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Devonian Fossil Forest of Gilboa

January 10, 2018 at 5:23 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

Spectacularly preserved plant remains unearthed at the Riverside Quarry site in Gilboa, NY date from the Middle Devonian period, approximately 390 million years ago. The site of the “oldest fossil forest” was found in the 1920s. Here in this playlist you can watch six videos highlighting the findings. The videos feature two paleontologists William Stein of the Binghamtom University and Christopher Berry of Cardiff University. The Devonian period was a hugely transformational time for land plants evolving towards forest ecosystems. […]

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Largest Egg Mass Ever Observed – Lütfü Tanrıöver (2015)

January 9, 2018 at 12:55 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations

On July 9th 2015, a Turkish underwater videographer Lütfü Tanrıöver encountered a curious semi-transparent gelatinous mass at a depth of 22 meters (72 feet) while diving with his friends near his hometown of Fethiye on the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia. As every citizen scientist instinctively would, he explored and successfully recorded this observation of huge biological importance on film. It didn’t take long before the BBC Wildlife Service reached out to him about the observation. According to Dr. Michael Vecchione […]

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Sharing The Secrets – Drew Perlmutter (2015)

January 7, 2018 at 10:11 am / Ecological Documentaries, Video

Caves are powerfull places. Our ancestors were inevitably attracted to these geological formations. Prehistoric cave art that has flourished within the last 50 thousand years is an exciting demonstration of our ancestral relationship with these places. The filmmaker Drew Perlmutter brings the story of cave explorers in “TAG” region to the surface. The geology of the Tennessee, Alabama and Georgia is quite unique that has lead to many cave formations. In fact, the region is home to the highest concentration […]

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Forest Elephants – The New Yorker (2015)

January 4, 2018 at 10:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

African forest elephants have been featured in quite a few documentaries including the tropical rainforests episode of the Planet Earth series. Here in this short documentary we listen to Andrea Turkalo’s wonderful lecture on behavior of these charismatic megafaunal animals. She has been observing the elephants in Dzanga Research Camp at the Dzanga-Sangha National Park in Central African Republic for more than two decades. Andrea Turkalo is Associate Conservation Scientist at the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) and cofounder of Cornell […]

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The Tiniest Fossils – Shelf Life/AMNH (2017)

January 3, 2018 at 9:20 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

Foraminiferans or “forams” are extremely fast responding single-celled shelled organisms to climatic changes. They can be extremely small for one could easily mistake foraminifera fossils for flecks of dust. Over thousands and millions of years these tiny specimens adjusted their shapes based on Earth’s climatic fluctuations. Here in this AMNH production scientific assistant Bushra Hussaini, researcher Ellen Thomas, curator Neil Landman, and intern Shaun Mahmood show how they are preserving this invaluable collection. Forams initially were mistaken for another kind […]

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Collecting the World: Inside the Smithsonian – Great Big Story (2017)

January 2, 2018 at 7:46 pm / Evolution, Natural history, Video

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History (NMHM) in Washington D.C. was visited by more than 7.1 million people in year 2016. The museums rich collection has over 144 million different artifacts. Only a very small fraction (less than 1 percent) of these collections are on display to the public. The bottom of the iceberg, the 99 percent of the Smithsonian’s treasures remain behind the scenes. Scientists and curators work with these objects to study and understand the world we […]

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What is the Tragedy of the Commons? – Nicholas Amendolare | TED-Ed (2017)

January 1, 2018 at 8:46 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Human Nature, Video

The tragedy of the commons is an economic hypothesis popularized in 1968 by ecologist Garrett Hardin. The concept was examined in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins with a game theoretical framework. The Tragedy of the Commons predicts ecological degradation due to human conflict of self-interest over the long-term well-being of their community. There are many examples of common resource exploitation such as destruction of cashew trees in Mozambic. However, this theory was heavily […]

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Kīlauea Summit Eruption | Lava Returns to Halemaʻumaʻu – USGS (2017)

