You can roll it, but I wouldn't smoke it! with Marcus Byrne
Channel: Science and Cocktails Johannesburg
Date: 2015-09-25

Science & Cocktails Johannesburg
22 September 2015
Speaker:  Prof Marcus Byrne  --  professor at the School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand

Dung beetles make dung balls; to eat, to lay eggs in, and as gifts for their girlfriends! Their whole life revolves around dung, and moving it from one place to another.

How do dung beetles find the dung? What role do they play on earth and why should we care about dung beetles? What can they see? Can they gallop? Can they fly? Can humans learn to use the same navigation system as they do? And why were dung beetles exported to Australia?

Marcus introduces us to the amazing abilities that the more than 800 species of South African dung beetles have developed. Some are able to hold their breath for 30 minutes. Some species use the Milky Way to orientate at night, while others use the sun to navigate by dead reckoning, a skill which humans mastered only a few centuries ago.

Using dung beetles as a theme, Marcus Byrne takes us on a tour around South Africa to show how evolution has shaped a simple animal's relationship with its smelly food, and enabled it to overcome the challenges of life at the back end of the food chain.


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