News from Latin America

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 3-May-2025 22:09 ET (4-May-2025 02:09 GMT/UTC)

1-Dec-2008

New movement models tested at the Smithsonian in Panama

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

New, movement models for organisms as diverse as gut bacteria, ants, marine larvae and cheetahs include tree seed dispersal model and animal tracking systems tested in Panama.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

1-Dec-2008

Evidence from dirty teeth: Ancient Peruvians ate well

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Starch grains preserved on human teeth reveal that ancient Peruvians ate a variety of cultivated crops including squash, beans, peanuts and pacay. Starch grain analysis of human dental remains should prove to be a powerful means to directly study ancient diets.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

24-Nov-2008

Panamanian termite goes ballistic: Fastest mandible strike in the world

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A single hit on the head by the termite Termes panamensis (Snyder), which possesses the fastest mandible strike ever recorded, is sufficient to kill a would-be nest invader.

Journal

Current Biology

24-Nov-2008

Smithsonian puts tropical eastern Pacific shore fishes online

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A new bilingual online information system created by D. Ross Robertson, staff scientist at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, and Coeus Knowledge Systems makes it possible for conservationists, sport fishers, tourists, researchers, students and resource managers to identify and generate publishable maps for 1,287 tropical eastern Pacific shore fish species.

Funder

Smithsonian Institution's Marine Science Network, Smithsonian's Women's Committee, Smithsonian Latino Intitiatives Fund, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

3-Nov-2008

Red-eyed treefrog embryos actively avoid asphyxiation inside their eggs

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Red-eyed treefrog embryos react to environmental oxygen concentration before they have blood or muscular movement

Journal

Journal of Experimental Biology

Funder

Boston University, National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute

23-Oct-2008

Diversity of trees in Ecuador's Amazon rainforest defies simple explanation

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Trees in a hyper-diverse tropical rainforest interact with each other and their environment to create and maintain diversity, researchers report in the Oct. 24 issue of the journal Science. This study was conducted in the Yasuni forest dynamics plot of the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, the most diverse tropical forest site associated with the Center for Tropical Forest Science/Smithsonian Institution Global Earth Observatory network.

Journal

Science

9-Oct-2008

Smithsonian perspective: Biodiversity in a warmer world

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Will climate change exceed life's ability to respond? Biodiversity in a Warmer World, published in the Oct. 10, 2008, issue of the journal, Science, illustrates that cross-disciplinary research fostered by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama clearly informs this urgent debate.

Journal

Science

21-Aug-2008

Smithsonian works with Embera community to offset carbon emissions

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Business Announcement

Thanks to a collaborative agreement signed between the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Organization for Unity and Development of the Community Ipeti-Embera, the Institute in Panama will offset its estimated carbon emissions for the next three years.

13-Aug-2008

A recipe for saving the world's oceans from an extinction crisis

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Jeremy Jackson, senior scientist emeritus of the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, asserts in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that the following steps, if taken immediately, could reverse the demise of the oceans.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Meeting

Arthur M. Sackler Colloquium of the National Academy of Sciences

13-Aug-2008

Extinction most likely for rare trees in the Amazon rainforest

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Common tree species in the Amazon will survive even grim scenarios of deforestation and road-building, but rare trees could suffer extinction rates of up to 50 percent, predict Smithsonian scientists and colleagues in the Aug. 12 issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

Journal

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Funder

National Science Foundation, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute