 protein is an effector of dynein-mediated capsid transport and neuroinvasion,” Cell Host & Microbe 13(2): 193–203 (13 February 2013).
Ekaterina E. Heldwein, “Up close with herpesviruses,” Science 360(6384): 34-35 (6 April 2018).
Xinghong Dai & Z. Hong Zhou, “Structure of the herpes simplex virus 1 capsid with associated tegument protein complexes,” Science (6 April 2018).
“How herpesvirus invades nervous system,” ScienceDaily (27 May 2013).
Viral Assistances
Jeremy J. Barr et al, “Bacteriophage adhering to mucus provide a non–host-derived immunity,” PNAS 110(26): 10771–10776 (25 June 2013).
Erik S. Barton et al, “Herpesvirus latency confers symbiotic protection from bacterial infection,” Nature 447: 326–329 (17 May 2007).
Breck A. Duerkop & Lora V. Hooper, “Resident viruses and their interac-tions with the immune system,” Nature Immunology (18 June 2013).
Stuart Fox, “8 percent of human genome was inserted by virus, and may cause schizophrenia,” Popular Science, (7 January 2010).
Masayuki Horie et al, “Endogenous non-retroviral RNA virus elements in mammalian genomes,” Nature 463: 84-87 (7 January 2010).
Bacteriophages
Manuela Villion & Sylvain Moineau, “Virology: phages hijack a host’s defence,” Nature 494: 433–434 (28 February 2013).
“A virus shield,” The Economist (25 May 2013).
“Using viruses to beat superbugs” ScienceDaily (26 March 2012).
Maya Merabishvili et al, “Quality-controlled small-scale production of a well-defined bacteriophage cocktail for use in human clinical trials,” PLoS One (20 March 2009).
Emily M Gesner et al, “Recognition and maturation of effector RNAs in a CRISPR interference pathway,” Nature Structural & Molecular Biology (15 May 2011).
Kimberley D. Seed et al, “A bacteriophage encodes its own CRISPR/Cas adaptive response to evade host innate immunity,” Nature 494: 489–491 (28 February 2013).
Simon J. Labrie et al, “Bacteriophage resistance mechanisms,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 8: 317–327 (2010).
Sheetal R. Modi et al, “Antibiotic treatment expands the resistance reservoir and ecological network of the phage metagenome,” Nature (9 June 2013).
Communal Decisions
Zohar Erez et al, “Communication between viruses guides lysis–lysogeny decisions,” Nature 541: 488-493 (26 January 2017).
Jimmy T. Trinh et al, “Cell fate decisions emerge as phages cooperate or compete inside their host,” Nature Communications (6 February 2017).
Alan R. Davidson, “Phages make a group decision,” Nature 541: 466-467 (26 January 2017).
Alan R. Davidson, “Virology: Phages make a group decision,” Nature 541: 466-467 (26 January 2017).
Ocean Viruses
Forest Rohwer & Rebecca Vega Thurber, “Viruses manipulate the marine environment,” Nature 459: 207–212 (14 May 2009).
Carl Zimmer, A Planet of Viruses, The University of Chicago Press (2011).
Adam Monier et al, “Taxonomic distribution of large DNA viruses in the sea,” Genome Biology 9(7): R106 (2008).
Curtis A. Suttle, “Viruses in the sea,” Nature 437: 356–361 (15 September 2005).
Curtis A. Suttle, “Marine viruses – major players in the global ecosystem,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 5: 801–812 (1 October 2007).
In The Muck
Tim Engelhardt et al, “High virus-to-cell ratios indicate ongoing production of viruses in deep subsurface sediments,” The ISME Journal (16 January 2014).
Archaea Viruses
David Prangishvili et al, “Viruses of the archaea: a unifying view,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 4: 837–848 (November 2006).
Eric Espagne et al, “Genome sequence of a polydnavirus: insights into symbiotic virus evolution,” Science 306(5694): 286–289 (8 October 2004).
Plant Viruses
Patrick Butterbach et al, “Tomato yellow leaf curl virus resistance by Ty-1 involves increased cytosine methylation of viral genomes and is compromised by cucumber mosaic virus infection,” PNAS (18 August 2014).
Sydeep Bag et al, “Complementation between two tospoviruses facilitates the systemic movement of a plant virus silencing suppressor in an otherwise restrictive host,” PLoS One 7(10): e44803 (October 2012).
Viral Zombies
Kelli Hoover et al, “A gene for extended phenotype,” Science 333: 1401 (9 September 2011).
Laura L. Ingwell et al, “Plant viruses alter insect behavior to enhance their spread,” Scientific Reports (15 August 2012).
Candice A. Stafford et al, “Infection with a plant virus modifies vector feeding behavior,” PNAS 108(23): 9350–9355 (7 June 2011).
A.D. Børglum et al, “Genome-wide study of association and interaction with maternal cytomegalovirus infection suggests new schizophrenia loci,” Molecular Psychiatry (29 January 2013).
Chris Reiber et al, “Change in human social behavior in response to a common vaccine,” Annals of Epidemiology 20(10): 729–733 (October 2010 ).
Anna Kuchment, “Zombie insects: a Q&A about a sinister virus,” Scientific American (12 October 2011).
The Wasp & Its Virus
Nancy E. Beckage, “The parasitics wasp’s secret weapon,” Scientific American (November 1977).
Joe Ballenger, “Polydnaviruses: Nature’s GMOs,” Biology Fortified (17 February 2010).
Joe Ballenger, “Evolution of the polydnavirus: how wasps began using viruses to engineer their hosts,” Biology Fortified (2 August 2010).
Bruce Webb et al, “The natural genetic engineering of polydnaviruses,” Natural Genetic Engineering and Natural Genome Editing 1178(1): 146-156 (October 2009).
Protists
Rona Arato, Protists, Crabtree Publishing (2010).
Trich
Trichomonas vaginalis photo courtesy of Graham Beards.
Frances Mercer & Patricia J. Johnson, “Trichomonas vaginalis: pathogenesis, symbiont interactions, and host cell immune responses,” Trends in Parasitology 34(8): 683–693 (August 2018).
Frances Mercer et al, “Neutrophils kill the parasite Trichomonas vaginalis using trogocytosis,” PLos Bilogy (6 February 2018).
Oliva Twu et al, “Trichomonas vaginalis exosomes deliver cargo to host cells and mediate host:parasite interactions,” PLoS Pathogens (11 July 2013).
Amber Dance, “How an obscure sexually transmitted parasite tangos with the immune system,” New Scientist (27 April 2019).
Niha Phukan et al, “The adherence of Trichomonas vaginalis to host ectocervical cells is influenced by lactobacilli,” Sexually Transmitted Infections (16 August 2013).
Valentina Margarita et al, “Symbiotic association with Mycoplasma hominis Can influence growth rate, atp production, cytolysis and inflammatory response of Trichomonas vaginalis,” Frontiers in Microbiology (20 June 2016).
Diatoms
Karen Grace V. Bondoc et al, “Decision-making of the benthic diatom Seminavis robusta searching for inorganic nutrients and pheromones,” The ISME Journal (9 October 2018).
“Sex or food? Decision-making in single-cell organisms,” ScienceDaily (16 October 2018).
Plankton
Gephyrocapsa oceanica (alga) photo courtesy of NEON ja.
Olga Blifernez-Klassen et al, “Cellulose degradation and assimilation by the unicellular phototrophic eukaryote Chlamydomonas reinhardtii,” Nature Communications (20 November 2012).
Patrick Martin et al, “Accumulation and enhanced cycling of polyphosphate by Sargasso Sea plankton in response to low phosphorus,” PNAS 111(2): 8089–8094 (3 June 2014).
Daniel Strain, “Holy flying plankton!,” Science (20 March 2012).
Xenophyophores
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “For a giant single-celled organism, home is the deepest address on the planet,” The New York Times (31 October 2011).
Slime Molds – Intelligence
Ferris Jabr, “How brainless slime molds redefine intelligence,” Nature (13 November 2012).
Toshiyuki Nakagaki et al, “Maze-solving by an amoeboid organism,” Nature 407: 470 (28 September 2000).
T. Nakagaki et al, “Obtaining multiple separate food sources: behavioural intelligence in the Physarum plasmodium,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B 271: 2305-2310 (November 2004).
“Slime mold mimics Canadian highway network,” ScienceDaily (26 March 2012).
Sasha Ingber, “Slime has memory but no brain,” National Geographic News (8 October 2012).
Philip Ball, “Cellular memory hints at the origins of intelligence,” Nature 451: 385 (23 January 2008).
Tetsu Saigusa et al, “Amoebae anticipate periodic events,” Physical Review Letters (3 January 2008).
David Vogel & Audrey Dussutour, “Direct transfer of learned behaviour via cell fusion in non-neural organisms,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (21 December 2016).
Social Amoeba
Guokai Chen et al, “Immune-like phagocyte activity in the social amoeba,” Science 317(5838): 678-681 (3 August 2007).
Amoeba Farmers
Susanne DiSalvo et al, “Burkholderia bacteria infectiously induce the proto-farming symbiosis of Dictyostelium amoebae and food bacteria,” PNAS (24 August 2015).
“Bacterial infection makes farmers out of amoebae,” ScienceDaily (24 August 2015).
Susan Milius, “Old amoebas spawn their farms,” Science News 179(4): 11 (12 February 2011).
Pierre Stallforth et al, ” A bacterial symbiont is converted from an inedible producer of beneficial molecules into food by a single mutation in the gacA gene,” PNAS 110(36): 14528–14533 (3 September 2013).
Debra A. Brock et al, “Primitive agriculture in a social amoeba,” Nature 469: 393–396 (20 January 2011).
Carl Zimmer, “Can answers to evolution be found in slime?,” The New York Times (3 October 2011).
Daniel J. Dickinson et al, “A polarized epithelium organized by ß- and a- catenin predates cadherin and metazoan origins,” Science 331:6022 1336–1339 (11 March 2011).
Lorenzo A Santorelli et al, “A new social gene in Dictyostelium discoide-um, chtB,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (9 January 2013).
Robet A. Raguso, “Small molecules mediate bacterial farming by social amoebae,” PNAS (23 August 2013).
Shigenori Hirose et al, “Self-recognition in social amoebae is mediated by allelic pairs of tiger genes,” Science 333: 467-470 (22 July 2011).
Fungi
Steven L. Stephenson, The Kingdom Fungi, Timber Press (2010).
JoAnna Klein, “When fungi fight back,” The New York Times (15 January 2019).
Stefanie S. Schmieder et al, “Bidirectional propagation of signals and nutrients in fungal networks via specialized hyphae,” Current Biology (3 January 2019).
Lynne Boddy, “This means spore: the brutal world of fighting fungi,” New Scientist (11 December 2014).
Allomyces
Daniel J. Burke et al, “Protein and ribonucleic acid synthesis during the diploid life cycle of Allomyces arbuscula,” Journal of Bacteriology
Elaine Pascoe, Slime Molds and Fungi, Blackbirch Press, (1999).
Fermentation
“Why beer lovers owe a debt to the yeasts that ferment wine,” Nature (21 March 2019).
Jeffrey P. Kahn, “How beer gave us civilization,” The New York Times (March 15, 2013)
Parental Sacrifice
Susanne M. Rafelski et al, “Mitochondrial network size scaling in budding yeast,” Science 338(6108): 822–824 (9 November 2012).
Proprioception
“How yeast makes heads or tails of itself,” ScienceDaily (21 March 2016).
Sukanya Basu et al, “Spatial landmarks regulate a Cdc42-dependent MAPK pathway to control differentiation and the response to positional compromise,” PNAS (22 March 2016).
Mushrooms
Rachel Nuwer, “Mushroom magic,” Scientific American 310(2): 20 (February 2014).
Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World, Ten Speed Press (2005).
Mycophagous Mammals
A.W. Claridge & T.W. May, “Mycophagy among Australian mammals,” Australian Journal of Ecology 19: 251–275 (1994).
C. Maser et al, Trees, Truffles, and Beasts, Rutgers University Press (2008).
Stewart T. Schultz, The Northwest Coast: A Natural History, Timber Press (1990).
Lichen
Vernon Ahmadjian, The Lichen Symbiosis, John Willey & Sons (1993).
Thomas H. Nash, Lichen Biology, Cambridge University Press (1996).
William Purvis, Lichens, Smithsonian Books (2000).
A. Gargas et al, “Multiple origins of lichen symbiosis suggested by SSU rDNA phylogeny,” Science 268(5216): 1492-1495 (9 June 1995).
François Lutzoni et al, “Major fungal lineages are derived from lichen symbiotic ancestors,” Nature 411: 937–940 (21 June 2001).
Daniel S. Heckman et al, “Molecular evidence for the early colonization of land by fungi and plants,” Science 293(5532): 1129-1133 (10 August 2001).
Susan Milius, “Yeasts hide in many lichen partnerships,” Science News (21 July 2016).
Toby Spribille et al, “Basidiomycete yeasts in the cortex of ascomycete macrolichens,” Science 353(6298): 488-492 (29 July 2016).
L. Dahlman & K. Palmqvist, “Growth in two foliose tripartite lichens, Nephroma arcticum and Peltigera aphthosa: empirical modelling of external vs internal factors,” Functional Ecology (11 December 2003).
Lena Dahlman et al, “Growth, nitrogen uptake, and resource allocation in the two tripartite lichens Nephroma arcticum and Peltigera aphthosa during nitrogen stress,” New Phytologist (1 February 2002).
Pathogens
Candida
Kevin Alby et al, “Homothallic and heterothallic mating in the opportunis-tic pathogen Candida albicans,” Nature 460: 890–893 (13 August 2009).
Richard J. Bennett, “Coming of age—sexual reproduction in Candida species,” PLoS Pathogens (23 December 2010).
Yang Lu et al, ” Quorum sensing controls hyphal initiation in Candida albicans through Ubr1-mediated protein degradation,” PNAS 111(5): 1975–1980 (4 February 2014).
Emily M. Mallick & Richard J. Bennett, “Sensing of the microbial neighborhood by Candida albicans,” PLoS Pathogens (31 October 2013).
Jeffrey M. Becker et al, “Pathway analysis of Candida albicans survival and virulence determinants in a murine infection model,” PNAS 107(51): 22044–22049 (21 December 2010).
Ergot
Linnda R. Caporael, “Ergotism: the Satan loosed in Salem?,” Science 21–26 (2 April 1976).
Death Grip
“Zombie ant fungi ‘know’ brains of their hosts,” ScienceDaily (25 August 2014).
“A fungi’s deadly tactics,” The Week (5 September 2014).
Charissa de Bekker et al, “Species-specific ant brain manipulation by a specialized fungal parasite,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (2 August 2014).

Plants
Keith Roberts (editor), Handbook of Plant Science, Wiley-Interscience (2007).
P.H. Raven et al, Biology of Plants, Worth Publishers (1992).
Anthony Trewavas, Plant Behaviour and Intelligence, Oxford University Press (2014).
Robert Brown, A Manual of Botany, William Blackwood and Sons (1874).
Stefano Mancuso, The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior, Atria Books (2018).
Stephen Harrod Buhner, Plant Intelligence and the Imaginal Realm: Beyond the Doors of Perception into the Dreaming of Earth, Bear & Company (2014).
Daniel Chamovitz, What a Plant Knows: A Field Guide to the Senses, Scientific American (2012).
Welwitschia photo courtesy of Bries.
Ralph S. Solecki, “Shanidar IV, a Neanderthal flower burial in northern Iraq,” Science New Series 190(4217): 880–881 (28 November 1975).
Amanda G. Henry et al, “Microfossils in calculus demonstrate consumption of plants and cooked foods in Neanderthal diets (Shanidar III, Iraq; Spy I and II, Belgium),” PNAS (27 December 2010).
The Plant List: www.theplantlist.org (2012).
Demetri Psaltis et al, “Optofluidics of plants,” APL Photonics (17 May 2016).
“Plants display nature’s optofluidic machinery,” ScienceDaily (17 May 2016).
Tissues
Nathan Mellor & Anthony Bishopp, “The innermost secretes of root development,” Science 345(6197): 622–623 (8 August 2014).
Bert De Rybel et al, “Integration of growth and patterning during vascular tissue formation in Arabidopsis,” Science 345(6197): 1255215-1 – 1255215-8 (8 August 2014).
Meristem
Elizbeth M. Bell et al, “Arabidopsis lateral organ boundaries negatively regulates brassinosteroid accumulation to limit growth in organ boundaries,” PNAS 109(51): 21146–21151 (18 December 2012).
Joshua M. Gendron et al, “Brassinosteroids regulate organ boundary formation in the shoot apical meristem of Arabidopsis,” PNAS 109(51): 21152–21157 (18 December 2012).
Physics
“Lighting up the plant hormone ‘command system’,” ScienceDaily (22 July 2012).
Ming-Yi Bai et al, “Brassinosteroid, gibberellin and phytochrome impinge on a common transcription module in Arabidopsis,” Nature Cell Biology (22 July 2012).
Eunkyoo Oh et al, “Interaction between BZR1 and PIF4 integrates brassinosteroid and environmental responses,” Nature Cell Biology (22 July 2012).
Sunflower Florets
Sunflower photo courtesy of L. Shyamal.
Nathan Collins, “Sunflowers do the math,” Science (14 June 2013).
“Flower power,” The Economist (21 January 2012).
Photosynthesis
“New study shows photosynthesis more efficient than believed,” Science 360 News (23 July 2018).
“Scientists unlock some key secrets of photosynthesis,” ScienceDaily (2 July 2012).
Harold A. Mooney & James R. Ehleringer, “Photosynthesis,” in Plant Ecology, edited by Michael J. Crawley, Blackwell Science (1997).
Richard Hildner et al, “Quantum coherent energy transfer over varying pathways in single light-harvesting complexes,” Science 340(6139): 1448–1451 (21 June 2013).
Darius Abramavicius & Shaul Mukamel, “Quantum oscillatory exciton migration in photosynthetic reaction centers,” The Journal of Chemical Physics (13 August 2010).
Chlorophyll
Min Chen et al, “A red-shifted chlorophyll,” Science (19 August 2010).
Peter Atkins, Reactions: The Private Life of Atoms, page 159, Oxford University Press (2011).
Chlorophyll’s Color
D. Oesterhelt, “The structure and mechanism of the family of retinal proteins from halophilic archaea,” Current Opinion in Structural Biology 8(4):489–500 (August 1998).
R Govindjee et al, “The quantum efficiency of proton pumping by the purple membrane of Halobacterium halobium,” Biophysical Journal 30(2): 231–242 (May 1980).
Jonathan Max Berman, “Why did plants evolve green, not black?,” Ask a Biologist (24 April 2010).
Roberta Croce & Pengqi Xu, “A photo shoot of plant photosystem II,” Nature (18 May 2016).
Xuepeng Wei et al, “Structure of spinach photosystem II – LHCII super-complex at 3.2 Å resolution,” Nature (18 May 2016).
Water
John Grace, “Plant water relations,” in Plant Ecology, edited by Michael J. Crawley, Blackwell Science (1997).
Xylem & Phloem
Kaori Miyashima Furuta et al, “Arabidopsis NAC45/86 direct sieve element morphogenesis culminating in enucleation,” Science 345(6199): 933–937 (22 August 2014).
Niko Geldner, “Making phloem—a near-death experience,” Science 345(6199): 875–876 (22 August 2014).
Lincoln Taiz & Eduardo Zeiger, Plant Physiology (Fifth Edition), Sinauer Associates (2010).
Martin J. Hodson & John A. Bryant, Functional Biology of Plants, Wiley-Blackwell (2012).
Size Limits
Kaare H. Jensen & Maciej Zwieniecki, “Physical limits to leaf size in tall trees,” Physical Review Letters 110(1): 018104–018108 (4 January 2013).
“Tree physics limits height and leaf size, study shows,” UC Davis (11 January 2013).
Chemistry
Peter B. Kaufman et al, Natural Products from Plants, CRC Press (1999).
Judith Sumner, The Natural History of Medicinal Plants, Timber Press (2000).
Carbohydrates
David M. Braun, “SWEET! The pathway is complete,” Science 335: 173–174 (13 January 2012).
Bryan A. Hanson, Understanding Medicinal Plants, The Haworth Press (2005).
Lipids
Xuemin Wang, “Lipid signaling,” Current Opinion in Plant Biology 7 (3): 329–336 (June 2004).
“Plants prepackage beneficial microbes in their seeds,” ScienceDaily (29 September 2014).
Secondary Metabolites
“Evolutionary arms ‘chase’,” Phys.org (21 August 2017).
J.W. Anderson & j. Beardall, “Enzymes and post-translational enzyme regulation,” in “Molecular Activities of Plant Cells,” An Introduction to Plant Biochemistry, Blackwell Scientific Publications (1991).
Dapeng Li et al, “Illuminating a plant’s tissue-specific metabolic diversity using computational metabolomics and information theory,” PNAS (22 November 2016).
“Plants modulate accumulation of metabolites at organ level,” ScienceDaily (11 November 2016).
Terpenes
Sergey V. Pronin & Ryan A. Shenvi, “Synthesis of highly strained terpenes by non-stop tail-to-head polycyclization,” Nature Chemistry (23 September 2012).
Glenn D. Prestwich & Doris Chen, “Soldier defense secretions of Triner-vitermes bettonianus (Isoptera, Nasutitermitinae): chemical variation in allopatric populations,” Journal of Chemical Ecology 7 (1): 147–157 (1981).
Alkaloids
Jeffrey B. Harborne, “Plant secondary metabolism,” in Plant Ecology, edited by Michael J. Crawley, Blackwell Science (1997).
Glycosides
G.E. Pratt & W.S. Bowers, “Precocene II inhibits juvenile hormone biosynthesis by cockroach Corpora allata in vitro,” Nature 265: 548–550 (10 February 1977).
Mechanics & Materials
Lorna J. Gibson, “The hierarchical structure and mechanics of plant materials,” Journal of the Royal Society: Interface 9(76): 2749–2766 (No-vember 2012).
Cell Growth
“How plant cell compartments change with cell growth,” Phys.org (22 August 2014).
Kiminori Toyooka et al, “Wide-range high-resolution transmission electron microscopy reveals morphological and distributional changes of endomembrane compartments during log to stationary transition of growth phase in tobacco by-2 cells,” Plant and Cell Physiology (13 June 2014).
Flowering Plants
X.M. Fu et al, “Chaperonins facilitate KNOTTED1 cell-to-cell trafficking and stem cell function,” Science 333 (6046) 1141–1144 (26 August 2011).
Jan A. D. Zeevaart, “Physiology of flowering,” Science 137 (3532) 723-731 (7 September 1962).
G.O. Poinar Jr. & B.N. Danforth, “A fossil bee from early Cretaceous Burmese amber,” Science 314: 614 (27 October 2006).
Todd N. Rosenstiel et al, “Sex-specific volatile compounds influence microarthropod-mediated fertilization of moss,” Nature (18 July 2012).
France Denoeud et al, “The coffee genome provides insight into the convergent evolution of caffeine biosynthesis,” Science 345(6201): 1181–1184 (5 September 2014).
James Gorman, “Where bees get their buzz: caffeine-laced nectar,” The New York Times (7 March 2013).
Ya-Ru Zhu et al, “Feeding the enemy: loss of nectar and nectaries to herbivores reduces tepal damage and increases pollinator attraction in Iris bulleyana,” Biology Letters (2 August 2017).
“Have flowers devised the ultimate weapon of distraction?,” ScienceDaily (21 August 2017).
G.A. Wright et al, “Caffeine in floral nectar enhances a pollinator’s memory of reward,” Science 339(6124): 1202–1204 (8 March 2013).
Jürgen Tautz & Michael Rostás, “Honeybee buzz attenuates plant damage by caterpillars,” Current Biology 187(24): R1125–R1126 (23 December 2008).
“Orchid lures flies with scent of rotting flesh,” ScienceDaily (11 March 2011).
William Ramirez, “Fig wasps: mechanism of pollen transfer,” Science 163 (3867): 580–581 (7 February 1969).
Ethan J. Temeles et al, “Evidence for ecological causation of sexual dimorphism in a hummingbird,” Science 289 (478): 441–443 (21 July 2000).
Michael Borg et al, “An EAR-dependent regulatory module promotes male germ cell division and sperm fertility in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell (May 2014).
Pollination
Joan M. Meiners, et al, “Bees without flowers: before peak bloom, diverse native bees find insect-produced honeydew sugars,” The American Naturalist 190(2): 281-291 (August 2017).
“Buzzing bees can’t resist caffeinated nectar,” ScienceDaily (15 October 2015).
Margaret J. Couvillon et al, “Caffeinated forage tricks honeybees into increasing foraging and recruitment behaviors,” Current Biology (15 October 2015).
“Bees also like a sticky mess,” Science 357(6346) 45 (25 July 2014).
“Orchid lures flies with scent of rotting flesh,” ScienceDaily (14 May 2011).
“Orchids mimic human body odor to attract mosquitoes,” Phys.org (6 January 2017).
“Nectar fends off parasites,” Nature (26 February 2015).
“Plants spike nectar with caffeine and give bees a buzz,” New Scientist (17 October 2015).
Leif L. Richardson et al, “Secondary metabolites in floral nectar reduce parasite infections in bumblebees,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (18 February 2015).
Seed Production
Martijn van Zanten et al, “Seed maturation in Arabidopsis thaliana is characterized by nuclear size reduction and increased chromatin condensation,” PNAS 108(50): 20219–20224 (13 December 2011).
Kristin M. Beale et al, “Gamete fusion is required to block multiple pollen tubes from entering an Arabidopsis ovule,” Current Biology (17 May 2012).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Flower fertilization is an exercise in precision,” The New York Times (21 May 2012).
“Some plants are altruistic, too, new study suggests,” ScienceDaily (1 February 2013).
Jie Lu et al, “Maternal siRNAs as regulators of parental genome imbalance and gene expression in endosperm of Arabidopsis seeds,” PNAS 109(14): 5529–5534 (3 April 2012).
Maternal Care
Min Chin et al, “Maternal temperature history activates Flowering Locus T in fruits to control progeny dormancy according to time of year,” PNAS 111(52): 18787–18792 (30 December 2014).
Sarah Lewin, “Mother plants tell their seeds when to sprout,” Scientific American (14 April 2015).
Establishment
Anne Kempel et al, “Determinants of plant establishment success in a multispecies introduction experiment with native and alien species,” PNAS (15 July 2013).
Asexual Reproduction
A. Traverse, “Plant evolution dances to a different beat,” Historical Biology, 1: 277-301 (1988).
B.H. Tiffney & K.J. Niklas, “Clonal growth in land plants: a paleobotanical perspective,” in Population Biology and Evolution of Clonal Organisms, edited by J.B.C. Jackson et al, Yale University Press (1985).
Polyploidy
David Briggs & Stuart Max Walters, Plant Variation and Evolution, Cambridge University Press (1997).
Peter W. Price, Biological Evolution, Harcourt Brace (1995).
Verne Grant, Plant Speciation, Columbia University Press (1971).
P.H. Raven et al, Biology of Plants, Worth Publishers (1992).
Ignacia Fuentes et al, “Horizontal genome transfer as an asexual path to the formation of new species,” Nature (12 June 2014).
Hybridity
K.J. Niklas, The Evolutionary Biology of Plants, University of Chicago Press (1997).
Howard C. Strutz & L. Kay Thomas, “Hybridization and introgression in Cowania and Purshia,” Evolution 18 (2): 183–195 (1964).
Dormancy
Charles G. Willis et al, “The evolution of seed dormancy: environmental cues, evolutionary hubs, and diversification of the seed plants,” New Phytologist (28 March 2014).
J. Shen-Miller et al, “Exceptional seed longevity and robust growth: ancient sacred lotus from China,” American Journal of Botany 82: 1367–1380 (1995).
Looted Fruit
Svetlana Yashinaa et al, “Regeneration of whole fertile plants from 30,000-y-old fruit tissue buried in Siberian permafrost,” PNAS (21 Febru-ary 2012).
Intelligence
Anthony Trewavas, Plant Behaviour and Intelligence, Oxford University Press (2015).
Anthony Trewavas, “What is plant behaviour?,” Plant, Cell & Environment 32(6): 606–616 (1 January 2009).
Tracy Adole et al, “Large-scale prerain vegetation green-up across Africa,” Global Change Biology (16 May 2018).
“Plants in Africa ‘green up’ ahead of rainy season,” ScienceDaily (2 July 2018).
Monica Gagliano et al, “Learning by association in plants,” Scientific Reports (2 December 2016).
“Smart plants learn new habits,” Phys.org (6 December 2016).
Monica Gagliano et al, “Experience teaches plants to learn faster and forget slower in environments where it matters,” Oecologia 175(1): 63-72 (May 2014).
Richard A. Jorgensen, “A window on the sophisitcation of plants,” Science 333: 1103–1104 (26 August 2011).
“How plants turn off genes they don’t need,” ScienceDaily (21 August 2017).
Jun Xiao et al, “Cis and trans determinants of epigenetic silencing by Polycomb repressive complex 2 in Arabidopsis,” Nature Genetics (21 August 2017).
“Genetic information migrates from plant to plant,” ScienceDaily (1 February 2012).
Sandra Stegemann et al, “Horizontal transfer of chloroplast genomes between plant species,” PNAS 109(7): 2434-2438 (14 February 2012).
“Plants use circadian rhythms to prepare for battle with insects,” ScienceDaily (13 February 2012).
Danielle Goodspeed et al, “Arabidopsis synchronizes jasmonate-mediated defense with insect circadian behavior,” PNAS 109(12): 4674-4677 (20 March 2012).
Enrico Coen, Cells to Civilizations, Princeton University Press (2012).
Gareth Cook, “Do plants think?,” Scientific American (5 June 2012).
Michael Gruntman et al, “Decision-making in plants under competition,” Nature Communications (21 December 2017).
“Plants reveal decision-making abilities under competition,” ScienceDaily (21 December 2017).
Latif Nasser, “Do plants have feelings?,” The Week (9 February 2013).
Elizabeth Fish, “Plants display emotion, will get mad if you forget to water them,” PC World (4 April 2012).
Monica Gagliano et al, “Experience teaches plants to learn faster and forget slower in environments where it matters,” Oecologia 175(1): 63–72 (May 2014).
Efrat Dener et al, “Pea plants show risk sensitivity,” Current Biology 26: 1–5 (11 July 2016).
Joanna Klein, “Lacking brains, plants can still make good judgments about risks,” The New York Times (30 June 2016).
Eetu Puttonen et al, “Quantification of overnight movement of birch (Betula pendula) branches and foliage with short interval terrestrial laser scanning,” Frontiers in Plant Science (29 February 2016).
“How do trees go to sleep?,” ScienceDaily (17 May 2016).
Peter A. Crisp et al, “Reconsidering plant memory: Intersections between stress recovery, RNA turnover, and epigenetics,” Science Advances (19 February 2016).
