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Tag: "mammals" at biology news

History-hunting geneticists can still follow familiar trail

...publicly available mtDNA datasets of 47 species of mammals -- a subset of the animals that were in the French...t the dogma. This study shows the dogma is safe in mammals and probably in vertebrates, as well."...

New dwarf buffalo discovered by chance in the Philippines

...here is limited food and a small population, large mammals often evolve to much smaller size," said Darin Cro...ry Heaney, a co-author of the study and curator of mammals at The Field Museum. "The concentration of unique mammal species there is among the very highest in...

Researchers give name to ancient mystery creature

... of primitive relatives of ungulates, the group of mammals which includes horses and cows. But despite that link to ungulates, which are traditionally herbivores, Horolodectes was thought to have dined on small insects and grubs. "It had sharp crests on the teeth which formed blades, indicating it was likely...

Caterpillars tell us how bacteria cause disease

... survive immune system attack, so when they invade mammals they are equipped to deal with their immune system response and are able to spread rapidly. It is thought this is how bacteria, such as Yersinia pestis ?the cause of plague, could have evolved to wreak havoc in humans. Dr Nick Waterfield, who is ...

Tiny bones rewrite textbooks

...hat the so-called "land of birds" was once home to mammals as well. The tiny fossilised bones - part of a ja...Sciences. "This amazing find suggests that other mammals are waiting to be found there, and that New Zealand belonged to the birds only in more recent times,...

Does missing gene point to nocturnal existence for early mammals?

...ertebrates and fits with the suggestion that early mammals were at one time wholly nocturnal creatures. "T...gene is present in all vertebrates, the version in mammals was unusually different to that found in fish, amphibians and birds. "At first, we put this genet...

Researchers discover that sheep need retroviruses for reproduction

...ous retroviruses are important for reproduction in mammals has been around for about 30 years, Spencer said. ...troviruses shaped the evolution of the placenta in mammals and then became indispensable for pregnancy, and thus may be why they are expressed in the placenta ...

Mutant mouse provides insights into breast cancer

...volution and are evident in archaebacteria, yeast, mammals and more. It is unknown why the impaired Mcm4 genes in the Chaos3 mice led exclusively to breast cancer, Schimenti said. Mcm4 is essential for DNA replication and thus cell growth, according to Schimenti. Partially impaired Mcm4 genes, however, all...

Small, smaller, smallest -- The plight of the vaquita

...as a very good record in helping endangered marine mammals to recover. There are no better examples anywhere in the world than eastern Pacific gray whales and northern elephant seals, both of which came back from low numbers and now represent true conservation success stories. Similar efforts are needed urge...

Pheromone from mother's milk may rapidly promote learning in newborn mammals

...he Centre Européen des Sciences du Goût. Newborn mammals are highly dependent on their mother's milk for survival, and they typically exhibit a defined sequence of actions when searching for milk. This searching behavior rapidly becomes increasingly directed, showing that mammalian newborns are efficient l...

Train your brain to hear your friends at a party

... research has had some remarkable results. Most mammals also have this ability and in 2006, scientists working in the Oxford Auditory Neuroscience Group found that spatial hearing in ferrets has the ability to bounce-back or adapt to a hearing loss over time. Their brains are being "trained" to cope with ...

Robotic whiskers can sense three-dimensional environment

Many mammals use their whiskers to explore their environment and to construct a three-dimensional image of their world. Rodents, for example, use their whiskers to determine the size, shape and texture of objects, and seals use their whiskers to track the fluid w...

How mammals fuel milk production may have implications for cancer

...ght into the manner in which the mammary glands of mammals meet the incredible metabolic demands of milk production. As the normal pathways of breast development undoubtedly affect breast cancer, the findings may have therapeutic implications, the researchers said. The researchers found that one of three “i...

Discovery in the evolution of the immune system absorbing cells

...he complement system in lower vertebrates, whereas mammals have developed greater effectiveness and specialisation in the adaptive mechanism of antibodies....

Two nerve cells in direct contact

...ure has constructed similarly simple mechanisms in mammals is still unclear - the circuitry of the nerve cells in the relevant areas in the cerebral cortex has not yet been sufficiently explained to allow experiments of this nature to be carried out. And it is rather doubtful whether removing a single cell f...

Cracking the egg

...in of new species, and an astonishing diversity of mammals inhabiting Earth." ...

Key to zebrafish heart regeneration uncovered

... vertebrate species, but that for unknown reasons, mammals have "turned off" this ability over the course of ...scover why this regenerative ability is lacking in mammals and potential ways to stimulate it." ...

Cloned mice created from fully differentiated cells, a milestone in cloning research

...compelling evidence that Dolly the sheep and other mammals cloned by somatic cell nuclear transfer were most likely derived from fully differentiated cells, not adult stem cells, as most have argued in the nine years since Dolly was first created. Because stem cells have the ability to self-renew and differe...

How fish mend a broken heart

... suggest methods for coaxing the damaged hearts of mammals to better heal, researchers report in the November 3, 2006 issue of Cell, published by Cell Press. The researchers found that the hearts of zebrafish harbor progenitor cells that spring into action to restore wounded heart muscle. Cells from a membr...

Global map shows new patterns of extinction risk

...ed. However, different factors entirely may affect mammals such as tigers which are under threat from poachers, and amphibians which are being diminished by diseases brought into their habitat by non-native fish. "This means that even if a mountainous area has a real problem with endangered amphibians in...

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