scholarly journals New opportunities at the wild frontier

eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Alfred ◽  
Ian T Baldwin

A better understanding of the natural history of model organisms will increase their value as model systems and also keep them at the forefront of research.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Ebert

Water fleas of the genus Daphnia are among the oldest model systems in biological research. Today, we know more about their natural history and ecology than of any other taxon. The Daphnia model also has left a notable mark on other fields. élie Metchnikoff used Daphnia to test his 1908 Nobel prize–winning idea that macrophages attack invading parasites as part of cellular immunity. August Weismann's studies of water fleas were instrumental in developing his theory that only germ cells transmit heritable information in animals. Richard Woltereck used Daphnia to develop the notion of phenotypic plasticity—that an organism can change its characteristics in response to the environment—an idea that still guides experiments with many organisms that distinguish genetic from environmental effects. With all of these historical achievements, why did the National Institutes of Health (NIH) only recently add Daphnia to its list of model organisms for biomedical research? Moreover, why has Daphnia, at this point in time, become NIH's 13th model system?


eLife ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M Parichy

Over the last two decades, the zebrafish has joined the ranks of premier model organisms for biomedical research, with a full suite of tools and genomic resources. Yet we still know comparatively little about its natural history. Here I review what is known about the natural history of the zebrafish, where significant gaps in our knowledge remain, and how a fuller appreciation of this organism's ecology and behavior, population genetics, and phylogeny can inform a variety of research endeavors.


eLife ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark E Hauber ◽  
Matthew IM Louder ◽  
Simon Grifith

The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is a socially monogamous and colonial opportunistic breeder with pronounced sexual differences in singing and plumage coloration. Its natural history has led to it becoming a model species for research into sex differences in vocal communication, as well as behavioral, neural and genomic theories of imitative auditory learning. As scientists tap into the genetic and behavioral diversity of both wild and captive lineages, the zebra finch will continue to inform research into culture, learning and social bonding, as well as adaptability to a changing climate.


eLife ◽  
2022 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E Westrick ◽  
Mara Laslo ◽  
Eva Fischer

The Puerto Rican coquí frog Eleutherodactylus coqui (E. coqui) is both a cultural icon and a species with an unusual natural history that has attracted attention from researchers in a number of different fields within biology. Unlike most frogs, the coquí frog skips the tadpole stage, which makes it of interest to developmental biologists. The frog is best known in Puerto Rico for its notoriously loud mating call, which has allowed researchers to study aspects of social behavior such as vocal communication and courtship, while the ability of coquí to colonize new habitats has been used to explore the biology of invasive species. This article reviews research on the natural history of E. coqui and opportunities for future research.


2010 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-182 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno J. Strasser

The rise of experimentation and the decline of natural history constitute the historiographic backbone to most narratives about the history of the life sciences in the twentieth century. As I argue here, however, natural history practices, such as the collection and comparison of data from numerous species, and experimental practices have actually converged throughout the century, giving rise to a new hybrid research culture which is essential to the contemporary life sciences. Looking at some examples of researchers who studied experimentally the relationships between organisms offers a unique window into how the norms, values, and practices of natural history entered the laboratory and, conversely, how the norms, values, and practices of experimentation transformed natural history. This paper concentrates on a largely overlooked episode in the history of the life sciences: the development of Alan A. Boyden's serological taxonomy. In the United States, from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, he was the most prominent advocate of this experimental approach in natural history. His quest for an objective method to understand the relationships among species, his creation of a serological museum where he could apply his comparative perspective, and his continued negotiations between natural historical and experimental traditions, illustrate the rise of a new hybrid research culture in the twentieth century. It also helps us solve a historiographic puzzle, namely how biological diversity become so central in the experimental life sciences, i.e., in a tradition which we generally understand as having focused on a few model organisms, and which relegated the study of biodiversity to naturalists and their museums.


2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannes Rakoczy

Abstract The natural history of our moral stance told here in this commentary reveals the close nexus of morality and basic social-cognitive capacities. Big mysteries about morality thus transform into smaller and more manageable ones. Here, I raise questions regarding the conceptual, ontogenetic, and evolutionary relations of the moral stance to the intentional and group stances and to shared intentionality.


2001 ◽  
Vol 120 (5) ◽  
pp. A128-A128 ◽  
Author(s):  
H MALATY ◽  
D GRAHAM ◽  
A ELKASABANY ◽  
S REDDY ◽  
S SRINIVASAN ◽  
...  

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