Periodical cicadas – insects that count
If you live in the eastern United States, chances are your ears have come in contact with some really loud, recklessly theatrical insects...
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Parwinder Kaur
- Sep 19
- 4 min
The Spectacled Hare-Wallaby: Nature's Cutest Eyewear Enthusiast
Today, we're diving into the enchanting world of the West Australian local eyewear icon - Spectacled Hare-Wallaby, scientifically known...
144 views
Bill Ballard
- Sep 17
- 1 min
A fetching assembly
The New Guinea Singing Dog (NGSD) is an ancient lineage of dogs that have been found in the New Guinea Highlands. Once considered a...
114 views
Dustin Rubenstein
- Sep 14
- 1 min
Digging up mole-rat assembly data
The Cape dune mole-rat, Bathyergus suillus is the largest of the African mole-rats in the family Bathyergidae. It is a truly subterranean...
67 views
Corey Kirkland, Marta Farré
- Sep 11
- 2 min
Don’t go chasing waterbuck
Corey Kirkland, Marta Farré Waterbuck (Kobus ellipsiprymnus) are a species of antelope distributed across central and southern Africa....
138 views
Ren Larison
- Aug 28
- 2 min
It's all Grevy
Grévy’s zebras (Equus grevyi) are distinguished from the other two zebra species by their large size and elegant, slender stripes....
82 views
Patricia Saragüeta
- Aug 11
- 3 min
Earresistable puzzle: decoding the plains vizcacha
The South American plains vizcacha (Lagostomus maximus, Desmarest, 1817) is a rodent that inhabits the Southern area of the Neotropical...
181 views
Parwinder Kaur
- Aug 3
- 2 min
Brewing genomes
Australia produces high quality barley, with annual production averaging over 9 million tonnes/year. It is a widely grown crop (second in...
65 views
Parwinder Kaur
- Jul 24
- 2 min
The cat's out of the bag
The Pallas’s cat (Otocolobus manul) aka manul is a small wild cat similar in size to a domestic cat. It has a stocky build and a long,...
178 views
Parwinder Kaur
- Jun 21
- 2 min
Hopperation wallaroo genome annotation
This post is about the common wallaroo (Osphranter robustus) or, in the language of Indigenous Australians, Nurungga. The name “wallaroo”...
190 views
Emily Humble
- Jun 12
- 2 min
Don’t desert us!
The addax (Addax nasomaculatus) is considered the most desert adapted antelope on the planet but is also among the most endangered, with...
227 views
Quentin Martinez
- Apr 26
- 3 min
Nosy knowtrias
Also known as the nutria, the coypu (Myocastor coypus [Molina, 1782]), is a large amphibious rodent from about 5 to 7 kg (Woods et al....
178 views
Parwinder Kaur, Karam Singh & Lars Kamphuis
- Apr 13
- 2 min
The pest is yet to come
The bluegreen aphid, or blue alfalfa aphid (Acyrthosiphon kondoi), is a species of aphid found in many regions of the world, including...
163 views
Anastasia Proskuryakova
- Mar 20
- 2 min
Don't rein on our parade
Reindeer (Rangifer tarandus L. 1758), or caribou, is a prominent semi-domesticated cervid species (family Cervidae, subfamily...
153 views
P. Kaur, G. Lento, P. Perelman
- Feb 20
- 3 min
Seals fur reals
Arctocephalus forsteri, a species of fur seal found mainly around southern Australia and New Zealand, is an animal of many a common name....
184 views
Polina Perelman
- Feb 13
- 3 min
Oncillary function
The oncilla (Leopardus tigrinus), aka the “small jaguar”, graciously walks the neotropical rainforests from Costa Rica in Central America...
209 views
Polina Perelman
- Feb 3
- 3 min
Sei to shining sei
Sei whales (Balaenoptera borealis) are part of the group of toothless whales Myticeti or baleen whales. Fast swimming (up to 50 km/h (31...
148 views
S. Kliver, P. Marinari, & K.Koepfli
- Jan 26
- 2 min
Getting off on the black foot
Black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) once occupied much of the grasslands of the North American Great Plains. Starting in the 19th...
168 views
Ruqayya Khan
- Jan 23
- 1 min
Hoppy new year!
Happy Year of the Rabbit everyone! To celebrate, we share the chromosome-length assembly of the New England cottontail, Sylvilagus...
118 views
Aurora Ruiz-Herrera & Terence J. Robinson
- Dec 21, 2022
- 3 min
Decoding the big five
African elephants of which there are two species (the savanna elephant Loxodonta africana, and its smaller cousin, the forest elephant...
211 views
Samuel Fellows
- Dec 6, 2022
- 2 min
A top-notch blotch
Common side-blotched lizards (Uta stansburiana) are a ubiquitous lizard of the North American deserts. These lizards inhabit an...
181 views
David Weisz
- Dec 2, 2022
- 1 min
SRA update for 325 genome assemblies
We are excited to report that with our last assembly release we've hit the 325 assemblies mark, which means it's time to do some raw...
197 views
Polina Perelman
- Nov 21, 2022
- 2 min
A short furrytail
Off the coast of southern California, there is a group of small islands - Channel Islands. About 7000 years ago, mainland grey foxes...
159 views
Ruqayya Khan
- Nov 15, 2022
- 2 min
Mongoose on the loose
The small Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata) may be a small carnivorous species, but it has managed to have an incredibly large...
157 views
Parwinder Kaur & Kevin C. Rowe
- Nov 9, 2022
- 2 min
Rally for the rakali
The rakali is an Australian native rodent first described in 1804. It's scientific name, Hydromys chrysogaster, translates to...
193 views
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