or a bat with a short face that gives it the bite force to penetrate hard figs.
The researchers also unveiled an engineering model of a skull that can be manipulated computationally to morph into the shape of any New world Leaf-nosed bat species to help uncover evidence for selection in long-extinct organisms.
Nectar feeding bats comprised one of three evolutionary optima for mechanical advantage among New world Leaf-nosed bats. Photo credit:
The key finding is that in a highly diverse group--New world Leaf-nosed bats--selection for mechanical advantage has shaped three distinct optimal skull shapes that correspond to feeding niches Dr. Dá
The research team investigated adaptive radiation--the explosive evolution of species into new ecological niches powered by natural selection--of New world Leaf-nosed bats.
These bats of which there are almost 200 species eat a variety of foods including insects frogs lizards fruit nectar and even blood.
Their skulls mirror the variety of their diets--bats with long and narrow snouts eat nectar;
snouts of species that eat other foods are intermediate in shape. The team's approach to identifying natural selection for mechanical function combined both evolutionary and engineering analyses.
The researchers first built the three-dimensional finite element model to simulate bat skulls with myriad combinations of snout length and width.
and engineering (dark blue) models for the base model of the omnivorous bat Carollia perspicillata (B) and the morphed models for the nectar-feeding Glossophaga soricina (A)
and the specialized fig-eating Short-faced bat Centurio senex (C). They then analyzed the models to determine structural strength and mechanical advantage--the efficiency and hardness of the bats'bite.
Finally they studied the engineering results across hundreds of evolutionary trees of the bats to uncover the three optimal snout shapes favored by natural selection.
Nectar feeders have very low mechanical advantage--a trade-off for having long narrow snouts that fit into the flowers in
Distribution of hypothetical species based on snout length and width. A single model was morphed to represent species within the entire space
whether the studies pertained to plant pathology fertility management pest control or sweet corn breeding and genetics.
#Single gene separates queen from workersscientists have identified how a single gene in honey bees separates the queens from the workers.
This gene is critical in making the hind legs of workers distinct so they have the physical features necessary to carry pollen said Zachary Huang MSU entomologist.
Specifically the gene allows workers to develop a smooth spot on their hind legs that hosts their pollen baskets.
The gene also promotes the development of a pollen press a protrusion also found on hind legs that helps pack
and transport pollen back to the hive. While workers have these distinct features queens do not.
The research team was able to confirm this by isolating and silencing Ubx the target gene.
which are in the same family as honey bees queens have pollen baskets similar to workers.
In this species Ubx played a similar role in modifying hind legs because the gene is expressed more highly in hind legs compared to front and mid legs.
Besides honey bees which aren't native to North america there are more than 300 species of other bees in Michigan alone.
These include solitary leaf cutter bees communal sweat bees and social bumble bees. The pollen baskets are much less elaborate
We conclude that the evolution of pollen baskets is a major innovation among social insects and is tied directly to more-complex social behaviors.
Future research by Huang may pursue investigating how bees could be improved to become better pollinators.
The budget plans included prices of pest sprays tree costs fuel repairs and more. Morgan presented her paper last summer at the Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society
and her colleagues studied the behavior of the toxin in mice specifically which cells it targeted.
study showsscientists have known for more than 40 years that the synthetic pesticide DDT is harmful to bird habitats and a threat to the environment.
DDT--used in the United states for insect control in crops and livestock and to combat insect-borne diseases like malaria--was introduced as a pesticide during WWII.
Rutgers scientists--the first to link a specific chemical compound to Alzheimer's disease--believe that research into how DDT
#Common crop pesticides kill honeybee larvae in the hivefour pesticides commonly used on crops to kill insects
and fungi also kill honeybee larvae within their hives according to Penn State and University of Florida researchers.
or inactive chemical commonly used as a pesticide additive--is highly toxic to honeybee larvae.
We found that four of the pesticides most commonly found in beehives kill bee larvae said Jim Frazier professor of entomology Penn State.
when the pesticides occur in combinations within the hive. Since pesticide safety is judged almost entirely on adult honeybee sensitivity to individual pesticides
and also does not consider mixtures of pesticides the risk assessment process that the Environmental protection agency uses should be changed.
