The first before-and-after view of an amphibian die-off has just been published by scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Genetic barcoding of the entire amphibian community revealed a 33 percent loss of amphibian evolutionary history at the site.

Rare plant species are much more negatively affected by the presence of their own species as neighbors than are common species. This may explain how biodiversity arises and is maintained.

The answer to one of life's great unsolved mysteries lies underground, according to a study published in the journal, Nature based on work at the Smithsonian's Barro Colorado Island in Panama.

Researchers at the University of Puerto Rico, School of Medicine have found a way to pharmacologically induce a memory of safety in the brain of rats. Administering brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) into the prefrontal cortex prevented rats from expressing fear to a tone that had been previously paired with a shock. Rats given BDNF acted as if they had received repeated presentations of the tone without the shock, a procedure called extinction.

While trying to understand a disease that is wiping out frogs worldwide, researchers discovered a new frog species.

For the first time, researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute track unique signals from tiny transmitters glued to individual orchid bees, yielding new insight into the role of bees in tropical forest ecosystems.

Young giant sharks, now extinct, may have grown up in shallow water nurseries, according to new findings from Panama's Gatun Formation.

The fifth Howler Monkey census at the Smithsonian's Barro Colorado Island research station in Panama, organized by Katie Milton, University of California, Berkeley, revealed that monkey numbers have not changed significantly since the first census 33 years ago.

In the first barcoding survey of sand flies in Panama, scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Gorgas Memorial Laboratories identified 20 sand fly species from Barro Colorado Island. Two species carried Leishmania naiffi, a parasite that causes cutaneous leishmaniasis. Three species carried Wolbachia, a bacterial parasite of insects that could contribute to a strategy to control the flies and limit disease transmission.