#Skipping Red Meat May Lower Breast cancer Risk Women who eat more poultry fish nuts and legumes and less red meat when they are young adults might have lower risk of developing breast cancer later in life according to a new study.
The animals also bested the oil and gas industry. We are very confident that livestock emissions were being underestimated said lead study author Kevin Wecht an atmospheric chemist at Harvard university in Massachusetts.
and from human activities including oil and gas production and animals and manure on farms. Explore Earth's Atmosphere:
This can involve using herbivores and thinning vegetation including burning the debris in specially designed portable furnaces that have low smoke emissions.
David Bowman receives funding from ARC NASA TERN and NERP. This article was published originally on The Conversation.
#Did'Deadly'Spider Eggs Really Hitch a Ride on Imported Bananas? It's enough to make you do a double take the next time you unpack your groceries!
A recent British news report claimed that imported bananas could play host to a certain species of venomous spiders.
A woman in Essex England recently discovered that a bunch of bananas delivered to her home by a local grocer was infested with spider eggs.
Pest control was called and reportedly identified the eggs as those belonging to the immense and deadly Brazilian wandering spider according to MSN New zealand.
But don't let this eerie tale come between you and your favorite fruit. It's unlikely that the woman's bananas were infested truly with deadly spider eggs said Richard Vetter a retired research associate of entomology at the University of California Riverside.
Creepy Crawly & Incredible: Photos of Spiders There are several reasons why fruit lovers should think twice before believing stories about scary spiders found in the produce aisle Vetter told Live Science.
For one thing in this particular case no spider was found hanging around the bananas making it nearly impossible to know what kind of spider
(if there even was had a spider laid the enigmatic eggs. Egg sacks are much harder to identify than spiders.
To identify them you need familiarity with the spider first then the egg sack Vetter said.
It's unlikely that British exterminators would be intimately familiar with the egg sacks of spiders from South and Central america he added.
However it is possible that the eggs in question belonged to an arachnid Vetter said. There are several genera of spider that sometimes survive the long trip from banana-producing nations such as Brazil Mexico Nicaragua and Costa rica to other parts of the world.
Among them are Phoneutria and Cupiennius two types of spiders that are commonly known as wandering spiders.
Wandering spiders are named for their tendency to wander around looking for food instead of spinning a web.
As nocturnal hunters both Phoneutria and Cupiennius sometimes seek out shelter during the day under the broad leaves of banana trees.
And because of their preference for these fruit trees species of both genera at times wind up in grocery stores
and residences in Europe and North america Vetter said. Typically when one of these big hairy spiders shows up overseas it automatically gets labeled as a deadly Brazilian wandering spider without anyone identifying
what genus or species the spider belongs to Vetter said. And that's a shame he said
because only one of the two genera of wandering spiders Phoneutria contains species that could actually pose a threat to humans.
The other genus Cupiennius contains some big but totally harmless spiders. There are 12 species of Phoneutria
which are found mostly in South america including the eastern coast of Brazil. A small number of them also go into Costa rica Vetter said.
However few of these spiders pose a significant risk to humans he added. Still there is a type of Brazilian wandering spider called Phoneutria fera that is widely considered to be the most dangerous spider On earth.
The species lives in the middle of the Amazon rainforest far from banana-producing areas. While it isn't impossible for this spider to find its way to England
or other foreign nations inside a banana crate it's highly unlikely Vetter said. There are also two other species of Phoneutria commonly labeled as deadly P. nigriventer and P. keyserlingi.
These spiders live on the eastern coast of Brazil near centers of banana production but their reputations as deadly pests are exaggerated greatly Vetter said.
Somebody did a study in Eastern Brazil back in 2000 that looked at 422 Brazilian wandering spider bites.
The only people to die from the bites were two small children Vetter said The adult victims of this notorious arachnid experienced either mild symptoms
or no symptoms at all he said. And there's one other fact that makes the recent British report seem unlikely.
