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Tag: "shifts" at biology news

Columbine flowers develop long nectar spurs in response to pollinators

...ines' nectar spur length evolution happened during shifts in pollinators from bumblebees to hummingbirds, and from hummingbirds to hawkmoths. In between these shifts, evolution of the columbines' nectar spurs came to a halt. Whittall and Hodges' work provides evidence that evolution may occur in a stop-a...

Ancient DNA traces the woolly mammoth's disappearance

...bison, bears, and lions underwent major population shifts twenty-five to fifty thousand years ago. Those results came as a surprise, the researchers said, because scientists tended to think that the major environmental changes happened about fifteen to twenty-five thousand years ago, when the glaciers reach...

Genetic roots of bipolar disorder revealed by first genome-wide study of illness

...Most people occasionally have mood swings, but the shifts that occur in bipolar disorder, and the changes in behavior and energy level that accompany them, are sometimes disabling. Lithium and the other mood-stabilizing medications used to treat the condition help many patients. But some people do not...

Female-led infanticide in wild chimpanzees

...or is not yet clear, but may stem from demographic shifts that alter sex ratios and put increased pressure on females competing for foraging areas. In their report, the authors note that the Sonso community had experienced a significant population increase in the ten years prior to the infanticide observati...

Scientists see DNA get 'sunburned' for the first time

...fforts to understand photo-damage, this new result shifts our attention to the DNA structure, and the kinds of arrangements that exist at the moment DNA absorbs light." ...

Rapid response was crucial to containing the 1918 flu pandemic

...e to be in attendance. New York mandated staggered shifts at factories to reduce rush hour commuter traffic. Seattle’s mayor ordered his constituents to wear face masks. The first study found a clear correlation between the number of interventions applied and the resulting peak death rate seen. Perhaps more...

Power-boosting signal in muscle declines with age

...drial function, Shulman explained. These metabolic shifts have been implicated in the increased prevalence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes that occurs with aging. "The message of this paper is that, with aging, the AMPK pathway has reduced activity," Shulman said. "So, one probably has to work ...

Prehistoric origins of stomach ulcers uncovered

...spread to gauge poorly understood human population shifts in Europe, Africa and Asia." ...

Fitness has fallen since the days of Ancient Greece

...have made the journey in about 24 hours, rowing in shifts and eating while they rowed, so the ship could travel non-stop. Says Dr Rossiter: "From these details we can estimate the average sustainable ship speeds. Then, using the reconstruction we measured the metabolic demands of the human engine requir...

Bats prey on nocturnally migrating songbirds

...ood throughout the year, predicting major seasonal shifts in isotopic signatures towards bird prey in spring and, especially, during autumn. In parallel, isotopic signatures of whole insect bodies and passerine muscular tissues were tracked throughout the year, serving as a control. The results elegantly sh...

Fish growth changes enhanced by climate change

...cies in the south west Pacific are consistent with shifts in wind systems and water temperatures, according to new Australian research published in the United States this week. “We have drawn correlations between the growth of fish species related to their environmental conditions ?faster growth in waters ...

NASA snow data helps maintain nation's largest, oldest bison herd

...uthority on the northern boundaries of Yellowstone shifts to the State of Montana. Conflicts can arise between people who value conservation of the bison and the ranch owners and others who concerned about the possible risk to nearby cattle from Brucellosis-infected bison. An inter-agency partnership ha...

Chronic jet-lag conditions hasten death in aged mice

...e various conditions. In contrast, the light-cycle shifts had a marked effect on the survivorship of the old mice. While 83% of old mice survived under the normal schedule, 68% survived under the backward-shift regimen and 47% survived under the forward-shift regimen. Past work has also linked changes in...

Evolution of Old World fruit flies on three continents mirrors climate change

...recent came in 2004. The scientists also looked at shifts in weather patterns during the intervals between sample collections. At nearly all sites, temperatures had increased consistent with global warming. "If the inversions are sensitive to temperature, then you'd expect to see a corresponding increase...

Cities change the songs of birds

...ace over long, evolutionary time scales, but major shifts in a region’s bird population, including extinction, can take place here and now. Urbanization typically leads to a turnover in species composition such that those species occurring in the original habitat are replaced by those that cope well with ur...

Reef warns of sea level rise

...ts expect to be the case by 2050, then the climate shifts and warming effects and will become even more dramatic and surpass those of the Last Interglacial warm period" "Sea level rises and falls have occurred throughout geological history and are all slightly different from one another. However what too...

Need to pull an all-nighter?

People who must stay awake for long shifts ?soldiers, pilots, truckers, students, doctors, parents of newborns ?may take comfort from new research showing that preventing the gas nitric oxide from building up in the brain may ward off the sleep urge. The research, conducted by investigators...

Pressured by predators, lizards see rapid shift in natural selection

...vioral flexibility may often drive extremely rapid shifts in evolution. "Evolutionary biology is by its nature an historical science, but the combination of microevolutionary experimentation and macroevolutionary historical analysis can provide a rich understanding about the genesis of biological diversi...

Extreme environment changes fish appearance

...ity and raising the temperature just a few degrees shifts morphology dramatically," Lema said. The findings have implications for conserving species, Lema said. On one hand, the fish may be more adaptable to changing conditions than thought. But refuge-bred fish might well die if reintroduced directly...

Recent, rapid climate change is driving evolution of animal species

...by more southern species." "Consequently, genetic shifts in the timing of seasonal events should precede genetic shifts of thermal optima or increased heat tolerance over evolutionary time," said Holzapfel. "That is the...

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