{"id":93916,"date":"2024-02-12T16:45:44","date_gmt":"2024-02-12T21:45:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/?post_type=news&#038;p=93916"},"modified":"2024-02-12T16:45:44","modified_gmt":"2024-02-12T21:45:44","slug":"glowing-waterdogs-and-farting-rivers-a-duke-forest-research-tour","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/news\/glowing-waterdogs-and-farting-rivers-a-duke-forest-research-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"Glowing Waterdogs and Farting Rivers: A Duke Forest Research Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"img-responsive\" src=\"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Duke_aquatic_macroinvertebrates_800w.jpg\" alt=\"Jonny Behrens looks for aquatic macroinvertebrates with Duke Forest Research Tour participants.\" \/><span style=\"font-size:0.85em;\">Jonny Behrens looks for aquatic macroinvertebrates with Duke Forest Research Tour participants.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>By <a href=\"https:\/\/researchblog.duke.edu\/author\/stc35duke-edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Sophie Cox<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>We walked down a short trail by the creek, and the tour split into two groups. Our group walked farther along the stream to meet two herpetologists studying the elusive dwarf waterdog.<\/p>\n<p>Bryan Stuart, Ph.D., Research Curator of Herpetology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences, and Ron Grunwald, Ph.D., Duke University Senior Lecturer Emeritus, are involved in a study looking for dwarf waterdog salamanders (Necturus punctatus) in New Hope Creek. Dwarf waterdogs are paedomorphic, Stuart said, meaning they retain larval characteristics like external gills and a flat tail throughout their lives. In fact, the genus name Necturus means \u201ctail swimmer\u201d in reference to the species\u2019s flat tail.<\/p>\n<p>According to Stuart, on October 3, 1954, Duke professor and herpetologist Joe Bailey collected a dwarf waterdog in New Hope Creek. It was the first record of the species in Orange County.<\/p>\n<p>The Duke Forest is in the westernmost part of the species\u2019 Piedmont range, though it extends farther west in parts of the sandhills. \u201cTo have a dwarf waterdog record in Orange County\u2014that\u2019s almost as interesting as it gets,\u201d Stuart said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/researchblog.duke.edu\/2024\/01\/25\/glowing-waterdogs-and-farting-rivers-a-duke-forest-research-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read the whole post on the Duke Research Blog<\/a><\/h3>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":93918,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/93916"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/93916\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naturalsciences.org\/calendar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93916"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}