Brazilian wandering spiders are only found in Brazil and the country consumes most of its banana crop domestically Vetter said.
or any other banana-producing nation then those eggs didn't belong to one of the deadly species of Brazilian wandering spiders he added.
Climate, Animals & Plants The Triassic period was the first period of the Mesozoic era and occurred between 251 million and 199 million years ago.
The mid-to late Triassic period shows the first development of modern stony corals and a time of modest reef building activity in the shallower waters of the Tethys near the coasts of Pangaea.
Early in the Triassic a group of reptiles the Order ichthyosauria returned to the ocean. Fossils of early ichthyosaurs are lizard-like
and clearly show their tetrapod ancestry. Their vertebrae indicate they probably swam by moving their entire bodies side to side like modern eels.
Later in the Triassic ichthyosaurs evolved into purely marine forms with dolphin-shaped bodies and long-toothed snouts.
Their vertebrae indicate they swam more like fish using their tails for propulsion with strong fin-shaped forelimbs and vestigial hind limbs.
These streamlined predators were air breathers and gave birth to live young. By the mid-Triassic the ichthyosaurs were dominant in the oceans.
One genus Shonisaurus measured more than 50 feet long (15 meters) and probably weighed close to 30 tons (27 metric tons).
Plants and insects did not go through any extensive evolutionary advances during the Triassic. Due to the dry climate the interior of Pangaea was mostly desert.
Spiders scorpions millipedes and centipedes survived as well as the newer groups of beetles. The only new insect group of the Triassic was the grasshoppers.
The Mesozoic era is often known as the Age of reptiles. Two groups of animals survived the Permian Extinction:
Therapsids which were mammal-like reptiles and the more reptilian Archosaurs. In the early Triassic it appeared that the Therapsids would dominate the new era.
One genus Lystrosaurus has been called the Permian/Triassic Noah#as fossils of this animal predate the mass extinction
but are also commonly found in early Triassic strata. However by the mid-Triassic most of the Therapsids had become extinct
and the more reptilian Archosaurs were clearly dominant. Archosaurs had two temporal openings in the skull
and teeth that were more firmly set in the jaw than those of their Therapsid contemporaries.
The terrestrial apex predators of the Triassic were the Rauisuchians an extinct group of Archosaurs.
Unlike their close relatives the crocodilians Rauisuchians had an upright stance but are differentiated from true dinosaurs by the way that the pelvis
Another lineage of Archosaurs evolved into true dinosaurs by the mid-Triassic. One Genus coelophysis was bipedal.
They had long sinuous necks sharp teeth clawed hands and a long bony tail. Coelophysis fossils found in large numbers in New mexico indicate the animal hunted in packs.
Some of the individuals found had remains of smaller members of the species inside the larger animals Scientists are unclear as to
whether this indicates internal gestation or possibly cannibalistic behavior. By the late Triassic a third group of Archosaurs had branched into the first pterosaurs.
Sharovipteryx was a glider about the size of a modern crow with wing membranes attached to long hind legs.
It was obviously bipedal with tiny clawed front limbs that were used probably to grasp prey as it jumped
Another flying reptile Icarosaurus was much smaller only the size of a hummingbird with wing membranes sprouting from modified ribs.
The first mammals evolved near the end of the Triassic period from the nearly extinct Therapsids.
and early mammals should be drawn. Early mammals of the late Triassic and early Jurassic were very small rarely more than a few inches in length.
They were mainly herbivores or insectivores and therefore were not in direct competition with the Archosaurs or later dinosaurs.
Many of them were probably at least partially arboreal and nocturnal as well. Most such as the shrew-like Eozostrodon were egg layers
although they clearly had suckled fur and their young. They had three ear bones like modern mammals and a jaw with both mammalian and reptilian characteristics s
#Crikey! Crocodiles Can Climb Trees Forget leapin'lizards. In Australia Africa and North america it's climbin'crocodiles you have to worry about.
