Our Blog
Note to readers: ‘Biological Expositions’ is a series of blog-posts each of which is equivalent in content to a book chapter. If a bio-bullet is likened to a starter, our routine blog-post could be seen as a light lunch and a biological exposition as a three course meal. We look forward to your comments on this series.
The dagger looks of golden toads
Black eyes can be poisonous exclamations in orange frogs. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Most species of frogs have prominent eyes. Despite this, frogs avoid using their eyes for...
Frogs’ tails hiding in plain sight
De-tailed amphibians conceal a hiptail of unknown potential. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Frogs are consistently tailless despite varying greatly in other respects and having...
Frogs are more dexterous than lizards
Primitive amphibians can be surprisingly handy. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Frogs remain at a lower evolutionary level than lizards. Although certain frogs possess an...
Happy festering in the lives of tadpoles
Frogs grow on soup, not vegetables. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “The free-swimming larvae of most frogs worldwide are herbivorous. Whereas the adults eat animals, the larvae of...
Why no southern salamanders?
Urodeles have a continental form. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Salamanders have varied habitats but are restricted to the Northern Hemisphere except for one genus which...
The riddle of the failed frogs of Gondwana
Zealandic amphibians are a damp squib. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “New Zealand, like Tasmania and Patagonia at similar latitudes, is a former piece of Gondwana. However, it...
A thumbs-up on amphibians
Digital opposability in perching frogs. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Living amphibians consistently retain only four fingers on the forelimb. The missing digit is either number 5,...
The paradox of the fire-loving crayfishes
Buttongrass as a pyrotechnic engineer. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Through evolutionary time, fire has controlled the structure of vegetation, determining whether a landscape is...
Archaeopteryx is neither the first bird nor a bird in the first place
Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Archaeopteryx has stood the test of time as a primitive bird and as proof of the evolution of dinosaurs into birds. Although this particular genus...
Aposematic uniformism in butterflies versus mob-mentality in forest birds
Is Müllerian mimicry a misnomer and a non-concept in Lepidoptera? Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Coexisting butterflies with warning colouration tend to resemble each other even...
Plumosaurs flew as dinosaurs, not as proto-birds
Some feathered reptiles evolved into birds, but others flew in parallel right until all dinosaurs died. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Flapping flight has only evolved thrice in...
Authentic mega-killers kept their mouths shut
Why would any felid flaunt what’s obvious? Prof. Mumblebard claims: “The extinct Smilodon, largest of all sabretooth cats, is particularly well-known because of the...
Five newly revealed ‘conspicu-cats’
Black-and-white armbands remind bullies that small cats can punch above their weight. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Skunks defend themselves by spraying obnoxious...
What lies behind the kidney’s iron curtain?
Despite its rusty colour, urine is revealingly rust-free. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “A main function of the human kidney is to excrete toxic substances including any excesses...
Which predatory identity does this goby mimic?
Eyespots on the dorsal fins of the twinspot goby are startling for the overlooked coexistence of a family of fierce crabs. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Like other ocellated...
An explanation for sexual skew in the priapiumfish
Extremely complex pudenda occur in some of the smallest of vertebrates. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “The position and the proportional size and complexity of the intromittent...
Coital fanging in a giant cartilaginous fish
The longest tooth of the basking shark is a phallic grapple of the vagina. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “It is axiomatic that dentition and genitalia are mutually exclusive in...
Does rickets show clinical deficiency of boron?
The quintessential osseous mineral is one scarcer than calcium. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Regardless of the semantics of whether it is a vitamin or a prohormone, calciferol...
When does parroting qualify as speech?
Parrots speak with us in the same sense that we swim with the dolphins. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "It goes without saying that no animal can speak any human language. Admittedly...
D stands for delete as vitamin
The brightest of steroid hormones is also the most confused. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Vitamin D is a good example of a vitamin because it is required in small amounts, is...
Anglophone biology suffers from orange-blindness
Yellowred may be a funny colour, but its denial by mammalogists is even funnier. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "It is understandable that extremely few mammal species are called...