Ryo Tabata et al, “Perception of root-derived peptides by shoot LRR-RKs mediates systemic N-demand signaling,” Science 346(6207): 343–346 (17 October 2014).
Ton Bisseling & Ben Scheres, “Nutrient computation for root architecture,” Science 346(6207): 300–301 (17 October 2014).
Pesky Pollinator
Danny Kessler et al, “Changing pollinators as a means of escaping herbivores,” Current Biology 20(3): 237-42 (9 February 2010).
Henry Fountain, “Plant switches pollinators when caterpillars strike,” The New York Times (21 January 2010).
Ed Yong, “Tobacco plants foil very hungry caterpillars by switching pollinators to hummingbirds,” National Geographic (21 January 2010).
Killer Quorum Mimic
Andrés Corral-Lugo et al, “Rosmarinic acid is a homoserine lactone mimic produced by plants that activates a bacterial quorum-sensing regulator,” Science Signaling 9(409): ra1 (5 January 2016).
Barberry Battles Barbarism
Katrin M. Meyer et al, “Adaptive and selective seed abortion reveals complex conditional decision making in plants,” The American Naturalist (29 January 2014).
Math in the Dark
Antonio Scialdone et al, “Arabidopsis plants perform arithmetic division to prevent starvation at night,” eLife 2: e00669 (25 June 2013).
“Plants do sums to get through the night, researchers show,” Phys.org (23 June 2013).
“Plants can do math,” The Week (24 June 2013).
Communication
Cleaner wrasse near a potato code photo courtesy of Richard Ling.
“Long-distance solute transport in trees improved by intercellular pathways in living woody tissues,” ScienceDaily (7 December 2012).
Katarzyna Sokolowska & Beata Zagórska-Marek, “Symplasmic, long-distance transport in xylem and cambial regions in branches of Acer pseudoplatanus (Aceraceae) and Populus tremula × P. tremuloides (Salicaceae),” American Journal of Botany (1 November 2012).
Daniel Tapken et al, “A plant homolog of animal glutamate receptors is an ion channel gated by multiple hydrophobic amino acids,” Science Signaling 6(279): ra47 (11 June 2013).
Daniela Tsikou et al, “Systemic control of legume susceptibility to rhizobial infection by a mobile microRNA,” Science 362(6411): 233-236 (12 October 2018).
“How leaves talk to roots,” ScienceDaily (25 September 2018).
Alexander Christmann & Erwin Grill, “Electric defence,” Nature 500: 404–405 (22 August 2013).
Lines of Communication
“Clever plants ‘chat’ over their own network,” ScienceDaily (25 September 2007).
Yuan Yuan Song et al, “Interplant communication of tomato plants through underground common mycorrhizal networks,” PLoS One (13 October 2010).
Zdenka Babikova et al, “Underground signals carried through common mycelial networks warn neihbouring plants of aphid attack,” Ecology Letters 16(7): 835–843 (July 2013).
Meredith C. Schuman et al, “Herbivory-induced volatiles function as defenses increasing fitness of the native plant Nicotiana attenuata in nature,” eLife (15 October 2012).
Mark C. Mescher & Consuelo M. De Moraes, “Plant biology: pass the ammunition,” Nature 510: 221–222 (12 June 2014).
Koichi Sugimoto et al, ” Intake and transformation to a glycoside of (Z)-3-hexenol from infested neighbors reveals a mode of plant odor reception and defense,” PNAS 111(19): 7144–7149 (13 May 2014).
Others on the Party Line
“Insects use plants like a telephone,” ScienceDaily (23 April 2008).
Senses
Gloria K. Muday & Heather Brown-Harding, “Nervous system-like signaling in plant defense,” Science 361(6407): 1068-1069 (14 September 2018).
Masatsugu Toyota et al, “Glutamate triggers long-distance, calcium-based plant defense signaling,” Science 361(6407): 1112-1115 (14 September 2018).
JoAnna Klein, “Watch plants light up when they get attacked,” The New York Times (13 September 2018).
Sight
Michael J. Haydon et al, “Photosynthetic entrainment of the Arabidopsis thaliana circadian clock,” Nature 502: 689–692 (31 October 2013).
Jan A.D. Zeevaart, “Physiology of flowering,” Science 137(3532): 723–730 (7 September 1962).
Björn C. Willige et al, “D6PK AGCVIII kinases are required for auxin transport and phototropic hypocotyl bending in Arabidopsis,” The Plant Cell 25(5): 1674–1688 (May 2013).
Hyo-Jun Lee et al, “Stem-piped light activates phytochrome B to trigger light responses in Arabidopsis thaliana roots,” Science Signaling (1 November 2016).
“Plant roots in the dark see light,” ScienceDaily (3 November 2016).
Touch
“Plants are ‘in touch’ with the world around them,” Phys.org (27 may 2016).
Yun Bao et al, “Plant roots use a patterning mechanism to position lateral root branches toward available water, PNAS 111(25): 9319–9324 (24 June 2014).
Brian J. Ford, The Secret Language of Life, Fromm International (1999).
Matthew G. Betts et al, “Pollinator recognition by a keystone tropical plant,” PNAS (2 March 2015).
Kate Baggaley, “Tropical plant knows whose bill is in its flowers,” Science News (2 March 2015).
Gravity
Antoine Bérut et al, “Gravisensors in plant cells behave like an active granular liquid,” PNAS 115(20): 5123-5128 (15 May 2018).
Smell
P. Saraí Girón-Calva et al, “Volatile dose and exposure time impact perception in neighboring plants,” Journal of Chemical Ecology 38(2): 226–228 (February 2012).
“Plants use different scents to attract or repel insects,” Phys.org (31 March 2014).
Florian P. Schiestl et al, “Herbivory and floral signaling: phenotypic plasticity and tradeoffs between reproduction and indirect defense,” New Phytologist 203(1): 257–266 (July 2014).
Anjel M. Helms et al, “Identification of an insect-produced olfactory cue that primes plant defenses,” Nature Communications (24 August 2017).
“Plant ‘smells’ insect foe, initiates defense,” ScienceDaily (24 August 2017).
Krishna Ramanujan, “Plants’ chemical messages keep pests moving,” Phys.org (25 January 2017).
Kimberly Morrell & Andre Kessler, “Plant communication in a widespread goldenrod: keeping herbivores on the move,” Functional Ecology (21 November 2016).
The Scent of Ripening
“Why fruit ripens and spoils: thousands of plant genes activated by ethylene gas,” ScienceDaily (11 June 2013).
Katherine Noelani Chang et al, “Temporal transcriptional response to ethylene gas drives growth hormone cross-regulation in Arabidopsis,” eLife (11 June 2013).
Siobhan M. Brady, “When the time is ripe,” eLife 2:e00958 (25 June 2013)
Hearing
Monica Gagliano et al, “Toward understanding plant bioacoustics,” Cell 17(6): 323-325 (June 2012).
Marine Veits et al, “Flowers respond to pollinator sound within minutes by increasing nectar sugar concentration,” bioRxiv (28 December 2018).
Sam Wong, “Flowers hear bees and make sweeter nectar when they’re buzzing nearby,” New Scientist (8 January 2019).
Becky Oskin, “Sound garden: can plants actually talk and hear?,” Discovery News (13 March 2013).
Douglas Quenqua, “Noisy predators put plants on alert, study finds,” The New York Times (1 July 2014).
H.M. Appel & R.B. Cocroft, “Plants respond to leaf vibrations caused by insect herbivore chewing,” Oecolgia (July 2014).
Electricity
D. Jaslan et al, “Gating of the two-pore cation channel AtTPC1 in the plant vacuole is based on a single voltage-sensing domain,” Plant Biology (8 June 2016).
“How plants sense electric fields,” ScienceDaily (8 June 2016).
Ross Gunn, “The electricity of rain and thunderstorms,” Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity 40(1): 79–106 (March 1935).
Dominic Clarke et al, “Detection and learning of floral electric fields by bumblebees,” Science (21 February 2013).
Sense of Self
Susan Milius, “Easy there, bro,” Science News 171: 372 (16 June 2007).
Stress
Martin J. Hodson & John A. Bryant, Functional Biology of Plants, Wiley-Blackwell (2012).
Drought
Zoe G. Cardon et al, “Sagebrush carrying out hydraulic lift enhances surface soil nitrogen cycling and nitrogen uptake into in?orescences,” PNAS (5 November 2013).
“Why the sagebrush grows: ecologists explore arid plant survival,” Phys.org (4 November 2013).
Yong Ding et al, Multiple exposures to drought ‘train’ transcriptional responses in Arabidopsis,” Nature Communications (13 March 2012).
“Crop roots enact austerity measures during drought to bank water,” ScienceDaily (11 July 2016).
Waterlogging
“How plant roots sense, react to soil flooding,” ScienceDaily (15 September 2016).
Zaigham Shahzad et al, “A potassium-dependent oxygen sensing pathway regulates plant root hydraulics,” Cell (15 September 2016).
Kimitsune Ishizaki, “Development of schizogenous intercellular spaces in plants,” Frontiers in Plant Science (2 July 2015).
Gustavo Gabriel Striker, “Flooding stress on plants: anatomical, morphological and physiological responses,” in Botany, edited by John Mworia (2012).
Rootless Duckweed
Ad Hoc Panel on Utilization of Aquatic Weeds, “Making aquatic weeds useful: some perspectives for developing countries,” U.S. National Academy of Sciences (1976).
Cold
Chin-Mei Lee & Michael F. Thomashowa, “Photoperiodic regulation of the C-repeat binding factor (CBF) cold acclimation pathway and freezing tolerance in Arabidopsis thaliana,” PNAS 109(37): 15054–15059 (11 Sep-tember 2012).
Strategies
“Theory of ‘smart’ plants may explain the evolution of global ecosystems,” ScienceDaily (1 December 2015).
Dong-Lei Yang et al, “Plant hormone jasmonate prioritizes defense over growth by interfering with gibberellin signaling cascade,” PNAS, (23 April 2012).
“Mechanism that gives plants ‘balance’ discovered,” ScienceDaily (23 April 2012).
J. Miles Mesa et al, “Molecular constraints on resistance–tolerance trade-offs,” Ecology (3 October 2017).
JoAnna Klein, “Meet the overcompensators, plants that get tougher and meaner when attacked,” The New York Times (20 October 2017).
Ken N. Paige & THomas G. Whitham, “Overcompensation in response to mammalian herbivory: the advantage of being eaten,” The American Naturalist 129(3): 407-416 (March 1987).
Growth
Mieke de Wit et al, “Integration of phytochrome and cryptochrome signals determines plant growth during competition for light,” Current Biology (23 November 2016).
“Plant makes growth spurt as competition approaches,” Phys.org (28 November 2016).
Ben Scheres & Wim H. van der Putten, “The plant perceptron connects environment to development,” Nature543: 337-345 (16 March 2017).
Marcel Proveniers, “Sugars speed up the circle of life,” eLife 2:e00625 (26 March 2013).
Sha Yu et al, “Sugar is an endogenous cue for juvenile-to-adult phase transition in plants,” eLife 2:e00629 (26 March 2013).
Li Yang et al, “Sugar promotes vegetative phase change in Arabidopsis thaliana by repressing the expression of MIR156A and MIR156C,” eLife 2:e00620 (26 March 2013).
N.L. Stephenson et al, “Rate of tree carbon accumulation increases continuously with tree size,” Nature (15 January 2014).
Cells
Tian Zhang et al, “Nanoscale movements of cellulose microfibrils in primary cell walls,” Nature Plants (28 April 2017).
“Plant cell walls’ stretch-but-don’t-break growth more complex than once thought,” ScienceDaily (1 May 2017).
Miyoshi Haruta et al, “A peptide hormone and its receptor protein kinase regulate plant cell expansion,” Science 343 (6169): 408–411 (24 January 2014).
Arun Sampathkumar et al, “Subcellular and supracellular mechanical stress prescribes cytoskeleton behavior in Arabidopsis cotyledon pavement cells,” eLife 3:e01967 (16 April 2014).
Jelmer J. Lindeboom et al, “A mechanism for reorientation of cortical microtubule arrays driven by microtubule severing,” Science (7 November 2013).
Motoki Tominaga et al, “Cytoplasmic streaming velocity as a plant size determinant,” Developmental Cell 27(3): 345–352 (11 November 2013).
Auxin
Tongda Xu et al, “Cell surface ABP1-TMK auxin-sensing complex activates ROP GTPase signaling,” Science 343(6174): 1025–1028 (28 February 2014).
“How plants know to send roots down and leaves up,” ScienceDaily (27 October 2008).
Elke Barbez et al, “A novel putative auxin carrier family regulates intracellular auxin homeostasis in plants,” Nature (16 April 2012).
Suruchi Roychoudhry et al, “Auxin controls gravitropic setpoint angle in higher plant lateral branches,” Current Biology (25 July 2013).
Leaves
Erika E. Kuchen et al, “Generation of leaf shape through early patterns of growth and tissue polarity,” Science 335(6072): 1092-1096 (2 March 2012).
Saiko Yoshida et al, “Stem cell activation by light guides plant organogenesis,” Genes & Development 25:1439–50 (2011).
Susanna Sauret-Güeto et al, “JAGGED controls Arabidopsis petal growth and shape by interacting with a divergent polarity field,” PLoS Biology (30 April 2013).
“How petals get their shape,” ScienceDaily (30 April 2013).
Gregory R. Goldsmith et al, “The incidence and implications of clouds for cloud forest plant water relations,” Ecology Letters 16(3): 307–314 (March 2013).
Roots
Beatriz Orosa-Puente et al, “Root branching toward water involves posttranslational modification of transcription factor ARF7,” Science 362(6421): 1407-1410 (21 December 2018).
“Divining roots: Revealing how plants branch out to access water,” ScienceDaily (22 December 2018).
Ricardo F. H. Giehl & Nicolaus von Wirén, “Hydropatterning—how roots test the waters,” Science 362(6421): 1358-1359 (21 December 2018).
Xiangpei Kong et al, “The root transition zone: a hot spot for signal crosstalk,” Trends in Plant Science 23(5): 403-409 (1 May 2018).
František Baluška & Stefano Mancuso, “Root apex transition zone as oscillatory zone,” Frontiers in Plant Science (2 October 2013).
František Baluška et al, “Root apex transition zone: a signalling–response nexus in the root,” Trends in Plant Science (2010).
Anil Ananthaswamy, “Root intelligence: plants can think, feel and learn,” New Scientist (3 December 2014).
James F. White et al, “Rhizophagy cycle: an oxidative process in plants for nutrient extraction from symbiotic microbes,” Microorganisms (17 September 2018).
“How plants harness microbes to get nutrients,” ScienceDaily (17 September 2018).
Rajesh Kumar Jain, “Study on shear strength of soil in relation to plant roots as a combined matrix,” Research Journal of Chemical and Environmental Science (December 2013).
F. Ghidey & E.E. Alberts, “Plant root effects on soil erodibility, splash detachment, soil strength, and aggregate stability,” Transactions of the ASAE 40(1): 129-135 (1997).
Sarah De Baets et al, “Root tensile strength and root distribution of typical Mediterranean plant species and their contribution to soil shear strength,” Plant and Soil 305(1):207-226 (April 2008).
S.T. Willatt & N. Sulistyaningsih, “Effect of plant roots on soil strength,” Soil and Tillage Research 16(4): 329-336 (July 1990).
František Baluška et al, “Swarm intelligence in plant roots,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25(12): 682–683 (18 October 2010).
F. Baluška et al, “The ‘root-brain’ hypothesis of Charles and Francis Darwin: revival after more than 125 years,” Plant Signal Behavior 4(12): 1121–1127 (December 2009).
František Baluška et al, “Root apex transition zone: a signalling–response nexus in the root,” Trends in Plant Science 15(7); 402–408 (July 2010).
Susan Milius, “Rooting for swarm intelligence in plants,” Science News (10 December 2010).
Alastair Fitter, “Nutrient acquisition,” in Plant Ecology, edited by Michael J. Crawley, Blackwell Science (1997).
D. Robinson, “The response of plants to non-uniform supplies of nutrients,” New Phytologist 127: 635–674 (1994).
James F. Cahill Jr. et al, “Plants integrate information about nutrients and neighbors,” Science 328(5986): 1657 (25 June 2010).
C. Claiborne Ray, “Urban roots,” The New York Times (17 December 2012).
Angela Hodge, “Root decisions,” Plant, Cell & Environment (22 September 2008).
Kwongan Root Strategies
Graham Zemunik et al, “Diversity of plant nutrient-acquisition strategies increases during long-term ecosystem development,” Nature Plants (20 April 2015).
“Don’t judge a book – or a plant – by its cover,” ScienceDaily (20 April 2015).
Flowering
Jonas Å.H. Danielson & Wolf B. Frommer, “Jack of all trades, master of flowering,” Science 339(6120): 659–660 (8 February 2013).
Vanessa Wahl et al, “Regulation of flowering by trehalose-6-phosphate signaling in Arabidopsis thaliana,” Science 339(6120): 659–660 (8 February 2013).
Defenses
Marcel Dicke, “Behavioural and community ecology of plants that cry for help,” Plant, Cell and Environment 32: 654-665 (2009).
Andrew G. Zink & Zheng-Hui He, “Botanical brilliance,” Science 347(6223): 724–725 (13 February 2015).
Rosa Lozano-Durán et al, “The transcriptional regulator BZR1 mediates trade-off between plant innate immunity and growth,” eLife 2:e00983 (31 December 2013).
Andrea A. Gust & Thorsten Nürnberger, “A life or death switch,” Nature 486: 198–199 (14 June 2012).
Zheng Qing Fu et al, “NPR3 and NPR4 are receptors for the immune signal salicylic acid in plants,” Nature 486: 228–232 (14 June 2012).
“Scientists uncover mechanism for natural plant immunity,” Phys.org (10 October 2013).
Yadong Sun et al, “Structural basis for flg22-induced activation of the Arabidopsis FLS2-BAK1 immune complex,” Science 342(6158): 624–628 (1 November 2013).
Amutha Sampath Kumar et al, “Rhizobacteria Bacillus subtilis restricts foliar pathogen entry through stomata,” The Plant Journal 72(4): 694–706 (November 2012).
Venkatachalam Lakshmanan et al, “Microbe-associated molecular patterns-triggered root responses mediate beneficial rhizobacterial recruitment in Arabidopsis,” Plant Physiology 160(3): 1642–1661 (November 2012).
Border Building
Bode A. Olukolu et al, “A genome-wide association study of the maize hypersensitive defense response identifies genes that cluster in related pathways,” PLoS Genetics (28 August 2014).
Jenna Iacurci, “Corn spots know the meaning of self-sacrifice,” Nature World News (12 September 2014).
Self-Protection
Johnna Rizzo, “On the scent,” National Geographic (August 2013).
“Plants smell different when attacked by exotic herbivores,” Phys.org (24 January 2017).
Inciting Cannibalism
Kelly April Tyrrell, “Plants under attack can turn hungry caterpillars into cannibals,” University of Wisconsin–Madison (10 July 2017).
John Orrock et al, “Induced defences in plants reduce herbivory by increasing cannibalism,” Nature Ecology & Evolution (10 July 2017).
Laura Castells, “Plants turn caterpillars into cannibals,” Nature News (10 July 2017).
Beetle Juice
Seung Ho Chung et al, “Herbivore exploits orally secreted bacteria to suppress plant defenses,” PNAS (9 September 2013).
Potato beetle larvae photo courtesy of Pollinator.
Danielle Goodspeed et al, “Arabidopsis synchronizes jasmonate-mediated defense with insect circadian behavior,” PNAS 109(12): 4674–4677 (20 March 2012).
Anjel M. Helms et al, “Identification of an insect-produced olfactory cue that primes plant defenses,” Nature Communications (24 August 2017).
Calling For Help
Marcel Dicke, “Behavioural and community ecology of plants that cry for help,” Plant, Cell & Environment 32(6): 654–665 (18 November 2008).
caterpillar photo is of an army beetworm, a major crop pest.
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “From a desert plant, a scented cry for help,” The New York Times (30 August 2010).
Georg E. von Mérey et al, “Herbivore-induced maize leaf volatiles affect attraction and feeding behavior of Spodoptera littoralis caterpillars,” Frontiers in Plant Science (27 June 2013).
Kaori Shiojiri et al, “Plant volatiles, rather than light, determine the nocturnal behavior of a caterpillar,” PLoS Biology (16 May 2006).
Venkatesan Radhika et al, “Volatile emission in bracken fern is induced by jasmonates but not by Spodoptera littoralis or Strongylogaster multi-fasciata herbivory,” PLoS One (20 November 2012).
Tobacco’s Defense
“Death breath,” The Economist (4 January 2014).
Immune Systems
Chih-Hang Wu et al, “Receptor networks underpin plant immunity,” Science 360(6395): 1300-1301 (22 June 2018).
Saikat Bhattacharjee et al, “Pathogen effectors target Arabidopsis EDS1 and alter its interactions with immune regulators,” Science 334(6061): 1405-1408 (9 December 2011).
Stephan Wawra et al, “The fungal-specific B-glucan-binding lectin FGB1 alters cell-wall composition and suppresses glucan-triggered immunity in plants,” Nature Communications (27 October 2016).
Marc T. Nishimura & Jeffery L. Dangl, “Paired plant immune receptors,” Science 344(6181): 267–268 (18 April 2014).
Simon J. Williams et al, “Structural basis for assembly and function of a heterodimeric plant immune receptor,” Science 344(6181): 299–303 (18 April 2014).
Damn Spots
Xiao-yu Zheng et al, “Coronatine promotes Pseudomonas syringae virulence in plants by activating a signaling cascade that inhibits salicylic acid accumulation,” Cell Host & Microbe 11(6): 587–596 (14 June 2012).
“Bacterium signals plant to open up and let friends in: bug’s chemical feint makes plant respond the opposite of how it should,” ScienceDaily (13 June 2012).
Viruses
Roger East, “Soil science comes to life,” Nature 501: S18–S19 (26 September 2013).
“Viruses sometimes save their hosts, rather than killing them,” The Economist (23 February 2013).
Aude Bernheim & Rotem Sorek, “Viruses cooperate to defeat bacteria,” Nature (23 July 2018).
Adair L. Borges et al, “Bacteriophage cooperation suppresses CRISPR-Cas3 and Cas9 immunity,” Cell (19 July 2018).
Mariann Landsberger et al, “Anti-CRISPR phages cooperate to overcome CRISPR-Cas immunity,” Cell (19 July 2018).
RNA Silencing
Jennifer L. M. Soosaar et al, “Mechanisms of plant resistance to viruses,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 3: 789–798 (October 2005).
David Baulcombe. “RNA silencing in plants,” Nature 431: 356–363 (16 September 2004).
Alison M. Smith et al, Plant Biology, 555–557, Garland Science (2010).
Charles W Melnyk et al, “Intercellular and systemic movement of RNA silencing signals,” The EMBO Journal 30: 3553–3563 (31 August 2011).
Movement
Dan Garisto, “The secrets of plant speed,” Science News (26 May 2018).
Sarah E. Wyatt & John Z. Kiss, “Plant tropisms: from Darwin to the International Space Station,” American Journal of Botany (1 January 2013).
“New insights into how plants grow in response to light, water and gravity,” ScienceDaily (2 January 2013).
Susan Milius, “No brainer behavior,” Science News 175(13): 16–21 (20 June 2009).
Hopping Horsetail Legs
Philippe Marmottant et al, “The walk and jump of Equisetum spores,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 280(1770) (11 September 2013).
Victoria Gill, “Horsetail plant spores use ‘legs’ to walk and jump,” BBC News (11 September 2013).
Moss Spore Shoot
Susan Milius, “Explosions, mushroom clouds — all good for short moss,” Science News (23 July 2010).
Orchids
Orchid blossom photo courtesy of Freier Denker.
Creeping Dogwood
Creeping dogwood photo courtesy of D. Gordon E. Robertson.
Bladderworts
Bladderwort image courtesy of Johann Georg Sturm.
Daniel Strain, “Carnivorous bladderworts suck up prey,” Science News (16 February 2011).
Venus Flytrap
Venus flytrap drawing courtesy of William Curtis.
Carl Zimmer, “Fatal attraction,” National Geographic (March 2010).
Aaron M. Ellison & Nicholas J. Gotelli, “Energetics and the evolution of carnivorous plants – Darwin’s ‘most wonderful plants in the world’,” Journal of Experimental Botany, 60 (1): 19–42 (16 June 2008).
Pollinator Responders
Nasa poissoniana photo courtesy of Tilo Henning.
Moritz Mittelbach et al, “Flowers anticipate revisits of pollinators by learning from previously experienced visitation interval,” Plant Signaling & Behavior (26 March 2019).
Cara Giaimo, “Watch a flower that seems to remember when pollinators will come calling,” The New York Times (20 April 2019).
Dodgy Dodders
Daniel Chamotiz, “What a plant smells,” Scientific American 62–65 (May 2012).
Saima Shahid et al, “MicroRNAs from the parasitic plant Cuscuta campestris target host messenger RNAs,” Nature 553: 82-85 (4 January 2018).
“Agricultural parasite takes control of host plant’s genes,” Phys.org (3 January 2018).
Roots on the Move
Ricardo F. H. Giehl & Nicolaus von Wirén, “Hydropatterning—how roots test the waters,” Science 362(6421): 1358-1359 (28 December 2018).
Beatriz Orosa-Puente et al, “Root branching toward water involves posttranslational modification of transcription factor ARF7,” Science 362(6421): 1407-1410 (28 December 2018).
Competition
Erin E. O’Brien et al, “Root proliferation and seed yield in response to spatial heterogeneity of below-ground competition,” New Phytologist (12 September 2005).
Mordeschai Gersani et al, “Tragedy of the commons as a result of root competition,” Journal of Ecology 89: 660-669 (2001).
Godfrey G. Maina et al, “Intra-plant versus inter-plant root competition in beans: avoidance, resource matching or tragedy of the commons,” Plant Ecology 160(2): 235–247 (June 2002).
Jonathan P. Evans & Michael L. Cain, “A spatially explicit test of foraging behavior in a clonal plant,” Ecology 76(4): 1147-1155 (June 1995).
Ariel Novoplansky, “Picking battles wisely: plant behaviour under competition,” Plant, Cell & Environment (24 March 2009).
Bin Zhou et al, “Crabgrass (Digitaria sanguinalis) allelochemicals that interfere with crop growth and the soil microbial community,” Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry 61(22): 5310–5317 (17 May 2013).
Belowground
Paloma Durán et al, “Microbial interkingdom interactions in roots promote Arabidopsis survival,” Cell (1 November 2018).
Wim H. van der Putten, “Removal of soil biota alters soil feedback effects on plant growth and defense chemistry,” New Phytologist (16 September 2018).
“Plants really do feed their friends,” ScienceDaily (22 March 2018).
Kateryna Zhalnina et al, “Dynamic root exudate chemistry and microbial substrate preferences drive patterns in rhizosphere microbial community assembly,” Nature Microbiology 3: 470-480 (19 March 2018).
Marnie E. Rout & Darlene Southworth, “The root microbiome influences scales from molecules to ecosystems: the unseen majority,” American Journal of Botany 100(9): 1689–1691 (5 September 2013).
Angelique Broghammer et al, “Legume receptors perceive the rhizobial lipochitin oligosaccharide signal molecules by direct binding,” PNAS (21 August 2012).
Davide Bulgarelli et al, “Revealing structure and assembly cues for Arabidopsis root-inhabiting bacterial microbiota,” Nature 488: 91–95 (2 August 2012).
“Horticultural hijacking: the dark side of beneficial soil bacteria,” ScienceDaily (21 September 2012).
“Plant protein ‘doorkeepers’ block invading microbes, study finds,” ScienceDaily (24 August 2009).
Andrew L. Neal et al, “Benzoxazinoids in root exudates of maize attract Pseudomonas putida to the rhizosphere,” PLoS One (24 April 2012).
Pascale B. Beauregard et al, “Bacillus subtilis biofilm induction by plant polysaccharides,” PNAS (8 April 2013).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Leaf bacteria fertilize trees, researchers claim,” Science 348(6237): 844–845 (22 May 2015).
Jennifer A. Lau & Jay T. Lennon, “Rapid responses of soil microorganisms improve plant fitness in novel environments,” PNAS 109(35): 14058–14062 (28 August 2012).
“Impulsive micromanager microbes help plants adapt, survive,” ScienceDaily (14 August 2012).
“Theory suggests root efficiency, independence drove global spread of flora,” ScienceDaily (21 February 2018).
Zeqing Ma et al, “Evolutionary history resolves global organization of root functional traits,” Nature 555: 94–97 (21 February 2018).
Endophytes
Zareen Khan et al, “Growth enhancement and drought tolerance of hybrid poplar upon inoculation with endophyte consortia,” Current Plant Biology (2016).
“Microbes help plants survive in severe drought,” Phys.org (19 September 2016).
Sharon L. Doty et al, “Variable nitrogen fixation in wild Populus,” PLoS One (21 May 2016).
I.S. Druzhinina et al, “Trichoderma: the genomics of opportunistic success,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 9 (10): 749 (2011).
“Bacteria in branches naturally fertilize trees,” ScienceDaily (21 May 2016).
Mycorrhizae
Susan Milius, “Plants and fungi recognize generous trading partners,” Science News (11 August 2011).
Andreas Keymer et al, “Lipid transfer from plants to arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi,” eLife 6:e29107 (20 July 2017).
Nicole Gaude et al, “Arbuscule-containing and non-colonized cortical cells of mycorrhizal roots undergo a massive and specific reprogramming during arbuscular mycorrhizal development,” The Plant Journal (2011).
Marc-André Selosse et al, “The plant-fungal marketplace,” Science 333(6044): 828–829 (12 August 2011).
Rabea Schweiger et al, “High specificity in plant leaf metabolic responses to arbuscular mycorrhiza,” Nature Communications (22 May 2014).
S. W. Behie et al, “Endophytic insect-parasitic fungi translocate nitrogen directly from insects to plants,” Science 336(1576): 1576–1577 (22 June 2012).
Trees
Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life Of Trees, Greystone Books (2016).
“Forest discovery: trees trade carbon among each other,” ScienceDaily (14 April 2016).
Tamir Klein et al, “Belowground carbon trade among tall trees in a temperate forest,” Science 352(6283): 342–344 (15 April 2016).
Marcel G. A. van der Heijden, “Underground networking,” Science 352(6283): 290–291 (15 April 2016).
Thale Cress Pickiness
Kei Hiruma et al, “Root endophyte Colletotrichum tofieldiae confers plant fitness benefits that are phosphate status dependent,” Cell (17 March 2016).
“Plants host fungi on demand,” Phys.org (17 March 2016).
Trichoderma
I.S. Druzhinina, “Trichoderma: the genomics of opportunistic success,” Nature Reviews Microbiology 9: 749–759 (October 2011).
