Image
Related News
SIB's Commitment to Diversity and Equity
Dear SIB Community,
At the end of May, 2020, Chancellor Jones
sent out an email with a powerful message of unity for this campus - we must come together and care for one another. He reminds us that the University of Illinois is a "...
Image
When warblers warn of cowbirds, blackbirds get the message
This is the story of three bird species and how they interact. The brown-headed cowbird plays the role of outlaw: It lays its eggs in other birds’ nests and lets them raise its young – often at the expense of the host’s nestlings. To combat this threat, yellow warblers have developed a special “...
Image
Study tracks genomic changes that reinforce darter speciation
Researchers sequenced the genome of the orangethroat darter, pictured, and compared it with that of the rainbow darter, a closely related species. They also hybridized the two species to determine the factors that drive them to diverge.
Image
Professor Andrew Suarez elected AAAS Fellow
Eight professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, to include Entomology's and EEB's Andrew Suarez, have been elected 2019 Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
Suarez, a...
Image
Birds Raised by Other Species Use 'Password' to Recognize Their Own Kind
Cowbirds outsource parenting to other species, but an innate password tells their children to copy cowbird songs. Chicago's Sarah London, Illinois' Mark Hauber and Tokyo's...
Image
Fish fathers exhibit signatures of “baby brain” that may aid parental behavior
Many new parents are familiar with terms like “baby brain” or “mommy brain” that hint at an unavoidable decline in cognitive function associated with the hormonal changes of pregnancy, childbirth, and maternal caregiving. A new study of parental care in stickleback fish is a reminder that such...
Image
Bateman’s Cowbirds – A closer look at monogamy and polygamy in brood parasitic birds
Researchers at the University of Illinois have shown through a multi-year study that cowbirds (Molothrus ater) conform to Bateman’s Principle, which holds that reproductive success is greater in males than in females when they have more mates. Cowbirds are distinct from 99% of other bird...
Image
Illinois Units, Foundation Fund Purchase of Animal MRI at Beckman Institute
A Bruker 9.4 Tesla preclinical animal MRI system will be sited at the Beckman Institute. The addition of the system to the institute’s Biomedical Imaging Center will aid in research in many areas, including brain development and function, and cellular mechanisms in cancer. The installation project...
Image
Left eye? Right eye? American robins have preference when looking at decoy eggs
Just as humans are usually left- or right-handed, other species sometimes prefer one appendage, or eye, over the other. A new study reveals that American robins that preferentially use one eye significantly more than the other when looking at their own clutch of eggs are also more likely to detect...
