Research News

Four IB students win awards at the 2008 Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology meeting

Published February 21, 2008

Four Integrative Biology graduate students received awards and honors for their research at the annual meeting of the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology.  

The students are:

  • Rebecca Calisi, Best Student Poster, Division of Neurobiology
  • Anne Peattie, Best Student Oral Presentation, Division of Comparative Biomechanics
  • Simon Sponberg, Honorable Mention, Division of Comparative Biomechanics
  • Lindsay Waldrop, Best Student Oral Presentation, Division of Invertebrate Zoology

Tracking gliding behavior in the colugo

Published February 11, 2008

The Malaysian colugo
A feeding colugo sports a backpack containing accelerometers and flash memory.

Researchers tracking the Malaysian colugo, also known as the "flying" lemur, are advancing the understanding of the biomechanics and behavior of gliding animals.   Led by Integrative Biology graduate student Greg Byrnes, the team attached devices which measure acceleration to the back of the colugos to study how these animals move. 

The researchers' findings are published in this week's Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

Read more about the research at the UC Berkeley News Center.

Professor Kevin Padian reflects on Darwin's genius in Nature

Published February 11, 2008

Integrative Biology professor Kevin Padian reflects on what constitutes Darwin's enduring greatness in this week's Nature. You can also hear Padian speaking about Darwin in the February 7 edition of the Nature podcast.

Anna's hummingbird chirps with its tail

Published January 30, 2008

Research done by graduate student Christopher Clark and recent graduate Teresa Feo, show that the chirps and whistles made by the West Coast's most common hummingbird, Anna's hummingbird, are made by its tail feathers.  

For more on their research, see UC Berkeley News Center.

Research conducted by Professor Robert Dudley shows ant parasite turns host into ripe red berry

Published January 17, 2008

Comparison of normal ant with infected ant
Comparison of normal worker ants (top) and ants infected with a nematode.

New research led by professor Robert Dudley reveal a new parasite that causes its host to mimic a ripe red berry.  The co-authors believe this is the first example of fruit mimicry caused by a parasite.  

The report, co-authored by Stephen Yanoviak at the University of Arkansas, has been accepted for publication by The American Naturalist and will be published in the spring.

See the UC Berkeley News Center for more information. 

Teen pregnancy among dinosaurs was the norm

Published January 15, 2008

Research by graduate student Sarah Werning and recent IB PhD recipient Andrew Lee, show that dinosaurs reached sexual maturity near the end of a growth spurt in adolescence.  The research suggests that dinosaurs suffered high adult mortality, making early sexual maturity necessary for survival.

Werning and Lee's paper has been published in the online  early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.  Access the abstract here.



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