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Tag: "mammals" at biology news

There's something fishy about human brain evolution

...ower amounts from terrestrial food sources such as mammals and plants. It was this combination of abundant shoreline food and the "brain selective nutrients" that sparked the growth of the human brain, he says. "Initially there wasn't selection for a larger brain," argues Dr. Cunnane. "The genetic possib...

The Amazon in 2050: Implementing the law could save a million square kilometers of rainforest

... and sedimentation. The region of greatest loss of mammals will be in the eastern Amazon, where expanding agriculture will overrun many species with small ranges. Of the major highways planned for paving, the Manaus-Porto Velho highway will be the most damaging in terms of new deforestation. The challenge...

Warbling whales speak a language all their own

... limited sight and sense of smell in water, marine mammals are more dependent on sound--which travels four ti...n language, I wouldn't be surprised if some marine mammals have the ability to communicate in a complex way," said Suzuki. "Given that the underwater environme...

Darkness unveils vital metabolic fuel switch between sugar and fat

Constant darkness throws a molecular switch in mammals that shifts the body's fuel consumption from gluco...fat-burning, glucose-conserving lethargy. Active mammals ?a bear foraging for food or a human running a marathon ?also undergo a similar switch, burning gluc...

Behavioral studies show UV contributes to marsupial color vision

...ogy. The most prevalent system of color vision in mammals is known as dichromacy, which is a color-detection... for the potential of trichromatic color vision in mammals other than primates. The findings were consistent in several distantly related marsupial species, in...

Rutgers researchers find fat gene

...me from yeast that corresponds in form to lipin in mammals and showed that yeast cells lacking the enzyme exh... shares a high resemblance to the lipin protein in mammals so they logically deduced the link between PAP enzyme function and lipin. "These findings are of m...

Less is more, gene study shows

...ng the gene---which appears to be essential in all mammals except humans---became more advantageous than having the gene, Zhang believes he has an answer. The immune system, he explained, must constantly be turned up or down to give the proper response. "It's a delicate balance---you don't want it too stro...

NHGRI announces new sequencing targets

... plan includes sequencing the genomes of eight new mammals at low-density draft coverage, which will be gener...s of the human and other mammals. The eight new mammals to be sequenced will be chosen from the following 10 species: dolphin (Tursiops truncates), elephant...

New brain hormone puts brakes on reproduction

...fects on the brain, too. "Though we don't know in mammals where the receptors are for GnIH, it looks like the hormone produces multiple effects in the brain," Bentley said. "In birds, the hormone not only affects reproductive hormones, but also sexual behavior in females, such as readiness to copulate." In...

New gene reduces retinal degeneration in fruit flies

...founding member of a family of related proteins in mammals that are essential for guiding certain nerves duri...maximum, it is possible that a Lazaro-like gene in mammals might also play a role in how well mammalian TRP channels work. "These results have implications ...

A new way of looking at molecular motors

...s six kinesins, five myosins, and one dynein while mammals have genes for more than 40 kinesins, 40 myosins and more than a dozen dyneins. Genetic and acquired defects in the motors cause disease by preventing developing cells from migrating to their necessary destinations before birth or by preventing part...

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

Just as baby mammals depend on their mothers' milk, the young of the African amphibian Boulengerula taitanus nourish themselves by stripping off and eating the fat-rich outer layer of their mothers' skin, according to an international team of researchers that includes Un...

Insects and mammals share common fat-building pathway, study suggests

When it comes to gaining fat, insects and mammals may have something in common, researchers report i...udy results further suggest that the Hh pathway in mammals determines whether adult stem cells are fated for fat or bone. The findings suggest that drugs that ...

Scientists discover dozens of new species in 'Lost World' of western New Guinea

...t bird we saw at our camp was a new species. Large mammals that have been hunted to near extinction elsewhere were here in abundance. We were able to simply pick up two Long-Beaked Echidnas, a primitive egg-laying mammal that is little known." The discoveries solved one major ornithological mystery ?the loc...

The diversity of marine life in the Gulf of Maine region is much greater than previously thought

...ife forms ranges from microscopic plants to marine mammals in waters from the lower intertidal to the deep se...ike summer tourists, at least 18 species of marine mammals spend only part of the year in the Gulf of Maine. One of the more famous is the humpback whale, who...

For the first time: Longevity modulated without disrupting life-sustaining function

...ul consequences to the body. In humans and other mammals this signaling cascade is known as the insulin/IGF-1 pathway since it is prompted by insulin and the closely related insulin-like growth factor-1 or IGF-1. IGF-1 is the main trigger for childhood growth but continues to exert growth stimulating effec...

Yale researchers find environmental toxins disruptive to hearing in mammals

...also indicate that the hearing in marine and other mammals could be affected by environmental toxins, such as...ns in the outer hair cell." Sensitive hearing in mammals relies on cochlear amplification resulting from the motor activity of outer hair cells. They are the...

Where 'jumping genes' fear to tread

...gely maintained since ?the divergence of eutherian mammals and marsupials approximately 170 million years ago." The opossum was chosen for inclusion in the analysis because it is a marsupial that has a similar load of transposable elements compared to mice and humans but is evolutionarily distant from the t...

Taipan venom no snake oil

...mmobilise and kill the victim." Dr St Pierre said mammals and snakes naturally produced a small amount of Factor X in their livers. "Snakes produce a more stable and faster acting form of Factor X in their venom which is the only source of Factor X other than mammalian livers," he said. "They have develop...

More evidence mammals, fruit flies share make-up on function of biological clocks

...iversity of London offers additional evidence that mammals and fruit flies share a common genetic makeup that... in mammals, which function in a similar manner in mammals as they do in a fly's clock. However, prior to this study, biologists had concluded that the role of...

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