Reef fish share genetic connections across what Darwin termed an "impassable barrier," 5000km of deep ocean separating the eastern and central Pacific, according to a report by Smithsonian scientists in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

On 15 June, 2006, the first publication to assemble terrestrial biodiversity information from Bahia Honda, Panama, was presented at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama City. The new, 835-page, bilingual volume: "Studies on the Biodiversity of the Baha Honda Region (Veraguas, Panama)," contains an initial inventory of the sparsely-populated, highly-disturbed pastureland and tropical forest around the bay and on Canales de Tierra Island, site of the Liquid Jungle Lab.

New evidence for homoploid hybrid speciation in animals is presented in the June 12, 2006 edition of the journal Nature. In a matter of months, butterflies sporting the yellow and red wing color pattern of a wild species were created through simple laboratory crosses of a wild species with a red bar and a wild species with a yellow bar.

The Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC), the world's largest scientific organization devoted to the study and wise use of tropical ecosystems, has formally endorsed a bold new proposal to help save tropical forests.

On May 17, 2006, the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute signed an agreement with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to coordinate the development of a new management plan for Panama's Coiba National Park and Special Marine Conservation Area.

Male tropical túngara frogs have evolved masses on their vocal cords that help them woo females with complex calls, show scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama.

Better models of tropical forest dynamics are urgently needed to improve global change predictions. In hopes of modeling growth, mortality and size distributions of tropical trees, Helene Muller-Landau, University of Minnesota and colleagues from the Smithsonian's Center for Tropical Forest Science (CTFS) tested predictions based on the theory of metabolic ecology with data collected from tropical forests worldwide. The results -- no good fit and improved alternative models -- are published in two articles in Blackwell's Ecology Letters.

Deforestation and habitat loss are expected to lead to an extinction crisis among tropical forest species. Humans in rural settings contribute most to deforestation of extant tropical forests. However, "Trends such as slowing population growth and intense urbanization give reason to hope that deforestation will slow, regeneration will accelerate, and mass extinction of tropical forest species will be avoided," report S.J. Wright, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and H.C. Muller-Landau, University of Minnesota, in Biotropica online.