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Most animals socialize to protect themselves from predators or to mate, but the terrestrial hermit crab has a more self-serving social agenda: to evict someone from its shell and take over a new and larger home. UC Berkeley Miller fellow Mark Laidre shows that this predatory socializing is a byproduct of the crab’s move from the ocean to land, where snail shells are less plentiful.
Tag: animals
Meet future veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong
April 29, 2013:
Aspiring veterinarian (or zookeeper) Amanda Wong is VP of the Cal Pre-Vet Club. In an interview with ValuePenguin, “a blog for pets,” the Berkeley junior talks about her stint as a zoo volunteer, teaching visitors about horned frogs and golden eagles — and other experiences with animals so far.
Did bacteria spark evolution of multicellular life?
October 24, 2012:
A new study suggests that bacteria may have helped kick off one of the key events in evolution: the leap from one-celled organisms to many-celled organisms, a development that eventually led to animals, including humans.
Lizard tails and gecko feet inspire industries, students
August 30, 2012:
Integrative biologist Robert Full and his students have made discoveries about the agile and sticky gecko that have sparked product ideas ranging from rescue robots to sports gear. These animals — not to mention cockroaches, centipedes and crabs — have also captured the research imagination of undergraduate and graduate students.
Scientists core into Clear Lake to explore past climate change
May 3, 2012:
One of the oldest lakes in the world, Clear Lake has deep sediments that contain a record of the climate and local plants and animals going back perhaps 500,000 years. UC Berkeley scientists are drilling cores from the sediments to explore this history and fine-tune models for predicting the fate of today’s flora and fauna in the face of global warming and pressure from a growing human population.
Storing vertebrates in the cloud
August 23, 2011:
UC Berkeley is leading an effort to take information on the vertebrate collections in museums around the world and store it in the cloud for easy use by researchers and citizen scientists alike.
Botanical Garden offers illustrated guide to East Bay hills animal life
May 17, 2011:
The UC Botanical Garden has published an illustrated field guide to animals found in the Garden and the rest of the East Bay hills. Researched by two Garden principals, both zoologists, it features close to 125 creatures, including mammals, amphibians, reptiles, birds and insects. An event at the Garden on May 20 celebrates its debut.
