Feeding The Silver King

The Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus), nicknamed the silver king, is one of the world’s great saltwater sport fish due to its large size and spectacular fighting ability. Tarpon can reach over 8 feet and 350 pounds. When hooked, they have a penchant for leaping from the water. Tarpon inhabit warm coastal Atlantic waters from the […]

Life and Death on the Florida Prairie

Florida and prairie are two words not typically associated with each other. Yet, just outside Gainesville, in north central Florida is a 21,000 acre prairie where wild horses and bison roam. This prairie is unlike those of the U.S. central plains in that much of it is flooded and it is home to abundant alligators. […]

The amazing pike killifish

Pike are ambush predators with elongated bodies and toothy jaws. The pike body-form has evolved convergently in many different groups of fish on almost every continent and ocean. Examples of convergent evolution of pike in groups of fish from different geographic regions. These are just a few representative species, but dozens of others could have […]

On the Origin of Florida’s Introduced Species

Burmese pythons, green iguanas, bullseye snakehead, peacock bass……and the list goes on. Florida seems to be the epicenter for introduced species in the United States. Since moving to South Florida at the beginning of the year I have been amazed at the number and diversity of introduced species, and nowhere is this more evident than […]