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Tag: "birds" at biology news

Oil spills and climate change double the mortality rate of British seabirds

...a far greater impact on populations of British sea birds than was previously thought. A team led by Profe... oil spills usually occur in wintering areas where birds from many different colonies may be distributed over a wide area. However, our long-term monitoring ...

Wright bros. upstaged! Dinos invented biplanes

...ike those seen today among some "monoplane" forest birds -- something called undulating phugoid gliding, Chatterjee said. In other words, Microraptor launched from a high branch and dove off, falling head-first until it reached a speed that created lift on its wings. With that lift the feathered dino then ...

Restaurant seafood prices since 1850s help plot marine harvests through history

...on to outlaw the commercial slaughter of migratory birds in 1913. "As supplies dropped and prices rose, some of these species became a status symbol. It seems to confirm that many people simply want to eat something that is rare." Some 200,000 restaurant menus have been uncovered by the research team in ...

Displaced songbirds navigate in the high Arctic

...Pole, researchers have gained new insight into how birds navigate in the high Arctic. In particular, the findings aid our understanding of how birds might determine longitudinal information--a challenging task, especially at the earth's poles. The...

Agricultural workers at increased risk for infection with animal flu viruses

...r for Emerging Infectious Diseases. "If migratory birds introduce the H5N1 bird flu virus into swine or poultry populations in this country, agricultural workers may be at a much greater risk of developing a variant H5N1 and passing it along to non-agricultural workers," Gray says. "Not protecting agricul...

UF study first to quantify validity of DNA I.D. tool using marine snails

...n is what happens as you move away from cowries or birds into nematodes or sea spiders and other creatures ...e said. "Engines are built to withstand strikes by birds up to a certain size, but not a large crane or goose," he said. "Thus, it's helpful to know which br...

Biologist Discovers What May Be World’s ‘Pickiest?Mates

...tudies of mate selection in other animals, such as birds and the natterjack toad, found that females of most species typically sampled only a handful of potential mates before making a final selection. “Most animals sample just a few mates, presumably because search costs override the benefits of lengthy ...

Study shows big game hunters, not climate change, killed off sloths

... which kinds of plants and animals -- particularly birds and mammals -- used to live there, we can open up possibilities for restoring parts of these islands to something near their original condition," he said. The only reason the living species of sloths survive is that they live high up in trees, where...

On a wing and a prayer - Alaska researchers seek clues to bird flu

...the Asian and North American flyways for migratory birds and scientists say that could provide an unusual m...gy of Avian Influenza in Alaska to study migratory birds in Alaska and determine how many are infected and how strains of influenza virus jump from one speci...

Drug resistant avian influenza viruses more common in Southeast Asia than North America

... been spreading throughout chicken flocks and wild birds in Southeast Asia since it emerged in 1997. Betwee...ontract H5N1 only from close contact with infected birds and only one probable human-to-human transmission was reported in Vietnam. This has so far prevented...

The ecological effects of the Chernobyl disaster

...tion, "Determinants of levels of 90Sr and 137Cs in birds in Chernobyl." Studying 228 birds of 23 different species captured in Chernobyl, Gaschak and colleagues from the University of South C...

Birds and bats sow tropical seeds

...ropical rainforest gets a helping hand from native birds and bats. Just how big a role these winged gardene...cts that evidence will support the hypothesis that birds and bats transport a rich mix of tree seeds, including the more enduring deep forest species. "It's...

Molecular mechanism of feather formation found

Feathers are the essence of birds. Without them, birds could not fly or attract mates. But how exactly do feathers form molecularly? Experimentally testing one current hypothesis, developmental biologists at University of Wisconsin Medical School believe they now have the answer. In a previous study, UW...

DNA from feathers tells tale of eagle fidelity

...elp conservation biologists study rare and elusive birds of prey. The researchers used a technique called ...ble to track the presence or absence of individual birds over a six-year period." This kind of monitoring is essential to conserving rare or endangered spec...

WCS says avian flu prevention should focus on farms, markets

...a's Kovsgol province, collecting samples from wild birds that have recently contracted the virus. "We're w...griculture, which conducted preliminary testing of birds that died at Erkhel Lake in the Kovsgol province near the Russian border. A joint WCS-Mongolia team...

Mosquito study shows new, faster way West Nile can spread

...ssion, mosquitoes acquire the virus when they bite birds with high levels of virus (or "high viremia.") in ...d. Those levels are reached several days after the birds are initially infected by other mosquitoes. But experiments at UTMB show that when infected and unin...

Simple explanation for complex pattern of feather development

...ists testing a mathematical model of the mechanism birds use to control the growth of complex feathers found that plumed feather structures involve the coordination of at least two genes that activate and that inhibit barb growth. "Understanding these mechanisms of feather growth gives a whole new perspec...

Insight into our sight: A new view on the evolution of the eye lens

...led crystallins found in lens cells. Fish, frogs, birds and mammals all experience image-forming vision, thanks to the fact that their eyes all express crystallins and form a lens; however, the vertebrates' nearest invertebrate relatives, such as sea squirts, have only simple eyes that detect light but ar...

Study: Predatory dinosaurs had bird-like pulmonary system

...rds. "What was once formally considered unique to birds was present in some form in the ancestors of birds...mpared the dinosaur skeletons with those of modern birds to draw comparisons of how the soft tissues in the dinosaurs may have been structured. Birds long h...

Bird samples from Mongolia confirmed as H5N1 avian flu

...nic form of avian flu--H5N1--in samples taken from birds last week in Mongolia by field veterinarians from ...e of this viral strain occurring in wild migratory birds with no apparent contact to domestic poultry or waterfowl. Present in Mongolia for a health surve...

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