According to Frazier the team's previous research demonstrated that forager bees bring back to the hive an average of six different pesticides on the pollen they collect.
which they then feed to honeybee larvae. To examine the effects of four common pesticides--fluvalinate coumaphos chlorothalonil
and chlorpyrifos--on bee larvae the researchers reared honeybee larvae in their laboratory. They then applied the pesticides alone
or in concert to create a toxic environment for honeybee growth and development. The researchers also investigated the effects of NMP on honeybee larvae by adding seven concentrations of the chemical to a pollen-derived royal jelly diet.
NMP is used to dissolve pesticides into formulations that then allow the active ingredients to spread
Among the four pesticides honeybee larvae were most sensitive to chlorothalonil. They also were affected negatively by a mixture of chlorothalonil with fluvalinate.
According to Chris Mullin professor of entomology Penn State these pesticides may directly poison honeybee larvae
Chronic exposure to pesticides during the early life stage of honeybees may contribute to their inadequate nutrition
and coumaphos are used commonly by beekeepers on crops to control Varroa mites and are found to persist within beehives for about five years.
Chlorothalonil is a broad-spectrum agricultural fungicide that is often applied to crops in bloom when honeybees are present for pollination
because it is deemed currently safe to bees. Chlorpyrifos is used a widely organophosphate in crop management.
and chloropyrifos individually or in mixtures have statistically significant impacts on honeybee larval survivorship Mullin said.
This is the first study to report serious toxic effects on developing honeybee larvae of dietary pesticides at concentrations that currently occur in hives.
and solvents of known high toxicity to fish amphibians honey bees and other non-target organisms.
While we have found that NMP contributes to honeybee larvae mortality the overall role of these inactive ingredients in pollinator decline remains to be determined.
#Whats with sloths dangerous bathroom break? Maybe hungerfor the three-toed sloth a trip to the restroom is no rest at all.
It's a long slow descent into mortal danger from the safety of home among the upper branches of the forest.
and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who studies the deliberate molasses-slow animals in northeast Costa rica.
And the energy required is non-negligible for an animal that has restricted such a diet.
Unlike the two-toed sloth--which is shall we say less restrictive in its choice of latrine--the three-toed sloths creep down trees every eight days or so to the base of their tree.
Once on the ground they dig a hole with their tails defecate in it and cover the pile with leaf litter.
The fastidious ritual--nearly the only reason a sloth leaves the limbs of just a few trees--may be the leading cause of death among the sloths.
More than half the deaths Pauli and collaborators documented during field research came at the claws
and teeth of predators pouncing on sloths on or near the ground. There were historically more native large cats
and canids like foxes jaguars and ocelots and now more and more feral dogs hunting in these forests Pauli says.
A sloth on the ground is such an easy meal for them. So this risky behavior must confer some sort of advantage.
Previous explanations for the sloth's dangerous choice included communication with other sloths and a gracious gift of fertilizer to the just one or two trees a three-toed sloth calls home.
Neither of those notions seemed worth it to Pauli who was struck by another possibility while watching a David Attenborough video describing the mold insects
and other crud that resides in the plodding animal's thick fur. Among the fur fauna are small pyralid moths with a particular attachment to the sloth's near-weekly trip to poop on the ground.
When the sloth squats to do its business some female pyralid moths will emerge from the sloth fur to lay their eggs in the sloth's dung.
The moth larvae then eat their way out of the sloth waste emerging as moths that flutter back up into the tree overhead.
There they find a sloth and render themselves nearly flightless damaging their wings to burrow into the wet matted fur to mate
and renew their life cycle. That is a lot of reliance on the sloth Pauli says. The moth is strictly dependent on the sloth in each step of its life.
That made us wonder if the sloth was making this dangerous trip for the moth
because the moth provides something relatively important to the sloth. In fact Pauli's research shows that the moths may give their all to the sloth in return for nursery for larvae and shelter and mating grounds for adults.
Sloths live on the nutritional red line Pauli says. Judging from their diet--which is all leaves from the tree they live in--they shouldn't be able to maintain even the slow lifestyle that makes them
so fascinating to a lot of people. Pauli and graduate student Jorge Mendoza turned to the sloth's fur in search of another dietary contributor.
