Introduction: To describe the anatomic basis for malar festoons and mounds and to review the available options for surgical correction. Materials and Methods: A review of relevant literature was performed to identify previously documented corrective measures for malar festoons and mounds. Results: A wide variety of methods exist for reducing malar festoons. Discussion: Each procedure for minimi...

Termites and the structures they build have been used as exemplars of biomimetic designs for climate control in buildings, like Zimbabwe’s Eastgate Centre, and various other “termite-inspired” buildings. Remarkably, these designs are based upon an erroneous conception of how termite mounds actually work. In this article, we review recent progress in the structure and function of termite mounds,...

Freshwater coastal prairie wetlands once covered large expanses of the Houston-Galveston landscape. A complex wetland matrix of mima mounds and low wetland basins known as prairie potholes provided important ecological services including habitat, lood control and water cleansing. Many of these areas were land leveled for agricultural and development purposes, erasing these features from the coa...

BACKGROUND The number of termite species in the world is more than 2500, and Africa with more than 1000 species has the richest intercontinental diversity. The family Termitidae contains builders of great mounds up to 5 m high. Colonies are composed of casts: a queen, a king, soldiers and workers. Some species of termite cultivate specialised fungi to digest cellulose. Termites constitute 10% o...

Freshwater coastal prairie wetlands once covered large expanses of the Houston-Galveston landscape. A complex wetland matrix of mima mounds and low wetland basins known as prairie potholes provided important ecological services including habitat, lood control and water cleansing. Many of these areas were land leveled for agricultural and development purposes, erasing these features from the coa...

The Australian Brush-turkey, Alectura lathami, constructs incubation mounds of decomposing forest litter in which many large eggs are incubated by microbial heat generation. On Kangaroo Island, the average mound is about 12.7 m3 and weighs about 6,800 kg. It maintains an incubation temperature of 33°C in an average ambient air temperature of 18°C. When eggs are in the mound, the rate of heat pr...