Environment

Nigeria is home to 100 known species of batsabout a third of Africas bat speciesbut scientists dont know much about them. Iroro Tanshi, postdoctoral researcher in the UW Department of Biology, is interviewed.

The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States will shut down this month after having its funding slashed earlier this year. The closure reflects the Trump Administration's move toward securitizing U.S. Arctic research, according to Arctic researchers. Mia Bennett, associate professor of geography at the UW, is quoted.

In a new study, a team of scientists determined the minimum natural habitat on agricultural land that will allow insect pollinators including bumble bees, solitary bees, hoverflies and butterflies to thrive. UW News reached out to co-author Berry Brosi, UW professor of biology, to learn more about these results and how habitat is important to two types of bees native to Washington.

Its a hyper-modern problem on social media: A video or image of an animal doing something seemingly unbelievable in the wild pops up on your feed, only for you to realize it is, in fact, unbelievable. But what if fake wildlife images could be used to aid conservation? Kasim Rafiq, postdoctoral researcher of biology at the UW, is quoted.

Bee experts wouldnt have previously expected to find the likes of Osmia cyaneonitens, Dufourea dilatipes and Stelis heronae in Washington. But this year, while collecting pollinators in Chelan County to study how climate and wildfires affect native bee populations, Autumn Maust, a University of Washington research scientist of biology, discovered eight bee species never recorded in Washington.

To say spotted ratfish are unusual is an understatement. Armed with a venomous fin, they swim gracefully along the sea floor trailing a long, pointed tail half the length of their bodies, with green, glowing eyes hunting for mates or prey to crack open with their beak-like mouths. And if all that wasnt weird enough, they are now the first animal documented to have teeth growing outside of the jaw, according to new research led by a team of scientists at the University of Washington. Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is interviewed.

A new study from the University of Washington has discovered that the spotted ratfish, a common fish in the Puget Sound, has a toothed appendage on its forehead. Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is quoted.

According to a citation from the award committee, Aseem Prakash, professor of political science at the UW, has had an outstanding career devoted to exemplary scholarship in the joint tradition of political science and public administration.

This discovery proves it's possible for vertebrates to grow teeth outside their mouths. Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is quoted.

Researchers suggest the rows of pointed structures on the heads of spotted ratfish are true teeth, offering the first known example of teeth located outside the jaw. Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is quoted.

Scientists discover the deepsea creatures club-shaped head appendage is chock full of teeth. Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is quoted.

Scientists studied how ratfishes, also known as chimaeras or ghost sharks, ended up with one of evolutions most bizarre appendages. Research by Karly Cohen, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Washingtons Friday Harbor Labs, is mentioned.

Its been seven years since Pacific Seafood stopped trying to grow oysters on a particular mudflat on the Washington coast. Two years since the Washington Department of Natural Resources last experimented with killing the shrimp infesting it by compacting the sediment with an amphibious, tracked vehicle known as the Marshmaster. Jennifer Ruesink, professor of biology at the UW, has been monitoring the ground ever since. But the latest round of funding for the project will be drying up at the end of the month, and this trip will be her last. Haleh Mawson, research scientist in biology at the UW, is also mentioned.

What was the Permian Period like? What creatures thrived there before the period came to an abrupt end? Thanks to efforts by an international research team, 17 years of fossils collected in Africa may help us paint a better picture of this time period before the Great Dying event altered life on our planet. Christian Sidor, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Burke Museum and professor of biology, is quoted.

Derek Sheffield, ’90, ’99, a poet and English teacher, was appointed Washington State’s Poet Laureate in April by Governor Bob Ferguson. A passionate naturalist known for co-editing the best-selling “Cascadia Field Guide: Art, Ecology, Poetry” with Elizabeth Bradfield, ’94, and CMarie Fuhrman, Sheffield is “always packing” binoculars and hand lens and birds by ear—often in the woods near his home in Leavenworth. He has butterflied alongside Robert Michael Pyle, ’69, ’73, the lepidopterist, and once exchanged letters with Pulitzer-winning biologist E.O. Wilson.