Three-toed sloths tend to appear a mottled green color thanks to algae growing in a combination of water trapped by unique cracks in the sloth's hair
and nitrogen released by fungi breaking down dead pyralid moths. More moths more nitrogen more algae (which may also provide camouflage to the treed sloths protecting them from flying predators.
And the broad team of researchers--Pauli tapped entomologists limnologists and bacteriologists--found the algae in samples taken from the stomachs of three-toed sloths.
It could be that even just small amounts of the algae makes ends meet if only because it's so rich in lipids Pauli says.
Having this highly-digestible high-fat algae could be an important input that makes the difference
when malnutrition is at stake. At least one question remains. It's not clear how the algae get into the sloth's stomach
or how much of it they're actually consuming. We think they're getting it from themselves Pauli says.
They spent a non-negligible amount of their time raking their fur with their claws
and we know they're so slow at it that the moths can stay ahead of the claws.
So it's not grooming. It may be part of ingesting the algae. Why does the sloth poop in the woods?
Maybe because it's hungry. Maybe to better hide among the leaves. Probably to lend the moths a three-toed leg up.
And that according to Pauli is another lesson in the complex and unusual way organisms as different as a tiny moth
and a seemingly oversized tree-confined mammal need each other to get along. There's some grandeur in these systems of mutualism he says.
It makes us think about organisms that exploit such narrow niches. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The original article was written by Chris Barncard. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
Researchers compared buffalo genome with other mammals'such as cattle horse panda pig and dog for discovering more genetic characteristics of water buffalo and providing guidance for its breeding and industrial transformation.
We are pleased to form partnership with Lal Teer Livestock to decode this important animal said Professor Jian Wang President of BGI BGI is dedicated to using genomics technology to benefit human beings
and we have contributed to the sequencing of many critical crops and livestock including rice maize soybean potato pigeonpea pig and sheep.
Most mammals lose the ability to digest lactose and thus milk as they get older.
#Morphing bat skull model: Using engineering plus evolutionary analyses to answer natural selection questionsintroducing a new approach that combines evolutionary
valos of Stony Brook University and support from the National Science Foundation studied the evolutionary histories of the adaptive radiation of New world leaf-nosed bats based on their dietary niches.
They set out to tackle this by examining almost 200 species of New world leaf-nosed bats that exploit many different food niches:
Insects frogs lizards fruit nectar and even blood. The bats'skulls of today reflect this dietary diversity.
Species with long narrow snouts eat nectar while short-faced bats have exceptionally short wide palates for eating hard fruits.
Species that eat other foods have shaped snouts somewhere in between. Dumont explains further We knew diet was associated with those things
Some form or function helps an animal to perform better in its environment but it can be hard to demonstrate exactly what that form
She and colleagues built an engineering model of a bat skull that can morph into the shape of any species
and used it to create skulls with all possible combinations of snout length and width.
Analyzing the engineering results over hundreds of evolutionary trees of New world leaf-nosed bats revealed three optimal snout shapes favored by natural selection they report.
One was the long narrow snout of nectar feeders the second was the extremely short and wide snout of short-faced bats
which is a trade-off for having long narrow snouts that fit into the flowers in
#Fur and feathers keep animals warm by scattering lightin work that has major implications for improving the performance of building insulation scientists at the University of Namur in Belgium and the University of Hassan
I in Morocco have calculated that hairs that reflect infrared light may contribute significant insulating power to the exceptionally warm winter coats of polar bears and other animals.
Biophotonics expert Priscilla Simonis a researcher at the University of Namur and lead author of the Optics Express paper was intrigued by the ability of polar bears to insulate their bodies to temperatures of 37 degrees Celsius (98.6 F
when outside temperatures are a frigid-40 C(-40 F). The feat was given especially impressive that the bears have a layer of fur that is only 5 centimeters thick.
The insulating power of the animals'coats made Simonis wonder why thermal insulation in buildings doesn't work as well.
Why is the polar bear fur much more efficient than what we can develop for our housing?
and feathers keep animals warm primarily by trapping a layer of air that slows thermal conduction says Simonis.
To further explore the radiative heat loss the team created a simple computer model consisting of a hot and a cold thermostat that roughly simulated an animal's warm body and the outside colder environment.
and barbed feathers could be the primary mechanism for the thermal insulation properties of fur and feathers.
