WASHINGTON, D.C.- Smithsonian scientists have confirmed that chytridiomycosis, a rapidly spreading amphibian disease, has reached a site near Panama’s Darien region. This was the last area in the entire mountainous neotropics to be free of the dis…
Smithsonian Scientists Find that First Rainforests Arose When Plants Solved Plumbing Problem
WASHINGTON, D.C.- A team of scientists, including several from the Smithsonian Institution, discovered that leaves of flowering plants in the world’s first rainforests had more veins per unit area than leaves ever had before. They suggest that thi…
Smithsonian Scientists Discover Seven New Species of Fish
WASHINGTON, DC.- Things are not always what they seem when it comes to fish—something scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the Ocean Science Foundation are finding out. Using modern genetic analysis, combined with traditional examination …
Smithsonian Scientists Help Create First Frozen Repository for Hawaiian Coral
WASHINGTON, DC.- Scientists at the Smithsonian Institution and the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have created the first frozen bank for Hawaiian corals in an attempt to protect them from extinction and to prese…
Smithsonian Holdings to Aid Researchers in Gulf of Mexico
SUITLAND, MD (AP).- Scientists studying the massive BP oil spill are turning to a vast collection of preserved animals at the Smithsonian to see what kind of changes the oil spill may wreak among life forms in the Gulf of Mexico. The museum and researc…