Giant in Biological News

August 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... discovery. Hypotheses have included erosion by giant floods, tectonic rifting, and collapse. Intense ... through a pressurized aquifer and erupted in the giant outflow channels. The emerging picture is that ... named after the town Chicxulub, was formed by a giant meteorite impact about 65 million years ago. The ...

Scientists 'rebuild' giant moa using ancient DNA

... the first DNA-based reconstruction of the giant extinct moa bird, using prehistoric feathers ... believed to be at least 2500 years old. The giant birds measuring up to 2.5 metres and weighing ... heavy-footed moa, upland moa and the South Island giant moa. Their findings were published today in ...

Size did matter

... The mystery of giant sperm present in some living animal groups today ... fossilised evidence for reproduction using giant sperm in a group of small aquatic crustaceans, ... organs that are required for transferring giant spermatozoa. Since modern ostracods still ...

Tall tale of giant stingray circles the globe

... study, the first ever ecological study of the giant freshwater stingray which was discovered only 20 years ago. Freshwater giant stingrays are among the largest of the ... he said. "It's clear that this species of giant freshwater stingray has the potential to be the ...

World's biggest snake gives climate clues

... Feb. 5, 2009 edition of Nature . The snake's giant vertebrate, found in Colombia, show it was far ... says Head, lead author on the paper. The giant reptile weighed more than 1.25 tons, was more ... through a doorway to enter a room. The snake ate giant turtles and crocodiles, whose skeletons were also ...

Discovery of giant roaming deep sea protist provides new perspective on animal evolution

... tracks on the ocean floor made by giant deep-sea single-celled organisms could lead to ... early evolving multicellular animals. "If our giant protists were alive 600 million years ago and the ... life forms. DNA analysis confirmed that the giant protist found by Matz and his colleagues in the ...

Conservation International gets support from Dreamworks Animation to protect giant pandas

... conservation efforts to protect the endangered giant panda. Yesterday in Los Angeles at an event ... CI will use the contribution to jump-start its giant Panda Survival Plan, a bold blueprint for panda ... partners, aims to ensure the survival of the giant panda in its natural habitat. Please visit ....

1,000 tags reveal mysteries of giant bluefin tuna

... A giant Atlantic bluefin tuna weighing more than half a ... Atlantic bluefin tuna. Placing 1,000 tags on giant bluefin has been a long quest for TAG ... The electronic tags have also revealed these giant tuna dive to depths of nearly a mile and range ...

Lightweight and long-legged males go the distance for sex

... by the flightless and nocturnal Cook Strait giant weta Deinacrida rugosa. This cricket relative is ... of Toronto at Mississauga discovered that male giant weta most successful at mating travel greater ... male and female "spent the day." Because a male giant weta copulates repeatedly with his mate ...

New giant clam species offers window into human past

... the discovery of the first new living species of giant clam in two decades, according to a report to be ... , once accounted for more than 80 percent of giant clams in the Red Sea, it now represents less than one percent of giant clams living there. The researchers said they ...

Southern Sierra Science Symposium planned for Visalia

... the Southern Sierra Ecosystems which include giant sequoia groves. The array of topics focus on five ... 6, on the Hume Lake Ranger District of the giant Sequoia National Monument. Speakers will ... Project, the Science Advisory Board for the new giant Sequoia National Monument and the steering ...

National Zoo giant panda pregnancy update

... in urinary progestin levels in the Zoo's female giant panda Mei Xiang (may-SHONG) earlier this month. ... or false pregnancy, which is common in giant pandas. Zoo scientists artificially inseminated Mei Xiang with semen from the Zoo's male giant panda Tian Tian (t-YEN t-YEN) March 19. Since ...

Geisinger study: Inflammatory disease causes blindness

... The average age for disease onset is 70. giant cells, which are white blood cells that destroy ... The Geisinger study found that patients with giant cells are far more prone to blindness compared to ... The study also found that patients with giant cells are three times more likely to experience ...

Can feces save the species?

