The new ‘African dinosaurs’ exhibit at the Iziko South African Museum in Cape Town capitalises on a fascination that almost every person – old and (especially) young – has with dinosaurs. A highway into the human ...

In the past few years, African medicinal plants have received considerable attention, and it has been lamented that the documentation of the continent’s species that are used in traditional medicine lags behind China and ...

Biological invasions are a growing problem in South Africa. Many alien species have been introduced for various reasons and through multiple pathways over the past few centuries. Invasive alien reptiles and amphibians ...

Invasive alien species (IAS) are one of the major threats to biodiversity in protected areas and pose a significant management challenge (see Allen, Brown & Stohlgren 2009; Pyšek, Jarošík & Kučera 2002). One of the first ...

The diversity of many marine benthic groups is unlike that of most other taxa. Rather than declining from the tropics to the poles, much of the benthos shows high diversity in the Southern Ocean. Moreover, many species are ...

Abstract Background This study evaluated, using in vitro assays, the antibacterial, antioxidant, and tyrosinase-inhibition activities of methanolic extracts from peels of seven ...

National alien species databases indicate the state of a country’s biodiversity and provide useful data for research on invasion biology and the management of invasions. In South Africa there are several different published ...

Environmental variability occurring at different timescales can significantly reduce performance, resulting in evolutionary fitness costs. Shifts in thermoregulatory behavior, metabolism, and water loss via phenotypic ...

Background: The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is a widespread invasive ant species that has successfully established in nearly all continents across the globe. Argentine ants are characterised by a social structure ...

Abstract: Background: The Argentine ant, Linepithema humile, is a widespread invasive ant species that has successfully established in nearly all continents across the globe. Argentine ants are characterised by a social ...

Grond is ’n baie heterogene substraat wat ’n omgewingsmatriks daarstel wat in ruimte en oor tyd kan varieer wat betref pH, organiese koolstof, verspreiding van partikelgrootttes en voginoud. Ook chemiese, fi siese en ...

The South African government, as part of its efforts to mitigate the effects of the ongoing energy crisis, has proposed that biofuels should form an important part of the country's energy supply. The contribution of liquid ...

Pathways to scientific teaching is a compilation of previously published, two-paged articles in Frontiers in ecology and the environment, a publication of the Ecological Society of America. In 2004, this publication instituted ...

Professor C.G.S. de Villiers wat by almal bekend gestaan het as “Dr. Con”, was vir sewe en dertig jaar professor in soölogie aan die Universiteit van Stellenbosch. Hy was ’n besonderse persoon en het ’n vormende invloed ...

It would not be right for this journal to ignore the fact that on 31 May 1910, a century ago, the Union of South Africa came into being. That date saw the birth of the country in which we live today. Before then there ...

Background: Extant placental mammals are divided into four major clades (Laurasiatheria, Supraprimates, Xenarthra and Afrotheria). Given that Afrotheria is generally thought to root the eutherian tree in phylogenetic ...

Despite marked improvements in the interpretation of systematic relationships within Eutheria, particular nodes, including Paenungulata (Hyracoidea, Sirenia and Proboscidea), remain ambiguous. The combination of a rapid ...

Abstract Background The interaction between insects and plants takes myriad forms in the generation of spectacular diversity. In this association a species host range is fundamental and often measured using an ...

Background: In parasitic taxa, life history traits such as microhabitat preference and host specificity can result in differential evolutionary responses to similar abiotic events. The present study investigates the ...

Invasive alien species can have serious adverse impacts on both the environment and the economy. Being able to predict the impacts of an alien species could assist in preventing or reducing these impacts. This study aimed ...