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Category: Zoology

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Cats and Birds: Friends or Foes?

Posted by: Angel Vu

This blog post was authored by Madison Arnold-Scerbo, a Library of Congress summer Junior Fellow in the Science Reference Section, and Tomoko Y. Steen, Ph.D., a Science Reference & Research Specialist in the Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library of Congress. Madison and Tomoko are also authors of the blog post “Can Cats …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Can Cats Speak to Us?

Posted by: Angel Vu

This blog post was authored by Madison Arnold-Scerbo, a Library of Congress summer Junior Fellow in the Science Reference Section, and Tomoko Y. Steen, Ph.D., a Science Reference & Research Specialist in the Science, Technology and Business Division of the Library of Congress. Many cat owners will tell you they can interpret the meaning of …

Scientific illustration of seashells

The Conchologists: Searching for Seashells in 19th Century America

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

In the 19th century naturalists and enlightened amateurs in the U.S. cultivated an understanding of the natural world of this new country by documenting new and known varieties of plant and animal species. One of these scientific pursuits was conchology- the study and collection of marine, freshwater and terrestrial shells. The story of American conchology …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Upcoming Lecture: Big Data and the Linkage of Federal Data Resources for Biodiversity Science

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

For those who seek conservation and biodiversity data sets, the USGS Core Science Analytics, Synthesis, and Libraries program has been working on integrating biological occurrence data into a national clearinghouse called the Biodiversity Information Serving Our Nation (BISON). Occurrence data is information about a specific species that was observed/collected/sensed at a specific place by a …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Arachnophilia: Celebrating Spiders on Halloween

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Spiders have been spinning their webs across the planet for hundreds of millions of years.  Without a doubt, we have forged a special relationship with these eight-legged wonders. One can find pictographs of spiders on the walls of the ancient site of Göbekli Tepe in Turkey, as well as references to spiders in mythology, creation …

1879 cover of the magazine Oologist

Oh, Oology!

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Here are two words to add to your lexicon: caliology and oology. Caliology is the study of bird nests- yes, there is a science for this! Birds are amazing architects and can build all sorts of nests depending on species and geography. There are scrape, hole/tunnel, platform, aquatic, cup-shaped, domed/roofed, mud, hanging/woven/stitched, mound,  and many …

Electro-photographic investigation showing a series of consecutive images of a man riding a horse, running in profile and towards the viewer.

Animal Locomotion: From Antiquity to the 21st Century

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

We have all marveled at the gracefulness of a cat leaping in the air, the swift movements of a hummingbird’s wings, the determined salmon swimming up river, the incredible precision of the marching feet of a millipede and the power of a galloping horse. Animals exhibit all types of movement- they walk, run, creep, hop, …

Silver stylized owl with radiant circles around its head, surrounded by a gold frame

Creatures of the Night

Posted by: Jennifer Harbster

Halloween is here and neighborhoods will be filled with magical, mysterious, and mystical creatures such as devils, ghosts, zombies, werewolves, witches, and vampires. We will also see plenty of bats displayed in homes, windows, and yards. On this holiday of the supernatural, the bat (Order Chiroptera) is a real-life creature of the night which may …