Wild Things: Feathered dinosaurs, king crabs and spotted hyenas
Traveling snails, brainwashed rats and more updates from the world of wildlife
- By T.A. Frail, Megan Gambino, Joseph Stromberg, Abigail Tucker and Sarah Zielinski
- Smithsonian magazine, November 2011
(Craig R. Smith)
King crabs have come to the Antarctic shelf. Frigid water kept them away for millions of years, but now the region is warming up, says Craig Smith of the University of Hawaii, who observed the invaders via robotic submarine. The crabs crush sea cucumbers, sea lilies and brittle stars—fragile creatures that have little resistance to clawed predators. The scientists captured one crab: a female laden with eggs.
Additional Sources
“A Diverse Assemblage of Late Cretaceous Dinosaur and Bird Feathers from Canadian Amber,” Ryan C. McKellar et al., Science, September 16, 2011
“Flying shells: historical dispersal of marine snails across Central America,” Osamu Miura et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, September 14, 2011
“Numerical assessment and individual call discrimination by wild spotted hyaenas, Crocuta crocuta,” Sarah Benson-Amram et al., Animal Behaviour, October 2011
“A large population of king crabs in Palmer Deep on the west Antarctic Peninsula shelf and potential invasive impacts,” Craig R. Smith et al., Proceedings of the Royal Society B, September 7, 2011
“Predator Cat Odors Activate Sexual Arousal Pathways in Brains of Toxoplasma gondii Infected Rats,” Patrick K. House et al., PLoS ONE, August 17, 2011
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