Science News of the Year: 1998
Back to Science News of 1998
Botany & Zoology
- Two coelacanths caught in Indonesia represent only the second known
population of these living fossil fish, despite some 50 years of searching (Sept. 26, vol. 154: p. 196*).
- African wild dogs burn more energy than predicted, raising concerns
about hyenas' habit of snitching the endangered dogs' catches (Feb. 14, vol. 153: p. 104).
- Researchers identified the bacterium causing an unusually virulent
coral disease, plague type II (April 11, vol. 153: p. 229*).
- Finnish butterflies provided the first demonstration outside of
laboratories that inbreeding leads to extinction (April 4, vol. 153: p. 214).
- Research teams found what they say is the first evidence of
infanticide among dolphins (July 18, vol. 154: p. 36*).
- Iguanas that washed ashore on hurricane debris probably traveled more
than 200 miles between Caribbean islands, the best evidence yet that animal species can
spread by rafting (Oct. 24, vol. 154: p. 267).
- Controversy flared over whether sores on fish, used as one of the
keys for closing rivers during Pfiesteria fish kills, come from the microbe's toxin
or from an unrelated fungus (Oct. 10, vol. 154: p. 231).
- Fire ants will kill their queen if she carries a certain form of a
gene—possibly the first, long-sought example of a so-called green-beard gene, one
that marks its bearer for special treatment from other members of its species (Aug. 8,
vol. 154: p. 86).
- Male stalked-eyed flies with extra-long stalks, which females prefer,
father more sons and have more descendants—a rare case of a sexual ornament that
advertises real benefits (Jan. 17, vol. 153: p. 36*).
- A group of soil fungi that form partnerships with plant roots turn
out to be important in determining diversity and productivity of plant communities (Dec.
5, vol. 154: p. 366).
- If female fruit flies have a choice of mates for 10 generations,
offspring live longer than flies from lineages of females with only one possible mate
(Sept. 12, vol. 154: p. 168).
- In a rare demonstration of links between major ecosystems, dwindling
of prey in deep water seems to have driven killer whales to kelp forests, where they
devastate sea otters (Oct. 17, vol. 154: p. 245).
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