... and threatened wildlife such as jaguar, tapir, giant anteater and maned wolf in and around Emas ... grasslands should be a priority for maned wolf, giant anteater and giant armadillo since these species prefer open areas ...

Giant panda genome to be sequenced

... to announce the launch of the International giant Panda Genome Project. This announcement follows ... of the draft sequence within six months." The giant panda is a much loved animal all over the world ... efforts for an endangered species. The giant panda is a global conservation symbol and ...

To save or savor? It's decision time for Atlantic bluefin tuna

... giant bluefin tuna are in trouble, primarily because ... spent years at sea on a project called "Tag A giant (TAG)," implanting 995 electronic tags in ... That is no small accomplishment, considering that giant bluefin can grow to 1,500 pounds, live in ...

Indonesia's 'Lost World' reveals more surprises

... Virginia (Dec. 16, 2007) A tiny possum and a giant rat were recorded by scientists as probable new ... of the worlds smallest marsupials, and a Mallomys giant rat, both currently under study and apparently ... and little-known birds for the first time. The giant rat is about five times the size of a typical ...

September Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... imminent. Age and source constraints for the giant Muruntau gold deposit, Uzbekistan, from coupled ... establish the age of gold mineralization at the giant Muruntau gold deposit, Uzbekistan (>5100 metric ... more comprehensive understanding of one of Earths giant gold accumulations, and rule out several current ...

Giant panda can survive

... The giant panda is not at an evolutionary dead end and ... Previous studies have found that the giant pandas isolation, unusual dietary requirements ... Our research challenges the hypothesis that giant panda?s are at an evolutionary dead end said ...

Leicester research paves way for first use in Europe of an insect to fight invasive plant

... was observed to be taking place between Japanese Knotweed and both giant Knotweed and Russian Vine. The hybrid between Japanese Knotweed and giant Knotweed (Bohemian Knotweed) is now known to be an important and hitherto ...

New discovery suggests trees evolved camouflage defense against long extinct predator

... Zealand have evolved a similar defence to protect themselves from extinct giant birds, providing the first evidence of this strategy in plant life. ... of humans New Zealand had no native land mammals, but was home to moa, giant flightless birds, closely related to the modern ostrich and the top ...

Dino-not-so-soaring

... for 25 years used a published statistical model to estimate body weight of giant dinosaurs and other extraordinarily large animals in extinct lineages. By ... we show that the statistical model is seriously flawed and that the giant dinosaurs probably were only about half as heavy as is generally believed" ...

Field Museum paleontologist leads study on two new dinosaurs from China

... animlas with long slender snouts like Xiongguanlong." Second find: A giant "ostrich-mimic" The team also discovered three specimens of a ... perished during its 14th year of life. Although it is hard to fathom, this giant was still actively growing when it died. Growth line spacing in the bones ...

April 2009 Geology and GSA Today media highlights

... change, tectonics, volcanics, current velocity and seafloor structure, and giant earth-surface wind ripples. GSA TODAY focuses on the Great Ordovician ... beneath their course. In places, they generate ripples, sand waves, and giant mud waves over the backs of huge sediment mounds, while elsewhere they ...

Ancient magma 'superpiles' may have shaped the continents

... COLUMBUS, Ohio -- Two giant plumes of hot rock deep within the earth are linked to the plate motions ... assistant professor of earth sciences at Ohio State University. The giant plumes -- or "superpiles" as Panero calls them -- rise from the bottom of ...

Planetary 'first family' discovered by astronomers using Gemini and Keck Observatories

... seven and 10 times the mass of Jupiter. As in our solar system, these giant planets orbit in the outer regions of this system--at roughly 25, 40, and ... to the conclusion that Jupiter-mass planets at separations similar to the giant planets of our solar system are frequent around stars more massive than ...

Planetary "first family" discovered by astronomers using Gemini and Keck Observatories

... seven and 10 times the mass of Jupiter. As in our solar system, these giant planets orbit in the outer regions of this system--at roughly 25, 40, and ... to the conclusion that Jupiter-mass planets at separations similar to the giant planets of our solar system are frequent around stars more massive than ...

