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The Biology Portal

Welcome to the biology portal. Biology is the science of life, from the Greek words bios (life) and logos (word). It is concerned with the characteristics and behaviors of organisms, how species and individuals come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with their environment. Biology encompasses a broad spectrum of academic fields that are often viewed as independent disciplines. Together, they study life over a wide range of scales. This Portal is updated on Wednesdays and Sundays.

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Krill are shrimp-like marine invertebrate animals. These small crustaceans are important organisms of the zooplankton, particularly as food for baleen whales, mantas, whale sharks, crabeater seals and other seals, and a few seabird species that feed almost exclusively on them. Another name is euphausiids, after their taxonomic order Euphausiacea. The name krill comes from the Norwegian word krill meaning "young fry of fish".

Krill occur in all oceans of the world. They are considered keystone species near the bottom of the food chain because they feed on phytoplankton and to a lesser extent zooplankton, converting these into a form suitable for many larger animals for whom krill makes up the largest part of their diet. In the Southern Ocean, one species, the Antarctic Krill, Euphausia superba, makes up a biomass of hundreds of millions of tonnes, similar to the entire human consumption of animal protein. Over half of this biomass is eaten by whales, seals, penguins, squid and fish each year, and replaced by growth and reproduction. Most of the species display large daily vertical migrations making a significant amount of biomass available as food for predators near the surface at night and in deeper waters during the day.

Commercial fishing of krill is done in the Southern Ocean and in the waters around Japan. The total global production amounts to 150 – 200,000 tonnes annually, most of this from the Scotia Sea. Most krill is used for aquaculture and aquarium feeds, as bait in sport fishing, or in the pharmaceutical industry. In Japan and Russia, krill is also used for human consumption and known as okiami (オキアミ) in Japan.

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Featured biology articles

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Did you know... edit

...that a Blue Whale's tongue weighs around the same as a whole elephant?
...that the oldest fossilised dinosaur eggs ever found, belong to Massospondylus and were found in Golden Gate Highlands National Park, South Africa in 1978, and also contain fossilized dinosaur embryos?
...that the Bignose Unicornfish can change colors when frightened or asleep to help camoflage itself from predators?

...that Polar Bears are so effective at retaining heat as to be nearly invisible in infrared light?
...that viruses can have either DNA or RNA as their genetic material?
...that the native mammal fauna of Puerto Rico consists exclusively of bats?
...that the family Caponiidae is unique among spiders because its members usually have two eyes?

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Things you can do edit

Here are some Open Tasks :

Copyedit:
Improve: reproductive isolation, species distribution, Template:Humandevelopment, XY sex-determination system, megafauna
Requests: Colony hybridization, shifting balance theory, spine (zoology), hypostome
Mammals: White-mantled Tamarin, Red-capped Tamarin, Hershkovitz's Night Monkey, Guyanan Red Howler
Birds: Jacky-winter, Logrunner, Singing Honeyeater,
Biographies: Alexey Kondrashov, Russell Lande, Dan Hartl
Plants: Biliphyta, caulerpa taxiflora, Collybia butyracea, Hydnum rufescens, Pfaffia paniculata
Stubs: Mass flow, Fragmentation, Calopterygidae, Eastern Spinebill, Whistling Kite, Straw-necked Ibis, Cambarus, Nimblewill, Cordulegastridae, Gomphidae, Crimson Chat, Pohnpei Fantail, imaginal disc, Andrographis paniculata
Nominate and vote: Science collaboration of the month, Article Improvement Drive

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Photo credit: Janek Pfeifer A mating pair of European or Common Toads (Bufo bufo) occupying the position known as amplexus. This is indeed a common toad, with a range that includes North Africa, Europe except Ireland, and across North Asia into Siberia. In some regions, toads are threatened by roads disrupting their spawning migrations, and in many places, tunnels have been built to allow them to cross roads.

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