Sociality
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Do plants favor their kin?,” Science 363(6422): 15-16 (4 January 2019).
“And one root said to the other root, ‘Don’t I know you from somewhere?'” Phys.org (17 August 2016).
Thomas E. Marler et al, “Plastic responses mediated by identity recognition in below-ground competition in Cycas micronesica,” Tropical Conservation Science (27 June 2016).
The Comity of Sunflowers
Winslow R. Briggs, “How do sunflowers follow the Sun—and to what end?,” Science 353(6299): 541-542 (5 August 2016).
Hagop S. Atamian et al, “Circadian regulation of sunflower heliotropism, floral orientation, and pollinator visits,” Science 353(6299): 587-590 (5 August 2016).
Bob Holmes, “Sunflowers work together to avoid overcrowding and soak up ray,” New Scientist (10 July 2017).
Dakota M. Spear et al, “Asteraceae pollen provisions protects Osmia mason bees (hymenoptera: Megachilidae) from brood parasitism,” The American Naturalist (6 April 2016).
“Sunflower pollen protects bees from parasites,” ScienceDaily (14 June 2016).
Mónica López Pereira et al, “Light-mediated self-organization of sunflower stands increases oil yield in the field,” PNAS (10 July 2017).
Jewelweed Relations
Guillermo P. Murphy & Susan A. Dudley, “Kin recognition: competition and cooperation in Impatiens (Balsaminaceae),” American Journal of Botany 96(11) (November 2009).
All Together Now
Meghan A. Duffy, “It helps to be well connected,” Science 344(6189): 1229–1230 (13 June 2014).
Jingjing Liang et al, “Biodiversity influences plant productivity through niche–efficiency,” PNAS (20 April 2015).
Jussi Jousimo et al, “Ecological and evolutionary effects of fragmentation on infectious disease dynamics,” Science 344(6189): 1289–1293 (13 June 2014).
Qiang He et al, “Global shifts towards positive species interactions with increasing environmental stress,” Ecology Letters (30 January 2013).
“How plant communities endure stress,” ScienceDaily (30 January 2013).
Plants & Animals
Marinus L. de Jager & Allan G. Ellis, “Costs of deception and learned resistance in deceptive interactions,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (29 January 2014).
Zong-Xin Ren et al, “Flowers of Cypripedium fargesii (Orchidaceae) fool flat-footed flies (Platypezidae) by faking fungus-infected foliage,” PNAS 108(18): 7478–7480 (3 May 2011).
“Correction for Ren et al, Flowers of Cypripedium fargesii (Orchidaceae) fool flat-footed flies (Platypezidae) by faking fungus-infected foliage,” PNAS 109(50): 7478 (11 December 2012).
Survival By Theft
Agouti drawing courtesy of Pearson Scott Foresman.
Patrick A. Jansen et al, “Thieving rodents as substitute dispersers of megafaunal seeds,” PNAS (16 July 2012).
Ben T. Hirsch et al, “Directed seed dispersal towards areas with low conspecific tree density by a scatter-hoarding rodent,” Ecology Letters (7 September 2012).
Just Don’t Munch the Seeds
Taily weed (Ochradenus baccatus) photo courtesy of Gideon Pisanty.
Cairo spiny mouse photo courtesy of Michael Samuni-Blank.
“Plant poison turns seed-eating mouse into seed spitter,” ScienceDaily (14 June 2012).
K.C. Burns, “Seed dispersal: the blind bomb maker,” Current Biology 22(13): 535-537 (10 July 2012).
Cliffhanger
María B. García et al, “Extreme reproduction and survival of a true cliffhanger: the endangered plant Borderea chouardii (Dioscoreaceae),” PLoS One 7(9): e44657 (September 2012).
Myrmecochory
Robert J. Warren II et al, “Competition as a mechanism structuring mutualisms,” Journal of Ecology (13 January 2014).
Medicinal Plants
Vincenzo De Luca et al, “Mining the biodiversity of plants: a revolution in the making,” Science 336: 1658–1661 (29 June 2012).
S.E. Gould, “Underground network,” Scientific American, 28 (October 2012).
Eric D. Brenner et al, “Plant neurobiology: an integrated view of plant signaling,” Trends in Plant Science 11(80): 413–419 (August 2006).
“UK survey finds 28,000 plant species for medical use, Phys.org (18 May 2017).
Kevin R. Campos et al, “The importance of synthetic chemistry in the pharmaceutical industry,” Science 363(6424): eaato805 (18 January 2019).

Animals
Desmond Morris, Animal Watching, Arrow Books (1990).
Charlotte Uhlenbroek, Animal Life, DK (2008).
Lucky Cooke, The Truth About Animals, Basic Books (2018).
Tim Flannery & Peter Schouten, Astonishing Animals, Atlantic Monthly Press (2004).
Donald R. Griffen, Animal Minds The University of Chicago Press (1992).
Virginia Morell, Animal Wise, Crown Publishers (2013).
Edward O. Wilson, Sociobiology, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press (2000).
” Theory on origin of animals challenged: earliest animal life may have required little oxygen,” Phys.org (17 February 2014).
Sarah Robinson et al, “Generation of spatial patterns through cell polarity switching,” Science 333:6048 1436–1440 (9 September 2011).
Francisco José Ayala et al, “Origin of the metazoan phyla: molecular clocks confirm paleontological estimates,” PNAS 95(2): 606–611 (20 January 1998).
Douglas H. Erwin et al, “The Cambrian conundrum: early divergence and later ecological success in the early history of animals,” Science 334 (6059): 1091–1097 (25 November 2011).
Tardigrades
Tardigrade electron microscope photograph courtesy of William R. Miller.
Mireia Querol Rovira, “Tardigrades: animals with superpowers,” All You Need Is Biology (10 April 2015).
“Tardigrades: the last survivors on Earth,” Phys.org (14 July 2017).
David Sloan et al, “The resilience of life to astrophysical events,” Scientific Reports (14 July 2017).
Takuma Hashimoto et al, “Extremotolerant tardigrade genome and improved radiotolerance of human cultured cells by tardigrade-unique protein,” Nature Communications (20 September 2016).
“Demystifying the resilience of water bears: protein protects human cultured cells from radiation damage,” ScienceDaily (20 September 2016).
Thomas C. Boothby et al, “Tardigrades use intrinsically disordered proteins to survive desiccation,” Molecular Cell 65: 975-984 (16 March 2017).
Nicholas St. Fleur, “How a water bear survives, even when it’s dry,” The New York Times (16 March 2017).
“Tardigrades use unique protein to protect themselves from desiccation,” Phys.org (16 March 2017).
William R. Miller, “Tardigrades,” American Scientist (September-October 2011).
“Tough tardigrades,” American Museum of Natural History (1 April 2015).
Jasmin Fox-Skelly, “Tardigrades return from the dead,” BBC (13 March 2015).
Sociality
David C. Queller & Joan E. Strassman, “The many selves of social insects,” Science 296: 311–313 (12 April 2002).
James L. Goodson et al, “Mesotocin and nonapeptide receptors promote estrildid flocking behavior,” Science 325(5942): 862–866 (14 August 2009).
Heon-Jin Lee et al, “Oxytocin: the great facilitator of life,” Progress in Neurobiology 88(2): 127–151 (June 2009).
“Peptide shown to regulate social behavior has positive impact on cardiac response following social isolation,” Medical News Today (29 April 2007).
Gordon G. Gallup Jr., “Chimpanzees: self-recognition,” Science 167(3914): 86–87 (2 January 1970).
The Mirror Test
Hannah Devlin, “Scientists find some fish can ‘recognise themselves’ in mirror,” The Guardian (7 February 2019).
Masanori Kohda et al, “Cleaner wrasse pass the mark test. What are the implications for consciousness and self-awareness testing in animals?,” bioRxiv (21 August 2018).
Bob Yirka, “Small fish passes classic self-awareness test,” Phys.org (4 September 2018).
Robert Epstein, “‘Self-awareness in the pigeon,” Science 212(4495): 695–696 (8 May 1981).
Frans B. M. de Waal, “The thief in the mirror,” PLOS Biology (19 August 2008).
Liangtang Chang et al, “Mirror-induced self-directed behaviors in rhesus monkeys after visual-somatosensory training,” Current Biology (8 Janu-ary 2015).
Donald M. Broom et al, “Pigs learn what a mirror image represents and use it to obtain information,” Animal Behaviour 78(5): 1037–1041 (No-vember 2009).
James Gorman, “Dogs recognize themselves in test based on smell, not sight,” The New York Times (22 September 2017).
Insects
European wasp photo courtesy of Fir0002/Flagstaffotos.
Anna Salleh, “Insects evolved flight as plants grew taller,” ABC Science (7 November 2014).
John R. Meyer, “The exoskeleton,” General Entomology web site, Department of Entomology, NC State University (17 February 2006).
Pam Frost Gorder, “With their amazing necks, ants don’t need ‘high hopes’ to do heavy lifting,” Phys.org (10 February 2014).
Daniel B. Zurek & Cole Gilbert, “Static antennae act as locomotory guides that compensate for visual motion blur in a diurnal, keen-eyed predator,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (5 February 2014).
Jessica Shugart, “Honeybees use right antennae to tell friend from foe,” Science News (1 July 2013).
Jan-Henning Dirks & David Taylor, “Veins improve fracture toughness of insect wings,” PloS One 7(8): e43411 (August 2012).
Morpho Dragonflies
Morpho (Zenithoptera) dragonfly photo courtesy of Ana Cotta.
Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira et al, “The unusual tracheal system within the wing membrane of a dragonfly,” Biology Letters (17 May 2017).
Susan Milius, “The blue wings of this dragonfly may be surprisingly alive,” Science News (30 June 2017).
Feet
Oliver Betz & Gregor Kölsch, “The role of adhesion in prey capture and predator defence in arthropods,” Arthropod Structure & Development 33: 3–30 (2004).
Stefanie F. Geiselhardt et al, “Congruence of epicuticular hydrocarbons and tarsal secretions as a principle in beetles,” Chemoecology (17 April 2011).
Thomas Eltz, “Tracing pollinator footprints on natural flowers,” Journal of Chemical Ecology 32(5):907-915 (June 2006).
Richard F. Pearce et al, “Bumblebees can discriminate between scent-marks deposited by conspecifics,” Scientific Reports (7 March 2017).
“Bumblebees’ smelly feet help determine where to find lunch,” ScienceDaily (7 March 2017).
Fairyflies
Alexey A. Polilov, “The smallest insects evolve anucleate neurons,” Science Direct (7 September 2011).
Dragonflies
Natialie Angier, “Nature’s drone, pretty and deadly,” The New York Times (1 April 2013).
S.D. Wiederman, D.C. O’Carroll, “Selective attention in an insect visual neuron,” Current Biology (20 December 2012).
Paloma T. Gonzalez-Bellido et al, “Eight pairs of descending visual neurons in the dragonfly give wing motor centers accurate population vector of prey direction,” PNAS (3 December 2012).
Matteo Mischiati et al, “Internal models direct dragonfly interception steering,” Nature (10 December 2014).
“Entomologists amazed by how dragonflies dance,” Sci-News.com (11 December 2014).
Catherine Brahic, “Dragonfly eyes see the world in ultra-multicolour,” New Scientist (23 February 2015).
Ryo Futahashi et al, “Extraordinary diversity of visual opsin genes in dragonflies,” PNAS (23 February 2015).
“Flipping roaches,” The Economist (9 June 2012).
Cockroaches
Joshua Rapp Learn, “Unwanted advances,” Scientific American (November 2018).
Hiroshi Nishino et al, “Spatial receptive fields for odor localization,” Current Biology (8 February 2018).
“Sniffing out a mate with precision,” ScienceDaily (8 February 2018).
Jean-Michel Mongeau et al, “Rapid inversion: running animals and robots swing like a pendulum under ledges,” PLoS One (6 June 2012).
“Cockroach personality varies by individual,” Nature World News (4 February 2015).
Isaac Planas-Sitjà et al, “Group personality during collective decision-making: a multi-level approach,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (4 February 2015).
Derek Kravitz, “Why cockroaches stay in your neighborhood,” The Wall Street Journal (29 September 2013).
Bees
Charles D. Michener, The Bees of the World, ohns Hopkins University Press (2007).
Noah Wilson-Rich et al, The Bee: A Natural History, Princeton University Press (2014).
Charles D. Michener, The Social Behavior of the Bees, The Belknap Press (1974).
Jurgen Tautz, The Buzz about Bees, Springer (2008).
Aline C. Martins et al, “Interaction between oil-collecting bees and seven species of Plantaginaceae,” Flora – Morphology, Distribution, Functional Ecology of Plants 208(7): 401-411 (July 2013).
Ashleigh Milner, “Honey bee origins, evolution & diversity,” Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders Association (2011).
Dave Goulson, “The beguiling history of bees,” Scientific American (25 April 2014).
Emily Benson, “Don’t worry, bee happy: Bees found to have emotions and moods,” New Scientist (29 September 2016).
Clint J. Perry et al, “Unexpected rewards induce dopamine-dependent positive emotion–like state changes in bumblebees,” Science 353(6307): 1529-1531 (30 September 2016).
Honeybees
Reese Halter, The Incomparable Honeybee, Rocky Mountain Books (2009).
Mark Winston, The Biology of the Honey Bee, Harvard University Press (1987).
C.R. Ribbands, The Behavior and Social Life of Honeybees, Dover Publications (1964).
E. Readicker-Henderson, A Short History of the Honey Bee, Timber Press (2009).
Andreas Wallberg et al, “A worldwide survey of genome sequence variation provides insight into the evolutionary history of the honeybee Apis mellifera,” Nature Genetics (24 August 2014).
“Evolutionary history of honeybees revealed by genomics,” ScienceDaily (24 August 2014).
Fan Han et al, “From where did the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) originate?,” Ecology and Evolution 2(8): 1949–1957 (August 2012).
“Two studies on bee evolution reveal surprises,” ScienceDaily (14 December 2006).
Kirsten S. Traynor et al, “Age matters: pheromone profiles of larvae differentially influence foraging behaviour in the honeybee, Apis mellifer,” Animal Behavior (17 September 2014).
James M. Withrow & David R. Tarpy, “Cryptic “royal” subfamilies in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies,” PLoS One (11 July 2018).
“Worker bees select royal (sub)family members, not their own supersisters, to be new queens,” ScienceDaily (11 July 2018).
Heli Salmela et al, “Transfer of immunity from mother to offspring is mediated via egg-yolk protein vitellogenin,” PLoS Pathogens (31 July 2015).
“How bees naturally vaccinate their babies,” ScienceDaily (31 July 2015).
“Age matters: Young larvae boost pollen foraging in honey bees,” ScienceDaily (18 November 2014).
“Bees of bigger hives forage better,” Nature 496: 8 (4 April 2013).
Michael L. Smith et al, “A critical number of workers in a honeybee colony triggers investment in reproduction,” Naturwissenschaften (21 August 2014).
David R. Tarpy et al, “Genetic diversity affects colony survivorship in commercial honey bee colonies,” Naturwissenschaften (June 2013).
Kevin J. Loope, “Queen killing is linked to high worker-worker relatedness in a social wasp,” Current Biology (29 October 2015).
Andreas Wallberg et al, “Extreme recombination frequencies shape genome variation and evolution in the honeybee, Apis mellifera,” PLoS Genetics (22 April 2015).
“How does a honeybee queen avoid inbreeding in her colony?,” ScienceDaily (29 April 2015).
“Personality affects hives’ fates,” Science News (2 February 2011).
“Honeybee hive-mates influenced to fan wings to keep hive cool,” Phys.org (3 August 2018).
Helen Fields, “To boldly go where no bee has gone,” Science (8 March 2012).
Zhengzheng S. Liang et al, “Molecular determinants of scouting behavior in honey bees,” Science 335(6073): 1225–1228 (9 March 2012).
R. I’Anson Price et al, “Honeybees forage more successfully without the “dance language” in challenging environments,” Science Advances (13 February 2019).
“Personality affects hives’ fates,” Science News (26 February 2011).
Elina L. Niño et al, “Chemical profiles of two pheromone glands are differentially regulated by distinct mating factors in honey bee queens (Apis mellifera),” PLoS One (13 November 2013).
Kate Wong, “Honeybees can recognize individual human faces,” Scientific American (19 November 2013).
Martin Bencsik et al, “Honeybee colony vibrational measurements to highlight the brood cycle,” PLoS One (18 November 2015).
Taina Conrad & Manfred Ayasse, “The role of vibrations in population divergence in the red mason bee, Osmia bicornis,” Current Biology (22 October 2015).
“Vibrations tell bees where mates are from,” Phys.org (22 October 2015).
Sam Wong, “Old honeybees make a drumming sound to get young slackers working,” New Scientist (24 October 2018).
David C. Queller & Joan E. Strassmann, “The veil of ignorance can favour biological cooperation,” Biology Letters (16 October 2013).
“Poor nutrition for honey bee larvae compromises pollination capabilities as adults,” Phys.org (8 April 2015).
Masaki Kamakura, “Royalactin induces queen differentiation in honeybees,” Nature 473: 478–483 (26 May 2011).
R. Maleszka, “Epigenetic integration of environmental and genomic signals in honey bees: the critical interplay of nutritional, brain and reproductive networks,” Epigenetics 3(4): 188–192 (29 July 2008).
J. K. Greenberg et al, “Behavioral plasticity in honey bees is associated with differences in brain microRNA transcriptome,” Genes, Brain and Behavior (6 April 2012).
Brian R. Herb et al, “Reversible switching between epigenetic states in honeybee behavioral subcastes,” Nature Neuroscience 15: 1371–1373 (16 September 2012).
Amitha Kalaichandran, “Honeybees welcome friendly migrants to hives but repel raiders,” New Scientist (3 February 2017).
Morgane Nouvian et al, “The defensive response of the honeybee Apis mellifera,” Journal of Experimental Biology 219: 3505-3517 (2016).
Philip Ball, “How honeycombs can build themselves,” Nature (17 July 2013).
Erica Feuerbacher et al, “Effects of load type (pollen or nectar) and load mass on hovering metabolic rate and mechanical power output in the honey bee Apis mellifera,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 206: 1855–1865 (2003).
Maria Gabriela de Brito Sanchez et al, “The tarsal taste of honey bees: behavioral and electrophysiological analyses,” Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience (4 February 2014).
James A. Foley, “Bees’ forearm claws are super sensitive to sweet tastes, study finds,” Nature World News (5 February 2014).
Paul Tenczar et al, “Automated monitoring reveals extreme interindivid-ual variation and plasticity in honeybee foraging activity levels,” Animal Behaviour 95: 41–48 (September 2014).
Lisa Beyaert et al, “Honeybees consolidate navigation memory during sleep,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 3981–3988 (15 Novem-ber 2012).
C. Evangelista et al, “Honeybee navigation: critically examining the role of the polarization compass,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (6 February 2014).
T.D. Seeley, “The tremble dance of the honey bee: message and meanings,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 31 (6): 375–383 (1992).
J.C. Nieh et al, “Olfactory eavesdropping by a competitively foraging stingless bee, Trigona spinipes,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 271: 1633–1640 (2004).
Ken Tan et al, “Fearful foragers: honey bees tune colony and individual foraging to multi-predator presence and food quality,” PLoS One (30 September 2013).
Ana L. Llandres et al, “Social but not solitary bees reject dangerous flowers where a conspecific has recently been attacked,” Animal Behaviour 85(1): 97–102 (January 2013).
“How do bees make honey? It’s not just bee barf,” Phys.org (20 June 2013).
Jenna Iacurci, “Bee ‘doctors’ nurse ill brethren with medicinal honey,” Nature World News (5 November 2014).
Bogdan I. Gherman et al, “Pathogen-associated self-medication behavior in the honeybee Apis mellifera,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68(11): 1777-1784 (November 2014).
Aurore Avargues-Weber & Martin Giurfa, “Conceptual learning by miniature brains,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (7 December 2013).
Issa McKinnon, “Small brains, big ideas,” Scientific American Mind 25(3): 10–11 (May/June 2014).
Clint J. Perry & Andrew B. Barron, “Honey bees selectively avoid difficult choices,” PNAS 110(47): 19155–19159 (19 November 2013).
Nicholas Baker et al, “Age-related learning deficits can be reversible in honeybees Apis mellifera,” Experimental Gerontology 47(10): 764–772 (October 2012).
Bogdan I. Gherman et al, “Pathogen-associated self-medication behavior in the honeybee Apis mellifera,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 68(11): 1777–1784 (November 2014).
Heather R. Mattila et al, “Characterization of the active microbiotas associated with honey bees reveals healthier and broader communities when colonies are genetically diverse,” PLoS One 7 (3): e34601 (12 March 2012).
David Robson, “Hive minds: Honeybee intelligence creates a buzz,” New Scientist (21 November 2012).
Richard Schiffman, “Bees aren’t just smart, they’re sensitive too,” New Scientist (6 June 2018).
Ken Tan et al, “Honey bee inhibitory signaling is tuned to threat severity and can act as a colony alarm signal,” PloS Biology (25 March 2016).
“Biologists discover sophisticated ‘alarm’ signals in honey bee,” ScienceDaily (25 March 2016).
Peter Skorupski et al, “Counting insects,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B (1 January 2018).
O. Peleg et al, “Collective mechanical adaptation of honeybee swarms,” Nature Physics (17 September 2018).
Yvaine Ye, “Honeybee swarms act like superorganisms to stay together in high winds,” New Scientist (17 September 2018).
Alex Riley, “Bees learn while they sleep, and that means they might dream,” BBC Earth (25 June 2016).
Hanna Zwaka et al, “Context odor presentation during sleep enhances memory in honeybees,” Current Biology (22 October 2015).
Rachael E. Bonoan et al, “Vasculature of the hive: heat dissipation in the honey bee (Apis mellifera) hive,” Naturwissenschaften 101(6): 459–465 (June 2014).
Jacob M. Peters et al, “Collective ventilation in honeybee nests,” Interface (23 January 2019).
Bumblebees
Joseph L. Woodgate et al, “Continuous radar tracking illustrates the development of multi-destination routes of bumblebees,” Scientific Reports (11 December 2017).
“Bumblebees solve the travelling salesman problem on the fly,” New Scientist (11 December 2017).
Mathieu Lihoreau et al, “Bees do not use nearest-neighbour rules for optimization of multi-location routes,” Biology Letters (17 August 2011).
Elizabeth Nicholls & Natalie Hempel de Ibarra, “Bees associate colour cues with differences in pollen rewards,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (22 May 2014).
“Picky eaters: Bumble bees prefer plants with nutrient-rich pollen,” Penn State News (27 June 2016).
Dominic Clarke et al, “Detection and learning of floral electric fields by bumblebees,” Science 340: 66–69 (5 April 2013).
Erika H. Dawson & Lars Chittka, “Conspecific and heterospecific information use in bumblebees,” PLoS One 7 (2): e31444 (8 February 2012).
Sylvian Alem et al, “Associative mechanisms allow for social learning and cultural transmission of string pulling in an insect,” PLoS Biology (4 October 2016).
“Bees learn and ‘teach’ others,” Nature (20 October 2016).
Erika H. Dawson et al, “Learning by observation emerges from simple associations in an insect model,” Current Biology 23(8): 727–730, (22 April 2013).
“It’s gotta bee me,” The Economist (2 August 2014).
Dave Goulson et al, “Foraging bumblebees avoid flowers already visited by conspecifics or by other bumblebee species,” Animal Behaviour 55(1): 199–206 (January 1998).
Richard James Bomphrey et al, “Smoke visualization of free-flying bumblebees indicates independent leading-edge vortices on each wing pair,” Experiments in Fluids 46(5): 811–821 (2009).
Piotr G. Jablonski et al, “Warning signals confer advantage to prey in competition with predators: bumblebees steal nests from insectivorous birds,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67(8): 1259–1267 (August 2013).
Ants
Ant photo courtesy of William Cho.
Bert Hölldobler, “Ways of the ant,” National Geographic, page 811 (June 1984).
Laurent Keller & Elisabeth Gordon, The Lives of Ants, Oxford University Press (2009).
Caryl P. Haskins, The ant and her world,” National Geographic, pages 774–777 (June 1984).
S. E. Bengston & A. Dornhaus, “Be meek or be bold? a colony-level behavioural syndrome in ants,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (6 August 2014).
Akiko Koto et al, “Social isolation causes mortality by disrupting energy homeostasis in ants,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (18 January 2015).
James Gorman, “Efficiency is idleness,” The New York Times (16 August 2018).
J. Aguilar et al, “Collective clog control: Optimizing traffic flow in confined biological and robophysical excavation,” Science 361(6403): 672-677 (17 August 2018).
“Lazy ants make themselves useful in unexpected ways,” ScienceDaily (8 September 2017).
Daniel Charbonneau et al, “Who needs ‘lazy’ workers? Inactive workers act as a ‘reserve’ labor force replacing active workers, but inactive workers are not replaced when they are removed,” PLoS One (6 September 2017).
Daniel Charbonneau & Anna Dornhaus, “Workers ‘specialized’ on inactivity: Behavioral consistency of inactive workers and their role in task allocation,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 69(9): 1459-1472 (September 2015).
“More workers working might not get more work done, ants (and robots) show,” ScienceDaily (16 August 2018).
Brian Stallard, “Worker ants are lazier than you thought,” Nature World News (11 October 2015).
Aviram Gelblum et al, “Ant groups optimally amplify the effect of transiently informed individuals,” Nature Communications (28 July 2015).
“Ants in the lead: how ants cooperate in steering food to their nest,” ScienceDaily (30 July 2015).
Nathalie Stroeymeyt et al, “Social network plasticity decreases disease transmission in a eusocial insect,” Science 362(6417): 941-945 (23 November 2018).
Castes
Daniel F. Simola et al, “A chromatin link to caste identity in the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus,” Genome Research (3 December 2012).
Ed Yong, “Tracking whole colonies shows ants make career moves,” Nature (18 April 2013).
E.P., “The private lives of ants,” Science 340: 270 (19 April 2013).
Danielle P. Mersch et al, “Tracking individuals shows spatial fidelity is a key regulator of ant social organization,” Science (18 April 2013).
“Argentine ant genome sheds light on a successful pest,” ScienceDaily (1 February 2011).
Xiaofan Zhou et al, “Phylogenetic and transcriptomic analysis of chemosensory receptors in a pair of divergent ant species reveals sex-specific signatures of odor coding,” PLoS Genetics 8(8): e1002930 (2012).
Balaji Prabhakar et al, “The regulation of ant colony foraging activity without spatial information,” PLoS Computational Biology 8(8): e1002670 (2012).
Ant Sounds
Carrie Arnold, “Shhh, the ants are talking,” Science (7 February 2013).
Supercolonies
John Wang et al, “A Y-like social chromosome causes alternative colony organization in fire ants,” Nature (16 January 2013).
Christopher D. Smith et al, “Draft genome of the globally widespread and invasive Argentine ant (Linepithema humile),” PNAS (31 January 2011).
Sarah Graham, “Ant supercolony spans thousands of miles,” Scientific American (17 April 2002).
“New worlds of order – Argentine ants succeed by outnumbering the competition,” ScienceDaily (13 January 1999).
Jonathan Z. Shik et al, “Towards a general life-history model of the superorganism: predicting the survival, growth and reproduction of ant societies,” Biology Letters 8(6): 1059– 1062 (23 December 2012).
Wheedled by Beetles
Bert Holldobler et al, “Amphotis marginata (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) a highwayman of the ant Lasius fuliginosus,” PloS One (7 August 2017).
Leafcutter Ants
Bert Hölldobler & Edward O. Wilson, The Leafcutter Ants, W.W. Norton & Company (2011).
Yao Hua Law, “Leaf-cutter ants pick up the pace when they sense rain,” Science News (15 June 2018).
Boris Baer & Jacobus J. Boomsma, “Mating biology of the leaf-cutting ants Atta colombica and A. cephalotes,” Journal of Morphology 267: 1165–1171 (2006).
R.J. Quinlan and J.M. Cherrett, “Studies on the role of the infrabuccal pocket of the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex octospinosus (Reich) (Hym., Formicidae),” Insectes Sociaux 25(3): 237–245 (1978).
Volker Nehring et al, “Wingless virgin queens assume helper roles in Acromyrmex leaf-cutting ants,” Current Biology 22(17): R671–R673 (11 September 2012).
Hannah T. Reynolds & Cameron R. Currie, “Pathogenicity of Escovopsis weberi: the parasite of the attine ant-microbe symbiosis directly consumes the ant-cultivated fungus,” Mycologia 96(5): 955–959 (2004).
Cameron R. Currie et al, “The agricultural pathology of ant fungus gardens,” PNAS 96: 7998–8002 (July 1999).
S.T. Meyer et al, “Selecting the drought stressed: effects of plant stress on intraspecific and within-plant herbivory patterns of the leaf-cutting ant Atta colombica,” Functional Ecology 20(6): 973–981 (December 2006).
Ulrich G. Mueller et al, “Phylogenetic patterns of ant–fungus associations indicate that farming strategies, not only a superior fungal cultivar, explain the ecological success of leafcutter ants,” Molecular Ecology (9 May 2018).
“Leafcutter ants’ success due to more than crop selection,” ScienceDaily (9 May 2018).
Frank O. Aylward et al, “Metagenomic and metaproteomic insights into bacterial communities in leafcutter ant fungus gardens,” The ISME Journal (1 March 2012).
“Bacteria tend leafcutter ants’ gardens,” Phys.org (1 March 2012).
“Leaf-cutting ants learn to identify unsuitable plants from cues within the colony,” Phys.org (8 March 2017).
Andrés Arenas & Flavio Roces, “Avoidance of plants unsuitable for the symbiotic fungus in leaf-cutting ants: Learning can take place entirely at the colony dump,” PLoS One (8 March 2017).
Weaver Ants
Weaver ant photo courtesy of Antonio Giudici.
Thomas Endlein & Walter Federle, “Rapid preflexes in smooth adhesive pads of insects prevent sudden detachment,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (27 February 2013).
Katherine P. Gill et al, “Collective retention and transmission of chemical signals in a social insect,” Naturwissenschaften, 99(3): 245–248 (March 2012).
Douglas H. Chadwick, “Sisterhood of weavers,” National Geographic (May 2011).
Termites
Andy Gardner & Laura Ross, “Haplodiploidy, sex-ratio adjustment, and eusociality,” The American Naturalist (28 January 2013).
Adam Z. Rosenthal et al, “Localizing transcripts to single cells suggests an important role of uncultured deltaproteobacteria in the termite gut hy-drogen economy,” PNAS (27 September 2014).
“Climate control in termite mounds,” ScienceDaily (25 November 2014).
Thomas Chouvenc et al, “Extended disease resistance emerging from the faecal nest of a subterranean termite,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (18 September 2013).
