Or how research really goes in the field! Everyone talks about research being done in the field. It can sound glamorous, especially when the results are exactly what you hope for or even expect. But the reality is just the opposite. More often than not, it is what you don’t find or what doesn’t work that helps you learn and adjust your experiment. Anthony Sena, a first … [Read more...]
Hometown Hero: The Blue-spotted Salamander
If towns are shutting down entire roads for you, you must be important, right? Every spring in central New Jersey, temporary road closures are created to protect amphibians who migrate across roads in search of perfect mating grounds. In March and April as the temperatures warm to 40-45 degrees, amphibians including frogs and salamanders make the trek from their winter homes in … [Read more...]
What can snakes on Madagascar teach us about evolution?
Arianna Kuhn, PhD Candidate, City University of New York, American Museum of Natural History As a PhD candidate at the City University of New York, my current work aims to understand the evolutionary events that cause new species to form, but my career in herpetology actually began with geckos from Africa! As an undergraduate at Villanova University, I knew that I … [Read more...]
The Search for Urban Snakes in NJ
Written by Tianqi Huang, a PhD student majoring in Ecology and Evolution at Rutgers University - New Brunswick , currently working on urban snake ecology. Tianqi is co-advised by Dr. Peter Morin and Dr. Sara Ruane. Nowadays, a large proportion of world’s population lives in urban areas, but we know that cities are not only home to … [Read more...]
East Brunswick, NJ Shuts Down Road For Salamander Migration
Originally posted February 11, 2020 | Updated Feb 12, 2020 at Patch.com. Re-posted with permission from author, Carly Baldwin, Patch Staff. Yup, you read that correctly. One of the earliest signs of spring in central New Jersey is the annual salamander and frog migration. EAST BRUNSWICK, NJ — New Jersey residents are used to roads closing for flooding, downed trees … [Read more...]
Poachers and habitat loss are endangering these N.J. snakes. This professor works to keep the reptiles safe.
Originally posted Sep 29, 2019 at NJ.com. Re-posted with permission from author, Avalon Zoppo, NJ Advance Media. Deep in the Pine Barrens, poachers can wander for hours at a time. Their eyes scan the forest floor for dull orange, camouflaged corn snakes, a state-endangered reptile long threatened by a combination of encroaching development and collectors who sell … [Read more...]
Rutgers Herpetologist Shares 2019 Travels!
Dr. Sara Ruane, Rutgers Herpetologist and Evolutionary Biologist, shares her awesome 2019 travels with us. Louisiana In April, I went to Louisiana to collect genetic samples from snakes with my former PhD advisor, Frank, a curator at the American Museum of Natural History, and his postdoc, Skip. This collecting was for some projects that we are working on together and to … [Read more...]
Making the World Your Office: Traveling for Research
There are many avenues of work that a research-type occupation or program can, and most likely will, take you in. As you enter into a research career, especially one in the realm of biology, you will find yourself in an actual office environment, but you may also find yourself in a lab, trying to get the data that your thesis or dissertation is dependent on (and for graduate … [Read more...]
Virginia Tech paleontologist finds, names new 3-foot-tall relative of Tyrannosaurus rex
This article was first published in the May 7, 2019 Virginia Tech News https://vtnews.vt.edu/ A new relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex – much smaller than the huge, ferocious dinosaur made famous in countless books and films, including, yes, "Jurassic Park" - has been discovered and named by a Virginia Tech paleontologist and an international team of scientists. The … [Read more...]
Paleontologists identify small fossils as that of oldest frog relative found in North America
This article was first published in the February 27, 2019 Virginia Tech News https://vtnews.vt.edu/. A team of paleontologists led by Virginia Tech’s Michelle Stocker and Sterling Nesbitt of the Department of Geosciences have identified fossil fragments of what are thought to be the oldest known frogs in North America. The fossils are composed of several … [Read more...]