A card-swipe for medical tests

... saliva or urine samples. The prototype works on the same principle giant magnetoresistance or GMR that is used to read data on computer hard ... materials display a change in resistance of as much as 80 percent. That is giant magnetoresistance. Porter says GMR "is an ultrasensitive method to ...

Living sensor can warn of arsenic pollution

... Autumn meeting being held this week at Trinity College, Dublin. The giant Mine in Canada is in the sub-arctic. It contains over 230,000 tonnes of ... "We discovered new types of bacteria living in biofilms on the walls of giant Mine that consume arsenic compounds contained in the polluted water ...

Rutgers biologist to study worms in Amazon, glaciers

... $12,000 Fulbright Lecturing/Research Grant, Shain will seek to capture the giant earthworm Rhinodrilus priollii . Shain will maintain a small colony of ... in this case)," says Shain. "I will also do some 'forensic' work on the giant earthworms to gain some understanding of their movements over geological ...

Nanotubes could help study retrovirus transmission between human cells

... the formation of the nanotubes. In their labs, they experimented with giant lipid vesicles that appeared to mimic key aspects of the cellular membrane. giant lipid vesicles resemble micron-sized spherical soap bubbles that exist in ...

Scientists announce top 10 new species, issue SOS

... sleeper ray, with a name that sucks: Electrolux; a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur; a shocking pink millipede; a rare, off-the-shelf ... the detritus from carpets. Also on the list is a 75-million-year-old giant duck-billed dinosaur Gryposaurus monumentensis discovered in southern ...

Relocation of endangered Chinese turtle may save species

... There are only four specimens of the Yangtze giant softshell turtle left on Earthone in the wild and three in captivity. In ... Listed at the top of the World Conservation Unions Red List, the Yangtze giant softshell turtle is the most critically endangered turtle in the world. ...

Dwarf cloud rat rediscovered after 112 years

... was the capture of the dwarf cloud rat, which is a smaller relative of the giant clouds rats, spectacular animals found only on Luzon Island, but ... but the mossy forest needs to be protected." The mossy forest is like a giant sponge when it rains, soaking up the water and releasing it gradually. ...

New species discovered in Brazil

... extensive woodland-savanna in South America. Large mammals such as the giant anteater, giant armadillo, jaguar and maned wolf struggle to survive in the fast-changing ...

A fossilized giant rhino bone questions the isolation of Anatolia, 25 million years ago

... 6). These results were obtained thanks to analyses of the first fossilized giant rhinocerotoid bone discovered in 2002 in an Anatolian deposit during a ... to have been an archipelago. This is the first time that a fossilized giant rhinocerotoid bone dating from the Oligocene epoch (a period corresponding ...

Scientists discover new species of giant elephant-shrew

... of sengis for more than 30 years. It is the first new species of giant elephant-shrew to be discovered in more than 126 years. From the moment I ... and a jet-black lower rump, as well as a large body size. So far, the new giant sengi (Rhynchocyon udzungwensis) is known to exist in only two populations ...

New genus of self-destructive palm found in Madagascar

... lifecycle; growing to dizzying heights before the stem tip converts into a giant terminal inflorescence and bursts into branches of hundreds of tiny ... in a remote area of north-western Madagascar when they stumbled across the giant palm and the huge pyramidal bunch of flowers sprouting out of the tip. ...

To catch a panda

... spent years collecting mountains of data aimed at understanding and saving giant pandas. Now a graduate student is working to catch crucial data thats ... Reserve, home of the famous panda research and breeding center. The giant pandas are the darlings of their native China and the world. But walk ...

Migrating squid drove evolution of sonar in whales and dolphins, researchers argue

... Behind the sailor's lore of fearsome battles between sperm whale and giant squid lies a deep question of evolution: How did these leviathans develop ... are typically two feet long or bigger and range up to the 40-foot-long giant squid. "Whales didn't need to have a very sophisticated sonar system to ...