Cai Wang et al, “Panic escape polyethism in worker and soldier Coptotermes formosanus (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae),” Insect Science (March 2015).
Eric M. Roberts et al, “Oligocene termite nests with in situ fungus gardens from the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania, support a Paleogene African origin for insect agriculture,” PLoS One (22 June 2016).
Nicola Stead, “Headbanging termites send out smoke signals,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (1 September 2013).
Susan Milius, Termite soldier’ legs sense alarms,” Science News 86(4): 16 (23 August 2014).
Octopuses
Octopus drawing courtesy of R.L. Hudson.
Katherine Harmon Courage, Octopus!, Current (2013).
Piero Amodio et al, “Grow smart and die young: Why did cephalopods evolve intelligence,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution (13 November 2018).
Carl Zimmer, “Yes, the octopus is smart as heck. But why?,” The New York Times (30 November 2018).
“The octopus’ ‘human-like’ intelligence,” The Week (14 November 2011).
Nir Nesher et al, “Self-recognition mechanism between skin and suckers prevents octopus arms from interfering with each other,” Current Biology (15 May 2014).
“How octopus arms make decisions,” ScienceDaily (25 June 2019).
Ian Sample, “Why an octopus’s suckers don’t stick its arms together,” The Guardian (15 May 2014).
Katherine Harmon, “Vanishing in plain sight,” Scientific American 307(2): 29 (August 2012).
Alexander L. Stubbs & Christopher W. Stubbs, “Spectral discrimination in color blind animals via chromatic aberration and pupil shape,” PNAS (5 July 2016).
Randal H. DeRusha et al, “Laboratory growth, reproduction and life span of the Pacific pygmy octopus, Octopus digueti,” Pacific Science 41(1-4): 104-121 Guy Levy et al, “Arm coordination in octopus crawling involves unique motor control strategies,” Current Biology (16 April 2015).
Bruce Robison et al, “Deep-sea octopus (Graneledone boreopacifica) conducts the longest-known egg-brooding period of any animal,” PLoS One (30 July 2014).
Katherine Harmon Courage, “Social octopus species shatters beliefs about ocean dwellers,” National Geographic (28 July 2014).
Hayley Bennett, “The colour blind octopus that mastered the art of disguise,” New Scientist (3 October 2018).
Reptiles
Peter Uetz, Reptile Species Numbers, http://www.reptile-database.org/db-info/SpeciesStat.html (28 January 2012).
T.R. Lyson et al, “MicroRNAs support a turtle + lizard clade,” Biology Letters (20 July 2011).
Mexican crocodile photo courtesy of Tomás Castelazo.
Lizards
Plumed basilisk lizard photo courtesy of Jäger & Sammler.
Lina S V Roth et al, “Nocturnal colour vision in geckos,” Biology Letters, 271-6: S485–S487 (7 December 2004).
“Reptile is sometimes a victim of misinformation,” Science News Letter (25 May 1957).
Tod W. Reeder et al, “Integrated analyses resolve conflicts over squamate reptile phylogeny and reveal unexpected placements for fossil taxa,” PLoS One (24 March 2015).
Ryo Ito & Akira Mori, “Vigilance against predators induced by eavesdrop-ping on heterospecific alarm calls in a non-vocal lizard Oplurus cuvieri cuvieri (Reptilia: Iguania),” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (23 December 2009).
Geckos
Ian W. Murray et al, “Low field metabolic rates for geckos of the genus Rhoptropus may not be surprising,” Journal of Arid Environments 113: 35-42 (February 2015).
A.M. Bauer & D.A. Good, “Phylogenetic systematics of the day geckos, genus, Rhoptropus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae), of south-western Africa,” Journal of Zoology 238(4): 635-663 (April 1996).
Alyssa Y. Stark et al, “Surface wettability plays a significant role in gecko adhesion underwater,” PNAS 110(16): 6340–6345 (16 April 2013).
Gecko foot photo courtesy of Ali Dhinojwala.
Hadi Izadi et al, “Role of contact electrification and electrostatic interac-tions in gecko adhesion,” Interface (9 July 2014).
Nsikan Akpan, “Gecko adhesion takes electric turn,” Science News p. 19 (9 August 2014).
Congcong Hu & P. Alex Greaney, “Role of seta angle and flexibility in the gecko adhesion mechanism,” Journal of Applied Physics 116(7) (August 2014).
Ginel C. Hill et al, “Orientation angle and the adhesion of single gecko setae,” Interface (2 February 2011).
K. Autumn et al, “Adhesive force of a single gecko foot-hair,” Nature 405: 681 – 685 (8 June 2000).
Carrie Arnold, “The secret to sticky feet,” Science Now (23 August 2011).
Shihao Hu et al, “Dynamic self-cleaning in gecko setae via digital hyperextension,” Interface (13 June 2012).
Bradfield’s Namib day gecko photo courtesy of Tyrone Ping.
Lifestyles
R. A. Anderson & L. J. Vitt, “Sexual selection versus alternative causes of sexual dimorphism in teiid lizards,” Oecologia, 84: 145–147 (1990).
W. E. Cooper, Jr. & L. J. Vitt, “Deferred agonistic behavior in a long-lived scincid lizard, Eumeces laticeps,” Oecologia, 72: 321–326 (1987).
Mating
C. M. Bull & B. C. Baghurst, “Home range overlap of mothers and their offspring in the sleepy lizard, Tiliqua rugosa,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 42: 357–362 (1998).
Autotomy
Elizabeth D. Hutchins et al, “Transcriptomic analysis of tail regeneration in the lizard Anolis carolinensis reveals activation of conserved verte-brate developmental and repair mechanisms,” PLoS One (20 August 2014).
“How lizards regenerate their tails: researchers discover genetic ‘recipe’,” Phys.org (20 August 2014).
Kenro Kusumi & Rebecca E. Fisher, “Studying mechanisms of regeneration in amphibian and reptilian vertebrate models,” The Anatomical Record 295(10): 1529–1531 (October 2012).
Intelligence
Manuel Leal & Brian J. Powell, “Behavioural flexibility and problem-solving in a tropical lizard,” Biology Letters (July 2011).
Emily Anthes, “Coldblooded does not mean stupid,” The New York Times (18 November 2013).
Patricia Sullivan, “Paul D. MacLean, 94; neuroscientist offered ‘triune brain’ model,” The Washington Post (11 January 2008).
Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, Ballantine Books (1977).
Monitor lizard drawing courtesy of Pearson Scott Foresman.
Dennis King & Brian Green, Goannas: The Biology of Varanid Lizards, University of New South Wales Press (1999).
Snakes
Coast garter snake photo courtesy of Steve Jurvetson.
David Gower et al, Snakes, Firefly Books (2012).
Legumes & Rhizobia
Nevin D. Young et al, “The Medicago genome provides insight into the evolution of rhizobial symbioses,” Nature 480: 520–524 (22 December 2011).
E. Toby Kiers et al, “Host sanctions and the legume–rhizobium mutualism,” Nature 425: 78-81 (18 July 2003).
Yuccas & Moths
O. Pellmyr & J.N. Thompson, “Multiple occurrences of mutualism in the yucca moth lineage,” PNAS 89(7): 2927–2929 (1 April 1992).
David M. Althoff, “Specialization in the yucca–yucca moth obligate pollination mutualism: A role for antagonism?,” American Journal of Botany (23 August 2016).
Olle Pellmyr & Harald W. Krenn, “Origin of a complex key innovation in an obligate insect–plant mutualism,” PNAS 99(8): 5498–5502 (16 April 2002).
Ryutaro Goto et al, “Selective flower abortion maintains moth cooperation in a newly discovered pollination mutualism,” Ecology Letters 13(3): 321-329 (March 2010).
Olle Pellmyr et al, “Non-mutualistic yucca moths and their evolutionary consequences,” Nature 380: 155-156 (14 March 1996).
Beatriz Moisset, “Yucca moths (Tegeticula sp.),” US Department of Agriculture (undated).
Senses
Sarah C.P. Williams, “Vibrating skulls help snakes hear,” Science (22 December 2011).
Peter H. Hartline & Howard W. Campbell, “Auditory and vibratory responses in the midbrains of snakes,” Science 163(3872): 1221–1223 (14 March 1969).
Kevin van Doom & Jacob G. Sivak, “Blood flow dynamics in the snake spectacle,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216: 4190–4195 (2013).
“Smell the potassium: new understanding of trigger for compulsive mating and male-on-male death matches,” ScienceDaily (29 July 2012).
Yoh Isogai et al, “Molecular organization of vomeronasal chemoreception,” Nature (21 September 2011).
Scott M. Boback et al, “Snake modulates constriction in response to prey’s heartbeat,” Biology Letters (18 January 2012).
David L. Hu et al, “The mechanics of slithering locomotion,” PNAS 106(25): 10081–10085 (23 June 2009).
“Gross anatomy,” National Geographic p. 26 (August 2012).
Bob Holmes, “Extreme evolution: how snakes became the über-eater,” New Scientist (5 June 2014).
Secretary bird photo courtesy of Yoky.
Wilfred T. Neill, “Viviparity in snakes: some ecological and zoogeographical consideration,” The American Naturalist 98(898) (January-February 1964).
Tentacled Snake
Tentacled snake photo courtesy of Kenneth C. Catania.
Eggs Worth Fighting For
Wen-San Huang et al, “Territorial behavior in Taiwanese kukrisnakes (Oligodon formosanus),” PNAS 108(18): 7455–7459 (3 May 2011).
Defenses
Indian cobra snake photo courtesy of Kamalnv.
Playing Dead
J.W. Kilpatrick, “Feigned death in snakes,” Science 22(558): 208–209 (13 October 1893).
Snake Venom
Michael Tennesen, “Snakes alive! What’s your poison?,” New Scientist (30 September 2006).
Charles C. Abbott, “The intelligence of snakes,” Science 3(56): 253–256 (29 February 1884).
Cognition
Richard Luscombe, “Surprised scientists find deadly Florida pythons have internal GPS,” The Guardian (20 March 2014).
David A. Holtzman et al, “Spatial learning of an escape task by young corn snakes, Elaphe guttata guttata,” Animal Behavior 57(1): 51–60 (January 1999).
“A real smart asp: snakes show surprising ability to learn,” University of Rochester (5 February 1999).
Birds
George F. Barrowclough et al, “How many kinds of birds are there and why does it matter?,” PLoS One (23 November 2016).
Joseph Forshaw (editor), Encyclopaedia of Animals: Birds, Merehurst Press (1991).
Joanna Burger, Birds (A Visual Guide), Firefly (2006).
Noah Stryker, The Thing With Feathers, Riverhead Books (2014).
Daniel Cossins, “Birds do impressions – it’s time to take them seriously,” New Scientist (30 April 2015).
Hornbills
Southern ground hornbill photo courtesy of Duncan Wright.
Songbird Patience
Damien R. Farine & Stephen D.J. Lang, “The early bird gets the worm: foraging strategies of wild songbirds lead to the early discovery of food sources,” Biology Letters (9 October 2013).
Colin Tudge, The Bird, Crown Publishers (2008).
Hoatzin drawing courtesy of Catherine Clark.
Guinea (aka Green) turacao photo courtesy of Ian Wilson.
Hummingbirds
Kenneth Chang, “How hummingbirds get their nectar with tiny ‘straws’,” The New York Times (24 November 2009).
“Hummingbird metabolism unique in burning glucose, fructose equally,” ScienceDaily (5 December 2013).
Chris Chin Wah Chen & Kenneth Collins Welch Jr., “Hummingbirds can fuel expensive hovering flight completely with either exogenous glucose or fructose,” Functional Ecology (18 November 2013).
Victoria Gill, “Hummingbirds’ wings ‘shape-shift’,” BBC News (4 July 2013).
Nir Sapir & Robert Dudley, “Backward flight in hummingbirds employs unique kinematic adjustments and entails low metabolic cost,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 3603–3611 (15 October 2012).
Sindya Bhanoo, “For hummingbirds, it’s easy to shift into reverse,” The New York Times (1 October 2012).
Jan W. Kruyt et al, “Hummingbird wing efficacy depends on aspect ratio and compares with helicopter rotors,” Interface (31 July 2014).
Jialei Song et al, “Three-dimensional flow and lift characteristics of a hovering ruby-throated hummingbird,” Interface (9 July 2014).
“How the hummingbird achieves its aerobatic feats,” ScienceDaily (21 November 2014).
Senses
Tim Birkhead, Bird Sense, Walker & Company (2012).
Sight
Partha Bhagavatula, “Edge detection in landing budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) PLoS One (7 October 2009).
“Spiders risk everything for love,” ScienceDaily (20 June 2019).
Hearing
Hans A. Schnyder et al, “The avian head induces cues for sound localization in elevation,” PLoS One (12 December 2014).
Owls
Natalie Angier, “The owl comes into its own,” The New York Times (25 February 2013).
Little owl photo courtesy of Tebol-a.
Brains
Bhart-Anjan S. Bhullar et al, “Birds have paedomorphic dinosaur skulls,” Nature (30 May 2012).
Amy M. Balanoff et al, “Evolutionary origins of the avian brain,” Nature 501: 93–96 (5 September 2013).
Ingo Schiffner et al, “Minding the gap: in-flight body awareness in birds,” Frontiers in Zoology (4 September 2014).
John M. Marzluff et al, “Brain imaging reveals neuronal circuitry underlying the crow’s perception of human faces,” PNAS 109(39): 15912–15917 (2012.09.25).
Kerri Smith, “Scrub-jays look ahead,” Nature (21 February 2007).
Murray Shanahan et al, “Large-scale network organization in the avian forebrain: a connectivity matrix and theoretical analysis,” Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience (4 July 2013).
Lena Veit & Andreas Nieder, “Abstract rule neurons in the endbrain support intelligent behaviour in corvid songbirds,” Nature Communications (28 November 2013).
Virginia Morell, “Into the minds of birds,” Science 341: 22–25 (5 July 2013).
“Eat crow if you think I’m a bird-brain,” ScienceDaily (28 November 2013).
Chickens
Hen photo courtesy of Andrei Niemimäki.
Lori Martino, “Thinking chickens: a review of cognition, emotion, and behavior in the domestic chicken,” Animal Cognition (2 January 2017).
Carolynn L. Smith & Sarah L. Zielinski, “The startling intelligence of the common chicken,” Scientific American (1 February 2014).
Sociality
Joanna Burger, Birds: A Visual Guide, Firefly Books (2006).
L.E. Browning et al, “Kin selection, not group augmentation, predicts helping in an obligate cooperatively breeding bird,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (11 July 2012).
Finch Society
Mylene M. Mariette et al, “Juvenile social experience affects pairing success at adulthood: congruence with the loser effect?,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (31 July 2013).
Male zebra finch photo courtesy of Maurice van Bruggen.
Kevin P. Oh & Alexander V. Badyaev, “Structure of social networks in a passerine bird: consequences for sexual selection and the evolution of mating strategies,” The American Naturalist (7 July 2010).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Love among finches: it’s not all about looks,” The New York Times (12 July 2010).
Communication
Bridget Stutchbury, The Private Lives of Birds, Walker & Company (2010).
Gagan Narula et al, “Learning auditory discriminations from observation is efficient but less robust than learning from experience,” Nature Communications (13 August 2018).
“How birds learn,” ScienceDaily (13 August 2018).
Songs and Such
“Songbird data yields new theory for learning sensorimotor skills,” ScienceDaily (1 October 2018).
Baohua Zhou et al, “Chance, long tails, and inference in a non-Gaussian, Bayesian theory of vocal learning in songbirds,” PNAS (20 August 2018).
Sarah E. Earp & Donna L. Maney, “Birdsong: is it music to their ears,” Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience (28 November 2012).
Karan J. Odom et al, “Female song is widespread and ancestral in songbirds,” Nature Communications (4 March 2014).
“Tweets going viral: birds can ‘learn second language’ from peers,” The Guardian (3 August 2018).
Samantha Carouso-Peck et al, “Female social feedback reveals non-imitative mechanisms of vocal learning in zebra finches,” Current Biology (31 January 2019).
“Psychologists solve mystery of songbird learning,” ScienceDaily (31 January 2019).
Mockingbirds
Lester L. Short, The Lives of Birds, Henry Holt and Company (1993).
Douglas J. Levey et al, “Urban mockingbirds quickly learn to identify individual humans,” PNAS 106(22): 8959–8962 (2 June 2009).
P. Marler & R. Pickert, “Species-universal microstructure in a learned birdsong: the swamp sparrow (Melospiza Georgiana),” Animal Behavior 32: 673–689 (1984).
“Birds that live with varying weather sing more versatile songs,” ScienceDaily (3 August 2012).
Singing in the City
C.K. Catchpole & P.J.B. Slater, Bird Song: Biological Themes and Variations, Cambridge University Press (1995).
Karl Gruber, “Whisper while you lurk,” Science Now (5 October 2011).
Natalie Villacorta, “Old sparrows are mocking birds,” Science (19 August 2011).
M.J. West & A.P. King, “Female visual displays affect the development of male song in the cowbird,” Nature 334: 244–246 (21 July 1988).
Verena R. Ohms et al, “Vocal tract articulation revisited: the case of the monk parakeet,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 215: 85–92 (1 Jan-uary 2012).
Marcelo Araya-Salas, “Is birdsong music? Evaluating harmonic intervals in a songs of a Neotropical songbird,” Animal Behaviour 84(2): 309–313 (August 2012).
Virginia Morell, “When the bat sings,” Science 344(6190): 1334–1337 (20 June 2014).
Thorsten J.S. Balsby et al, “Vocal imitation in parrots allows addressing of specific individuals in a dynamic communication network,” PLoS One 7(11): e49747 (November 2012).
Nicholas Guerguen et al, “Mimicry in social interaction: its effect on human judgment and behavior,” European Journal of Social Sciences 8(2): 253–262 (2009).
Alex
I.M. Pepperberg, The Alex studies: cognitive and communicative abilities of gray parrots, Harvard University Press (1999).
Irene M. Pepperberga & Susan Careya, “Grey parrot number acquisition: the inference of cardinal value from ordinal position on the numeral list,” Cognition 125(2): 219–232 (November 2012).
“Parrot understands concept akin to zero,” Science News (9 July 2005).
George Page, Inside The Animal Mind, Random House (1999).
“Some birds can communicate about behavior of predators,” ScienceDaily (11 January 2008).
Honeyguides
Scaly-throated honeyguide photo courtesy of Dick Daniels.
Claire N. Spottiswoode & Jeroen Koorevaar, “A stab in the dark: chick killing by brood parasitic honeyguides,” Biology Letters (7 September 2011).
Claire N. Spottiswoode et al, “Reciprocal signaling in honeyguide-human mutualism,” Science 353(6297): 387–389 (22 July 2016).
Elizabeth Pennesi, “Wild bird comes when honey hunters call for help,” Science 353(6297): 335 (22 July 2016).
Natalie Angier, “In Africa, birds and humans form a unique honey hunting party,” The New York Times (22 July 2016).
Pied Wagtails
Pied wagtail photo courtesy of Charles J. Sharp.
N.B. Davies & Ai.I Houston, “Owners and satellites: the economics of territory defence in the pied wagtail, Motacilla alba,” Journal of Animal Ecology 50: 157–180 (1981).
Planning & Memory
Helen Phillips, “Space-time for bird brains,” Nature (24 September 1998).
Scrub Jay Caching
Western scrub jay photo courtesy of Rob Mutch.
C.R. Raby, D.M. Alexis, A. Dickinson, N.S. Clayton, “Planning for the future by western scrub jays,” Nature 445: 919–921 (22 February 2007).
Nicola S. Clayton & Anthony Dickinson, “Episodic-like memory during cache recovery by scrub jays,” Nature 395: 272–274 (17 September 1998).
Susan Milius, “A different kind of smart,” Science News 183(9): 24–29 (4 May 2013).
N.J. Emery & N.S. Clayton, “Effects of experience and social context on prospective caching strategies by scrub jays,” Nature 414: 443–446 (22 November 2001).
Bivouac Checking
C.J. Logan et al, “A case of mental time travel in ant-following birds?,” Behavioral Ecology (2011).
Nicola S. Clayton et al, “Can animals recall the past and plan for the future?,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 4: 685–691 (August 2003).
Corvids
John Marzluff & Tony Angell, Gifts of the Crow, Free Press (2012).
Harvey Black, “Social skills to crow about,” Scientific American Mind 24(4): 12 (September/October 2013).
Gisela Telis, “Clever crows, complex cosnition,” Science (20 April 2010).
Claudia Wascher, “Animals know when they are being treated unfairly (and they don’t like it),” The Conversation (21 February 2017).
John M. Marzluff et al, “Lasting recognition of threatening people by wild American crows,” Animal Behaviour 79(3): 699–707 (March 2010).
John M. Marzluff et al, “Brain imaging reveals neuronal circuitry underlying the crow’s perception of human faces,” PNAS 109(39): 15912–15917 (25 September 2012).
Michelle Nijhuis, “Friend or foe? Crows never forget a face, it seems,” The New York Times (26 August 2008).
“Political ravens? Ravens notice the relationships among others, study shows,” ScienceDaily (23 April 2014 ).
Jorg J.M. Massen et al, “Ravens intervene in others’ bonding attempts,” Current Biology 24(22): 2733–2736 (17 November 2014).
Jorg J.M. Massen et al, “Ravens notice dominance reversals among conspecifics within and outside their social group,” Nature Communications (22 April 2014).
Jorg J.M. Massen et al, “Ravens intervene in others’ bonding attempts,” Current Biology (22 April 2014).
“Divide and rule: raven politics,” ScienceDaily (31 October 2014).
Simone Pika & Thomas Bugnyar, “The use of referential gestures in ravens (Corvus corax) in the wild,” Nature Communications (29 November 2011).
Jason G. Goldman, “Western scrub jays are capable of metacognition,” Scientific American (19 August 2014).
Lucy G. Cheke & Nicola S. Clayton, “Eurasian jays (Garrulus glandarius) overcome their current desires to anticipate two distinct future needs and plan for them appropriately,” Biology Letters (2 November 2011).
Ljerka Ostojic et al, “Can male Eurasian jays disengage from their own current desire to feed the female what she wants?,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (26 March 2014).
Ljerka Ostojic et al, “Evidence suggesting that desire-state attribution may govern food sharing in Eurasian jays,” PNAS 110(10): 4123–4128 (5 March 2013).
Alan C. Kamil, “Eurasian jays predict the food preferences of their mates,” PNAS 110(10): 3719–3720 (5 March 2013).
Michael Torrice, “Physics? It’s all the same to birds and babies,” Science (9 October 2009).
Corina J. Logan et al, “Modifications to the Aesop’s fable paradigm change New Caledonian crow performances,” PLoS One (23 July 2014).
Sarah A. Jelbert et al, “Using the Aesop’s fable paradigm to investigate causal understanding of water displacement by New Caledonian crows,” PLoS One (26 March 2014).
Alex H. Taylor et al, “New Caledonian crows reason about hidden causal agents,” PNAS 109(40): 16389–16391 (2 October 2012).
Alex H. Taylor et al, “New Caledonian crows learn the functional properties of novel tool types,” PLoS One (14 December 2011).
Anil Anathaswamy, “Ravens can plan for future as well as 4-year-old children can,” New Scientist (13 July 2017).
Tool Use
Jim Wang et al, “Cryo-EM structure of the extended type VI secretion system sheath–tube complex,” Nature Microbiology (25 September 2017).
New Caledonian crow using a twig as a tool photo courtesy of Simon Walker.
A.M.P. von Bayern et al, “Compound tool construction by New Caledonian crows,” Scientific Reports (24 October 2018).
“New Caledonian crows can create compound tools,” ScienceDaily (24 October 2014).
G.R. Hunt, “Human-like, population-level specialization in the manufacture of Pandanus tools by New Caledonian crows Covus moneduloides,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 267 (1441): 403–413 (2000).
Barbara C. Klump et al, “Context-dependent ‘safekeeping’ of foraging tools in New Caledonian crows,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (20 May 2015).
J.C. Holzhaide et al, “The social structure of New Caledonian crows,” Animal Behaviour 81(1): 83–92 (January 2011).
Jackdaws
Jackdaw photo courtesy of Maxwell Hamilton.
Konrad Lorenz, King Solomon’s Ring (1952).
Gabrielle L. Davidson et al, “Salient eyes deter conspecific nest intruders in wild jackdaws (Corvus monedula),” Biology Letters 10(2): 20131077 (5 February 2014).
Pinyon Jays
Guillermo Paz-y-Miño et al, “Pinyon jays use transitive inference to predict social dominance,” Nature 430, 778–781 (12 August 2004).
Hank Davis, “Transitive inference in rats (Rattus norvegicus),” Journal of Comparative Psychology 106: 342–349 (1992).
B. McGonigle & M. Chalmers, “Monkeys are rational!,” Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 45B: 198–228 (1992).
Magpies
T.V. Shepard et al, “‘The thieving magpie’? No evidence for attraction to shiny objects,” Animal Cognition (15 August 2014).
M. Beckoff, “Animal emotions, wild justice, and why they matter: grieving magpies, a pissy baboon, and empathic elephants,” Emotion, Space and Society 2(2): 82–85 (2009).
T.L. Iglesias et al, “Western scrub-jay funerals: cacophonous aggregations in response to dead conspecifics,” Animal Behaviour 84(5): 1103–11111 (November 2012).
Mammals
Panda photo courtesy of Petar P. Todorov.
Don E. Wilson & DeeAnn M. Reeder (editors), Mammal Species of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press (2005).
David Attenborough, The Life of Mammals, Princeton University Press (2002).
Rodents
Shrew rat drawing courtesy of the Mintern Brothers.
“Every mouse is different: how mouse ‘personality’ sheds light on human depression,” ScienceDaily (14 November 2011).
“Rodent that cannot gnaw,” Nature 488: 561 (30 August 2012).
Squirrels
Squirrel photo courtesy of Mark Lissen.
Richard W. Thorington & Katie E. Ferrell, Squirrels (The Animal Answer Guides), JHUP (2008).
“Squirrels have long memory for problem solving,” Phys.org (13 July 2017).
Pizza Ka Yee Chow et al, “How to stay perfect: the role of memory and behavioural traits in an experienced problem and a similar problem,” Animal Cognition (11 July 2017).
“Squirrel psychology: how squirrels learn from others how to steal food,” University of Exeter (6 August 2009).
“Squirrels use old snake skins to mask their scent from predators,” University of California – Davis (25 December 2007).
Krystnell A. Storr, “Tail shakes scare snakes,” Science (10 July 2012).
“Squirrels winning at outwitting trees’ survival strategy,” Michigan State University (24 December 2006).
Gerald H. Jacobs et al, “Visual acuity and spatial contrast sensitivity in tree squirrels,” Behavioral Processes 7(4): 367-375 (December 1982).
Rats
Ethne Barnes, Diseases and Human Evolution, University of New Mexico Press (2005).
Alireza Alemi-Neissi et al, “Multifeatural shape processing in rats engaged in invariant visual object recognition,” The Journal of Neuroscience 33(14): 5939–5956 (3 April 2013).
Kendra Arkley et al, “Strategy change in vibrissal active sensing during rat locomotion,” Current Biology 24(13): 1507–1512 (7 July 2014 ).
Meghan Rosen, “Scent into action,” Science News 26 presocial 29 (20 October 2012).
Shantanu P. Jadhav et al, “Awake hippocampal sharp-wave ripples support spatial memory,” Science 336(6087): 1454–1458 (15 June 2012).
Laura Sanders, “Rats feel regret, experiment finds,” Science News 186(1): 19 (12 July 2014).
Paul J Cocker et al, “Sensitivity to cognitive effort mediates psychostimulant effects on a novel rodent cost/benefit decision-making task,” Neuro-psychopharmacology 37: 1825–1837 (July 2012).
Jaak Panksepp, “Beyond a joke: from animal laughter to human joy?,” Science 308(5718): 62–63 (1 April 2005).
Satoshi F. Nakashima et al, “Receiving of emotional signal of pain from conspecifics in laboratory rats,” Royal Society Open Science (1 April 2015).
Nobuya Sato et al, “Rats demonstrate helping behavior toward a soaked conspecific,” Animal Cognition (12 May 2015).
Inbal Ben-Ami Bartal et al, “Pro-social behavior in rats is modulated by social experience,” eLife (14 January 2014).
“Fondled rats reveal brain’s tickle spot,” New Scientist (10 November 2016).
Carl Zimmer, “How the brown rat conquered New York City (and every other one, too),” The New York Times (27 October 2016).
Emily E. Puckett et al, “Global population divergence and admixture of the brown rat (Rattus norvegicus),” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (19 October 2016).
Sand Puppies
Markus Zottl et al, “Differences in cooperative behavior among Damaraland mole rats are consequences of an age-related polyethism,” PNAS (1 September 2016).
“Why mole rats are more flexible than we previously thought,” Phys.org (29 August 2016).
“Naked mole rats and the secret to longevity,” ScienceDaily (28 April 2014).
Yael H. Edrey et al, “Sustained high levels of neuregulin-1 in the longest-lived rodents; a key determinant of rodent longevity,” Aging Cell 11(2): 213–222 (April 2012).
Prairie Dogs
C.N. Slobodchikoff et al, Prairie Dogs, Harvard University Press (2009).
John L. Hoogland, The Black-Tailed Prairie Dog, The University of Chicago Press (1995).
C.N. Slobodchikoff, “Cognition and communication in prairie dogs,” in The Cognitive Animal, edited by M. Beckoff et al, Cambridge: A Bradford Book (2002).
C.N. Slobodchikoff et al, Prairie Dogs: Communication and Community in an Animal Society, Harvard University Press (2009).
S. Archer et al,, “Rates of vegetation change associated with prairie dog (Cynomys ludovicianus) grazing in North American mixed-grass,” Vegetation 72: 159–166 (1987).
J.F. Weltzin et al, “Small mammal regulation of vegetation structure in a temperate savannah,” Ecology 78: 751–763 (1997).
Giraffes
Zoe Muller et al, “Giraffe social preferences are context dependent,” Animal Behaviour 146: 37-49 (December 2018).
“Giraffes prefer to forage with friends,” Scie-News (27 November 2018).
Natalie Angier, “Our understanding of giraffes does not measure up,” The New York Times (5 October 2014).
Jeremy Hance, “All about giraffes: an interview with a giraffe expert,” mongabay.com (9 March 2009).
William F. Wood & Paul J. Weldon, “The scent of the reticulated giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis reticulata),” Biochemical Systematics and Ecology 30(10): 913–917 (November 2002).
Henk P. van der Jeugd & Herbert H. T. Prins, “Movements and group structure of giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) in Lake Manyara National Park, Tanzania,” Journal of Zoology 251(1): 15–21 (May 2000).
Craig Holdrege, “The giraffe in its world,” The Nature Institute (Fall 2004).
