Tag: "giant" at biology news

Plants respond similarly to signals from friends, enemies

...he formation of either nodules housing bacteria or giant cells from which the nematodes feed. The scientis... Root-knot nematodes form feeding cells ?so-called giant cells ?in the plant and later galls or knots on it. "We don't know the precise structure of Nematod...

Dinosaur DNA? New Patent Covers Degraded DNA recovery

...ruct genes from animals such as the wooly mammoth, giant sloth, saber-toothed cat or even from tissues of the Tyrannosaurus rex that was described last Friday in the journal Science," says Dr. Ensley. Brenda Jarrell, Ph.D., Patent Attorney and Partner at the law firm of Choate, Hall & Stewart remarks, ...

South America's vast pantanal wetland may become next everglades, UNU experts warn

South America's giant Pantanal wetlands, one of the world's most bio-div...ther animals. (The Pantanal's other fauna includes giant anteaters, armadillos, capybara, the Brazilian tapir and jaguar, and endangered species like the how...

Small species back-up giant marsupial climate change extinction claim

... humans, was responsible for wiping out Australian giant marsupials or megafauna 40,000 years ago. Instead of only excavating 'trophy specimens' such as giant kangaroos and wombats, the researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and Queensland...

Anammox bacteria produce nitrogen gas in oceans' snackbar

... ocean, which is visited by many animals including giant whales. The newly discovered anammox bacteria remove ammonium from the ocean, which as a result can not be taken up anymore by other organisms. Algae and cyanobacteria only partly succeed in fixing the released nitrogen gas to form new nutrients that...

Remote control flies? Fly behavior controlled by laser light

...t a small set of nerve cells in the fly called the giant fiber system. The giant fiber system controls very specific, stereotypical movements such as escape movements, jumping, and ...

Scientists discover global pattern of big fish diversity in open oceans

...ays first author Boris Worm. "It is like solving a giant puzzle and seeing the night sky in constellations for the first time ?even as the stars are blinking out. It's beautiful ?and tragic at the same time." In a sequel to their groundbreaking study in Nature in 2003, showing the depletion of 90% of the ...

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

.... The closest relative of the Japanese and Chinese giant salamanders is the hellbender of the eastern U.S., for example, while Chinese alligators are related to the American alligator. About 65 genera of flowering plants in Asia also have close relatives in the eastern U.S. After Karsen found the salamand...

Gifts from the sea

...ii): This squid's large nerve cell fiber, called a giant axon, has helped neuroscientists understand basic nervous system functions. MBL scientists studying squid have learned how electrical signals are transmitted from cell to cell, how nutrients and other important particles are transferred from cell to ...

Hybrid grass may prove to be valuable fuel source

...sfully in Indiana, Michigan and Ohio. However, the giant Miscanthus being grown by the Illinois researchers...said. At a research station near Hornum, Denmark, giant Miscanthus has been grown for 22 years in Europe's longest-running experimental field. The crop has ...

'Sinkers' provide missing piece in deep-sea puzzle

...iny food particles in the surrounding seawater. A giant larvacean lives inside two net-like mucus filters, which are collectively called its "house." The outer filter traps coarse particles, and can be up to one meter (three feet) across. The inner filter is slightly more dense, and traps small particles ...

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

...uding 3,500 found nowhere else. The golden monkey, giant and red pandas are among the threatened species found only in this hotspot. The biodiversity hotspots are 34 regions worldwide where 75 percent of the planet's most threatened mammals, birds, and amphibians survive within habitat covering just 2.3 ...

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

...e age are the likely culprits in the extinction of giant ground sloths and other North American great mamma...uded mammoths, mastodons, saber-toothed tigers and giant bears, Steadman said. "It was as dramatic as the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago,"...

Extinct giant deer's descendant found in UK

...ed for DNA and skeletal features to prove that the giant deer - which roamed across Europe and Siberia with...es (looking at skeletal features) which placed the giant deer closer to the living red deer. Professor Adrian Lister and Dr Ian Barnes, UCL Department of Bio...

Study Holds Promise For New Way To Fight HIV

...ed for DNA and skeletal features to prove that the giant deer - which roamed across Europe and Siberia with...es (looking at skeletal features) which placed the giant deer closer to the living red deer. Professor Adrian Lister and Dr Ian Barnes, UCL Department of Bio...

Students discover 11,000 year old remains of Irish Elk

...eros giganteus) lived around 11,000 years ago. The giant deer roamed the open tundra landscape that was wid...scape of the Isle of Man remained suitable for the giant deer for several more hundred years than surrounding islands because of the possible slower rate of ...

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

...ecies, the rest on a mixture of marine mammals and giant land mammals. "When the Ice Age ended, most of the terrestrial megafauna vanished," Chamberlain says. "There's a theory that they were killed off by humans, and as a result, the condors that lived inland no longer had large prey to feed on." The d...

Human prostate grown from embryonic stem cells

In a giant step towards understanding prostate disease, Melbourne scientists have grown a human prostate from embryonic stem cells. A study published in the March edition of Nature Methods describes how human embryonic stem cells were developed into human pros...

'Banana-jawed' fossil mammal linked to rare sound-producing skill

... groups diversified and became larger only after a giant asteroid killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Numerous ecological niches vacated by the annihilated dinosaurs were waiting to be filled. One group of creatures, called the Afrotheres -- "Beasts from Africa" -- seized the opportunity. It wa...

The giant protein titin helps build muscles

... this work, though, only covers a tiny part of the giant muscle protein titin, which possesses tens of thousands of amino acids in some isoforms. "There are probably hundreds or even thousands of more interactions down the road. We have found one of the first and eagerly anticipate discovering many others,...

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