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Tag: "mammals" at biology news

More animals join the learning circle

... the west coast of Australia were the first marine mammals in which cultural learning was observed. They apparently learn from group-mates how to use sponges to protect their snouts while scavenging (New Scientist, 11 June, p 12). But the evidence from killer whales is much more conclusive because the proces...

Space matters: Estimating species diversity in the fossil record

...IOMAP). MIOMAP includes all western North American mammals from 5-30 million years ago - 3,100 localities and 14,000 occurrences of species in all. The authors then tested the fossil data for species-area effects by plotting fossil species richness against different geographic areas. After correcting for pos...

Oxygen increase caused mammals to triumph, researchers say

...arp rise in oxygen about 50 million years ago gave mammals the evolutionary boost they needed to dominate the.... We argue that the rise in oxygen content allowed mammals to become very, very large - mammals like 12-foot-tall sloths and huge saber-toothed cats. They pave...

Gap-climbing fruit flies reveal components of goal-driven behaviors

...ese obstacles can involve highly complex events in mammals and other vertebrates, but in new work, researchers have employed an ingenious obstacle-based system for studying the control and structure of goal-oriented motor programs in the fruit fly Drosophila. The findings are reported in Current Biology by...

Brain size may depend upon how neural cells are cleaved

... a novel way in which the brain size of developing mammals may be regulated. They have identified a signaling...ar class of proteins -- known as AGS3 and mPins in mammals -- as upstream regulators of G proteins. The researchers' analyses showed that AGS3 is, indeed, exp...

Proposal would allow wild animals to roam North America

... animals that coevolved with large but now extinct mammals in the picture, the researchers said. For example, 4 million years of being hunted by the now extinct American cheetah ( Acinonyx trumani ) was probably why the pronghorn ( Antilocapra americana ) -- an antelopelike animal found throughout the dese...

Otter adaptations: How do otters remain sleek and warm

...h which we're all familiar. Yet, unlike many other mammals that spend a considerable amount of time in the water–polar bears, seals, dolphins, and whales–river otters do not have a thick layer of body fat to keep warm. They rely, instead, on a few unique adaptations; namely, their fur and the densely packed ...

Genome Sequence for Haemophilus Influenzae Completed

...h which we're all familiar. Yet, unlike many other mammals that spend a considerable amount of time in the water–polar bears, seals, dolphins, and whales–river otters do not have a thick layer of body fat to keep warm. They rely, instead, on a few unique adaptations; namely, their fur and the densely packed ...

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

...llins 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 are incapable ...

Deep sea buffet for bone-devouring worms

...artnership (or symbiosis) which uses sunken marine mammals as its sole source of nutrition. In the September issue of Environmental Microbiology, Dr Shana Goffredi and her colleagues reveal this unique partnership between bacteria and the Osedax (bone-devouring) group of marine worms. Symbiosis, or the liv...

Unweaving amyloid fibers to solve prion puzzles

...y prove useful for studying prion strains found in mammals like mice, cows, and ultimately humans. "This gives us insight as to why some prions can't cross the species barrier while others can--as they have with mad cows and humans.," says Lindquist. That gap has also been observed between other species, sh...

NHGRI Selects 13 More Organisms for Genome Sequencing

...t group of targets consists of nine mammals. Eight mammals will be sequenced at low-density draft coverage, c...as more costly, high-density sequencing. The eight mammals are: 13-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilis tridecemlineatus), megabat (Cynopterus species), microba...

Genetics links whale to two different ocean basins

...of the migratory patterns of these majestic marine mammals in the process, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and New York University. In the most recent Royal Society's Biology Letters, a male humpback whale that was first si...

Possible treatment found for 'chemobrain'

...t group of targets consists of nine mammals. Eight mammals will be sequenced at low-density draft coverage, c...as more costly, high-density sequencing. The eight mammals are: 13-lined ground squirrel (Spermophilis tridecemlineatus), megabat (Cynopterus species), microba...

Visceral Leishmaniasis: Successful Vaccine Trial In Dogs

...ce a fatal outcome. The sand fly sucks blood from mammals other than humans. This is how, right around the Mediterranean rim, 5 million dogs, a proportion of from 1 to 42 % depending on the area, are affected by visceral leishmaniasis. These animals are thus a reservoir for these parasites, which continuous...

Mosquito study shows new, faster way West Nile can spread

... Nile virus take into account the possibility that mammals such as horses may be involved in the proliferation of this virus. Direct transfer of virus from the infected mosquitoes that initially feed on them to others that feed on them afterwards, could significantly accelerate the spread of the disease," Hi...

Lactose intolerance linked to ancestral environment

...nts drink their mothers' milk, humans are the only mammals that drink milk as adults. But most people -- about 60 percent and primarily those of Asian and African descent -- stop producing lactase, the enzyme required to digest milk, as they mature. People of northern European descent, however, tend to retai...

Scientists get first glimpse at how plants, most animals repair UV-damaged DNA

...e molecule. Scientists believe that all placental mammals lost the ability to make this enzyme some 170 mill...hio State. That's why humans, mice, and all other mammals are particularly vulnerable to cancer-causing UV rays from the sun. But the rest of the animal kingd...

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

...giant ground sloths and other North American great mammals such as mammoths, mastodons and saber-toothed tige.... More than three-fourths of the large species of mammals that roamed the North American landscape became extinct within a few thousand years, which, besides ...

Chernobyl: The true scale of the accident

...ality of coniferous plants, soil invertebrates and mammals and reproductive losses in plants and animals were seen in high exposure areas up to a distance of 20-30 kilometers. Outside that zone, no acute radiation-induced effects have been reported. With reductions of exposure levels, biological populations ...

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