Jennifer Leman, “Giraffes inherit their spots from their mothers,” Science News (2 October 2018).
Derek E. Lee et al, “Seeing spots: quantifying mother-offspring similarity and assessing fitness consequences of coat pattern traits in a wild population of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis),” PeerJ (2 October 2018).
David M. Pratt & Virginia H. Anderson, “Giraffe social behaviour,” Journal of Natural History 19(4): 771–781 (1985).
V.A. Langman, “Cow-calf Relationships in giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis giraffa),” Ethology 43(3): 264–286 (January-December 1977).
P.A. Seeber et al, “Androgen changes and flexible rutting behaviour in male giraffes,” Biology Letters (7 August 2013).
Elephants
African bull elephant photo courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim.
Tina Hesman Saey, “Genes separate Africa’s elephant herds,” Science News (15 January 2011).
Shana Alexander, The Astonishing Elephant, Random House (2000).
Susan Milius, “Don’t trust any elephant under 60,” Science News (15 March 2011).
Yoshihito Niimura et al, “Extreme expansion of the olfactory receptor gene repertoire in African elephants and evolutionary dynamics of orthologous gene groups in 13 placental mammals,” Genome Research (22 July 2014).
Kaori Mizuno et al, “Asian elephants acquire inaccessible food by blowing,” Animal Cognition (5 November 2015).
Karen McComb et al, “Elephants can determine ethnicity, gender, and age from acoustic cues in human voices,” PNAS (10 March 2014).
Joseph Soltis et al, “African elephant alarm calls distinguish between threats from humans and bees,” PLoS One (26 February 2014).
Richard W. Byrne & Lucy A. Bates, “Elephant cognition in primate perspective,” Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews 4: 65–79 (2009).
Caitlin O’Connell-Rodwell, “The darker side of elephant country,” The New York Times (27 July 2012).
Norman Owen-Smith & Jonas Chafota, “Selective feeding by a megaher-bivore, the African elephant (Loxodonta africana),” Journal of Mammalogy 93(3): 698–705 (2012).
J. Gordon, “Elephants do think,” African Wildlife 20: 75–79 (1966).
Christian T. Herbst et al, “Infrasonic vocalizations how low can you go? physical production mechanism of elephant,” Science 337: 595–599 (2012).
C.E. O’Connell-Rodwell et al, “Antiphonal vocal bouts associated with departures in free-ranging African elephant family groups (Loxodonta africana),” Bioacoustics 21(3): 215–224 (2012).
Shifra Z. Goldenberg et al, “Vertical transmission of social roles drives resilience to poaching in elephant networks,” Current Biology (17 December 2015).
“Female elephants inherit social roles,” Nature 528: 493 (31 December 2015).
Angela S. Stoeger et al, “An Asian elephant imitates human speech,” Current Biology (1 November 2012).
G. Dwayne Fuselier, “Placing the Stockholm Syndrome in Perspective,” FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, 22–25 (July 1999).
Joshua M. Plotnik & Frans B.M. de Waal, “Asian elephants (Elephas maximus) reassure others in distress,” PeerJ 2:e278 (18 February 2014).
J.M. Masson & Susan McCarthy, When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Delacorte Press, 1995.
Anna F. Smet & Richard W. Byrne, “African elephants can use human pointing cues to find hidden food,” Current Biology 23(20): 2033–2037 (10 October 2013).
Sabri Ben-Achour, “A pachyderm’s ditty prompts and elephantine debate,” NPR (26 August 2012).
Matt Kaplan, “Elephants recognize the voices of their enemies,” Nature (14 March 2014).
Richard W. Byrne et al, “Elephant cognition in primate perspective,” Comparative Cognition & Behavior Reviews 4: 65–79 (2009).
Benjamin L. Hart et al, “Cognitive behaviour in Asian elephants: use and modification of branches for fly switching,” Animal Behaviour 62(5): 839–847 (November 2001).
Marine Mammals
S.H. Ridgway et al, “Forward shift of feeding buzz components of dolphins and belugas during associative learning reveals a likely connection to reward expectation, pleasure and brain dopamine activation,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (15 August 2014).
David Kirby, Death At Sea World, St. Martin’s Press (2012).
Hannah Devlin, “Fossil of ancient four-legged whale with hooves discovered,” The Guardian (4 April 2019).
Sea Otters
Kendra Pierre-Louis, “California’s underwater forests are being eaten by the ‘cockroaches of the ocean’,” The New York Times (25 October 2018).
Dolphins
Intelligence Physiology
Emma Marris, “Are dolphins sensing global forces?,” Nature (23 Septem-ber 2004).
Intelligence
“Ants more rational than humans?,” ScienceDaily (24 July 2009).
Rachel Adelson, “Marine mammals master math,” American Psychological Association 36 (8): 22 (September 2005).
E. Mercado et al, “Memory for action events in the bottlenosed dolphin,” Animal Cognition 2: 17–25 (1999).
C.K. Tayler & G.S. Sayman, “Imitative behavior of Indian Ocean bottlenosed dolphins (Tursiops aduncus) in captivity,” Behaviour 44: 286 – 298 (1973).
A.R. Martin, “Object carrying as socio-sexual display in an aquatic mammal,” Biology Letters 4: 243–245 (2008).
Sharon Begley, “Cultures of animals may provide insights into human behavior,” Science Journal (7 May 2004).
Kendall Powell, “Dolphin hear, dolphin do,” Nature (21 August 2002).
Sociality
Peter L. Tyack, “Dolphins whistle a signature tune,” Science 289( 5483): 1310–1311 (25 August 2000).
Srdan Randic et al, “A novel mammalian social structure in Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops sp.): complex male alliances in an open social network,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (28 March 2012).
Hannah Joy Kriesell et al, “Identification and characteristics of signature whistles in wild bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) from Namibia,” PLoS One (9 September 2014).
“Dolphins have conversations,” The Week (30 September 2016).
John C. Lilly & Alice M. Miller, “Vocal exchanges between dolphins,” Science 1873–1876 (8 December 1961).
Michael Hopkin, “Dolphins play name game,” Nature (8 May 2006).
Elizabeth Norton, “Nice to meet eet eet you,” Science (28 February 2012).
Michael Bright, Dolphins, DK Publishing (2001).
Orcas
Orca photo courtesy of Robert Pittman.
Lauren J.N. Brent et al, “Ecological knowledge, leadership, and the evolution of menopause in killer whales,” Current Biology 25(6): 746–750 (16 March 2015).
Emma A. Foster et al, “Adaptive prolonged postreproductive life span in killer whales,” Science (14 September 2012).
“Orca helicopter moms,” The Week (5 October 2012).
Susan Milius, “Killer whales follow postmenopausal leaders,” Science News (5 March 2015).
Peter Knudtson, Orca, Sierra Club Books (1996).
Luke Rendell & Hal Whitehead, “Culture in whales and dolphins,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 24: 309–382 (2001).
Candace Calloway Whiting, “Orca whales imitate each other and people – scientists correlate imitation with intelligence,” Seattle PI (24 June 2013).
Kevin Speer, “How smart are killer whales? Orcas have 2nd-biggest brains of all marine mammals,” Phys.org (8 March 2010).
Sea Lion Slam
David Attenborough, Frozen Planet, BBC (2012).
Pilot Whales
Amy M. Van Cise et al, “Song of my people: dialect differences among sympatric social groups of short-finned pilot whales in Hawai’i,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 72:193 (December 2018).
“Groups of pilot whales have their own dialects,” ScienceDaily (19 December 2018).
“Pilot whales use synchronized swimming when they sense danger,” ScienceDaily (23 November 2012).
Primates
Erica van de Waal et al, “Wild vervet monkey infants acquire the food-processing variants of their mothers,” Animal Behaviour 90: 41–45 (April 2014).
Lemurs
Lemur photo courtesy of Veszprémi Állatkert.
Lisa Gould & M.L. Sauther (editors), Lemurs: Ecology and Adaptation, Springer (2006).
Lemur World web site.
K. Praveen Karanth et al, “Ancient DNA from giant extinct lemurs confirms single origin of Malagasy primates,” PNAS 102(14): 5090–5095 (5 April 2005).
Ying Tan & Wen-Hsiung Li, “Trichromatic vision in prosimians,” Nature 402: 36 (4 November 1999).
Ipek G. Kulahci et al, “Individual recognition through olfactory–auditory matching in lemurs,” Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences (16 April 2014).
Rachel L. Harris et al, “Costs of injury for scent signalling in a strepsirrhine primate,” Scientific Reports (29 June 2018).
“Lemurs can smell weakness in each other,” ScienceDaily (29 June 2018).
Marylène Boulet et al, “Decoding an olfactory mechanism of kin recognition and inbreeding avoidance in a primate,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (3 December 2009).
Sharon E. Kessler et al, “Paternal kin recognition in the high frequency / ultrasonic range in a solitary foraging mammal,” BMC Ecology (30 November 2012).
Lydia K. Greene & Christine M. Drea, “Love is in the air: sociality and pair bondedness influence sifaka reproductive signaling,” Animal Behaviour 88: 147–156 (February 2014).
Melanie Seiler et al, “Interspecific semantic alarm call recognition in the solitary Sahamalaza sportive lemur, Lepilemur sahamalazensis,” PLoS One 8(6): e67397 (June 2013).
Lydia K. Greene et al, “Mix it and fix it: functions of composite olfactory signals in ring-tailed lemurs,” Royal Society Open Science (20 April 2016).
“Lemurs mix smelly secretions to make richer, longer-lasting scents,” ScienceDaily (19 April 2016).
A.E. Dunham et al, “Body size and sexual size dimorphism in primates: influence of climate and net primary productivity,” Journal of Evolutionary Biology (10 September 2013).
Joseph M.A. Petty & Christine M. Drea, “Female rule in lemurs is ancestral and hormonally mediated,” Scientific Reports (7 May 2015).
A.E. Dunham & V.H.W. Rudolf, “Evolution of sexual size monomorphism: the influence of passive mate guarding,” Journal of Evolutionary Biology (22 May 2009).
“New theory on why male, female lemurs same size,” Phys.org (14 July 2009).
Ipek G. Kulahci et al, “Consistent individual variation across interaction networks indicates social personalities in lemurs,” Animal Behaviour 136: 217-226 (February 2018).
“Some lemurs are loners, others crave connection,” Phys.org (9 January 2018).
Alison Jolly, “Lemur social behavior and primate intelligence,” Science 153(3735): 501–506 (29 July 1966).
Marie J.E. Charpentier & Christine M. Drea, “Victims of infanticide and conspecific bite wounding in a female-dominant primate: a long-term study,” PLoS One 8(12): e82830 (December 2013).
Marina B. Blanco et al, “Underground hibernation in a primate,” Scientific Reports (2 May 2013).
Guiseppe Donati et al, “Low levels of fruit nitrogen as drivers for the evolution of Madagascar’s primate communities,” Scientific Reports (31 October 2017).
Monkeys
Monkey photo courtesy of Jim Ankan Deka.
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Red hot monkey love,” Science (30 May 2007).
Marc Zabludoff, Monkeys, Marshal Cavendish (2008).
Emporer tamarin photo courtesy of Brocken Inaglory.
Classification
Peter Ward & Joe Kirschvink, A New History of Life, Bloomsbury Press (2015).
Michael A. Ruggiero et al, “A higher level classification of all living organisms,” PLoS One (29 April 2015).
R.H. Whittaker, “New concepts of kingdoms of organisms,” Science 163(3863): 150-160 (10 January 1969).
T. Calvalier-Smith, “A revised six-kingdom system of life,” Biological Reviews 73(3): 203-266 (August 1998).
Stephen T. Garnett & LEs Christidis, “Taxonomy anarchy hampers conservation,” Nature (31 May 2017).
Jeet Sukumaran & L. Lacey Knowles, “Multispecies coalescent delimits structure, not species,” PNAS (30 January 2017).
Luna Shyr, “29 names, same plant,” National Geographic (June 2011).
Tina Hesman Saey, “Number of species depends how you count them,” Science News (8 February 2017).
Mariano Bond et al, “Eocene primates of South America and the African origins of New World monkeys,” Nature (4 February 2015).
C.R. Woese et al, “Towards a natural system of organisms: proposal for the domains Archaea, Bacteria, and Eucarya,” PNAS 87(12): 4576-4579 (1 June 1990).
William E. Balch et al, “An ancient divergence among the bacteria,” Journal of Molecular Evolution 9(4): 305-311 (December 1977).
Carl R. Woese & George E. Fox, “Phylogenetic structure of the prokaryotic domain: the primary kingdoms,” PNAS 74(11): 5088-5090 (1 November 1977).
Herbert F. Copeland, “The kingdoms of organisms,” The Quarterly Review of Biology 13(4): 383-420 (December 1938).
Robert Hooke, Micrographia (1665).
Sociality
James Randerson, “Monkey business reveals sense of fair play,” New Scientist (17 September 2003).
“Monkeys’ grooming habits provide new clues to how we socialize,” ScienceDaily (2009.10.01).
Becky Summers, “Monkey brain area keeps count of kindnesses,” Nature (23 December 2012).
Ivan Puga-Gonzalez et al, “Emergent patterns of social affiliation in primates, a model,” PLoS Computational Biology (24 December 2009).
Richard McFarland & Bonaventura Majoloa, “The occurrence and benefits of postconflict bystander affiliation in wild Barbary macaques, Macaca sylvanus,” Animal Behaviour 84(3): 583–591 (September 2012).
Intelligence
“Monkeys can perform mental addition,” ScienceDaily (20 December 2007).
Capuchins
Capuchin monkey photo courtesy of Whaldener Endo.
M. Mannu & E.B. Ottoni, “The enhanced tool-kit of two groups of wild bearded capuchin monkeys in the Caatinga: tool making, associative use, and secondary tools,” American Journal of Primatology 71(3): 242 251 (2009).
Susan Perry, “The behavior of wild white-faced capuchins: demography, life history, social relationships, and communication,” Advances in the Study of Behavior 44: 135–181 (2012).
“The old primates’ club: even male monkeys ride their fathers’ coattails to success,” ScienceDaily (10 June 2012).
Frans B.M. de Waal et al, “The monkey in the mirror: Hardly a stranger,” PNAS 102(32): 11140–11147 (9 August 2005).
Squirrel Monkeys
Squirrel monkey photo courtesy of Jlahorn.
Night Monkeys
Night monkey photo courtesy of dsasso.
Spider Monkeys
Black spider monkey photo courtesy of Petruss.
Spider monkey photo courtesy of Michael Schamis.
Kayla S. Hartwell et al, “Assessing the occurrence of sexual segregation in spider monkeys (Ateles geoffroyi yucatanensis), its mechanisms and function,” International Journal of Primatology (2014).
Howler Monkeys
Howler monkey photo courtesy of Paulo B. Chaves.
Woolly Monkeys
Woolly monkey photo courtesy of Hans Hillewaert.
Proboscis Monkeys
Tim Laman, “Borneo’s proboscis monkeys smell trouble,” National Geographic 100–117 (August 2002).
Carey P. Yeager, “Proboscis monkey (Nasalis larvatus) social organization: nature and possible functions of intergroup patterns of association,” American Journal of Primatology 26(2): 133–137 (1992).
R. Rajanathan & E.L. Bennett, “Notes on the social behaviour of wild proboscis monkeys (Nasalis larvatus),” Malay Nature Journal 44(1): 35–44 (1990).
Dianas
Diana monkey photo courtesy of Adrian Kirton.
Vervets
Vervet photo courtesy of Derek Keats.
D.L. Cheney & R.M. Seyfarth, “Vocal recognition in free-ranging vervet monkeys,” Animal Behaviour 28: 362–367 (1980).
D.L. Cheney & R.M. Seyfarth, “The recognition of social alliances among vervet monkeys,” Animal Behaviour 34: 1722–1731 (1986).
Japanese Macaques
Masayuki Nakamichi et al, “Carrying and washing of grass roots by free-ranging Japanese macaques at Katsuyama,” International Journal of Primatology 69-1 (1998).
Bijal P. Trivedi, “‘Hot tub monkeys’ offer eye on nonhuman ‘culture’,” National Georgraphic News (6 February 2004).
photo of Japanese macaques bathing in a hot spring courtesy of Yosemite.
Patricia Miller-Schroeder, Japanese Macaques, Weigl Educational Publishers Limited (2002).
Baboons
Hamadryas baboon photo courtesy of Dick Mudde.
Ariana Strandburg-Peshkin et al, “Shared decision-making drives collective movement in wild baboons,” Science 348(6241): 1358-1361 (19 June 2015).
“Baboons follow the majority,” Phys.org (20 July 2015).
Thore J. Bergman, “Speech-like vocalized lip-smacking in geladas,” Current Biology 23(7): R268–R269 (8 April 2013).
Jonathan Grainger et al, “Orthographic processing in baboons (Papio papio),” Science 336 (6078): 245–248 (13 April 2012).
Chris Palmer, “Fossils indicate common ancestor for two primate groups,” Nature (15 May 2013).
Vivek V. Venkataraman et al, “Solitary Ethiopian wolves increase predation success on rodents when among grazing gelada monkey herds,” Journal of Mammalogy 96(1): 129–137 (15 February 2015).
Bob Holmes, “Monkeys’ cosy alliance with wolves looks like domestication,” New Scientist (5 June 2015).
Apes
Alexandra G. Rosati & Brian Hare, “Chimpanzees and bonobos exhibit emotional responses to decision outcomes,” PLoS One (May 2013).
“Apes get emotional over games of chance,” ScienceDaily (29 May 2013).
Daniel B. M. Haun, et al, “Great apes’ risk-taking strategies in a decision making task,” PLoS One 6 (12): e28801 (21 December 2011).
Gema Martin-Ordas et al, “Memory fo distant past events in chimpanzees and orangutans,” Current Biology (18 July 2013).
Orangutans
Gisela Kaplan & Lesley J. Rogers, The Orangutans, Perseus Publishing (2000).
Carel Van Schaik, Among Orangutans, Belknap Press (2004).
Serge A. Wich et al, Orangutans: Geographic Variation in Behavioral Ecology and Conservation, Oxford University Press (2009).
“Borneo’s orangutans are coming down from the trees,” Phys.org (29 July 2013).
Biruté M. F. Galdikas, “Orangutan diet, range, and activity at Tanjung Puting, Central Borneo,” International Journal of Primatology 9(10): 1–35 (1988).
Chris L. Schürmann and Jan A. R. A. M. van Hooff, “Reproductive strategies of the orangutan: New data and a reconsideration of existing sociosexual models,” International Journal of Primatology 7(3): 265–287 (1986).
“Monopoly of the male orangutan: comparative field observations on Sumatra and Borneo,” ScienceDaily (5 March 2013).
Carel P. Van Schaik & Jan A.R.A.M. Van Hoof, “Toward an understanding of the orangutan’s social system,” in Great Ape Societies, edited by William C. McGrew, Cambridge University Press (1996).
Matt Walker, “Wild orangutans treat pain with natural anti-inflammatory,” New Scientist (28 July 2008).
Adam van Casteren et al, “Nest-building orangutans demonstrate engineering know-how to produce safe, comfortable beds,” PNAS 109(18): 6873–6877 (1 May 2012).
Carel P. van Schaik et al, “Wild orangutan males plan and communicate their travel direction one day in advance,” PLoS One 8(9): e74896 (Sep-tember 2013).
“Orangutans plan their future route and communicate it to others, researchers show,” Phys.Org (11 September 2013).
Brigitte Spillmann et al, “Acoustic properties of long calls given by flanged male orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus wurmbii) reflect both individual identity and context,” Ethology (25 March 2010).
Isaas Bédard, “Orangutans, check your schedules,” Scientific American Mind 25(3): 11 (May/June 2014).
Adam van Casteren et al, “Nest-building orangutans demonstrate engineering know-how to produce safe, comfortable beds,” PNAS 109(18): 6873-6877 (1 May 2012).
“Orangutans smarter than previously thought: orangutan nest building highly sophisticated,” ScienceDaily (17 April 2012).
Janet Raloff, “Caste-off orangs,” Science News 147(12) (25 March 1995).
Gorillas
Paul Fleisher, Gorillas, Benchmark Books (2001).
K.J. Stewart & A.H. Harcourt , Primate Societies, University of Chicago Press (1987).
S.E. Woods, “Implementation and evaluation of a behavioral enrichment program for captive gorillas, with an emphasis on tool behaviors (Gorilla gorilla),” Ph.D. dissertation, University of Colorado at Boulder (1992).
Koko
Francine Patterson & Eugene Linden, The Education of Koko, Holt, Rinehard and Winston (1981).
B. Fontaine et al, “Observations of spontaneous tool making and tool use in a captive group of western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla),” Folia Primatologica 65(4): 219–233 (1995).
R.W. Wrangham & D. Peterson, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, Houghton Mifflin (1994).
Chimpanzees
David A. Leavens et al, “The mismeasure of ape social cognition,” Animal Cognition (4 August 2017).
“Apes’ abilities misunderstood by decades of poor science,” Phys.org (31 August 2017).
Chimpanzee photo courtesy of Ruy Alvarez.
Karline R.L. Janmaat et al, “Chimpanzees use long-term spatial memory to monitor large fruit trees and remember feeding experiences across seasons,” Animal Behaviour 86(6): 1183–1205 (December 2013).
Karline R.L. Janmaat et al, “Taï chimpanzees use botanical skills to discover fruit: what we can learn from their mistakes,” Animal Cognition 16(6): 851 – 860 (1 November 2013).
Tool Use
Kathelijne Koops et al, “Chimpanzees prey on army ants at Seringbara, Nimba Mountains, Guinea: predation patterns and tool use characteristics,” American Journal of Primatology (14 October 2014).
Martin Banks, Chimpanzee, Raintree Steck-Vaughn (2000).
Catherine Hobaiter et al, “Social network analysis shows direct evidence for social transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees,” PLoS Biology (30 September 2014).
Though ironwood trees are only about 10% of the trees, chimpanzees choose them 74% of the time.
David R. Samson & Kevin D. Hunt, “Chimpanzees preferentially select sleeping platform construction tree species with biomechanical properties that yield stable, firm, but compliant nests,” PLoS One (16 April 2014).
Communication
Jennifer Viegas, “Chimps ‘talk’ about favourite fruits, best trees,” ABC Science (20 January 2015).
Stuart K. Watson et al, “Vocal learning in the functionally referential food grunts of chimpanzees,” Current Biology (5 February 2015).
Geoffrey C. Saign, Great Apes, Franklin Watts (1998).
Catherine Crockford et al, “Wild chimpanzees inform ignorant group members of danger,” Current Biology 22(2): 142–146 (29 December 2011).
“Chimpanzees show similar personality traits to humans, researchers say,” Phys.org (6 May 2014).
Personality & Emotions
Robert D. Latzman et al, “Personality in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes): exploring the hierarchical structure and associations with the vasopressin v1a receptor gene,” PLoS One (21 April 2014).
Hani D. Freeman et al, “Developing a comprehensive and comparative questionnaire for measuring personality in chimpanzees using a simultaneous top-down/bottom-up design,” American Journal of Primatology (3 June 2013).
“Planet of the apes,” The Economist (15 June 2013).
Darby Proctor et al, “Chimpanzees play the ultimatum game,” PNAS (14 January 2013).
Katja Liebal et al, “Does sympathy motivate prosocial behaviour in great apes?,” PLoS One (8 January 2014).
Shinya Yamamoto et al, “Chimpanzees help each other upon request,” PLoS One (14 October 2009).
Matthew W. Campbell & Frans B.M. de Waal, “Chimpanzees empathize with group mates and humans, but not with baboons or unfamiliar chimpanzees,” Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences (11 March 2014).
Maggie Koerth-Baker, “Want to understand mortality? Look to the chimps.” The New York Times (25 June 2013).
Parenting
Sonya M. Kahlenberg & Richard W. Wrangham, “Sex differences in chimpanzees’ use of sticks as play objects resemble those of children,” Current Biology 20(24): R1067–R1068 (21 December 2010).
Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen et al, “Early social deprivation negatively affects social skill acquisition in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes),” Animal Cognition 17(2): 407–414 (March 2014).
Sociality
“Chimpanzees of a feather sit together’: friendships are based on homophily in personality,” Phys.org (9 October 2013).
Jorg J.M. Massen & Sonja E. Koski, “‘Chimpanzees of a feather sit together’: friendships are based on homophily in personality,” Evolution and Human Behavior (4 October 2013).
Natalie Angier, “In society of female chimps, subtle signs of vital status,” The New York Times (12 August 1997).
Toshisada Nishida & Kazuhiko Hosaka, “Coalition strategies among adult male chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains, Tanzania,” in Great Ape Societies, edited by William C. McGrew, 114–134, Cambridge University Press (1996).
Ian C. Gilby et al, “Fitness benefits of coalitionary aggression in male chimpanzees,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67(3): 373–381 (March 2013).
Michael L. Wilson et al, “Lethal aggression in Pan is better explained by adaptive strategies than human impacts,” Nature 513: 414–417 (18 Sep-tember 2014).
James Gorman, “Lethal violence in chimps occurs naturally, study suggests,” The New York Times (17 September 2014).
Colin Barras, “Only known chimp war reveals how societies splinter,” New Scientist (7 May 2014).
Joseph H. Manson & Richard W. Wrangham, “Intergroup aggression in chimpanzees and humans,” Current Anthropology 32(4): 369–390 (August – October 1991).
Claudia Rudolf von Rohr et al, “Impartial third-party interventions in captive chimpanzees: a reflection of community concern,” PLoS One 7(3): e32494 (7 March 2012).
F.B.M. De Waal, “Conflict as negotiation,” in Great Ape Societies, edited by William C. McGrew et al, Cambridge University Press (1996).
Victoria Horner et al, “Spontaneous prosocial choice by chimpanzees,” PNAS 108(33): 13847–13851 (16 August 2011).
Felix Warneken et al, “Spontaneous altruism by chimpanzees and young children,” PLoS Biology (26 June 2007).
Frans B. M de Waal, “With a little help from a friend,” PLoS Biology (17 July 2007).
Roman M. Wittig et al, “Food sharing is linked to urinary oxytocin levels and bonding in related and unrelated wild chimpanzees,” Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences (15 January 2014).
Joseph T. Feldblum et al, “Sexually coercive male chimpanzees sire more offspring,” Cell (13 November 2014).
“Chimpanzees flexibly adjust their behavior to maximize payoffs, not to conform to majorities,” Phys.org (13 December 2013).
Eric Michael Johnson, “I’ve got your back,” Scientific American (October 2011).
Edwin J.C. Van Leeuwen et al, “Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes) flexibly adjust their behaviour in order to maximize payoffs, not to conform to majorities,” PLoS One 8(11): e80945 (27 November 2013).
“Scientists find origins of teamwork in our nearest relative the chimpanzee,” ScienceDaily (19 March 2013).
Alicia P. Melis & Michael Tomasello, “Chimpanzees’ (Pan troglodytes) strategic helping in a collaborative task,” Biology Letters (20 February 2013).
Culture
Kevin E. Langergraber et al, “How old are chimpanzee communities? Time to the most recent common ancestor of the Y-chromosome in highly patrilocal societies,” Journal of Human Evolution 69: 1–7 (April 2014).
Catherine Hobaiteret al, “Social network analysis shows direct evidence for social transmission of tool use in wild chimpanzees,” PLoS Biology (30 September 2014).
Lydia V. Luncz & Christophe Boesch, “Tradition over trend: neighboring chimpanzee communities maintain differences in cultural behavior despite frequent immigration of adult females,” American Journal of Primatology (31 January 2014).
Lydia V. Luncz et al, “Evidence for cultural differences between neighbor-ing chimpanzee communities,” Current Biology (10 May 2012).
Edwin J. C. van Leeuwen et al, “Neighbouring chimpanzee communities show different preferences in social grooming behaviour,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (29 August 2012).
Andrew Whiten et al, “Conformity to cultural norms of tool use in chimpanzees,” Nature 437: 737–740 (29 September 2005).
Gretchen Vogel, “Chimps in the wild show stirrings of culture,” Science 284(5423): 2070–2073 (25 June 1999).
A. Whiten et al, “Cultures in chimpanzees,” Nature 399: 682–685 (17 June 1999).
Michael Haslam, “Evolutionary biology: dating chimpanzees,” Nature 508: 322–323 (17 April 2014).
Intelligence
“Differential prefrontal white matter development in chimpanzees and humans,” Current Biology 21(16): 1397–1402 (23 August 2011).
William D. Hopkins et al, “Chimpanzee intelligence is heritable,” Current Biology 24(14): 1649–1652 (21 July 2014).
Katie Marsico, Chimpanzees, Scholastic (2012).
“Young chimps top adult humans in numerical memory,” ScienceDaily (3 December 2007).
Michael J. Beran et al, “Language-trained chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) name what they have seen but look first at what they have not seen,” Psychological Science 24(5): 660–666 (May 2013).
Bonobos
Female bonobo photo courtesy of Hans Hillewaert.
David Quammen, “The left bank ape,” National Geographic (March 2013).
Kay Prüfer et al, “The bonobo genome compared with the chimpanzee and human genomes,” Nature 486: 527–531 (28 June 2012).
Martin Surbeck et al, “Mate competition, testosterone and intersexual relationships in bonobos, Pan paniscus,” Animal Behavior 83(3): 659-669 (March 2012).
Verena Behringer et al, “Age-related changes in thyroid hormone levels of bonobos and chimpanzees indicate heterochrony in development,” Journal of Human Evolution 66: 83–88 (January 2014).
Marc de Manuel et al, “Chimpanzee genomic diversity reveals ancient admixture with bonobos,” Science 354(6311): 477-481 (28 October 2016).
Brian Owens, “Chimps and bonobos interbred and exchanged genes,” New Scientist (10 November 2016).
Takayoshi Kano, “Male rank order and copulation rate in a unit-group of bonobos at Wamba, Zaïre,” in Great Ape Societies, edited by William C. McGrew, 135–145, Cambridge University Press (1996).
“Bonobos will share with strangers before acquaintances,” ScienceDaily (2 January 2013).
Jingzhi Tan & Brian Hare, “Bonobos share with strangers,” PLoS One (2 January 2013).
“Bonobos predisposed to show sensitivity to others,” ScienceDaily (30 January 2013).
Frans de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist: In Search of Humanism among the Primates, W.W. Norton & Company (2014).
Zanna Clay & Frans B. M. de Waal, “Development of socio-emotional competence in bonobos,” PNAS 110(45): 18121–18126 (5 November 2013).
Zanna Clay & Frans B. M. de Waal, “Bonobos respond to distress in others: consolation across the age spectrum,” PLoS One (30 January 2013).
Martin Surbeck & Gottfried Hohmann, “Intersexual dominance relationships and the influence of leverage on the outcome of conflicts in wild bonobos (Pan paniscus),” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67(11): 1767–1780 (November 2013).