New research finds that yikes crocodiles can climb trees even reaching the uppermost branches. Four species found on three continents showed this behavior
which may help the reptiles regulate their body temperature and survey their habitat. The most frequent observations of tree-basking were in areas where there were few places to bask on the ground implying that the individuals needed alternatives for regulating their body temperature the authors wrote online Jan 25 in the journal Herpetology Notes.
Likewise their wary nature suggests that climbing leads to improved site surveillance of potential threats and prey.
Alligator Alley: Pictures of Monster Reptiles Crocodiles like other reptiles are called ectothermic (also cold-blooded) meaning they can't regulate their own body temperature
and so must rely on outside sources such as the sun. Crocodilian climbers Crocodiles are considered usually ground-dwellers
but a few anecdotes suggested they climb at least occasionally. Local reports from Mexico Colombia Indonesia and Botswana among other spots described crocs basking in mangroves and other trees.
A photographer even snapped a shot of a croc cousin the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) in a tree about 4 to 6 feet (2 to 3 meters) above the water at the Pearl river Delta in Mississippi.
University of Tennessee zoologist Vladimir Dinets and colleagues decided to pin the phenomenon down. In the course of conducting their crocodile research the scientists kept sharp eyes out
and recorded their observations of climbing crocs. In Australia they observed freshwater crocodiles basking on low-hanging branches day and night.
When approached by boats the crocs splashed into the water below to escape. Climbing Aussie crocodiles were more likely to be small or juvenile;
hatchlings are sometimes able to cling to brickwork and escape crocodile farms. In The americas Dinets observed crocs as long as 3 feet (1 m) sunning themselves on mangrove roots and branches.
Most of the time the creatures were found no more than 3 feet (1 m) up.
Dinets never saw any crocs in the process of climbing just at their destinations and when approached the animals in trees always jumped
or fell into the water. This shyness might explain why tree-climbing behavior in crocodilians remains relatively little known
despite being relatively common the researchers wrote. Dinets and his colleagues have previously found that crocodiles
and alligators can use tools disguising themselves with sticks as they hunt. When birds land on
what appears to be a muddy log covered in useful nesting materials they become dinner for the waiting beast.
Warmth and safety The champion climbers of the crocodilians seem to be Central africa's slender-snouted species
which regularly bask up high the researchers found. One of these crocs 4. 5 feet (1. 4 m) long was seen roosting at the end of a fallen tree.
The largest tree-climber observed was a Nile crocodile 6. 5 feet (2 m) seen basking a foot and a half (0. 5 m) above water on a fallen branch in Botswana.
There is no evidence that crocodiles have evolved to climb trees but they are still capable of climbing high Dinets and his colleagues concluded.
or other warm places to bask suggesting that crocodilians use trees to get out of the shade
#Oldest Known Bird Hatches a New Chick The world's oldest known wild bird just became a mother again.
The 63-year-old Laysan albatross named Wisdom was spotted taking care of her newborn earlier this month on the Midway Atoll National Wildlife Refuge according to the U s. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The tough old bird has hatched a new chick for the past seven years in a row
which claimed 2000 of her fellow adult albatrosses and about 110000 chicks in the Midway wildlife refuge an island habitat in the middle of the North Pacific.
despite the threats that albatross face at sea refuge biologist Pete Leary said in a statement.
For example flying fish eggs are a key part of the albatross diet but flying fish sometimes attach their eggs to bits of discarded plastic floating at sea Leary explained.
Though the seafaring albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) lays only one egg a year mothers spend much of their year incubating
#Stress Makes Antarctic Penguins Less-Attentive Parents Stress induced by changes in Antarctic sea ice may cause adult male Adã lie penguins to be less attentive to their chicks and may increase chick mortality according to a new study.
A certain degree of stress and the related release of hormones can benefit penguins and other animals by increasing alertness and reallocating energy reserves to react to stressors.
But chronic stress can produce negative effects in an individual's health and behavior and can jeopardize a parent's ability to care for its young.
Adã lie penguins#medium-size cousins of emperor penguins common along much of the Antarctic coastline spend lots of time on sea ice searching for the krill that they feed on in the water below.
