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Tag: "feather" at biology news

Researcher examines polymers created with poultry feathers

...ng the properties of polymers created from poultry feather keratin. The protein, keratin, is a major component of hair, nails, and feathers and makes them hard and strong. Barone has found that altering the amino acid structure of keratin can improve the strength and longevity of the polymer. In additio...

Embryonic patterning makes the feathers fly

...d the systems level, the researchers looked at how feather patterns are laid down in embryonic chickens. Feathers, or more properly feather buds, will appear on the skin of the developing embryo wherever fibroblast growth factor (FGF) is ac...

Duck-billed dino crests not linked to sense of smell

... mate selection or species recognition, similar to feather crests in some birds. ...

USC researchers track down the stem cells that create feathers

...ty of Southern California. "What we found is that feather stem cells are distributed in a ring configuration around the inner wall of the vase-shaped feather follicle. This is different from hair stem cells, which are located in a bulge outside the follicle,...

Seal rookeries could provide a reliable food source for endangered California condors, study finds

...d his colleagues embarked on a worldwide quest for feather and bone samples that would reveal the body chemistry of condors through the ages. "This work was fun," Chamberlain recalls. "First we got modern feathers from the Ventana Wildlife Society in Big Sur, Calif., and other groups involved in the federal ...

Overfishing may drive endangered seabird to rely upon lower quality food

...vironmental and fishing conditions at the time the feather was created. "In this paper, we're trying to tease apart climate signals from human fishing impacts," said Ben Becker, the study's lead author. Becker was a UC Berkeley Ph.D. student at the time of the study and is now director and marine ecologist a...

Did feathered dinosaurs exist?

...g the evidence supporting the current theory about feather origins and the relationships of birds and dinosau...Chinese discoverers reported finding all stages of feather evolution and ancestral birds, even though the deposits are at least 25 million years younger than t...

Pillows - a hot bed of fungal spores

... asthma in adults. The researchers dissected both feather and synthetic samples and identified several thousand spores of fungus per gram of used pillow - more than a million spores per pillow. Fungal contamination of bedding was first studied in 1936, but there have been no reports in the last seventy ye...

U. of Colorado researcher identifies tracks of swimming dinosaur in Wyoming

... moving around like their stalkless relatives, the feather stars. But videos taken from a submersible resea...f America in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sea lilies and feather stars, members of a group called crinoids, are closely related to starfish, sea cucumbers and sea ur...

Creeping crinoids! Sea lilies crawl to escape predators, new video shows

... moving around like their stalkless relatives, the feather stars. But videos taken from a submersible resea...f America in Salt Lake City, Utah. Sea lilies and feather stars, members of a group called crinoids, are closely related to starfish, sea cucumbers and sea ur...

Wright bros. upstaged! Dinos invented biplanes

...to keep their shape. The leading edge of each long feather was narrower than the trailing edge, which helped ...locking barbs gave strength and flexibility to the feather and prevented air from passing through it in flight. Some present-day birds, especially raptors as...

Molecular mechanism of feather formation found

...says. "The model is a simple way of explaining how feather patterning is achieved." Theoretical biologist Ha...t to model the creation and patterning of barbs in feather development. The team then tested whether such interactions truly exist in the developing feather. I...

Simple explanation for complex pattern of feather development

...l the growth of complex feathers found that plumed feather structures involve the coordination of at least tw...t barb growth. "Understanding these mechanisms of feather growth gives a whole new perspective on the unique beauty of feathers," said Richard Prum, senior au...

Looks matter to female barn swallows

...traviolet radiation from the sun, soiling and even feather degrading bacteria are known to affect the color of bird feathers once they are grown, and perhaps the best males are those who spend more time preening and protecting their plumage." The paper's other co-author is Colby Neuman, Cornell B.S. '05. In...

Bird Brains Show How Trial and Error May Contribute to Learning

...cted at females, accompanied by some posturing and feather plumping, and the experimental solo variations, called "undirected," akin to singing in the shower. The brain region showed greater activity and more variable signaling during the undirected song, suggesting that this area is generating the variation...

Transport System Smuggles Medicines Into Brain

...e work are in a paper, "Distribution of unique red feather pigments in parrots," by McGraw and Mary Nogare, a parrot fancier from Snoqualmie, Wash., published in the Feb. 16, 2005 issue of the journal Biology Letters. Animals, like birds and fishes, commonly use biochromes like carotenoids to acquire red, o...

ASU researchers finds novel chemistry at work to provide parrot's vibrant red colors

...e work are in a paper, "Distribution of unique red feather pigments in parrots," by McGraw and Mary Nogare, a parrot fancier from Snoqualmie, Wash., published in the Feb. 16, 2005 issue of the journal Biology Letters. Animals, like birds and fishes, commonly use biochromes like carotenoids to acquire red, o...

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