Pamela Heidi Douglas et al, “Mixed messages: wild female bonobos show high variability in the timing of ovulation in relation to sexual swelling patterns,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (2016).
“Deceptive sexual signals keep the peace in a bonobo society,” Phys.org (29 June 2016).
“Bonobos’ attention attracted by emotions,” ScienceDaily (16 March 2016).
Mariska E. Kret et al, “Bonobos (Pan paniscus) show an attentional bias toward conspecifics’ emotions,” PNAS (14 March 2016).
Sustenance
Bats
Roosting bats photo courtesy of Bernard Gagnon.
Tom A. August et al, “Sympatric woodland Myotis bats form tight-knit social groups with exclusive roost home ranges,” PLoS One 9(10): e112225 (October 2014).
“Bats make social alliances that affect roosting behavior,” ScienceDaily (17 June 2014).
Noam Cvikel et al, “Bats aggregate to improve prey search but might be impaired when their density becomes too high,” Current Biology (8 January 2015).
Alexander Silvis et al, “Roosting and foraging social structure of the endangered Indiana bat (Myotis sodalis),” PLoS One 9(5): e96937 (May 2014).
“Hunting bats rely on ‘bag of chips effect’,” ScienceDaily (8 January 2015).
Luca Giuggioli et al, “Delayed response and biosonar perception explain movement coordination in trawling bats,” PLoS Computational Biology (26 March 2015).
Ant Foraging
“From chaos to order: how ants optimize food search,” Phys.org (26 May 2014).
Lixiang Li et al, “Chaos–order transition in foraging behavior of ants,” PNAS (26 May 2014).
Jared M. Diamond, “Mixed-species foraging groups,” Nature 292: 408-409 (30 July 1981).
John M. McNamara et al, “An adaptive response to uncertainty generates positive and negative contrast effects,” Science 340: 1084–1086 (31 May 2013).
A.T. Pietrewicz & A.C. Kamil, “Search images and the detection of cryptic prey: an operant approach,” in Foraging behavior: Ecological, ethological, and psychological approaches, edited by A.C. Kamil & T.D. Sargent, Garland (1981).
Benjamin B. Beck, Animal Tool Behavior, Garland STPM Press (1980).
Tit Milk
Lucy M. Aplin et al, “Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds,” Nature (December 2014).
R.A. Hinde & J. Fisher, “Further observations on the opening of milk bottles by birds,” British Birds 44: 393–396 (1952).
D. Sherry & B.G. Galef, “Cultural transmission without imitation: milk bottle opening by birds,” Animal Behavior 32: 937–938 (1984).
“Left or right wing?,” The Economist (6 December 2014).
Colonial Intelligence
Erick Greene, “Individuals in an osprey colony discriminate between high and low quality information,” Nature 329: 239–241 (17 September 1987).
J.M. Marzluff et al, “Raven roosts are mobile information centres,” Animal Behaviour 51: 89–103 (1996).
M.F. Anderson et al, “Food information in the black-headed gull, Larus ridibundus,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 9: 199–202 (1981).
H. Richner & P. Heeb, “Communal life: honest signaling and the recruitment center hypothesis,” Behavioral Ecology 7: 115–118 (1996).
Predation
Spiders
“Spiders eat 400-800 million tons of prey every year,” Phys.org (14 March 2017).
Martin Nyffeler & Klaus Birkhofer, “An estimated 400–800 million tons of prey are annually killed by the global spider community,” The Science of Nature (14 March 2017).
P.A. Sebastin & K.V. Peter, Spiders of India, Universities Press (2009).
R.S. Wilcox & R.R. Jackson, “Cognitive abilities of Araneophagic jumping spiders,” in Animal cognition in nature: the convergence of psychology and biology in laboratory and field, edited by R.P. Balda et al, Academic Press (1998).
Moonsung Cho et al, “An observational study of ballooning in large spiders: nanoscale multifibers enable large spiders’ soaring flight,” PLoS Biology (14 June 2018).
Ben Guarino, “Spiders can float in the air, and scientists just figured out how they lift off,” The Washington Post (14 June 2018).
Seahorses
Seahorse image courtesy of Pearson Scott Foresman.
Catherine Zuckerman, “Head hunter,” National Geographic 225(5) (May 2014).
Large Carnivores
John W. Laundré, “How large predators manage the cost of hunting,” Science 346(6205): 33–34 (3 October 2014).
David M. Scantlebury et al, “Flexible energetics of cheetah hunting strategies provide resistance against kleptoparasitism,” Science 346(6205): 79–81 (3 October 2014).
Terrie M. Williams et al, “Instantaneous energetics of puma kills reveal advantage of felid sneak attacks,” Science 346(6205): 81–85 (3 October 2014).
Quail Covey
C.K. Williams et al, “Optimal group size and northern bobwhite coveys,” Animal Behaviour 66: 377–387 (1997).
Caches
S.B. Vander Wall, Food Hoarding In Animals, University of Chicago Press (1990).
L. Jacobs & E.R. Liman, “Grey squirrels remember the locations of buried nuts,” Animal Behaviour 41: 103–110 (1991).
H. Kallander & H.G. Smith, “Food storing in birds: an evolutionary perspective,” in Current Orthinology, vol. 7, edited by D.M. Powers, Ple-num (1990).
D.F. Sherry et al, “Memory for the location of stored food in marsh tits,” Animal Behaviour 29: 1260–1266 (1981).
S.J. Shettleworth & J.R. Krebs, “How marsh tits find their hoards: the roles of site preference and spatial memory,” Journal of Experimental Psychology: Animal Behavior 18: 219–235 (1982).
R.P. Balda & R.J. Turek, “The cache-recovery system as an example of memory capabilities in Clark’s nutcracker,” in Animal Cognition, edited by H.L Roitblat et al, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates (1984).
R.P. Balda & A.C. Kamil, “The ecology and evolution of spatial memory in corvids of the southwestern USA: the perplexing pinyon jay,” in Animal cognition in nature: the convergence of psychology and biology in laboratory and field, edited by R.P. Balda et al, Academic Press (1998).
Bernd Heinrich et al, “Black-capped chickadees and red-breasted nuthatches “weigh” sunflower seeds,” The Auk 114(2):298–299 (1997).
Piotr G. Jablonski et al, “Proximate mechanisms of detecting nut properties in a wild population of Mexican Jays (Aphelocoma ultramarina),” Journal of Ornithology (12 March 2015).
GrrlScientist, “Birds identify good nuts by listening to them,” The Guardian (26 May 2015).
C.R. Raby et al, “Planning for the future by western scrub-jays,” Nature 445: 919–921 (February 2007).
B. Heinrich, The mind of the raven: investigations and adventures with wolf-birds, Cliff Street Books (1999).
Health Care
Tomer J. Czaczkes et al, “Nest etiquitte – where ants go when nature calls,” PLoS One (18 February 2015).
Grooming
Rob Dunn, The Wild Life of Our Bodies, HarperCollins (2011).
Katalin Böröczky et al, “Insects groom their antennae to enhance olfactory acuity,” PNAS (4 February 2013).
Andrew A. McKenzie, “The ruminant dental grooming apparatus,” Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 99 (2): 117–128 (15 May 2008).
“Animal behaviour: smarter than the average bear,” The Economist (10 March 2012).
Mark Patterson, “A question of grooming,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience 3: 87 (February 2002).
T. Adler, “Voles appreciate the value of good grooming,” Science News 149: 247 (20 April 1996).
Robert M. Seyfarth & Dorothy L. Cheney, “Grooming, alliances and reciprocal altruism in vervet monkeys,” Nature 308: 541–543 (5 April 1984).
W.C. McGrew & Caroline E.G. Tutin, “Chimpanzee tool use in dental grooming,” Nature 241: 477–478 (16 February 1973).
Remedies
Nick Bos et al, “Ants medicate to fight disease,” Evolution (18 August 2015).
Penny Sarchet, “Ant knows how to self-medicate to fight off fungal infection,” New Scientist (21 August 2015).
Leif L. Richarson et al, “Nectar chemistry mediates the behavior of parasitized bees: consequences for plant fitness,” Ecology (September 2015).
“Parasitized bees are self-medicating in the wild,” ScienceDaily (1 September 2015).
Matthias Konrad et al, “Social transfer of pathogenic fungus promotes active immunisation in ant colonies,” PLoS Biology (3 April 2012).
“Boozing fruit flies,” The Week (1 March 2012).
Ker Than, “Woolly bear caterpillars self-medicate,” National Geographic News (13 March 2009).
Fermented Fruit Flies
Julianna Bozler et al, “Transgenerational inheritance of ethanol preference is caused by maternal NPF repression,” eLife (9 July 2019).
“Parental ‘memory’ is inherited across generation,” ScienceDaily (9 July 2019).
Neil F. Milan et al, “Alcohol consumption as self-medication against blood-borne parasites in the fruit fly,” Current Biology (16 February 2012).
Fermented Fruit Flies
Balint Z. Kacsoh et al, “Fruit flies medicate offspring after seeing parasites,” Science 339: 947–950 (22 February 2013).
Migration
Ben Hoare, Animal Migration, University of California Press (2009).
Susan Milius, “Overlooked mass migration spotted,” Science News (4 February 2017).
Brett R. Jesmer et al, “Is ungulate migration culturally transmitted? Evidence of social learning from translocated animals,” Science 361(6406): 1023-1025 (7 September 2018).
William J. Horton et al, “Transcriptome analyses of heart and liver reveal novel pathways for regulating songbird migration,” Scientific Reports (15 April 2019).
“Songbird-body changes that allow migration may have human health implications,” ScienceDaily (25 April 2019).
Jason W. Chapman et al, “Seasonal migration to high latitudes results in major reproductive benefits in an insect,” PNAS 109(37): 14924–14929 (11 September 2012).
O. Padget et al, “Anosmia impairs homing orientation but not foraging behaviour in free-ranging shearwaters,” Scientific Reports (29 August 2017).
“Sense of smell is key factor in bird navigation, new study shows,” ScienceDaily (29 August 2017).
Christian Skov et al, “Migration confers survival benefits against avian predators for partially migratory freshwater fish,” Biology Letters (27 February 2013).
Benjamin M. Winger et al, “Temperate origins of long-distance seasonal migration in New World songbirds,” PNAS (4 August 2014).
William V. DeLuca et al, “Transoceanic migration by a 12 g songbird,” Biology Letters (1 April 2015).
“Tiny songbird discovered to migrate non-stop, 1,500 miles over the Atlantic,” ScienceDaily (31 March 2015).
Steven J. Portugal et al, “Upwash exploitation and downwash avoidance by flap phasing in ibis formation flight,” Nature 505: 399–402 (16 January 2014).
Flora Lichtman, “Bird data confirms that V’s help save energy,” The New York Times (15 January 2014).
Penny Sarchet, “Matching times of leading and following suggest cooperation through direct reciprocity during V-formation flight in ibis,” New Scientist (2 February 2015).
Bernhard Voelkl et al, “Matching times of leading and following suggest cooperation through direct reciprocity during V-formation flight in ibis,” PNAS (2 February 2015).
Kevin A. Feldheim et al, “Two decades of genetic profiling yields first evidence of natal philopatry and long-term fidelity to parturition sites in sharks,” Molecular Biology 23(1): 110–117 (January 2014).
Thomus Mueller et al, “Social learning of migratory performance,” Science 341: 999–1000 (30 August 2013).
P. Lundberg, “The evolution of partial migration in birds,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution 3: 172–176 (1988).
P. Lundberg, “Dominance behavior, body-weight and fat variations, and partial migration in European blackbirds Turdus merula,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 17: 185–189 (1985).
Human Comprehension
Gordon Ramel, “What is migration?” | link: http://www.earthlife.net/birds/migration1.html.
Monarch Butterfly Migration
Laura M. Holson, “With 86% drop, California’s monarch butterfly population hits record low,” The New York Times (9 January 2019).
M.I. Rameriz et al, “Effects of human activities on monarch butterfly habitat in protected mountain forests, Mexico,” Forestry Chronicle 79: 242–246 (2003).
“How monarch butterflies recolonize northern breeding range,” ScienceDaily (19 March 2012).
“Genetic basis for migration in monarch butterflies uncovered,” ScienceDaily (30 March 2010).
“Monarch butterfly numbers drop to lowest level since records started,” The Guardian (29 January 2014).
Michael Wines, “Migration of monarch butterflies shrinks again under inhospitable conditions,” The New York Times (29 January 2014).
“Monarch butterflies plummet 90 percent, need protection,” Phys.org (26 August 2014).
Gabrielle Canon, “‘It’s a sad reality’: a troubling trend sees a 97% decline in monarch butterflies,” The Guardian (8 December 2018).
Dragonfly Migration
R. Charles Anderson, “Do dragonflies migrate across the western Indian Ocean?,” Journal of Tropical Ecology 25(4): 347–358 (July 2009).
Robert B. Srygley, “Wind drift compensation in migrating dragonflies Pantala (Odonata: Libellulidae),” Journal of Insect Behavior 16(2): 217–232 (March 2003).
Dung Roll
James J. Foster et al, “Orienting to polarized light at night – matching lunar skylight to performance in a nocturnal beetle,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (28 January 2019).
“Dung beetles navigate better under a full moon,” Phys.org (5 February 2019).
Marie Dacke et al, “Dung beetles use the milky way for orientation,” Current Biology (24 January 2013).
“Stars in their eyes,” The Economist (26 January 2013).
Jochen Smolka et al, “Dung beetles use their dung ball as a mobile thermal refuge,” Current Biology 22(20) R863–R864 (23 October 2012).
Hugh Dingle, Migration, Oxford University Press (1996).
John Alcock, Animal Behavior, Sinauer Associates (2005).
Magnetic Field Detection
Frank Swain, “Moose and sheep pass down their migration routes through culture,” New Scientist (12 September 2018).
Julia Rosen, “Earth’s magnetic field guides sea turtles home,” Science News (15 January 2015).
Travis W. Horton et al, “Straight as an arrow: humpback whales swim constant course tracks during long-distance migration,” Biology Letters (20 April 2011).
Daniel Cressey, “The mystery of the magnetic cows,” Nature (11 November 2011).
Vlastimil Hart et al, “Dogs are sensitive to small variations of the Earth’s magnetic field,” Frontiers in Zoology (27 December 2013).
Cryptochrome on the Wing
Robert J. Gegear et al, “Animal cryptochromes mediate magnetoreception by an unconventional photochemical mechanism,” Nature 463: 804–807 (11 February 2010).
Marissa Cevallos, “Quantum compass for birds,” Science News (7 January 2011).
Generations
“Not every partnership is about sex,” Phys.org (1 October 2015).
Malika Ihle et al, “Fitness benefits of mate choice for compatibility in a socially monogamous species,” PLoS Biology (14 September 2015).
Roland G. Roberts, “The fitness effects of love,” PLoS Biology (14 September 2015).
“Speed-dating birds,” The Economist (19 September 2015).
Laura Germine et al, “Individual aesthetic preferences for faces are shaped mostly by environments, not genes,” Current Biology (October 2014).
Homosexuality
“Gay penguin couple adopts abandoned egg in German zoo,” CBC News (5 June 2009).
Elham A. Wassef & Hayam A. Abdul Hady, Breeding biology of rabbitfish Siganus canaliculatus (Siganidae) in mid Arabian gulf,” Fisheries Research 33(1–3): 159–166 (December 1997).
John Virata, “Rabbitfish that pair up may not necessarily be breeding partners,” Fish Channel (24 September 2015).
Sara Goudarzi, “Gay animals out of the closet?,” NBC News (16 November 2006).
Simon Levay, Gay, Straight, and The Reason Why: The Science of Sexual Orientation, Oxford University Press (2011).
Primal Urges
“Fish swap sex for dinner,” Scientific American, 24 (September 2012).
Mating
Christopher R. von Rueden & Adrian V. Jaeggi, “Men’s status and reproductive success in 33 nonindustrial societies: effects of subsistence, marriage system, and reproductive strategy,” PNAS (6 September 2016).
“Status drives men’s reproductive success across non-industrial world,” ScienceDaily (29 September 2016).
“Putting on the brakes,” Science 340: 789 (17 May 2013).
Penny Sarchet, “Fickle female guppies fancy fresh faces,” New Scientist (30 September 2014).
Teruhiro Okuyama et al, ” A neural mechanism underlying mating preferences for familiar individuals in medaka fish,” Science 343(6166): 91–94 (3 January 2014).
Spiders
Lenka Sentenská et al, “Female control of mate plugging in a female-cannibalistic spider (Micaria sociabilis),” BMC Evolutionary Biology (13 February 2015).
Carrie Arnold, “Surprise! Male spiders eat females, too,” National Geographic (13 May 2013).
Dimitar Dimitrov et al, “Tangled in a sparse spider web: single origin of orb weavers and their spinning work unravelled by denser taxonomic sampling,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (2 November 2011).
Nick Bascom, “The origin of orbs,” Science News (3 November 2011).
Pavol Prokopa & Michael R. Maxwell, “Gift carrying in the spider Pisaura mirabilis: nuptial gift contents in nature and effects on male running speed and fighting success,” Animal Behaviour 83(6): 1395–1399 (June 2012).
Samantha Vibert et al, “A meal or a male: the ‘whispers’ of black widow males do not trigger a predatory response in females,” Frontiers in Zoology (17 January 2014).
Lenka Sentenská & Stano Pekár, “Mate with the young, kill the old: reversed sexual cannibalism and male mate choice in the spider Micaria sociabilis (Araneae: Gnaphosidae),” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 67(7): 1131–1139 (July 2013).
Oversexed Marsupial Mice
J. Reynolds, “Animal breeding systems,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 11 (2): 68–72 (1996).
Black-tailed antechinus photo courtesy of Gary Cranitch.
“Newly discovered marsupial the victim of fatal attraction,” Queensland University of Technology (21 February 2014).
Lekking
R.M. Gibson & J.W. Bradbury, “Sexual selection in lekking sage grouse: phenotypic correlates of male mating success,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 18: 117–123 (1985).
R.V. Alatalo et al, “Lekking in the black grouse – a test of male viability,” Nature 352: 155–156 (1991).
M.J. Ryan et al, “The costs and benefits of frog chorusing behavior,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 8: 273–278 (1981).
Family
Rolando Rodríguez-Muñoz et al, “Guarding males protect females from predation in a wild insect,” Current Biology (6 October 2011).
Sex Ratios
“Biased sex ratios predict more promiscuity, polygamy and ‘divorce’ in birds,” ScienceDaily (24 March 2014).
András Liker et al, “Divorce and infidelity are associated with skewed adult sex ratios in birds,” Current Biology (20 March 2014).
Birds
C. Catchpole et al, “The evolution of polygyny in the great reed warbler, Acrocephalus arundinaceus: a possible case of deception,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 16: 285–291 (1985).
R.V. Alatalo et al, “The conflict between male plygamy and female monogamy; the case of the pied flycatcher, Ficedula hyoleuca,” American Naturalist 117: 738–751 (1981).
N.B. Davies, Dunnock Behaviour and Social Evolution, Oxford University Press (1992).
Carlos A. Botero & Dustin R. Rubenstein, “Fluctuating environments, sexual selection and the evolution of flexible mate choice in birds,” PLoS One (16 February 2012).
Nicole M. Gerlach et al, “Promiscuous mating produces offspring with higher lifetime fitness,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (1 September 2011).
“All for the grandkids: promiscuity in female birds results in genetic ‘trade-up,’ more offspring, research finds,” ScienceDaily (6 September 2011).
“Promiscuity and sperm selection improves genetic quality in birds,” ScienceDaily (3 September 2013).
T.R. Birhead & A.P. Möller, “Female control of paternity,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8 (3): 100–104 (1993).
B. Kempenaers et al, “Extra-pair paternity results from female preference for high-quality males in the blue tit,” Nature 37: 494–496 (11 June 1992).
Donald Blomqvist, “Genetic similarity between mates and extra-pair parentage in three species of shorebirds,” Nature 419: 613–615 (10 Octo-ber 2002).
Antica Culina et al, “Trading up: the fitness consequences of divorce in monogamous birds,” Biological Reviews (10 October 2014).
T. Birkhead, “Avian mating systems: the aquatic warbler is unique,” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8: 390–391 (1993).
C. Mayer & G. Pasinelli, “New support for an old hypothesis: density affects extra-pair paternity,” Ecology and Evolution 3(3): 694–705 (March 2013).
Colin Barras, “Zoologger: sex in the city no lure for urban owls,” New Scientist (28 March 2014).
R.A. Mauck et al, “Adult survival and imperfect assessment of parentage: effects on male parenting decisions,” The American Naturalist 154(1): 99–109 (July 1999).
A.N. Dreiss & A. Roulin, “Divorce in the barn owl: securing a compatible or better mate entails the cost of re-pairing with a less ornamented female mate,” Journal of Evolutionary Biology (28 April 2014).
A.M. Overduin-de Vries et al, “Sneak copulations in long-tailed macaques (Macaca fascicularis): no evidence for tactical deception,” Sneak copulations in long-tailed
macaques (Macaca fascicularis): no evidence for tactical deception,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2012).
Boobies
Blue-footed booby photo courtesy of Vince Smith.
Natlie Angier, “On Galápagos, revealing the blue-footed booby’s true colors,” The New York Times (6 March 2017).
Oscar Sánchez-Macouzet & Hugh Drummond, “Sibling bullying during infancy does not make wimpy adults,” Biology Letters (22 June 2011).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Effects of early bullying don’t last in birds,” The New York Times (22 June 2011).
Cooperative Breeding
Maynard J. Smith & M.G. Ridpaht, “Wife sharing in the Tasmanian native hen, Tribonyx mortierii: a case of kin selection?,” American Naturalist 106(950): 447–452 (1972).
Turkey Strut
C.R. Watts & A.W. Stokes, “The social order of turkeys,” Scientific American (June 1971).
Malcolm J. Coe, ” Cooperation of three males in nest construction by Chiromantis rufescens (Amphibia : Rhacophoridae),” Nature 214: 112–113 (1 April 1967).
Birthing
Egg Laying
Lesley Evans Ogden, ” The father enigma: why do nature’s devoted dads care?,” New Scientist (12 June 2014).
“Unusual parenting behaviour by Southeast Asian species of treefrog discovered,” ScienceDaily (28 May 2014).
David Malakoff, “An emergency hatch for baby lizards,” Science (4 April 2013).
“Mum’s hormones could make female magpie chicks more adventurous,” University of Lincoln (1 September 2014).
“Why robin eggs are blue,” ScienceDaily (27 May 2016).
David C. Lahti & Daniel R. Ardia, “Shedding light on bird egg color: pigment as parasol and the dark car effect,” The American Naturalist 187(5) (May 2016).
Kaisa Rokka et al, “Sex-specific differences in offspring personalities across the laying order in magpies Pica pica,” Behavioural Processes 107: 79–87 (September 2014).
P. George Lovell et al, “Egg-laying substrate selection for optimal camouflage by quail,” Current Biology (17 January 2013).
Smart Eggs
J. Sean Doody & Phillip Paull, “Hitting the ground running: environmentally cued hatching in a lizard,” Ecology and Behavior 2013(1): 160–165 (March 2013).
“One smart egg: birds sense day length and change development,” ScienceDaily (10 July 2012).
Water Bugs
R.L. Smith, “Evolution of paternal care in giant water bugs (Heteroptera: Belostomatidae),” in Social Competition and Cooperation among Insects and Arachnids, II: Evolution of Sociality, edited by J.C. Choe & B.J. Crespi, Cambridge University Press (1997).
Viviane Callier & H. Frederik Nijhout, “Control of body size by oxygen supply reveals size-dependent and size-independent mechanisms of molting and metamorphosis,” PNAS 108(35): 14664–14669 (30 August 2011).
D. Tallamy, “Evolution of exclusive paternal care in arthropods,” Annual Review of Entomology 46: 139–165 (2001).
Megapodes
A. Göth & D.T. Booth, “Temperature-dependent sex ratio in a bird,” Biology Letters (1):31–3 (2005).
D. Steadman, Extinction and Biogeography in Tropical Pacific Birds, University of Chicago Press (2006).
Bird Eggs
Dexter Palmer, “Hatching a new hypothesis about egg shape diversity,” Princeton University (22 June 2017).
“How eggs got their shapes: adaptations for flight may have driven egg-shape variety in birds,” Phys.org (22 June 2017).
Mary Caswell Stoddard et al, “Avian egg shape: form, function, and evolution,” Science 356(6344): 1249-1254 (23 June 2017).
Sam Wong, “Bird eggs may be shaped by the way their mother flies,” New Scientist (28 June 2017).
Claire N. Spottiswoode, “The most perfect thing, explained,” Science 356(6344): 1234-1235 (23 June 2017).
Tim R. Birkhead et al, “The point of a Guillemot’s egg,” Ibis 159: 255-265 (2017).
“Researchers ponder the shape of birds’ eggs,” ScienceDaily (23 February 2017).
Live Birth
Brian Handwerk, “Evolution in action: lizard moving from eggs to live birth,” National Geographic News (1 September 2010).
Parental Care
Julia Thesing et al, “Short-term benefits, but transgenerational costs of maternal loss in an insect with facultative maternal care,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (22 September 2015).
Earwig photo courtesy of Fir0002/Flagstaffotos.
“Earwigs raised without parents demonstrate limited maternal care of their own offspring,” ScienceDaily (16 November 2015).
David J. Siveter et al, “Exceptionally preserved 450-million-year-old Ordovician ostracods with brood care,” Current Biology (13 March 2014).
Junchang Lü et al, “Post-natal parental care in a Cretaceous diapsid from northeastern China,”Geosciences Journal (October 2014).
Blue discus photo courtesy of Patrick Farrelly.
Jennifer L. Stynoski et al, “Evidence of maternal provisioning of alkaloid-based chemical defenses in the strawberry poison frog Oophaga pumilio,” Ecology 95(3): 587–593 (March 2014).
Donal M. Windsor et al, “Subsocial neotropical Doryphorini (Chrysomelidae, Chrysomelinae): new observations on behavior, host plants and systematics,” ZooKeys (19 September 2013).
Katharina Mahr et al, “Female attractiveness affects paternal investment: experimental evidence for male differential allocation in blue tits,” Frontiers in Zoology 9:14 (2012).
Susan Milius, “Hatch a thief,” Science News 172: 372 (15 December 2007).
Julie Morand-Ferron et al, “Food stealing in birds: brain or brawn?,” Animal Behaviour 74(6): 1725-1734 (December 2007).
Elizabeth S. Eaton, “Seabirds negotiate parenting duties,” Science News (8 July 2017).
Common Crèche
“Come into my parlour,” The Economist (26 January 2013).
Lena Grinsted et al, ” Subsocial behaviour and brood adoption in mixed-species colonies of two theridiid spiders,” Naturwissenschaften (October 2012).
Meerkats
Simon W. Townsend et al, “A simple test of vocal individual recognition in wild meerkats,” Biology Letters (12 October 2013).
“Meerkat predator-scanning behaviour is altruistic, experts say,” ScienceDaily (4 February 2013).
Nicolas Perony & Simon W. Townsend, “Why did the meerkat cross the road? Flexible adaptation of phylogenetically-old behavioural strategies to modern-day threats,” PLoS One (18 February 2013).
K.J. MacLeod et al, “Factors predicting the frequency, likelihood and duration of allonursing in the cooperatively breeding meerkat,”Animal Behavior (4 October 2013).
“Infanticide linked to wet-nursing in meerkats,” Phys.org (7 October 2013).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Helping out the family, especially in good times,” The New York Times (22 August 2011).
Andy Coghlan, “The most trusted meerkats are those with impeccable reputation,” New Scientist (23 August 2018).
R. Rauber & M.B. Manser, “Experience of the signaller explains the use of social versus personal information in the context of sentinel behaviour in meerkats,” Scientific Reports (23 August 2018).
Adoption
“Nature’s strangest families: why animals adopt,” New Scientist (29 July 2015).
R.D. Estes & J. Goddard, “Prey selection and hunting behavior of the African wild dog,” Journal of Wildlife Management (1967).
K.M. Brown, “Proximate and ultimate causes of adoption in ring-billed gulls,” Animal Behaviour 56: 1529–1543 (1998).
H. Kummer, Social organization of Hamadryas baboons: a field study, University of Chicago Press (1968).
Brood Parasites
Brood parasite photo courtesy of Dario Sanche.
“Thicker eggshells help cuckoos hatch earlier than their nestmates,” The Economist (18 January 2018).
Anton Antonov et al, “Why do brood parasitic birds lay strong-shelled eggs?,” Chinese Birds 3(4): 245-258 (2012).
Anton Antonov et al, “Eggshell strength of an obligate brood parasite: a test of the puncture resistance hypothesis,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (11 January 2006).
Jongmin Yoon, “Comparative hatching characteristics of nonparasitic and parasitic icterids: is the hatching of cowbird young constrained by an unusually thick eggshell?,” Journal of Ethology (18 October 2012).
W. Vogl et al, “Cuckoo females preferentially use specific habitats when searching for hot nests,” Animal Behaviour 64: 843–850 (2002).
G.S. Olson & B. van Horne, “Dispersal patterns of juvenile Townsend’s ground squirrels in southwestern Idaho,” Canadian Journal of Zoology 76: 2084–2089 (1998).
William E. Feeney et al, “Social learning of a brood parasite by its host,” Biology Letters (23 August 2013).
Rose Thorogood & Nicholas B. Davies, “Cuckoos combat socially transmitted defenses of reed warbler hosts with a plumage polymorphism,” Science 337(6094): 578–580 (3 August 2012).
“Cuckoos impersonate hawks by matching their ‘outfits’,” Phys.org (16 October 2013).
Johanna Mappes & Leena Lindström, “How did the cuckoo get its polymorphic plumage?,” Science 337(6094): 532–533 (3 August 2012).
“Naughty nesters,” The Economist (8 May 2008).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Cuckoo finches come up with a new con,” The New York Times (30 September 2013).
Martin Stevens et al, “Repeated targeting of the same hosts by a brood parasite compromises host egg rejection,” Nature Communications (24 September 2013).
Mary Caswell Stoddard et al, “Pattern recognition algorithm reveals how birds evolve individual egg pattern signatures,” Nature Communications (18 June 2014).
“Birds evolve ‘signature’ patterns to distinguish cuckoo eggs from their own,” ScienceDaily (18 June 2014).
Sonia Kleindorfer et al, “Females that experience threat are better teachers,” Biology Letters (7 May 2014).
Sarah Zielinski, “Birds have clever solution for a cuckoo conundrum,” Science News (9 May 2014).
J.P. Hoover & S.K. Robinson, “Retaliatory mafia behavior by a parasitic cowbird favors host acceptance of parasitic eggs,” PNAS, 104(11): 4479–4483 (5 March 2007).