The light scattering properties of animals'coats can also have dual purposes Simonis notes. With the right structure fur and feathers can generate efficient thermal insulation in the far infrared range
while also scattering visible light to produce a white appearance in the visible wavelength range. This is particularly useful to animals such as mammals
and birds that live in snowy areas Simonis says as it provides them with both warmth and camouflage against the white snow.
For humans focusing on ways to minimize radiative heat loss could lead to the development of new types of ultrathin insulation.
#Lingonberries halt effects of high-fat dietlingonberries almost completely prevented weight gain in mice fed a high-fat diet a study at Lund University in Sweden has found--whereas the'super berry'aã
§ai led to increased weight gain. The Scandinavian berries also produced lower blood sugar levels and cholesterol.
Some of the mice were fed a low-fat diet while the majority of the animals were fed a diet high in fat.
They were divided then into groups where all except a control group were fed a type of berry--lingonberry bilberry raspberry crowberry blackberry prune blackcurrant or aã§ai berry.
When the mice were compared after three months it could be observed that the lingonberry group had by far the best results.
The mice that had eaten lingonberries had not put on more weight than the mice that had eaten a low-fat diet
--and their blood sugar and insulin readings were similar to those of the'low-fat'mice.
Their cholesterol levels and levels of fat in the liver were also lower than those of the animals who received a high-fat diet without any berries.
According to the Lund University researchers this is the first study of this kind using lingonberries. That is probably because lingonberries are eaten mainly in Scandinavia.
The aã§ai berries on the other hand came last although they had actually been included in the study for the opposite reason--the researchers wanted to see how well the Nordic berries would do in comparison with the Brazilian'super berry'.
In our study the aã§ai berries led to weight gain and higher levels of fat in the liver said Karin Berger diabetes researcher at Lund University.
She believes that aã§ai berries are used primarily as an energy supplement in their homeland Brazil.
and Europe that aã§ai has been marketed as a'super berry'with many health benefits including weight loss.
Up to 20%of our mice's diet was lingonberries. It isn't realistic for humans to eat such a high proportion.
However the goal is not to produce such dramatic effects as in the'high-fat'mice
#Increase in hemlock forest offsetting effect of invasive hemlock woolly adelgid for nowdespite the accumulating destruction of a nonnative invasive insect called the hemlock woolly adelgid hemlock forests in the eastern United states appear to have held their own
and succession in the eastern U s. may have offset the negative impacts of the adelgid at the regional scale.
The study Changes in the regional abundance of hemlock associated with the invasion of hemlock woolly adelgid was published recently in the journal Biological Invasions.
A native of Japan the hemlock woolly adelgid was detected first In virginia in the 1950s and for decades remained a primarily urban pest.
That had changed by 1980 when the effects of infestation began to be evident in forestland within the tree's native range.
Hemlock trees in the United states do not have natural defenses against hemlock woolly adelgid which coupled with a lack of natural predators has resulted in high levels of tree mortality in the 18 states where it is known to have spread particularly in southern states.
Trotter believes that this study which is based on forest data through 2007 may have caught hemlock at a tipping point in the balance between losses from hemlock woolly adelgid and increases due to forest regrowth.
Repeating this analysis as new FIA data becomes available may show if we are beyond a tipping point
Even if there were continued increases in hemlock abundance in northern climates where cold temperatures slow damages from hemlock woolly adelgid the loss of trees in the south is a loss to the species Trotter said.
Nonnative forest insects like the hemlock woolly adelgid are devastating on many levels because trees are so important to a region's culture
and the Forest Products Lab. Forest Service research is working hard to more aggressively control nonnative insects
#One tree likes seabird poop, next prefers fresh airoff the west coast of Peru seabirds deposit thick layers of guano that accumulates on the ground because of the lack of rain.
Guano has played historically a key role in agriculture worldwide because it is rich in plant nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorous.
#The Moth versus the Crowd: Tracking an alien invader of conker trees using people poweran army of citizen scientists has helped the professionals understand how a tiny'alien'moth is attacking the UK's conker (horse-chestnut trees
and showed that naturally-occurring pest controlling wasps are not able to restrict the moth's impact.
