The hills near Missoula, Montana, are changing, native grasses and other plants increasingly squeezed out by nonnative plants. Knapweed, cinquefoil, and other weeds aren’t only changing the look of this ecosystem but its very structure. As ecologist Dean Pearson’s research has shown, however, some species are benefitting from the changed habitat in unexpected ways. You just have to look closely to see them. Photo Credit: Dean Pearson read moreDuration: 5:02Published: Wed, 10 Aug 2011 16:30:48 +0000
Amber Harris, from Casey Dunn's Invertebrate Zoology (Biol 0410) course at Brown University, tells the story of jumping spider courtship.
Visit http://creaturecast.org for more stories about the unexpected world of Biology. For more information on the mating rituals of jumping spiders visit the Elias Lab at http://nature.berkeley.edu/eliaslab/ .
The hand-drawn animations were photographed at the Brown University Science Center (brown.edu/academics/science-center/). Thanks also to the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts (http://www.brown.edu/academics/creative-arts-council/granoff). Music by scottaltham (http://ccmixter.org/files/scottaltham/18619) and Weston Wyse (http://ccmixter.org/people/WestonWyse).
[taxonomy:binomial=Phidippus clarus]