Daniela Canestrari et al, “From parasitism to mutualism: unexpected interactions between a cuckoo and its host,” Science 343(6177): 1350–1352 (21 March 2014).
Prolactin
Clive Roots, Animal Parents, Greenwood Press (2007).
March E. Freeman et al, “Prolactin: structure, function, and regulation of secretion,” Physiological Reviews 80(4): 1523-1631 (10 January 2000).
Lori A. Manzon, “The role of prolactin in fish osmoregulation: a review,” General and Comparative Endocrinology 125(2): 291-310 (February 2002).
Camilla M.Whittington & Anthony B Wilson, “The role of prolactin in fish reproduction,” General and Comparative Endocrinology 191: 123-136 (September 2013).
J.L. Brown & C.M. Vleck, “Prolactin and helping in birds: has natural selection strengthened helping behavior?,” Behavioral Ecology 9: 541–545 (1998).
M. Boos et al, “Post-hatching parental care behaviour and hormonal status in a precocial bird,” Behavioural Processes 76(3): 206–14 (18 May 2007).
Infanticide
“Meerkats’ sinister side is secret to their success, study shows,” Phys.org (22 July 2014).
Carl Zimmer, “Unraveling why some mammals kill off infants,” The New York Times (13 November 2014).
Dieter Lukas & Elise Huchard, “The evolution of infanticide by males in mammalian societies,” Science 346(6211): 841–844 (14 November 2014).
Christopher Opie et al, “Male infanticide leads to social monogamy in primates,” PNAS 110(33): 13328–13332 (13 August 2013).
T.H. Clutton-Brock et al, “Infanticide and expulsion of females in a cooperative mammal,” Proceedings of the Royal Society: Biological Sciences 265: 2291–2295 (December 1998).
Burying Beetles
Shantanu P. Shukla et al, “Microbiome-assisted carrion preservation aids larval development in a burying beetle,” PNAS (30 October 2018).
Susan Milius, “In cadaver caves, baby beetles grow better with parental goo,” Science News (15 October 2018).
Megan L. Head et al, “Correlated evolution in parental care in females but not males in response to selection on paternity assurance behaviour,” Ecology Letters (2014).
“Sexual conflict affects females more than males, says new research on beetles,” ScienceDaily (27 April 204).
S.T. Emlen et al, “Experimental induction of infanticide in female wattled jacanas,” The Auk 106(1): 1–7 (1989).
Clare P. Andrews & Per T. Smiseth, “Differentiating among alternative models for the resolution of parent–offspring conflict,” Behavioral Ecology 24 (5): 1185–1191 (10 June 2013).
Michelle Warwicker, “Burying beetles: older males ‘make better dads,” BBC Nature News (19 June 2013).
J. Bartlett, “Filial cannibalism in burying beetles,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 21: 179–183 (1987).
Birds
Ronald L. Mumme et al, “Reproductive competition in the communal acorn woodpecker: sisters destroy each other’s eggs,” Nature 306: 583–584 (8 December 1983).
Walter D. Koenig & Janis L. Dickinson, Ecology and Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds, Cambridge University Press (2004).
Milk
Natalie Angier, “Everywhere in the animal kingdom, followers of the Milky Way,” The New York Times (11Douglas Quenqua February 2019).
Douglas Quenqua, “Meet the spiders that feed milk to their young,” The New York Times (29 November 2018).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “Fly and human mothers share a milk enzyme,” The New York Times (23 April 2012).
Katie Hinde et al, “Holsteins favor heifers, not bulls: biased milk production programmed during pregnancy as a function of fetal sex,” PLoS One (3 February 2014).
Bonding
Gianluca Esposito et al, “Infant calming responses during maternal carrying in humans and mice,” Current Biology 23(9): 739–745 (6 May 2013).
“From mice to humans, comfort is being carried by mom,” ScienceDaily (18 April 2013).
Sea Otter Moms
N.M. Thometz et al, “Energetic demands of immature sea otters from birth to weaning: implications for maternal costs, reproductive behavior and population-level trends,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (15 June 2014).
Menopause
Margaret L. Walker & James G. Herndon, “Menopause in nonhuman primates,” Biology of Reproduction 79(3): 398–406 (September 2008).
David Reznick et al, “The evolution of senescence and post-reproductive lifespan in guppies (Poecilia Reticulata),” PLoS Biology (27 December 2005).
George C. Williams, “Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence,” Evolution 11(4): 398-411 (December 1957).
Peter S. Kim et al, “Increased longevity evolves from grandmothering,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (24 October 2012).
“Studies lend support to ‘grandmother hypothesis,’ but there are limits,” Medical Xpress (7 February 2019).
Tea Trillingsgaard & Dion Sommer, “Associations between older maternal age, use of sanctions, and children’s socio-emotional development through 7, 11, and 15 years,” European Journal of Developmental Psychology (20 December 2016).
“Older mothers are better mothers, study suggests,” ScienceDaily (21 March 2017).
Emotions
Charles Darwin, The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals (1872).
E.S. Paul, E.J. Harding, M. Mendl, “Measuring emotional processes in animals: the utility of a cognitive approach,” Neuroscience and Behavioral Responses 29: 469–491 (May 2005).
David M. Ferrero et al, “Detection and avoidance of a carnivore odor by prey,” PNAS 108(27): 11235–11240 (5 July 2011).
Walter Bradford Cannon, The Wisdom of the Body (1932).
Shannon J. McCauley, “The deadly effects of “nonlethal” predators,” Ecology 92 (11): 2043 (2011).
Pierre Broly & Jean-Louis Deneubourg, “Behavioural contagion explains group cohesion in a social crustacean,” PLoS Computational Biology (11 June 2015).
Mimi Mudd, “Research shows group meditation can reduce crime rates,” Liberty Voice (1 April 2014).
David M. Levy et al, “The effects of mindfulness meditation training on multitasking in a high-stress information environment,” Graphics Interface Conference
John Tierney, “In that tucked tail, real pangs of regret?,” The New York Times (2 June 2009).
Elisabetta Palagi et al, “Yawn contagion in humans and bonobos: emotional affinity matters more than species,” PeerJ (12 August 2014).
Dopamine
Charlotte A. Cornil & Gregory F. Ball, “Interplay among catecholamine systems: dopamine binds to a2-adrenergic receptors in birds and mammals,” The Journal of Comparative Neurology 511(5): 610–627 (10 December 2008)
B.A. Batelle et al, “Efferent fibers to Limulus eyes synthesize and release octopamine,” Science 216(4551): 1250–1252 (11 June 1982).
Perry Molinoff & Julius Axelrod, “Octopamine: normal occurrence in sympathetic nerves of rats,” Science 164(3878): 428–429 (25 April 1969).
Play
Sarah Zielinski, “Five surprising animals that play,” Science News (20 February 2015).
A. Manning & M.S. Dawkins, “Eusociality: division into castes,” in An Introduction to Animal Behavior 384, Cambridge University Press (1998).
Patrick Bateson & Paul Martin, Play, Playfulness, Creativity and Innovation, Cambridge University Press (2013).
Marc Bekoff and John A. Byers, editors, Animal Play, Cambridge University Press, UK (1998).
P. K. Smith, “Does play matter? Functional and evolutionary aspects of animal and human play,” Behavioral and Brain Sciences 32: 579–589 (1982).
Gordon M. Burghardt et al, “Highly repetitive object play in a cichlid fish (Tropheus duboisi),” Ethology (30 September 2014).
“Crocodiles just wanna have fun, too,” Phys.org (10 February 2015).
R. Fagen, Animal Play Behavior, Oxford University Press (1981).
“Fish just want to have fun, according to a new study that finds even fish ‘play’,” ScienceDaily (20 October 2014).
Gordon M. Burghardt et al, “Problem of reptile play: Environmental enrichment and play behavior in a captive Nile soft-shelled turtle, Trionyx triunguis,” Zoo Biology 15-3: 223–238 (7 December 1988).
Rebecca K. Meagher & Georgia J. Mason, “Environmental enrichment reduces signs of boredom in caged mink,” PLoS One (14 November 2012).
E. Palagi, “Sharing the motivation to play: the use of signals in adult bonobos,” Animal Behaviour 75(3): 887–896 (1 March 2008).
Millicent S. Ficken, “Avian play,” Auk 94: 573-82 (1977).
“The world of dog walking: 5 surprising facts,” The Week (4 November 2011).
Violence
James Gorman, “To study aggression, a fight club for flies,” The New York Times (3 February 2014).
Robert M. Sapolsky, “Sympathy for the CEO,” Science 333(6040): 293–294 (15 July 2011).
Annalisa M. VanHook, “Touch off a fight,” Science Signaling 4(162): ec61 (1 March 2011).
John C. Mitani et al, “Lethal intergroup aggression leads to territorial expansion in wild chimpanzees,” Current Biology 20(12): R507–R508 (22 June 2010).
Alexandra Yurkovic et al, “Learning and memory associated with aggression in Drosophila melanogaster,” PNAS 103(46): 17519–17524 (14 November 2006).
John F. Foley, “The smell of aggression,” Science Signaling 3(105): ec21 (19 January 2010).
Sweta Agrawal & Jeffrey A. Riffellsend, “Behavioral neurobiology: the bitter life of male flies,” Current Biology 21(12): R470–R472 (21 June 2011).
Ewen Callaway, “Sex and violence linked in the brain,” Nature (9 February 2011).
Oliver Schülke et al, “Social bonds enhance reproductive success in male macaques,” Current Biology 20(24): 2207–2210 (18 November 2010).
Renée A. Duckworth & Alexander V. Badyaev, “Coupling of dispersal and aggression facilitates the rapid range expansion of a passerine bird,” PNAS 108(38): 15017–15022 (18 September 2007).
T.H. Clutton-Brock et al, “Intrasexual competition and sexual selection in cooperative mammals,” Nature 444: 1065–1068 (21 December 2006).
Andreas von Bubnoff, “Males can drive species decline,” Nature (28 November 2005).
Andy Coghlan, “Why women don’t start wars,” New Scientist (21 September 1996).
T.H. Clutton-Brock & G.A. Parker, “Punishment in animal societies,” Nature 373: 209-216 (19 January 1995).
Daniel A. Potter et al, “Aggression and mating success in male spider mites,” Science 193(4248): 160–161 (9 July 1976).
J.D. Carthy & F.J. Ebling, “Natural history of aggression,” Nature 201: 129–131 (11 January 1964).
“Fire ant outcompetes other species, even in its native habitat,” ScienceDaily (14 July 2009).
Slave Rebellion
Richard Deslippe, “Social parasitism in ants,” Nature Education Knowledge 3(10): 27 (2010).
Sebastian Pohl & Susanne Foitzik, “Slave-making ants prefer larger, better defended host colonies,” Animal Behaviour 81(1): 61–68 (January 2011).
Ella Davies, “Slave-making ants target the strong not the weak,” BBC (8 November 2010).
“Slave rebellion is widespread in ants,” ScienceDaily (26 September 2012).
Tobias Pamminger et al, “Geographic distribution of the anti-parasite trait ‘slave rebellion’,” Evolutionary Ecology 27(1): 39–49 (January 2013).
Honeypots
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Fighting rituals,” Science 336: 838 (18 May 2012).
Andreas P. Modlmeier & Susanne Foitzik, “Productivity increases with variation in aggression among group members in Temnothorax ant,” Behavioral Ecology (28 June 2011).
Personality
Peter A. Biro & Bart Adriaenssens, “Predictability as a personality trait: consistent differences in intraindividual behavioral variation,” The American Naturalist 182(5): 621–629 (November 2013).
David M. P. Jacoby et al, “Shark personalities? Repeatability of social network traits in a widely distributed predatory fish,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology (2 October 2014).
Partha S. Bhagavatul et al, “Behavioral lateralization and optimal route choice in flying budgerigars,” PLoS Computational Biology (6 March 2014).
“Shy trout size it up,” ScienceDaily (6 December 2010).
Alison M. Bell, “Personality in the wild,” Nature 491: 341–342 (15 November 2013).
Rachel Ehrenberg, “Genes differ in extrovert bees,” 181(8): 16 Science News (21 April 2012).
“Fish leaders are born, not made, study finds,” Phys.org (28 August 2013).
Shinnosuke Nakayama et al, “Experience overrides personality differences in the tendency to follow but not in the tendency to lead,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (28 August 2013).
P. Andreas Svensson et al, “A high aggression strategy for smaller males,” PLoS One (14 August 2012).
Çaglar Akçay et al, “Individual differences affect honest signalling in a songbird,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (24 January 2014).
Benedikt Holtmann et al, “Personality-matching habitat choice, rather than behavioural plasticity, is a likely driver of a phenotype–environment covariance,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (4 October 2017).
“Birds choose where to live based on their personalities,” The Economist (7 October 2017).
Benedikt Holtmann, “The consequences and underlying mechanisms of animal personality in dunnocks (Prunella modularis),” Thesis, Doctor of Philosophy – University of Otago, New Zealand (2016).
“Mom’s personality means survival for her squirrel pups,” ScienceDaily (3 December 2007).
Peter A. Biro & Judy A. Stamps, “Do consistent individual differences in metabolic rate promote consistent individual differences in behavior?,” Trends in Ecology & Evolution (15 September 2010).
“Fish can be creatures of habit, too,” ScienceDaily (24 October 2011).
Nicholas D. McDonald et al, “Consensus and experience trump leadership, suppressing individual personality during social foraging,” Science Advances (14 September 2016).
“Fish lose their unique personality when they go to ‘school’,” Phys.org (15 September 2016).
K. A. Herborn et al, “Oxidative profile varies with personality in European greenfinches,” Journal of Experimental Biology 214 (10): 1732–1739 (15 May 2011).
Mareike Stöwe et al, “Selection for fast and slow exploration affects baseline and stress-induced corticosterone excretion in Great tit nestlings, Parus major,” Hormones and Behavior 58(5): 864–871 (November 2010).
Jennifer L. Verdolin & John Harper, “Are shy individuals less behaviorally variable? Insights from a captive population of mouse lemurs,” Primates 54(4): 309–314 Primates (October 2013).
Melanie Dammhahn, “Are personality differences in a small iteroparous mammal maintained by a life-history trade-off?,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (7 March 2012).
“Super spiders make bolder birds,” ScienceDaily (24 August 2007).
Kayla Sweeney et al, “Predator and prey activity levels jointly influence the outcome of long-term foraging bouts,” Behavioral Ecology (17 June 2013).
“Bighorn sheep: is ‘personality type’ linked to longevity, offspring?,” ScienceDaily (1 September 2009).
László Zsolt Garamszegi et al, “Birds reveal their personality when singing,” PLoS One 3(7): e2647 (9 July 2008).
Wiebke Schuett et al, “Do female Zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, choose their mates based on their ‘personality’?,” Ethology, 117(110): 908–917 (October 2011).
Wiebke Schuett et al, Pairs of zebra finches with similar ‘personalities’ make better parents,” Animal Behaviour, 81(3): 609–618 (March 2011).
Wiebke Shuett et al, “Sexual selection and animal personality,” Biological Reviews 85(2): 217–246 (May 2010).
Katharina Mahr et al, “Female attractiveness affects paternal investment: experimental evidence for male differential allocation in blue tits,” Frontiers in Zoology 9(14) (June 2012).
Lindsay J. Henderson et al, “Ultraviolet crown coloration in female blue tits predicts reproductive success and baseline corticosterone,” Behavioral Ecology (3 August 2013).
Larry G. Cabral et al, “Does sex trade with violence among genotypes in Drosophila melanogaster?,” PLoS One (16 April 2008).
Ralf H.J.M Kurvers et al, “No evidence for negative frequency–dependent feeding performance in relation to personality,” Behavioral Ecology 23(1): 51–57 (January–February 2012).
Kate L. Laskowski & Jonathan N. Pruitt, “Evidence of social niche construction: persistent and repeated social interactions generate stronger personalities in a social spider,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (26 March 2014).
Natalie Angier, “The lives of sociable spiders,” The New York Times (11 May 2014).
Johnathan Pruitt et al, “Behavioural trait variants in a habitat-forming species dictate the nature of its interactions with and among heterospecifics,” Functional Ecology (2012).
Andreas P. Modlmeier & Susanne Foitzik, “Productivity increases with variation in aggression among group members in Temnothorax ants,” Behavioral Ecology, (28 June 2011).
Anelosimus studiosus
Colin M. Wright et al, “Animal personality aligns task specialization and task proficiency in a spider society,” PNAS (1 July 2014).
Jonathan N. Pruitt et al, “Behavioural syndromes and their fitness consequences in a socially polymorphic spider, Anelosimus studiosus,” Animal Behaviour 76(3): 871-879 (September 2008).
Jonathan N. Pruitt, “Sociality in the spider Anelosimus studiosus: behavioral correlates and adaptive consequences,” dissertation, University of Tennessee (August 2010).
Charles Q. Choi, “Social web: female spiders adopt ‘warrior’ or ‘nanny’ roles,” Live Science (16 June 2014).
John Timmer, “Social spiders let their personalities choose their jobs,” Ars Technica (17 June 2014).
Marcus Woo, “Spider’s personalities determine their job performance,” National Geographic (16 June 2014).
Sociality
James T. Costa et al, “Social terminology: where are ten years later?,” Annales Zoologici Fennic (21 December 2005).
Jia Liu et al, “Impaired adult myelination in the prefrontal cortex of socially isolated mice,” Nature Neuroscience (11 November 2012).
Denise Aydinonat et al, “Social isolation shortens telomeres in African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus erithacus),” PLoS One (4 April 2014).
Tanja K. Kleinhappel et al, “A mechanism mediating inter-individual associations in mixed-species groups,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 70(5): 755-760 (May 2016).
“Fish bond when they eat the same food,” ScienceDaily (22 March 2016).
Hermit Crabs
“Social networking helps hermit crabs find homes,” ScienceDaily (26 April 2010).
Randi D. Rotjana et al, “Social context of shell acquisition in Coenobita clypeatus hermit crabs,” Behavioral Ecology (1 April 2010).
Mark E. Laidre, “Niche construction drives social dependence in hermit crabs,” Current Biology (23 October 2012).
Shaun S. Killen et al, “Aerobic capacity influences the spatial position of individuals within fish schools,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 279(1727): 357–364 (January 2012).
Leah Valdes & Mark E. Laidre, “Scent of death: Evolution from sea to land of an extreme collective attraction to conspecific death,” Ecology and Evolution (10 February 2019).
Yao-Hua Law, “Hermit crabs are drawn to the smell of their own dead,” Science News 195(6): 10 (25 February 2019).
Mark E. Laidre, “Private parts for private property: evolution of penis size with more valuable, easily stolen shells,” Royal Society Open Science (16 January 2019).
Colin Barras, “Long penises help hermit crabs avoid being robbed during sex,” New Scientist (16 January 2019).
Protection
J. Lazarus, “The early warning function of flocking in birds: an experi-mental study with captive Quela,” Animal Behaviour 27: 855–865 (1979).
F. Göttmark & M. Andersson, “Colonial breeding reduces nest predation in the common gull,” Animal Behaviour 32: 495–492 (1984).
W.D. Hamilton, “Geometry for the selfish herd,” Journal of Theoretical Biology 31: 295–311 (971).
M.A. Elgar, “Predator vigilance and group size among mammals: a critical review of the evidence,” Biological Reviews 64: 1–34 (1989).
M. Elgar, “The establishment of foraging flocks in house sparrows: risk of predation and daily temperature,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 19: 433–438 (1986).
Food
J.R. Krebbs et al, “Flocking and feeding in the great tit, Parus major – an experimental study,” Ibis 114: 507–530 (1972).
Douglas A. Eifler & Maria A. Eifler, “Social foraging in the lizard Ameiva corax,” Behavioral Ecology (11 August 2014).
B. Nelson, Seabirds, their Biology and Ecology, Hamlyn (1980).
C. Packer, “The ecology of sociality in felids,” in Ecological Aspects of Social Evolution, 429–451, edited by D.I. Rubenstein and R.W. Wrangham, Princeton University Press (1986).
Hans Kruuk, Spotted Hyena: A Study of Predation and Social Behavior (Wildlife Behaviour & Ecology), University of Chicago Press (1979).
L. Mark Elbroch et al, “Adaptive social strategies in a solitary carnivore,” Science Advances (11 October 2017).
Douglas Quenqua, “Solitary pumas turn out to be mountain lions who lunch,” The New York Times (11 October 2017).
Pair Bonds
“Not every partnership is about sex,” Phys.org (1 October 2015).
Organization
Amiyaal Ilany & Erol Akçay, “Social inheritance can explain the structure of animal social networks,” Nature Communications (28 June 2016).
Geladas
Geladas photo courtesy of Dave Watts.
Noah Snyder-Mackler et al, “Concessions of an alpha male? Cooperative defence and shared reproduction in multi-male primate groups,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (4 July 2012).
Stephen Day, “Science: The Australian beetle that behaves like a bee,” NewScientist (9 May 1992).
S. Duffy, “Eusociality in coral-reef shrimp,” Nature 381: 512–514 (6 June 1996).
S. Creel et al, “Aggression, reproduction, and androgens in wild dwarf mongooses: a test of the Challenea hypothesis,” American Naturalist 141: 816–825 (1993).
Patricia D. Moehlman, “Jackal helpers and pup survival,” Nature 277: 382-383 (1 February 1979).
African Wild Dogs
African wild dog photo courtesy of Mikkel Elbech.
Natalie Angier, “One for all, and all for hunt,” The New York Times (11 August 2014).
Social Dominance
F. De Waal, “Conflict as negotiation,” in Great Ape Societies, edited by W.C. McGrew et al 159–172, Cambridge University Press (1996).
I.D. Chase, “The sequential analysis of aggressive acts during hierarchy formation: an application of the ‘jigsaw puzzle’ approach,” Animal Behaviour 33: 86–100 (1985).
G. McBride et al, The social organization and behavior of the feral domestic fowl,” Animal Behaviour Monographs 2: 127–181 (1959).
D.R. Leighton, “Gibbons: territoriality and monogamy,” in Primate Societies, edited by Barbara B. Smuts et al 135 – 145, University of Chicago Press (1987).
Gall Aphids
Thomas G. Whitham, “Territorial behaviour of Pemphigus gall aphids,” Nature 279: 324–325 (24 May 1979).
T.G. Whitham, “Costs and benefits of territoriality: behavioral and reproductive release by competing aphids,” Ecology 67: 139–147 (1986).
T.G. Whitham, “Habitat selection by Pemphigus aphids in response to resource limitation and competition,” Ecology 59: 1164–1176 (1979).
Cooperation
Lioness photo courtesy of Falense.
Nicholas Bakalar, “Valiant in battle, these ants rescue their wounded,” The New York Times (12 April 2017).
Erik Thomas Frank et al, “Saving the injured: rescue behavior in the termite-hunting ant Megaponera analis,” Science Advances 3(4): e1602187 (12 April 2017).
Susan Milius, “Lionfish dance to signal ‘let’s hunt’,” Science News (26 July 2014).
Andrew M. Colman et al, “Spontaneous similarity discrimination in the evolution of cooperation,” Journal of Theoretical Biology 299: 162–171 (21 April 2012).
M.R. Van Eerden & B. Voslamber, “Mass fishing by cormorants Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis at Lake Ijsselmeer, the Netherlands: a recent and successful adaptation to a turbid environment,” Ardea 83: 199–212 (1995).
“Animals shield their families from a harsh world,” Phys.org (7 March 2018).
Patrick Kennedy et al, “Altruism in a volatile world,” Nature (7 March 2018).
“Survival instinct, not family bonds, weave massive spider colonies together,” ScienceDaily (7 March 2017).
B.F. McMahon & R.M. Evans, “Foraging strategies of American white pelicans,” Behaviour 120: 69–89 (1992).
James C. Bednarz, “Cooperative hunting Harris’ hawks (Parabuteo unicinctus),” Science 1525-1527 (25 March 1988).
Vladimir Dinets, “Apparent coordination and collaboration in cooperatively hunting crocodilians,” Ethology Ecology & Evolution (6 October 2014).
M.B. Munn, “The Amazon’s gregarious giant otters,” Animal Kingdom, 34–42 (September – October 1988).
B. Wüsig, “The question of dolphin awareness approached through studies in nature,” Cetus 5: 4–7 (1983).
P. Stander, “Cooperative hunting in lions: the role of the individual,” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 29: 455–454 (1992).
Scott R. Loarie et al, “Lion hunting behaviour and vegetation structure in an African savanna,” Animal Behaviour 85(5): 899–906 (May 2013).
Pseudoscorpions
Mary Bates, “Ferocious pack-hunting pseudoscorpions believe in sharing fairly,” New Scientist (9 May 2018).
Everton Tizo-Pedroso & Kleber Del-Claro, “Capture of large prey and feeding priority in the cooperative pseudoscorpion Paratemnoides nidificator,” acta ethologica 21(2): 109-117 (June 2018).
Everton Tizo-Pedroso & Kleber Del-Claro, “Cooperation in the neotropical pseudoscorpion, Paratemnoides nidificator (Balzan, 1888): feeding and dispersal behavior,” Insectes Sociaux 54(2):124-131 (May 2007).
Everton Tizo-Pedroso & Kleber Del-Claro, “Is there division of labor in cooperative pseudoscorpions? An analysis of the behavioral repertoire of a tropical species,” Ethology (9 May 2011).
Empathy & Altruism
B.P. Oldroyd et al, “Honey bees dance with their super-sisters,” Animal Behaviour 42: 121–129 (1991).
O.A. Rasa, “A case of invalid care in wild dwarf mongooses,” Z. Tierpsychology 62: 235–240 (1983).
Soyoung Q. Park et al, “A neural link between generosity and happiness,” Nature Communications 8: 15964 (11 July 2017).
“Generous people live happier lives,” University of Zurich (11 July 2017).
Coerced Altruism
M. González-Forero & S. Gavrilets, “Evolution of manipulated behavior,” The American Naturalist (2013).
“What is it to be a queen bee?,” Phys.org (9 December 2012).
M.J. Holmes et al, “Cheaters sometimes prosper: targeted worker reproduction in honeybee (Apis mellifera) colonies during swarming,” Molecular Ecology 22(16): 4298–4306 (August 2013).
Gerald S. Wilkinson, “Reciprocal food sharing in the vampire bat,” Nature 308, 181–184 (8 March 1984).
Victoria Horner et al, “Spontaneous prosocial choice by chimpanzees,” PNAS (August 2011).
F. Warneken et al, “Spontaneous altruism by chimpanzees and young children,” PLoS Biology 5(7): e184 (2007).
Katharina Hamann et al, “Collaboration encourages equal sharing in children but not in chimpanzees,” Nature (20 July 2011).
Adrian V. Jaeggi & Michael Gurven, “Reciprocity explains food sharing in humans and other primates independent of kin selection and tolerated scrounging: a phylogenetic meta-analysis,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (14 August 2013).
I.B. Bartal et al, “Empathy and pro-social behavior in rats,” Science 334 (6061): 1420 –1430 (9 December 2011).
Friendship
Susan Gaidos, “Furry friends forever,” Science News 181(7): 18 (7 April 2012).
Robin Dunbar, “Friendship: do animals have friends, too?,” New Scientist (27 May 2014).
Carl Zimmer, “Friends with benefits,” TIME Magazine (20 February 2012).
Nidhi Subbaraman, “Lonely wolf? Wolves howl when they miss their friends,” NBC News (22 August 2013).
Dorothy L. Cheney & Robert M. Seyfarth, Baboon Metaphysics: The Evolution of a Social Mind, University Of Chicago Press (2008).
Interspecies Bonding
C. Hatkoff, Owen & Mzee: The Story of a Remarkable Friendship, Scholastic Press (2006).
Josh Sanburn, “The cat and the red panda,” TIME Magazine (19 April 2011).
Gabe Bergado, “Tiger becomes best friends with a goat he was supposed to eat,” The Daily Dot (27 November 2015).
Jennifer S. Holland, Unlikely Friendships, Workman Publishing (2011).
Intelligence
“Humans not smarter than animals, just different, experts say,” Phys.org (4 December 2013).
Andrew A. Bridges et al, “Micron-scale plasma membrane curvature is recognized by the septin cytoskeleton,” The Journal of Cell Biology 213(1): 23–32 (4 April 2016).
Romain P. Boisseau et al, “Habituation in non-neural organisms: evidence from slime moulds,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (27 April 2016).
Catharine H. Rankin, “Nematode behavior: the taste of success, the smell of danger!,” Current Biology 16(3): R89–R91 (7 February 2006).
David J. Herzfeld et al, “A memory of errors in sensorimotor learning,” Science Xpress (14 August 2014).
Onur Güntürkün & Thomas Bugnyar, “Cognition without cortex,” Trends in Cognitive Sciences (3 March 2016).
“Can some birds be just as smart as apes?,” ScienceDaily (3 March 2016).
Frank T. Vertosick, Jr., The Genius Within: Discovering The Intelligence Of Every Living Thing, Harcourt (2002).
Jeremy Egner, “‘Planet Earth II’: a lizard’s great escape,” The New York Times (10 February 2017).
Christine Champagne, “Here’s the story behind that terrifying iguana vs. Snakes ‘Planet Earth II’ scene,” Fast Company (17 February 2017).
Unni Pulliainen et al, “The possible role of ant larvae in the defence against social parasites,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B (6 March 2019).
Yvaine Ye, “Ant larvae defend their homes by eating eggs laid by intruders,” New Scientist (6 March 2019).
“Ant larvae fight the offspring of parasitic queens,” ScienceDaily (20 March 2019).
Altruistic Algae
Pierre M. Durand et al, “Programmed death in a unicellular organism has species-specific fitness effects,” Biology Letters (26 February 2014).
Plants
“How does inbreeding avoidance evolve in plants?,” ScienceDaily (10 June 2013).
Sier-Ching Chantha et al, “Secondary evolution of a self-incompatibility locus in the Brassicaceae genus Leavenworthia,” PLoS Biology 11(5): e1001560 (May 2013).
Animals
Donald R. Griffin, Animal Minds: Beyond Cognition to Consciousness, University of Chicago Press (2001).
Sally Boysen, The Smartest Animals on the Planet, Firefly Books (2009).
Frans de Waal, “The brains of the animal kingdom,” The Wall Street Journal (22 March 2013).
Ana Cristina Pellegrino et al, “Weather forecasting by insects: modified sexual behaviour in response to atmospheric pressure changes,” PLoS One (2 October 2013).
Tamar Stelling, “Do invertebrates feel pain?,” New Scientist (25 February 2014).
Troy Zars, “Flies race to a safe place,” Nature 474: 169–170 (9 June 2011).
Tyler A. Ofstad et al, “Visual place learning in Drosophila melanogaster,” Nature 474: 204–207 (9 June 2011).
Douglas Quenqua, “Even fruit flies need a moment to think it over,” The New York Times (22 May 2014).