In recent years changes in the distribution of sea ice have forced the penguins to travel farther
Adã lie penguins Cope with Changing Sea Ice Conditions. Changed ice more stress As the distribution of sea ice is projected to continue to change throughout the century as climate change progresses researchers based at the University of Strasbourg in France were interested in determining how this environmental stress may impact the future population of Adã lies on the southernmost continent.
and captured and treated 10 adult males with pellets containing corticosterone a stress hormone common in birds.
The pellets released the hormone steadily over the course of three weeks until they degraded completely within the penguins'bodies.
The researchers observed the penguins throughout those three weeks and for several weeks afterward to determine the full extent of the hormone's effects.
and more time at their nests but were less attentive to their chicks while at their nests compared to untreated adult males the team reported in the Feb 4 online issue of the journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology.
Each male had two chicks at the start of the experiment but by the end after the pellets had degraded completely many of the treated males had lost one of their two chicks to predators
or other unknown causes of death whereas untreated males did not experience this loss. The findings suggest that the stressed males allocated their resources to support one chick
But the new findings do add to the growing body of evidence suggesting penguin populations may shrink with future changes in sea ice.
They are used to short-term stressors like predators and that won't said change Thierry. But the problem in recent years would be the food availability and the sea-ice conditions in Antarctica.
On eastern Antarctica's Petrel Island not a single chick has survived the 2013-2014 summer season among the 20000 breeding pairs that live there Thierry said.
The loss of those chicks underscores the importance of follow-up studies regarding how environmental change will influence penguin population growth
The team next plans to attach GPS units to the penguins to track their behavior
This will help reveal how the penguins spend their time away from their chicks and could help pinpoint nuanced behavioral changes associated with elevated levels of stress hormones Thierry said.
By using data from tree rings of Siberian pines researchers found an unusually warm and wet period between A d. 1211 and 1225 corresponding with Genghis khan's horse-driven invasion.
or more horses kept by every Mongol warrior. It must have created the ideal conditions for a charismatic leader to emerge out of the chaos develop an army
and deer the authors write in the March issue of the journal Antiquity. Mysterious wand After the skeletons and wand were buried someone seems to have dug up
Older artifacts typically showed stylized or schematic representations of humans but realistic depictions of animals.
#Corn snakes: Facts, Food & Bites Corn snakes are nonvenomous snakes found primarily in the southeastern United states. They are medium-size snakes brightly colored with individual patterns.
Corn snakes are fairly calm and easy to care for. They are popular as pets; in fact they are the most commonly bred snake species in the United states
. But watch out corn snake owners these elegant serpents are skilled at escaping from their homes. There are two stories behind how the corn snake got its name.
According to one tale corn snakes belly markings look similar to the kernel pattern on Indian corn. Others say the name came from back
when Southern farmers stored corn in wooden crates. Rodents would feed on the corn and corn snakes would come to eat the rodents.
Corn snakes are closely related to rat snakes and sometimes known as red rat snakes.##Corn snakes are slender and range from 18 to 44 inches (45 to 112 centimeters) with the record at 72 inches (1. 8 meters).
Their red rat snake#nickname comes from their coloring which is usually reddish-orange or orange-brown. Snakes at higher elevations tend to be browner.
Corn snakes have edged large black red orange or brown blotches on their backs and a spear-shaped pattern on their heads and necks.
Their bellies usually have a black-and-white checkerboard pattern occasionally with orange accents and two black stripes under the tail.
They have keeled weakly (mid-ridged) scales and round pupils. Corn snakes patterns and colorings vary considerably from region to region and the age of the snakes.
Sadly corn snakes are mistaken often for copperheads and killed in the wild. People can tell the species apart by the markings.
Copperheads have hourglass markings whereas corn snakes markings are blotchy and random. Copperheads also do not have checked the black-and-white belly.
There are hundreds of corn snake morphs or color variations including: Albino corn snake Typical albino corn snakes are not actually white.
