Battles of the sexes [ 9:40 | 8.85 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

In this edition of Field Talk, we catch up with Ethan Temeles, a biologist at Amherst College, who tells us a tale of competition among the sexes in Caribbean hummingbirds – competition so severe that it drives their evolution. The short, straight bills of male purple-throated caribs and the long, curved bills of female caribs [...]

Lizard Evolution and the Ants In Your Pants Dance [ 9:36 | 8.78 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Invasive red fire ants from South America have become a major pest in southwestern U.S., bringing their stinging venom and crop-destroying ways. In this edition of Field Talk, we catch up with Tracy Langkilde, assistant professor of biology at Penn State University, who studies one of the ants’ seemingly unlikely targets: eastern fence lizards. The [...]

Candy canes as plant defenses [ 10:33 | 9.66 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

What would make a plant want to stop growing towards the sun and instead grow downward? Michael Wise of the University of Virginia studies a species of goldenrod that grows toward the ground for part of the spring months, creating a morphology that looks a lot like a candy cane. He explains that this “candy-cane” [...]