Shamik DasGupta et al, “FoxP influences the speed and accuracy of a perceptual decision in Drosophila,” 344(6186): 901–904 Science (23 May 2014).
Seth M. Tomchick & Ronald L. Davis, “Out of sight, but not out of mind,” Nature 453: 1152–1153 (26 June 2008).
Kathryn Knight, Bees recognise faces using feature configuration,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (15 February 2010).
“Bad beehavior,” The Economist (27 April 2013).
Hamida B. Mirwan & Peter G. Kevan, “Social learning in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens): worker bumblebees learn to manipulate and forage at artificial flowers by observation and communication within the colony,” Psyche (8 September 2013).
Hamida B. Mirwan & Peter G. Kevan, “Problem solving by worker bumblebees Bombus impatiens (Hymenoptera: Apoidea),” Animal Cognition (February 2014).
“Bees capable of learning feats with tasty prize in sight,” Phys.org (18 March 2014).
Emine Saner, “Animals know more than you think,” The Guardian (19 June 2013).
David Maximiliano Gómez et al, “Language universals at birth,” PNAS (31 March 2014).
James F. Cheeseman et al, “Way-finding in displaced clock-shifted bees proves bees use a cognitive map,” PNAS (4 June 2014).
Worm Charming
Kenneth C. Catania, “Worm grunting, fiddling, and charming –humans unknowingly mimic a predator to harvest bait,” PLoS One (14 October 2008).
Great Tits
Lucy M. Aplin et al, “Experimentally induced innovations lead to persistent culture via conformity in wild birds,”Nature (3 December 2014).
Great tit photo courtesy of Darkone.
Domestication
Anna Albiach-Serrano et al, “The effect of domestication and ontogeny in swine cognition (Sus scrofa scrofa and S. s. domestica), Applied Animal Behaviour 141(1): 25–35 (October 2012).
Elodie F. Briefer et al, “Goats excel at learning and remembering a highly novel cognitive task,” Frontiers in Zoology (26 March 2014).
Lars Lewejohann et al, “Wild genius – domestic fool? Spatial learning abilities of wild and domestic guinea pigs,” Frontiers in Zoology (25 March 2010).
Richard Gray, “Sheep far smarter than previously thought,” The Telegraph (20 February 2011).
A. Jennifer Morton & Laura Avanzo, “Executive decision-making in the domestic sheep,” PLoS One (31 January 2011).
Theory of Mind
Robert M. Seyfarth & Dorothy L. Cheney, “Affiliation, empathy, and the origins of theory of mind,” PNAS 110: 10349-10356 (18 June 2013).
Dogs
English Bulldog puppy photo courtesy of photostock.
Attila Andics et al, “Voice-sensitive regions in the dog and human brain are revealed by comparative fMRI,” Current Biology 24(5): 574–578 (20 February 2014).
Helen Briggs, “Canine copycats can mirror other dogs’ emotions,” BBC News (23 December 2015).
Jabeen Bhatti, “Study probes dogs’ capacity for learning new vocabulary,” The Wall Street Journal (10 January 2004).
Fiona Macrae, “Why your dog is as intelligent as a two-year-old,” The Daily Mail (9 August 2009).
Doug Gross, “Your family dog may be smarter than your toddler,” CNN (8 August 2009).
Brian Hare & Vanessa Woods, “Why dogs are smarter than cats,” The Wall Street Journal (1 February 2013).
Kat Arney, “Dog brains respond to calls just like human brains,” New Scientist (20 February 2014).
“Dogs can classify complex photos in categories like humans do,” ScienceDaily (28 November 2007).
“Dogs copy other dogs’ actions selectively, the way humans do,” ScienceDaily (26 April 2007).
Claudia Fugazza & Ádám Miklósi, “Deferred imitation and declarative memory in domestic dogs,” Animal Cognitio (July 2013).
Virginia Hughes, “How voices tickle the dog brain,” National Geographic (February 2014).
Juliane Kaminski et al, “Dogs steal in the dark,” Animal Cognition 16(3): 385–394 (May 2013).
Alexandra C. Horowitz, The behaviors of theories of mind, and a case study of dogs at play, Philosophy in Cognitive Science PhD dissertation, University of San Diego (2002).
Virginia Morell, “How dogs show their love,” Science (2 August 2013).
Katriina Tiira et al, “Environmental effects on compulsive tail chasing in dogs,” PLoS One (26 July 2012).
Friederike Range et al, “The absence of reward induces inequity aversion in dogs,” PNAS (8 December 2008).
Rob Stein, “Dogs feel envy – or at least grasp inequity when it comes to treats,” The Washington Post (15 December 2008).
Sindya N. Bhanoo, “When a dog’s dish seems half empty,” The New York Times (11 October 2010).
“Man’s best friend,” The Economist (30 June 2012).
Zubeora Marcos, “Dogs feel your pain,” Science (7 May 2012).
Alexandra Horowitz, “Disambiguating the “guilty look”: salient prompts to a familiar dog behaviour,” Behavioural Processes 81(3): 447–452 (July 2009).
Dogs vis-à-vis Wolves
Sarah Marshall-Pescini et al, “Importance of a species’ socioecology: Wolves outperform dogs in a conspecific cooperation task,” PNAS (16 October 2017).
“Not so dumb animals,” The Economist (16 October 2008).
Ewen Callaway, “Wolves make dog’s dinner out of domestication theory,” New Scientist (29 September 2008).
“Why wolves are forever wild, but dogs can be tamed,” ScienceDaily (17 January 2013).
Kathryn Lord, “A comparison of the sensory development of wolves (Canis lupus lupus) and dogs (Canis lupus familiaris),” Ethology (6 De-cember 2012).
Michael Tomasello & Juliane Kaminski, “Like infant, like dog,” Science 325(5945): 1213–1214 (4 September 2009).
John Bohannon, “Who’s (socially) smarter: the dog or the wolf?,” Science (28 May 2013).
Friederike Range & Zsófia Virányi, “Wolves are better imitators of conspecifics than dogs,” PLoS One (29 January 2014).
Virginia Morell, “Wolves cooperate but dogs submit, study suggests,” Science 345(6199): 864 (22 August 2014).
Defining Intelligence
Merriam-Webster’s Third Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam Co. (1981).
Expectation & Purpose
Edward C. Tolman, Purposive Behavior In Animals And Men, Appleton-Century (1932).
Brains
Houseflies
Sawyer Buckminster Fuller et al, “Flying Drosophila stabilize their vision-based velocity controller by sensing wind with their antennae,” PNAS 111(13): E1182–E1191 (1 April 2014).
Che Chi & Stanley D. Carlson, “The distal ommatidium of the compound eye of the housefly (Musca domestica): a scanning electron microscope study,” Cell and Tissue Research 159(3): 379–385 (June 1975).
Florian T. Muijres et al, “Flies evade looming targets by executing rapid visually directed banked turns,” Science 344(6180: 172–177 (11 April 2014).
Pallab Ghosh, “Flies can manoeuvre like fighter jets,” BBC News (10 April 2014).
“Evolution: mosquito, house fly branched off 220 million years ago,” Science 2.0 (13 April 2011).
Fruit Fly Song
“What singing fruit flies can tell us about quick decisions,” Phys.org (20 March 2014).
Philip Coen et al, “Dynamic sensory cues shape song structure in Drosophila,” Nature 507: 233–237 (13 March 2014).
Fighting Damselflies
“Damselfly war games: flying insects take note of opponents’ strengths, abilities before entering into a fight,” ScienceDaily (25 March 2015).
Rhainer Guillermo-Ferreira et al, “Variable assessment of wing colouration in aerial contests of the red-winged damselfly Mnesarete pudica (Zygoptera, Calopterygidae), Naturwissenschaften (March 2015).
Mantis Shrimp
Mantis shrimp drawing courtesy of R.A. Lydekker.
H. Dingle & R.L. Caldwell, “The aggressive and territorial behavior of the mantis shrimp Gonodactylus bredini,” Behaviour 33: 115–136 (1969).
R.L Caldwell, “A test of individual recognition in the stomatopod Gondactylus festae,” Animal Behaviour 33: 101–106 (1984).
Coral Trout
Alexander L. Vail et al, “Fish choose appropriately when and with whom to collaborate,” Current Biology 24(17): R791–R793 (8 September 2014).
“Fish as good as chimpanzees at choosing the best partner for a task,” Phys.org (8 September 2014).
Irukandji Jellyfish
Robert Courtney et al, “Prey capture ecology of the Cubozoan Carukia barnesi,” PLoS One (13 May 2015).
Brian Stallard, “Brainless jellyfish actively hunt, surprise experts,” Nature World News (6 June 2015).
“How Irukandji jellyfish catch fish ,” Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine News (3 June 2015).
“How Irukandji jellyfish catch fish,” James Cook University (3 June 2015).
Collective Intelligence
Takao Sasaki et al, “Ant colonies outperform individuals when a sensory discrimination task is difficult but not when it is easy,” PNAS 110(34): 13769–13773 (20 August 2013).
Jacob Aron, “Decisions ripple through flocks of birds like a wave,” New Scientist (27 July 2014).
Insect Colonies
“Ants share decision-making, lessen vulnerability to ‘information overload’,” ScienceDaily (24 September 2012).
Jeremy E. Niven, “How honeybees break a decision-making deadlock,” Science 335(6064): 43–44 (6 January 2012).
“Collective intelligence: ants and brain’s neurons,” Stanford University News Service (15 November 1993).
Sharon Begley, “Buffalo seek consensus and other tales of how animals decide things,” The Wall Street Journal (14 April 2006).
Rock Ant Real Estate
Carolina Doran et al, “Economic investment by ant colonies in searches for better homes,” Biology Letters (2 October 2013).
“Rock ants are discerning home owners, study suggests,” Nature World News (2 October 2013).
Nigel R. Franks & Tom Richardson, “Teaching in tandem-running ants,” Nature (11 January 2006).
Fish Shoals
Maksym Romenskyy & Vladimir Lobaskin, “Statistical properties of swarms of self-propelled particles with repulsions across the order-disorder transition,” The European Physical Journal B (March 2013).
“Follow my leader,” The Economist (24 February 2011).
Construction
Robert Riding, “A hard life for cynaobacteria,” Science 336: 427–428 (27 April 2012).
Yunhao Tan et al, “Legionella pneumophila regulates the small GTPase Rab1 activity by reversible phosphorylcholination,” PNAS (7 December 2011).
“How bacteria build homes inside healthy cells,” ScienceDaily (20 December 2011).
T.H. Bullick & W. Heiligenberg, Electroreception, Springer (1986).
Caddisflies
Caddisfly net photo courtesy of Clinton & Charles Robertson.
J.B. Wallace & F.F. Sherberger, “The larval dwelling and feeding structure of Macronema transversum,” Animal Behaviour 23: 592 – 596 (1975).
Jessica Purcell et al, “Ant brood function as life preservers during floods,” PLoS One (19 February 2014).
Spiders
Rod & Ken Preston-Mafham, Spiders of the World, Facts on File (1993).
William A. Sheer, Spiders: Webs, Behavior, and Evolution, Stanford University Press (1986).
Stephen Dalton, Spiders: The Ultimate Predators, Firefly Books (2008).
Paul Hillyard, The Private Life of Spiders Princeton University Press (2007).
Elizabeth Pennisi, “Untangling spider biology,” Science 358(6361): 288-291 (20 October 2017).
“Spiders can hear you walking and talking from across the room,” New Scientist (21 October 2016).
Paul S. Shamble et al, “Airborne acoustic perception by a jumping spider,” Current Biology (21 October 2016).
Laurel Hamers, “Soaring spiders may get cues from electric charges in the air,” Science News (5 July 2018).
Erica L. Morley et al, “Electric fields elicit ballooning in spiders,” Current Biology (5 July 2018).
Moonsung Cho et al, “An observational study of ballooning in large spiders: Nanoscale multifibers enable large spiders’ soaring flight,” PLoS Biology (14 June 2018).
Susan Milius, “Long-ignored, high-flying arthropods could make up largest land migrations,” Science News (22 December 2016).
Morito Hayashi et al, “Sail or sink: novel behavioural adaptations on water in aerially dispersing species,” BMC Evolutionary Biology (3 July 2015).
“Seafaring spiders depend on their ‘sails’ and ‘anchors’,” ScienceDaily (3 July 2015).
Spider Brains
Rosannette Quesada et al, “The allometry of CNS size and consequences of miniaturization in orb-weaving and cleptoparasitic spiders,” Arthropod Structure & Development 40(6): 521-529 (November 2011).
Rachel Kaufman, “Small spiders have big brains that spill into their legs,” National Geographic (20 December 2011).
Spider Silk
European garden spider photo courtesy of Gnissah.
Marlene Andersson et al, “Carbonic anhydrase generates CO2 and H+ that drive spider silk formation via opposite effects on the terminal domains,” PLoS Biology (5 August 2014).
Glareh Askarieh et al, “Self-assembly of spider silk proteins is controlled by a pH-sensitive relay,” Nature 465: 236–238 (13 May 2010).
“Fascinating spider silk,” ScienceDaily (6 April 2007).
C.L. Craig, “Evolution of arthropod silks,” Annual Review of Entomology 42: 231–267 (1997).
K.N. Savage & J.M. Gosline, “The effect of proline on the network structure of major ampullate silks as inferred from their mechanical and optical properties,” Journal of Experimental Biology 211(12): 1937–1947 (15 June 2008).
K.N. Savage & J.M. Gosline, “The role of proline in the elastic mecha-nism of hydrated spider silks,” Journal of Experimental Biology 211(12): 1948–1957 (15 June 2008).
Murat Cetinkaya et al, “Silk fiber mechanics from multiscale force distribution analysis,” Biophysical Journal 100(5): 1298–1305 (2 March 2011).
Xiaopeng Huang et al, “New secrets of spider silk: exceptionally high thermal conductivity and its abnormal change under stretching,” Advanced Materials (5 March 2012).
Dabiao Liu et al, “Peculiar torsion dynamical response of spider dragline silk,” Applied Physics Letters 111: 013701 (2017).
“Strange silk: why rappelling spiders don’t spin out of control,” ScienceDaily (6 July 2017).
Emily Conover, “How spiders mastered spin control,” Science News (8 August 2017).
Spider Webs
Steven W. Cranford et al, “Nonlinear material behaviour of spider silk yields robust webs,” Nature 482: 72–76 (2 February 2012).
“Spider web’s strength lies in more than its silk,” ScienceDaily (1 February 2012).
“Spiders know the meaning of web music,” University of Oxford (3 June 2014).
“Spiders harness the power of music,” Nature World News (3 June 2014).
Dirk Schneider et al, “Nonlinear control of high-frequency phonons in spider silk,” Nature Materials (25 July 2016).
B. Mortimer et al, “Tuning the instrument: sonic properties in the spider’s web,” Interface (7 September 2016).
“Tuning the instrument: Spider webs as vibration transmission structures,” Phys.org (6 September 2016).
“Spiders spin unique phononic material,” ScienceDaily (25 July 2016).
Zhao Qin et al, “Structural optimization of 3D-printed synthetic spider webs for high strength,” Nature Communications (15 May 2015).
“Spider silk inspires new, strong materials,” ScienceDaily (18 May 2015).
Bojun T. Bjorkman-Chiswell et al, “Web-building spiders attract prey by storing decaying matter,” Naturwissenschaften 91(5): 245-248 (May 2004).
“Tarantulas produce silk from their feet,” ScienceDaily (28 September 2006).
Victor Manuel Ortega-Jimenez & Robert Dudley, “Spiderweb deformation induced by electrostatically charged insects,” Scientific Reports (4 July 2013).
Fritz Vollrath & Donald Edmonds, “Consequences of electrical conductivity in an orb spider’s capture web,” Naturwissenschaften 100(12): 1163-1169 (December 2013).
Victor Manuel Ortega-Jimenez & Robert Dudley, “Spiderweb deformation induced by electrostatically charged insects,” Scientific Reports 3: 2148 (4 July 2013).
Sid Perkins, “Bees buzz each other, but not the way you think,” Science (27 March 2013).
Uwe Greggers et al, “Reception and learning of electric fields in bees,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (27 March 2013).
R.D. Briceño & W.G. Eberhard, “Spiders avoid sticking to their webs: clever leg movements, branched drip-tip setae, and anti-adhesive surfaces,” Naturwissenschaften 99(4): 337–341 (April 2012).
Darwin’s Bark Spider
Matjaž Gregoric et al, “Darwin’s bark spider: giant prey in giant orb webs (Caerostris darwini, Araneae: Araneidae)?,” Journal of Arachnology 39(2):287-295 (2011).
Matt Walker, “Gigantic spider’s web discovered in Madagascar,” BBC News (16 September 2010).
Ingi Agnarsson et al, “Bioprospecting finds the toughest biological material: extraordinary silk from a giant riverine orb spider,” PLoS One (16 September 2010).
“Enormous spider web found in Texas,” Texas A&M University (13 September 2007).
Common House Spider
Common house spider photo courtesy of Patrick Moran.
Vasav Sahni et al, “Cobweb-weaving spiders produce different attachment discs for locomotion and prey capture,” Nature Communications (2 October 2012).
Triangle-Weaver Spider
S.I. Han et al, “External power amplification drives prey capture in a spider web,” PNAS (13 May 2019).
Issam Ahmed, “Catapulting spider winds up web to launch itself at prey: study,” Phys.org (13 May 2019).
Ed Yong, “A truly remarkable spider,” The Atlantic (13 May 2019).
Bolas Spider
John Whitfield, “Spider scents attract prey,” Nature (24 June 2002).
Antlions
J.R. Lucas, “The structure and function of antlion pits: slope asymmetry and predator-prey interactions,” Animal Behaviour 38: 318–330 (1989).
W.M. Wheeler, Demons of the Dust, Norton (1930).
Susan Milius, “Ant lions hunt despite sealed lips,” Science News 186(10): 4–5 (12 July 2014).
Skink Mansions
Steve McAlpin et al, “Lizards cooperatively tunnel to construct a long-term home for family members,” PLoS One (11 May 2011).
Elliot Brennan, “Skinks cooperate to build ‘mansions’,” Australian Geographic (30 May 2011).
Nicholas Bakalar, “A lizard that builds with the family in mind,” The New York Times (16 May 2011).
“Stay-at-home parents make for a cooperative family of lizards,” ScienceDaily (12 May 2011).
Bird Nests
Patrick T. Walsh et al, “Individuality in nest building: do southern masked weaver (Ploceus velatus) males vary in their nest-building behaviour?” Behavioural Processes 88 (1): 1 (2011).
Ida E. Bailey et al, “Birds build camouflaged nests,” The Auk (1 October 2014).
Helen Thomson, “Birds colour-match their nests for camouflage,” New Scientist (6 October 2014).
“Cigarette buts repel nest pests,” Nature 492: 156 (13 December 2012).
Monserrat Suárez-Rodríguez et al, “Incorporation of cigarette butts into nests reduces nest ectoparasite load in urban birds: new ingredients for an old recipe?,” Biology Letters (5 December 2012).
Ján Krištofík et al, “Housekeeping by lodgers: the importance of bird nest fauna on offspring condition,” Journal of Ornithology (11 August 2016).
Village Weavers
Village weaver photo courtesy of Bernard Dupont.
Bowerbirds
J. Diamond, “Evolution of bowerbirds’ bowers: animal origins of the aesthetic sense,” Nature 297: 99–102 (13 May 1982).
J.A. Endler et al, “Great bowerbirds create theaters with forced perspective when seen by their audience,” Current Biology (09 September 2010).
Sarah C. P. Williams, “Bird masters of illusion,” Science (19 January 2012).
G. Borgia, “Sexual selection in bowerbirds,” Scientific American 254 (6): 92–100 (1986).
Michael J. Ryan, “Animal behaviour: fickle females?” Nature 428: 708–709 (15 April 2004).
Seth W. Coleman et al, “Variable female preferences drive complex male displays,” Nature 428: 742–745 (15 April 2004).
Beavers
Beaver photo courtesy of Theodore Moniodis.
G. Pilleri, “Ingenious tool use by the Canadian beaver (Castor canadensis) in captivity,” in Investigations on Beavers, vol. 1, Brain Anatomy Institute (1983).
Tool Use
Invertebrates
Robert W. Shumaker et al, Animal Tool Behavior, The John Hopkins University Press (2011).
W. Morrill, “Tool-using behavior of Pognomyrmex badius (Hymenoptera: Formicidae),” Florida Entomologist 55: 59–60 (1972).
Joan H. Fellers & Gary M. Fellers, “Tool use in a social insect and its implications for competitive interactions,” Science 70–72 (2 April 1976).
Assassin Bugs
Assassin bug photo courtesy of Fir0002/Flagstaffotos under GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) 1.2.
E.A. McMahan, “Bugs angle for termites,” Natural History 92(5): 40–47 (1983).
J.E. Duerden, “On the habits and reactions of crabs bearing actinians in their claws,” Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 2: 494–511 (1905).
Fishing Lure
Spider crab photo courtesy of Richard Aspinall.
Joan J. Soto Angel et al, “Polyps fishing on a crab: novel association between Hydrichthella epigorgia (Hydrozoa, Ptilocodiidae) and Achaeus (Crustacea, Inachidae),” Marine Biodiversity (4 July 2017).
Richard Aspinall, “Gone fishin’: decorator crabs use other species as fishing rods, study reveals,” The Guardian (30 January 2018).
Vertebrates
Archerfish
Alberto Vailati et al, “How archer fish achieve a powerful impact: hydrodynamic instability of a pulsed jet in Toxotes jaculatrix,” PLoS One (24 October 2012).
Jonathan Balcombe, “Einstein of the sea,” Scientific American 314(6): 66–69 (June 2016).
Archerfish drawing courtesy of Pearson Scott Foresman.
Peggy Gerullis & Stefan Schuster, “Archerfish actively control the hydrodynamics of their jets,” Current Biology (4 September 2014).
Ingo Rischawy & Stefan Schuster, “Visual search in hunting archerfish shares all hallmarks of human performance,” The Journal of Experimental Biology (25 April 2013).
Ingo Rishcawy et al, Competition drives sophisticated hunting skills of archerfish in the wild,” Current Biology 25(14): R595–R597 (20 July 2015).
“Archerfish up their game to outgun rivals stealing their catch,” New Scientist (22 July 2015).
Jana Dewenter et al, “Archerfish use their shooting technique to produce adaptive underwater jets,” Journal of Experimental Biology (20 December 2016).
Andy Coghlan, “Spitting archerfish shoot at prey above and beneath the water,” New Scientist (20 July 2017).
V. Dinets et al, “Crocodilians use tools for hunting,” Ethology Ecology & Evolution (29 November 2013).
Wrasse
Orange-dotted tuskfish photo courtesy of Bernard Dupont.
G. Bernardi, “The use of tools by wrasses (Labridae),” Coral Reefs (20 September 2011).
Maud Berlincourt & John P.Y. Arnould, “At-sea associations in foraging little penguins,” PLoS One (13 August 2014).
Birds
D.D. Dow, “Primitive weaponry in birds: the Australian brush-turkey’s defense,” Emu 80: 91–92 (1980).
J. Boswall, “Tool-using and related behaviour in birds,” Avicultural Magazine 89(3): 170–181 (1983).
M.S. Funk, “Problem solving skills in young yellow corwned parakeets (Cyanoramphus auiceps),” Animal Cognition 5(3): 167–176 (2002).
L. Lefebvre et al, “Tools and brains in birds,” Behaviour 139: 939–973 (2002).
A. Antevs, “Behaviour of gila woodpecker, ruby-crowned kinglet, and broad-tailed hummingbird,” Condor 50: 91–92 (1948).
W.D. Koenig, “Dunking of prey by Brewer’s blackbirds: a novel source of water for nestlings,” Condor 87(3): 444–445 (1985).
Mammals
Kathelijne Koops et al, “The ecology of primate material culture,” Biology Letters (12 November 2014).
“Opportunity, and not necessity, is the mother of invention,” University of Cambridge (12 November 2014).
Jenna Iacurci, “Ecological opportunity prompts tool use among primates,” Nature World News (12 November 2014).
Wolverine Refrigerators
Wolverine photo courtesy of William F. Wood.
Robert M. Inman et al, “The wolverine’s niche: linking reproductive chronology, caching, competition, and climate,” Journal of Mammalogy 93(3): 634–644 (June 2012).
Banded Mongooses
Banded mongoose photo courtesy of Derek Keats.
David AWAM Jansen et al, “Segmental concatenation of individual signatures and context cues in banded mongoose (Mungos mungo) close calls,” BMC Biology (3 December 2012).
Michael A. Cant et al, “Policing of reproduction by hidden threats in a cooperative mammal,” PNAS 111(1): 326–330 (7 January 2014).
Jason S. Gilchrist, “Pup escorting in the communal breeding banded mongoose: behavior, benefits, and maintenance,” Behavioral Ecology (11 June 2004).
Corsin A. Müller & Michael A. Cant, “Imitation and traditions in wild banded mongooses,” Current Biology 20(13): 1171–1175 (3 June 2010).”
“Banded mongooses go to war over sex and territory,” Phys.org (28 February 2017).
Tanimbar Corella
Tanimbar corella photo courtesy of Lip Kee Yap.
A.M.I. Auersperg et al, “Social transmission of tool use and tool manufac-ture in Goffin cockatoos (Cacatua goffini),” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences (3 September 2014).
Michael Marshall, “Cockatoos learn to make and use a tool,” New Scientist (3 September 2014).
Alice M.I. Auersperg et al, “Explorative learning and functional infer-ences on a five-step means-means-end problem in Goffin’s cockatoos (Cacatua goffini),” PLoS One (3 July 2013).
Alice M.I. Auersperg et al, “Goffin cockatoos wait for qualitative and quantitative gains but prefer ‘better’ to ‘more’,” Biology Letters (13 March 2013).
Alice M.I. Auersperg et al, “Spontaneous innovation in tool manufacture and use in a Goffin’s cockatoo,” Current Biology 22(21): R903–R904 (6 November 2012).
Michelle Warwicker, “Cockatoo shows tool-making skills,” BBC Nature (6 November 2012).
I. Teschke et al, “Sometimes tool use is not the key: no evidence for cognitive adaptive specializations in tool-using woodpecker finches,” Animal Behaviour 82 (5): 945–956 (November 2011).
Parrot Discretion
Tom Phillips, “Police seize ‘super obedient’ lookout parrot trained by Brazilian drug dealers,” The Guardian (24 April 2019).
Math Skills
Susan Milius, “Animal math,” Science News (10 December 2016).
Scarlett R. Howard et al, “Numerical ordering of zero in honey bees,” Science 360(6393): 1124-1126 (8 June 2018).
Andreas Nieder, “Honey bees zero in on the empty set,” Science 360(6393): 1069-1070 (8 June 2018).
Rafael L. Rodríguez et al, “Nephila clavipes spiders (Araneae: Nephilidae) keep track of captured prey counts: testing for a sense of numerosity in an orb-weaver,” Animal Cognition 18(1): 307–314 (January 2015).
SarahBenson-Amram et al, “Numerical assessment and individual call discrimination by wild spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta,” Animal Behaviour 82(4): 743-752 (October 2011).
“Hyenas’ ability to count helps them decide to fight or flee,” Michigan State University (22 August 2011).
Cornelia Buehlmann et al, “Path integration controls nest-plume following in desert ants,” Current Biology 22(7): 645–649 (10 April 2012).
Peter Bruger, “Chicks with a number sense,” Science 347(6221): 478 (30 January 2015).
Rosa Rugani et al, “Number-space mapping in the newborn chick resembles humans’ mental number line,” Science 347(6221): 534–536 (30 January 2015).
Road Signs
Susan Milius, “Birds know road speed limits,” Science News (20 August 2013).
Pierre Legagneux & Simon Ducatez, “European birds adjust their flight initiation distance to road speed limits,” Biology Letters (23 October 2013).
Optimal Foraging
G.H. Pyke, “Optimal foraging in bumblebees: rule of movement between flowers within inflorescences,” Animal Behaviour 27: 1167–1181 (1979).
Gretchen Parker, “Bumblebee math,” National Geographic (February 2012).
Rachel Ehrenberg, “Bees fast to find shortest route,” Science News, 17 (20 October 2012).
Starfish Geometry
William Gilpin, “Vortex arrays and ciliary tangles underlie the feeding–swimming trade-off in starfish larvae,” Nature Physics (19 December 2016).
Emily Conover, “Baby starfish whip up whirlpools to snag a meal,” Science News (23 December 2016).
Pigeons
William A. Roberts, et al, “Pigeons play the percentages: computation of probability in a bird,” Animal Cognition (24 May 2018).
Colin Barras, “Pigeons can understand probabilities – just like primates can,” New Scientist (6 June 2018).
“Baboons and pigeons are capable of higher-level cognition, behavioral studies show,” ScienceDaily (12 February 2009).
Virginia Morell, “No joke: pigeons ace a simple math test,” Science (22 December 2011).
Damian Scarf et al, “Pigeons on par with primates in numerical competence,” Science 334(6063): 1664 (23 December 2011).
Kirsten Weir, “Bird brainiacs: the genius of pigeons,” New Scientist (4 May 2014).
Robert Epstein et al, “‘Self-awareness’ in the pigeon,” Science 212(4495): 695–696 (8 May 1981).
Máté Nagy et al, “Context-dependent hierarchies in pigeons,” PNAS 110(32): 13049–13054 (6 August 2013).
John Metcalfe, “Pigeons might be way smarter than we give them credit for,” Atlantic CityLab (3 June 2013).
Sigeru Watanabe et al, Pigeons’ discrimination of paintings by Monet and Picasso,” Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 63(2): 165–174 (March 1995).
Joël Fagot & Robert G. Cook, “Evidence for large long-term memory capacities in baboons and pigeons and its implications for learning and the evolution of cognition,” PNAS 103(46): 17564–17567 (15 November 2006).
Ludwig Huber, “Visual categorization in pigeons,” in Avian Visual Cognition, Comparative Cognition Press (2001).
A.A. Wright et al, “Memory processing of serial lists by pigeons, monkeys, and people,” Science 229(4710): 287–289 (19 July 1985).
D.E. Carter & D.A. Eckerman, “Symbolic matching by pigeons: rate of learning complex discriminations predicted from simple discriminations,” Science 187(4177): 662–664 (21 February 1975).
N. Blaser et al, “Testing cognitive navigation in unknown territories: homing pigeons choose different targets,” The Journal of Experimental Biology 216: 3123–3131 (15 August 2013).
C.K. Hemelrijk et al, “The increased efficiency of fish swimming in a school,” Fish and Fisheries (30 January 2014).
“How slime moulds keep track,” Nature 490: 147 (11 October 2012).
“Punk Amazon bird is an ancient European emigrant,” New Scientist 221(2956): 17 (15 February 2014).
Arthropods
Amy Maxmen, “Jungle search gives global count of arthropods,” Nature (13 December 2012).