Tag: "amphibians" at biology news

Biodiversity hotspots identify conservation priorities

...f the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface (roughly equivalent to the combined areas of the five largest U.S. states). This habitat originally covered 15.7 percent of the Earth's surface, an area equivalent in size to Rus...

Researchers find new giant amphibian fossils in Africa

...250 million year-old species of large, meat-eating amphibians have been discovered by researchers, including inv...olation from the Niger fauna." The two species of amphibians discovered are similar to crocodiles in shape. Nigerpeton ricglesi had rounded noses, with small eye...

Discovery of an American salamander where it shouldn't be: Korea

... David Wake, one of the world's leading experts on amphibians and a professor of integrative biology at the Univ...t's a very paradoxical situation. On the one hand, amphibians are declining, and they are in terrible difficulty, and on the other, we are discovering new species...

Team of international scientists departs today to discover the unknown in China's Himalayan region

...f the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 percent of the Earth's surface (roughly equivalent to the combined areas of the five largest U.S. states). This habitat originally covered 15.7 percent of the Earth's surface, an area equivalent in size to Rus...

Retina adapts to seek the unexpected, ignore the commonplace

...oncluded that it typifies retinal function in both amphibians and mammals, animals that differ greatly in ecology and physiology but share the challenge of adjusting to a variable visual environment. ...

New amphibian species result from exploration, not from rule changes

...ecognized between 1992 and 2003. At the same time, amphibians are, for reasons not entirely clear, declining more rapidly than either mammals or birds, underscoring the importance of an accurate evaluation. An analysis published in the August 2005 issue of BioScience, the monthly journal of the American Instit...

Frog’s ear canal may provide insights for understanding human hearing loss

...d co-author of the study. "In addition, we now add amphibians to the small group of vertebrates (bats, whales and some rodents) that use ultrasound for communication. This study may provide a clue for understanding why humans have ear canals: to improve sensitivity to high-frequency sounds." Amolops tormotus, ...

Laos ?a lost world for frogs

...rabbit and saola, a type of forest antelope. Nine amphibians have been discovered by Stuart and his collaborators since 2002. "Certainly much more remains to be found in Laos," said Stuart. With a high level of biodiversity, Lao PDR has some of the most significant forest areas remaining in Southeast Asia. H...

Rare Chinese frogs communicate by means of ultrasonic sound

... had learned about it while conducting a survey of amphibians in China. Feng continues to study frogs and bats t...asonic communication likely will be found in other amphibians and birds, Feng said, but, until now, no one has bothered to look into it. "Humans have always been...

Extinctions linked to climate change

...ss time," he said. The problem does not stop with amphibians or other species. Dengue fever, a deadly disease of humans, is increasing its range out of the tropics and is now found in parts of the southern United States. And predicting how climate change will favor a certain pathogen or disease transmission is...

Climate change drives widespread amphibian extinctions

...ould provide scientists with the means to save the amphibians that still survive," said Bruce Young, a zoologist...a growing challenge for humankind. The decline of amphibians in apparently pristine, protected habitats in Costa Rica and elsewhere has perplexed conservation bi...

African amphibians make extreme parental sacrifice: The skin off their backs

...servations of another species in the same order of amphibians foreshadowed the latest discovery. In the 1990s, t...feeding offspring. Among caecilians---the order of amphibians to which B. taitanus and S. annulatus belong---some lay yolky eggs and tend them until they hatch bu...

Crucial site for endangered frogs and birds saved

...akeet. Another 18 bird species and five threatened amphibians can also only be found there. The site is a vital ... quick action to save several species of birds and amphibians from extinction shows the importance of conservation partnerships such as the Alliance for Zero Exti...

Colombian frog believed extinct found alive

... of 110 species of a diverse group of neo-tropical amphibians that live mostly in Colombia. The country's amphib...ental health of an ecosystem. The disappearance of amphibians could cause numerous consequences, including an increase in illnesses such as malaria due to the dis...

Major initiative proposed to address amphibian crisis

...his is part of an overall biodiversity crisis, and amphibians seem to have been hit the hardest of all vertebrat...something is wrong with the planet," he said. "But amphibians play a major role in many ecosystems, in some places the amphibian biomass is greater than that of a...

Race to halt global amphibian crisis boosted by rediscovery of endangered Colombian frogs

...protected area the focal point for efforts to save amphibians from a deadly fungus decimating their populations ... Santa Marta Parakeet, and home to five threatened amphibians found nowhere else. The site also is a vital stopover point for declining neotropical migratory bird...

How does a zebrafish grow a new tail?

.... Finding out more about the remarkable ability of amphibians and fish to re-grow complex parts might provide the information necessary to create treatments for people whose hearts, spinal cords, eyes or arms and legs have been badly hurt. Scientists have discovered some of the genes and cell-to-cell communi...

'Killer' B cells demonstrate evolutionary link between fish and mammal immune systems

...d their digestive traits. "The immune systems of amphibians and fish are far less advanced than ours," Sunyer said. "When you only have a rudimentary adaptive immune system, it helps to have more phagocytic cells to compensate, which is what has served fish so well over the last 400 million years." In the...

Does missing gene point to nocturnal existence for early mammals?

...say that whereas some animals like birds, fish and amphibians have two versions of this photoreceptor, mammals, ...als was unusually different to that found in fish, amphibians and birds. "At first, we put this genetic anomaly between mammals and other vertebrates down to e...

The subtleties of tropical forest demise

...trid-fungus pathogen that is decimating rainforest amphibians throughout the tropical world. (2) Those that are growing rapidly in importance, such as destructive surface fires in tropical forests. (3) Those that are poorly understood, such as the impacts of global warming and other growing atmospheric alterati...

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