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The Last Neanderthal – Pierangelo Pirak (2016)

January 2, 2019 at 2:32 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Neandertals form a curious part of Human heritage. Fossil and genetic evidence suggest that the two Human populations split sometime between 400,000 to 800,000 years ago. Neandertals went extinct 30,000 years ago. For decades, the general impression about the Neandertals were as brutish, primitive beings. However the more we investigate the more we learn and become intrigued about these master ice age survivors. The director Pierangelo Pirak’s documentary is a concatenation of multiple short episodes exploring issues such as what […]

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Evolution Game – North Star Games (2014)

December 26, 2018 at 1:12 am / Evolution, Video

The concept of evolution is one of the central themes in Nature Documentaries. A review of games designed to teach evolution in Nature Magazine prompted a search for other endeavors. Among the three games reviewed Evolution was evaluated as by far the best. There has been quite a few attempts to introduce evolution in game format. One game called “Life as a Lizard” is adapted as a role play in classroom setting. Another game also explores major tenets of evolutionary […]

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OSIRIS-REx Mission to Asteroid Bennu – NASA (2018)

December 7, 2018 at 6:21 pm / Cosmological, Global Patterns, Video

How did our Sun, the Earth, and the planets form and evolve? Asteroids and comets are the early building blocks of the solar system. They even may hold clues to how life has started on our and perhaps in other planets. The asteroid Bennu contains information going back to four and a half billion years. Visitation and sample collection from asteroid Bennu will be very informative. Here you can watch a concatenation of four videos produced by the NASA Goddard […]

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Pygmy Seahorses as Masters of Camouflage – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2015)

November 13, 2018 at 7:51 pm / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Natural history, Video

Environmental cues can have profound effects on the developmental trajectory of juveniles. When predatory dragonfly nymphs are present, tadpoles develop bigger tails with fast twitch muscles. Similarly the crustacean water fleas (Daphnia) develop helmet structures preventing fish to swallow them easily. Epigenetics is a relatively new branch of genetics but we have learned quite a lot in a few decades. The molecular mechanism of what evolutionary biologists described as phenotypic plasticity – biological ability to generate multiple phenotypes from a […]

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Sinister Cannibals or Nurturing Fathers?

November 11, 2018 at 9:16 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

In majority of sexually reproducing species females are the choosy ones. Generally, females invest more in offspring during pregnancy and post-natal care. Males try many tricks (fighting with other males, making elaborate dances, providing nuptial gifts, carrying showy and difficult to maintain body ornaments etc.) to prevent being filtered out in female preferences. Parental investment is a determinant in choosiness. In this post we will take a look at a spectrum of male behavior in parental care. Pipefishes and mudskippers […]

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Let Them Eat Flies! KQED/QUEST (2014)

November 3, 2018 at 10:15 am / Ecological Documentaries, PBS Nature, Video

Insects are a hugely successful group of organisms. Their evolution transformed life on land immensely especially influencing flowering plant evolution. Insects also play a large role as food sources. Here in this KQED documentary we see how a fly farm in Ohio rears a common insect, the black soldier fly (Hermetia illucens) to be used as food for fish farms. Some City farms have successfully been growing fish beneath the plants which helps recycling of nutrients reducing fertilizer use. Aquaponics […]

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What Gall! The Crazy Cribs of Parasitic Wasps – Deep Look – PBS/KQED (2015)

November 2, 2018 at 11:45 am / Evolution, Natural history, PBS Nature, Video

Another fascinating episode from a series produced by PBS/KQED: Deep Look… Gall formations are indeed one of the most interesting examples of plant-animal interactions. Gall-inducing wasps are plant parasites. The larvae hijack the chemical signaling pathways by secreting two plant hormones auxin and cytokinin which induce abnormal cell divisions leading to gall formation. In certain instances anthocyanin production pathways become upregulated and this gives most of the gall tissues their characteristic red color. Larvae also induce sugary secretions and literally […]

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Associates of Eciton burchellii – Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer (2009)