The study's conclusions are published this week in the open access scientific journal PLOS ONE.
No bigger than a grain of rice the horse-chestnut leaf-mining moth has spread rapidly through England and Wales since its arrival in London in 2002.
The caterpillars of the moth'tunnel'through the leaves of conker trees causing them to turn brown and autumnal in appearance even in the height of summer.
'The results show that over the last decade the moth has spread from London to reach almost all of England and Wales.
Investigating the data further the scientific team concluded that it takes just three years from the first sighting of the moth in a particular location to maximum levels of damage to the horse-chestnut trees being recorded.
In a follow-up experiment many of the citizen scientists including hundreds of school children followed instructions to MJOP1 rear the moth by sealing the infested leaves in plastic bags
and waiting for the insects to emerge. The results reveal that the tiny pest controllers('parasitiod'wasps) that prey upon the caterpillars are not present in high enough numbers to control the moths.
Dr Michael Pocock an ecologist at the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology and lead author of the research paper said This is the sort of science that anyone can Do by taking part the public are doing real science
and then see insects--the adult moths or their pest controllers--emerge but making these discoveries was a valuable contribution to understanding why some animals become so invasive.
Dr Evans added We have been challenged by other professional scientists as to whether'ordinary people'can make accurate observations suitable for real science.
Of course they can --and we tested this in our study. So thank you to the thousands of participants because together we were able to do this science.
#No-till soybean fields give (even some rare) birds foothold in Illinoisresearchers report in a new study that several bird species--some of them relatively rare--are making extensive use of soybean fields in Illinois. The team found significantly more birds
and a greater diversity of bird species nesting roosting and feeding in no-till soybean fields than in tilled fields.
The team found more bird nests and greater species diversity in the no-till fields than in the tilled soybeans.
Nest losses were high however. About 80 percent of nests in the no-till fields and more than 90 percent in tilled fields failed
as a result of predation or the onset of farm operations before eggs hatched or young birds were ready to fly.
High mortality is fairly common in bird nests however and while the losses in no-till soybean fields were greater than those seen in pristine grasslands they were not much worse the researchers said.
A paper describing the research appears in the journal Agriculture Ecosystems and Environment. I was surprised to see all the different birds that are using these agricultural fields--especially during spring migration said Kelly Vanbeek a wildlife biologist at the Wisconsin Department of Natural resources who conducted the study while a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
I was shocked by the variety of sparrow species that we saw--white-crowned sparrows and white-throated sparrows for example.
Some of the birds using no-till fields are grassland species that have been in decline across the Midwest for decades said Michael Ward a professor of natural resources and environmental sciences at Illinois and an author of the study.
One species found nesting in a no-till soybean field the upland sandpiper was an exciting find.
The upland sandpiper is endangered a state species. It's doing badly throughout its range Ward said.
Historically it probably followed bison herds and liked really short grass but we don't have that anymore.
--and we actually found a nest. The study adds to the evidence that agricultural practices can have a broad influence on bird abundance
and diversity said natural resources and environmental sciences professor and department head Jeffrey Brawn a co-author of the study.
The team also found other grassland species that are in decline--Eastern meadowlarks ring-necked pheasants and field sparrows--nesting in no-till fields.
If you look at birds in general or wildlife in general the ones that did occupy grassland habitat are the ones
whose populations have tanked the most Brawn said. But birds are very resilient they're very resourceful
and they're very flexible and we can take advantage of that. Of the nests that failed 65.1 percent were raided by predators
and 24.4 percent were lost to farm machinery during crop planting. Continuously recording cameras trained on nests showed that coyotes were the primary predators of the ground-level nests--another surprise.
This just shows that we do have predators in these landscapes which is a good thing Vanbeek said.
Several decades ago we didn't have coyotes here; we had lost completely those predator species that bring some ecological balance.
We may not be balanced in a situation yet but at least they're present. The study points to a major opportunity for bird conservation Ward said.
Rather than buying up modest tracts of land for wildlife preservation an approach that is minimally effective he said farmers
and conservationists could work together to maximize the ecological role that no-till lands are already playing in the Midwest.
If farmers could be convinced to plant their soybeans a few days later in the spring for example it would increase the nesting success of several bird species that are out there now Ward said.
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