Tag: "snail" at biology news

Parasites' impact goes beyond host to affect ecosystem

...atode Cryptocotyle lingua in Littorina littorea, a snail known as the common periwinkle and the dominant herbivore in the intertidal zone. "We wanted to find out what was this parasite’s impact on the community," says Byers, who advised Wood during the research, which she conducted in summer 2005 as part o...

Proteins necessary for brain development found to be critical for long-term memory

... the scientists used wild-caught Aplysia, a marine snail frequently studied in learning and memory because of its large brain cells. The Aplysia received a series of five tail shocks, spaced 15 minutes apart. The shocks cause the animals to exhibit heightened withdrawal reflexes days and weeks after the sh...

A new target for painkillers

...ences. The study in rats found that cone snail toxins named RgIA and Vc1.1 can treat nerve hypers...med The toxins in the study come from two cone snail species that eat worms, unlike relatives that eat fish or snails and occasionally deliver a fatal st...

Like a snail through the intestinal canal

...obot to imitate the forward movement of a snail. A snail leaves a trail of slime behind it on the ground. T...here is nevertheless no possibility of movement. A snail uses the exertions of pressure to change the characteristics of the middle layer, and thus lower the...

How many genes does it take to learn? Lessons from sea slugs

Scientists analyzing the genomics of a marine snail have gotten an unprecedented look at brain mechanisms, discovering that the neural processes in even a simple sea creature are far from sluggish. At any given time within just a single brain cell of sea slug known as Aplysia, more than 10,000 gene...

Even a little cooling helps after cardiac arrest

...s. The worms' lifecycle thus typically begins in a snail and ends in a bird, with the intermediate host ani...perial Beach at the U.S.-Mexico border. "The horn snail is a mobile data recorder," Lafferty said. "It is a hub for more than 20 trematode species." If any ...

How healthy is that marsh? Biologists count parasites

...s. The worms' lifecycle thus typically begins in a snail and ends in a bird, with the intermediate host ani...perial Beach at the U.S.-Mexico border. "The horn snail is a mobile data recorder," Lafferty said. "It is a hub for more than 20 trematode species." If any ...

Molecular miners find pain relief drugs from the sea

...ced in the venom of Conus victoriae, a marine cone snail found in tropical waters off the coast of Australi...many as 30 people are known to have died from cone snail envenomation. The cone snails that are dangerous to humans feed on fish by impaling them with a har...

Scientists find fossil proof of Egypt's ancient climate

...at Washington University in St. Louis are studying snail fossils to understand the climate of northern Afri...sotopic analyses and minor element analyses of the snail shells to determine information about the climate then," Kieniewicz said. "The shell is an archive o...

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