October 28, 2018 at 10:51 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed entirely on location at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica this film is one of the two part documentary series produced by Rettenmeyers. Both documentaries harbor so much natural history that there’s almost no break during the narration. Over the course of 55 years, Carl Rettenmeyer of the University of Connecticut and his wife Marian enthusiastically studied the army ant (Eciton burchellii) and their associates. Throughout this period Carl Rettenmeyer became the world’s leading expert on army […]

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Astonishing Army Ants – Carl & Marian Rettenmeyer (2009)

October 28, 2018 at 10:50 am / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Filmed entirely on location at La Selva Biological Field Station in Costa Rica this film is one of the two part documentary series produced by Rettenmeyers. Both documentaries harbor so much natural history that there’s almost no break during the narration. Over the course of 55 years, Carl Rettenmeyer of the University of Connecticut and his wife Marian enthusiastically studied the army ant (Eciton burchellii) and their associates. Throughout this period Carl Rettenmeyer became the world’s leading expert on army […]

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Welcome to the Anthropocene – a Film About the State of the Planet – UN Rio+20 Summit (2012)

October 17, 2018 at 1:03 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

Due to Human activities our planet has now reported to have entered into a “no analog state”. This means our planet has never experienced fast changing present-day conditions in its geological and evolutionary history. The closest geological event to what is happening now is known as (PETM) Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. PETM took place 56 million years ago. Changes happening now is way too fast, much faster than those in PETM. We are indeed in a no analog state in ecological […]

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Siccar Point: The Birthplace of Modern Geology – British Geological Survey

August 19, 2018 at 8:56 pm / Global Patterns, Video

The World was a rather different place in the late 18th century. A great majority of people in the West believed the Earth was not older than 6,000 years old. Rocks were formed immediately after the Biblical flood of Noah. Fossils were simply the remains of animals that had died in the flood. Scientific facts that are so obvious to us today such as plate tectonics and continental drift were not connected. For instance, a core tenet is the geological […]

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REDD+ on the Threshold – Gemma Sethsmith (2011)

August 3, 2018 at 8:44 am / Ecological Documentaries, Global Patterns, Human Nature, Video

The promise of REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation) is fairly straightforward: Forest owners keep their standing vegetation intact and in return get compensated by polluters. There are already established strong protective traditions in some local communities such as the indigenous Mayan cantones in the state of Totonicapán, Guatemala, Kichwa tribe of the Ecuador and many others around the World. REDD+ is an economical model developed by Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) […]

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The White Pine Weevil’s Life Cycle – Ray Asselin

August 1, 2018 at 1:43 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Tree architecture is affected by many factors. Genetics is a major determinant. Hundreds of genes coordinate to determine the stature of a tree. Conifers have strong apical dominance in their growth and plant hormones such as the auxin play a lead role in its maintenance. When the apical dominance is lost due to loss of the apical meristem located at the top of shoot tip the branching pattern of a tree changes. Apical meristem can be lost due to physical […]

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A Stunning Artwork by the Japanese Puffer Fish – BBC Life

July 30, 2018 at 1:45 pm / Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The evolutionary origins of nest building behavior in vertebrates are deep rooted and go all the way back to the fish. The behavior can be very complex with stunning results such as that of the Japanese puffer fish. When the behavior was documented for the first time by Japanese divers it created a big excitement among biologist. Here in this short observation the selective pressures on the male puffer fish exceeds those from predation and nest parasitism but purely sexual. […]

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Seed Dispersal by Dung Mimicry – Nature (2015)

July 20, 2018 at 3:47 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

Plant-animal interactions have not always evolved to become mutualistic win-win strategies like birds dispersing seeds of palms while feeding on the fruits. Plants can be rather deceptive. They can hijact sensory vulnerabilities of animals. Secondary metabolites such as nicotine, caffeine, codeine can be rather addictive. Plant chemicals can also be used as deterrent. A sub-Saharan desert plant taily weed (Ochradenus baccatus) detonates a mustard bomb in the mouths of seed predators who dare to chew and destroy its seeds. Plant […]

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