January 1, 2018 at 12:18 pm / Global Patterns, Video

The sight of liquid molten rock is a stunning experience and has inspired many filmmakers to capture it. The Greek geographer Strabo provides the first historical and technical account of a lava field from a belt of extinct volcanoes in Turkey. This area is now declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In March 2008, a new volcanic vent opened within Halema‘uma‘u, a crater at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano in Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park on the Island of Hawaiʻi. […]

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The Lava Affair – SKUNK BEAR/NPR (2015)

December 31, 2017 at 10:34 pm / Global Patterns, Video

Continents float on a massive ocean of magma and lava is what we observe when it reaches to the surface. The first technical description of lava flow comes from the Greek geographer Strabo in his book. He describes the Katakekaumene, which means the “burnt country” referring to a region of around 1,800 km2 in western Anatolia. The region harbors a dormant volcanic belt within the town of Kula which has been declared as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The volcanism […]

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The Lichenologist – Matthew Killip (2017)

November 28, 2017 at 7:56 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Video

This is the second installment from the filmmaker Matthew Killip following the “-omist/ogist” theme. Evolution of cooperation is a curious subject for biologists. The evolution of cooperation is investigated within the framework of game theory and has been encapsulated in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins. How do organisms belonging to different kingdoms coordinate to live together? What are the rules of symbiosis? Lichens provide this type of study system where algae and fungi […]

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The Anomalies: Acorn Woodpecker – Nate Dappen & Neil Losin (2017)

November 28, 2017 at 11:48 am / Ecological Documentaries, Evolution, Natural history, Wildlife Documentaries

Acorn Woodpeckers (Melanerpes formicivorus) are quite distinctive from other woodpecker species: They are communal. How did the cooperative behavior evolve? Biologists are working on answers for this curious question. Evolution of cooperative behavior is a matter of game theory and has been encapsulated in a 1987 BBC documentary called “Nice Guys Finish First” by Richard Dawkins. One of the most ubiquitous example for cooperative behavior comes from ants. Why do certain individuals altruistically give up their reproduction and help others? […]

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Cave of Forgotten Dreams – Werner Herzog (2010)

November 23, 2017 at 8:02 pm / Human Nature, Video

Since its discovery in 1994 it was quickly realized that the Chauvet Cave of France harbors one of the most impressive art ever been studied belonging to Aurignacian. The Werner Herzog documentary articulates the findings in his characteristic story telling style. Archeologists had a bitter experience in opening such caves to public. The Lascaux cave paintings have been sadly damaged beyond repair due to increased humidity from visitors breath. Happily we can take a virtual tour of the Chauvet cave […]

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Ice Age Art – Arrival of the Modern Mind

November 23, 2017 at 4:28 pm / Evolution, Human Nature, Video

Starting from the middle paleolithic going back to 100 thousand years Human intellect shows strong signs of complex behavior. Cognitive capacity were in place to track seasons, animal movements and resources spatially distributed over large areas. Here you will find a concatenation of short clips compiled from scholarly resources such as the Nature Magazine, the British Museum, the Khan Academy, the Economist and the National Geographic all featuring great examples of art within the last 40,000 years. These include the […]

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Gene Silencing by MicroRNAs – Katharina Petsche (2015)

November 21, 2017 at 8:25 am / Evolution, Molecular Nature, Video

Welcome to another post of Molecular Nature series highlighting a gene silencing mechanism known as RNA interference. The animation was produced by Katharina Petsche. The discovery was made by Craig Mello and Andrew Fire who shared 2006 Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine. Please keep in mind that this video is quite advanced in content and assumes the viewers know about basic molecular biological concepts such as the Central Dogma of Biology. RNA interference (RNAi) is a process used by […]

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Chain Forming Leptogenys Ants from Cambodia – Stephane de Greef (2014)

November 15, 2017 at 10:00 pm / Ecological Documentaries, Natural history, Short Observations, Video, Wildlife Documentaries

The ant behavior described in these observations were first recorded by citizen scientists in Cambodia (see the original recording at the end of this post) where ants have been shown to form chains to transport large prey. The level of cooperation is so striking that myrmecologists scrambled to find out whether it is genuine. Two researchers have successfully documented the behavior by filming them in Angkor Thom, Siem Reap, Cambodia. Self-assembling cooperation in ants is known to take many interesting […]

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