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.
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...
A new vitamin hiding in plain light
One secret of balanced nutrition may be a malodorous acid which human cells cannot make for themselves. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Osteoporosis and skin cancer are both caused by...
Cancer as a perverse revolution back to the primordial germ
When fomented in oxidant shadows and fuelled by sugary blood, an internal rebellion can turn cancerous. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Cancer is caused by cells that suffer random...
Seeing the light for the trees
The mainstream logic, that trees outgrow each other to compete for light, cannot stand acute scrutiny. Prof. Mumblebard claims: “Competition for light is a textbook example of a...
The nutritional wings of the tallest of all flightless birds
The reason why moa filled niches usually associated with mammals was an unappreciated poverty of crucial nutrients. Three trace elements gave birds a particular physiological...
Fat mephitids not allowed in the Old World
Did human ascent preclude skunk survival? Prof. Mumblebard claims: “In the New World, the skunk family is widespread from central Canada in the north to Patagonia in...
Why no native counterparts for eucalypts in southern Africa?
With so many ancestral myrtles to shape, there must be a good reason why natural selection said no to the idea of African eucalypts. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Although Australia...
What is the real value of a kidney?
Remembering that even the heartbeat was misunderstood for centuries, could the kidney yet prove to be . . . an oxido-transformer? Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Renal function is no...
Divergent adaptations of rock-wallabies and rock hyraxes
Evolution over fifty million years should have shaped the ancestors of rock-wallabies and rock hyraxes similarly. It did not, because of different predators. Prof. Mumblebard...
Why elephants defecate wantonly
Lipid energy is a priority for the largest animals, explaining why collateral food components are abandoned to the dung beetles. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Elephants digest so...
Why there is no such thing as a migratory carnivore
Carnivores fail to migrate with their ungulate prey because of energetic, not reproductive, limitations. Prof. Mumblebard claims: The reason why no predator can fully...
Why external ears are redundant in birds
No bird uses external pinnae to sense the direction of sound. This is because birds have effectively turned the mammalian ear outside-in. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "Because birds...
Kiwi were no solution to a mammalian vacuum
Monotremes or bats had a head start over even the most mammal-like of birds in filling empty niches on stray fragments of Gondwana. Prof. Mumblebard claims: "No terrestrial...
Time did not limit evolution in Zealandia
The tens of millions of years during which various mammals lived in Gondwana and on the shores of Zealandia were ample time for the evolution of an indigenous fauna of land...
Random mutation is antithetical to natural selection
The genetic mutation that results in biological evolution cannot logically be erratic, because the very nature of natural selection is to make mutants adaptive. Prof. Mumblebard...