They are only missing their black pigment so these snakes are whitish with orangey-red markings and ruby-red eyes.
They are called also amelanistic snakes because they lack melanin. Okeetee corn snake This is a regional locality morph.
Okeetees are found mostly in South carolina. They have wonderfully bright coloration and bold patterns in vibrant oranges reds and blacks.
Snow corn snake These stunning snakes lack both black and red pigment leaving them with pale coloring in shades of white pink green and yellow.
They have red eyes. Black corn snake These are also known as anerythristic corn snakes. Unlike amelanistic (red albino) corn snakes these snakes lack red pigment called erythrin.
They have gray bodies with dark gray blotches outlined in black. Adults usually have yellow splotches on their chins
and necks and sometimes their blotches fade to brown. Their eyes are brownish gray. Blood-red corn snake This is a selectively bred corn snake designed to produce an almost solid red animal.
The hatchlings patterns fade as they age and by adulthood these snakes have deep red backs.
Their eyes are dark and their bellies are white lacking any markings. Corn snakes are found in the eastern United states from southern New jersey to Florida.
They live west as far as Louisiana and parts of Kentucky. They are most abundant in Florida Georgia South carolina North carolina and Virginia.
Corn snakes may be especially active during the warmer months. They climb trees slither into abandoned buildings
and invade rodents nests looking for prey. Nevertheless these snakes are generally quiet and shy.
They dwell in woodlands tree groves rocky hillsides swamps fields and meadows when they live in natural environments.
Corn snakes are mostly nocturnal and like to hide under rotting bark logs and rocks during the day.
They enjoy man-made habitats too such as woodlots abandoned buildings and barns. Image Gallery: How Snakes Slither Up Trees Corn snakes enjoy a diet of rodents lizards frogs small birds bats and bird eggs.
Rodents are their favorites. Not being venomous these snakes don t just bite their prey to kill it they constrict it.
First they bite the prey to get a firm grip on it and then they quickly wrap their muscular bodies around the victim in tight coils.
Corn snakes squeeze their victims tightly until they suffocate and die. Then corn snakes swallow their dinner whole usually head first.
Occasionally they will swallow small prey alive. Reproduction Corn snakes typically breed in the spring from March to May.
They are oviparous meaning that the mothers lay eggs. Any time from May to July the mother pops out 10 to 30 eggs.
She lays them in rotting stumps piles of decaying vegetation or other places where there will be enough heat
and humidity for the eggs to incubate. Then she slithers off never to see the babies.
The babies gestate for about 2 months. When born they are 10 to 15 inches long and patterned like adults.
Their blotches however are much darker being brown to nearly black on a grey or light orange body.
They can live to be about 10 years old in the wild. Corn snakes are not venomous
and their bite is not dangerous to humans. They do have fangs but they are relatively weak
and probably will not break human skin. If you are bitten clean the bitten area with soap and water.
If your skin is broken and you have not had shot a tetanus you should seek medical attention
because the corn snake s mouth may contain bacteria that can lead to infection f
#German Culture: Facts, Customs and Traditions With a population of more than 82 million Germany is in Central europe bordering Austria Belgium Czech republic Denmark France Luxembourg Netherlands Switzerland and Poland.
While all of these cultures have had a hand to varying degrees in shaping today s Germany Austria
#Drunken Monkeys: Does Alcoholism Have an Evolutionary Basis? As the child of an alcoholic father Robert Dudley long wondered what caused the destructive allure of alcohol.
Then while working in the Panamanian forest as a biologist Dudley saw monkeys eating ripe fruit
Had fruit-eating animals including human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage by learning to associate the smell and taste of alcohol with ripe fruit?
