January 14th, 2021, 11:00AM / BY Abigail Eisenstadt
The Volta’s electric eel,
Electrophorus voltai, emits the strongest shocks of any animal on Earth. Although these eels were thought to be loners, the species was recently seen hunting in a group. (L. Sousa)
A group of crows is called a murder and a group of lemurs is called a conspiracy. But there is no name for a group of electric eels. That’s because in the past scientists thought they were solitary animals.
Today, a new paper in
Ecology and Evolution challenges what researchers know about eels’ supposed loner behavior. Researchers have now discovered a group of electric eels working together to attack small fish in the Brazilian Amazon River basin. The eels, which are a type of knifefish rather than true eels, were once thought to be loners who preyed alone.
December 21st, 2020, 6:00AM / BY Abigail Eisenstadt
The original photos from late 1800s by famous snowflake photographer Wilson “Snowflake” Bentley, are stored in the Smithsonian Archives. His pictures were instrumental in helping scientists examine snow’s crystalline properties. (Erin Malsbury, Smithsonian Open Access, Wilson A. Bentley)
Winter officially begins today, and cold weather fanatics are hoping for snow. But snowfall brings more than wintry fun. This beautiful weather event gives scientists the chance to examine a fascinating substance with unique properties.
“Snowflakes are single crystals of ice and ice is basically a mineral that melts at a lower temperature than other minerals do,” said Dr. Jeffrey Post, Curator-in-Charge of Gems and Minerals at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History.