He named this concept the drunken monkey hypothesis. I thought it was too simple an idea not to have been thought of previously he told Live Science.
and biomechanics of flight at the University of California Berkeley has published a book The Drunken Monkey:
'and other animals'attraction to fruit and as a result alcohol. 10 Easy Paths to Self-destruction Introducing the drunken monkey The concept goes like this:
Fruit-eating animals everything from primates and other mammals to insects and reptiles began to use the scent of ethanol as a cue to find ripe fruit.
and consumption by tens of thousands of species of animals Dudley told Live Science. His theory casts an attraction to alcohol as an adaptation to the natural world.
Despite the concept's name drunkenness is only a small part of the hypothesis. Stories of apparently intoxicated animals may get a lot of attention
Overt inebriation is probably a bad idea in the animal kingdom Dudley said. Likewise most people manage to drink without getting drunk often consuming low levels of ethanol with food he said.
but found his drunken monkey hypothesis rather speculative and unsupported to say the least Miltontold Live Science in an email.
if anything the smell of ethanol is more likely to repulse fruit-eating primates than attract them.
and both humans and other primates avoid fruit in this state she writes. Dudley however points out that no one knows how much of the intoxicant fruit-eaters are consuming.
Dudley cites studies showing beneficial effects of moderate ethanol consumption in a few animals and in humans.
Unlike our primate relatives humans have no innate nutritional wisdom that tells us what to consume she said.
Humans are cultural animals she said. Humans can move all over the globe and take the most seemingly uninteresting item out of the environment
#The 7 Weirdest Moms in the Animal kingdom<p>Moms we' ve all got them
But some animals have a slightly different idea of what it means to be a good mother.
ll actually dissolve their own bones to make baby-housing shells. That' s one way to lose baby weight!</
</p><p>Cuckoos have figured out a unique way to get the neighbors to do the difficult work of raising young.
Momma cuckoos will sneakily lay their eggs in another bird' s nest. In doing so the cuckoo tricks the other bird often a different smaller species into taking on the expensive burden of raising the chick.
The cuckoo chick usually hatches first and grows faster forcing the other chicks out of the nest where they then die.
It then gets the full attention of its adoptive parents giving it much greater chances of survival.</
</p><p>The tiny endangered Madagascar-based<em>Adetomyrma</em>ant has a strange way to show love to its kiddos.
The ants practice something known as " non-destructive cannibalism. " When the colony' s queen gives birth to ant larvae she
and her workers chew holes in the tiny babies to feed on their haemolymph – their circulatory system fluid (which would be blood in mammals.
Scientists can' t say exactly why these ants do this ants have a social behavior of transferring fluids to each other
so they may be practicing a rudimentary form of that behavior. The baby ants don'
t die but sucking blood from the young is a weird way to show vampire affection.</
</p><p>Sometimes mothers in the wild have to go to great lengths to protect their young.</
</p><p>Pacific gray whales migrate thousands of miles from cold plankton-rich Arctic waters to relatively nutrient-poor tropical lagoons off of the coast of Mexico where they give birth.
While the journey takes the gray whales away from a bountiful food supply the southern neighborhood is free of the dangerous orcas (they stick to colder waters) that otherwise hunt the newborn whales.
It also gives their newborns time to feed on their mothers' incredibly rich milk (53 percent fat!
Like bears the mother whales go hungry for months while still needing to produce high-calorie milk for their babies.
</p><p>For many spiders the act of mating signals that their lives are about to end remember Charlotte'
For several species of the<em>Stegodyphus</em>spiders motherly love goes even further than watching over the nest.
</p><p>When the babies are around a month old the mother spider rolls over on her back allowing the spiderlings to clamber over her kill her by injecting their venom
</p><p>The teensy female poison arrow frog literally goes above and beyond when taking on the duties of motherhood.
and watching them hatch the strawberry poison arrow frog carries her tadpoles one by one on her back from the rain forest floor up into trees as high as 100 feet.
After hoisting her babes to the treetops the frog then finds individual pools of water in leaves for each tadpole setting up safe and individualized nurseries.
The mother strawberry poison arrow frog then feeds each of her young with her own unfertilized eggs over the course of six to eight weeks
thus allowing these tadpoles to grow into young frogs without having to eat each other. What eggs again?</
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