and why birds can't taste them and we even know the gene that could turn it on and off Van Deynze tells Popular Science.
#Sloth Fur Might Yield New Drugssloths are cute. Take this video of baby sloths being washed:
Until today this video might represent sheer joy. But a new study causes a different reaction:
New research you see has found that chemicals excreted by microbes in sloth fur had potent activity against a host of human pathogens
The study found that chemicals isolated from fungi in three-toed sloths were deadly for parasites that cause malaria and Chagas disease (Plasmodium falciparum and Trypanosoma cruzi respectively.
The research was only a partial cataloguing of microbes that live in sloth fur which the scientists describe as a potential goldmine for drug discovery.
It's not surprising on the face of it that sloths harbor some interesting microscopic fur-friends: Cyanobacteria have been known to cover their coats coloring them green
and not exactly easy to procur for your average researcher--the three-toed sloths (Bradypus variegatus) used in this study were found in a Panamanian nature reserve.
That contrasts with English smell descriptions which often compare smells with things using phrases such as smells like bananas or smells like a wet dog. tpã:
and bearcats have a tpã smell. CÃ Ã Â s: petrol smoke bat droppings bat caves some species of millipedes wild ginger roots
and wild mango wood all have this smell. plã Âaeâ this means a bloody smell that attracts tigers.
Squirrel blood and crushed head lice(!!have it. It is distinct from pã Âh which is the smell that blood raw fish
and raw meat have. In their experiments Radboud and Burenhul asked both native Jahai speakers and native English speakers to name smells on scratch-'n'-sniff cards and colors on chips.
For example in villages in which residents forage primarily it's important not to bring home animals that have the smell that attracts tigers.
#A Glue That Seals Heart Defectsnearly a decade ago Jeffrey Karp was playing around with a new biodegradable polymer he'd made.
and a team of surgeons and engineers to develop a glue that they recently tested in hearts of living rats and pigs.
Paris-based Gecko Biomedical has licensed the technology and plans to bring it to market in Europe first
The tests Karp and del Nido performed included closing heart defects in laboratory rats and closing cuts in the arteries of pigs.
If the new glue passes Gecko Biomedical's further testing and makes its way into hospitals it could be the first such glue that works under the tough conditions in the heart.
He was inspired by spiders and insects that make secretions that stick to wet surfaces he says.
Think: slug goo. Those secretions he found are viscous and hydrophobic or water-repelling. The new glue is the same
which has also been studied in ants. With this study scientists at the University of Queensland have found that the so-called waggle dance bees perform translates that polarized light map of the sky into the movement that guides others.
Building on previous studies that have examined how waggle dances can be altered by illuminating the hive with artificially polarized light these experiments demonstrate that foraging bees can sense
and wildlife campaigners would raise awareness within China of the dramatic scale of elephant poaching the New york times reported:
n Samper president and chief executive of the Wildlife Conservation Society said in a statement that the society congratulated the Chinese government for showing the world that elephant poaching
and that elephants will once again flourish. Patrick Bergin chief executive of the African Wildlife Foundation described the event as a courageous and critical first step by China to elevate the important issue of wildlife trafficking
and elephant poaching among its citizens and around the world. While the United states crushed nearly all of the ivory in its possession China's stockpile likely exceeds 45 tons of ivory the World Conservation Society estimated i
By preventing animals that are both missing genes from mating with each other a quantum jump in fertility could be achieved in Nordic Red breeds Sahana said.
Some animals use both types of habitat. Others like marsh-nesting seaside sparrows or the honey bees that produce mangrove honey rely on one or the other.
Both provide valuable ecosystem services buffering floods storing atmospheric carbon and building soils. Both are in decline nationally and globally.
The researchers are studying effects on coastal insects and birds; whether the change will affect coastal ecosystems'ability to store carbon;
and adaptively evolved in the honeybee. The first genetic mechanism for sex determination was proposed in the mid-1800s by a Silesian monk named Johann Dzierson according to the study's co-author and Arizona State university Provost Robert E. Page Jr.
He knew that the difference between queen and worker bees--both females--emerged from the different quality and quantity of food.
But what about the males he asked. Dzierson posited that males were haploid--possessing one set of chromosomes
which was confirmed in the 1900s with the advent of the microscope. Under the magnifying lens researchers could see that eggs that gave rise to drones were penetrated not by sperm.
evolved in their article Gradual molecular evolution of a sex determination switch in honeybees through incomplete penetrance of femaleness.
In addition Hunt and Page found that the honey bees'high recombination rate--the process by which genetic material is mixed physically during sexual reproduction--is the highest of any known animal studied
and can lead to misidentification species identification based on the composition of short DNA sequences-the so-called DNA barcodes-has proven to be the safest way to reach this goal both in animals and in many groups of plants.
and/or endangered species like the Canary Island date palm or the Cretan date palm to the identification of hybrids having an ornamental value'.
A new invasive plant parasitic nematode in Europefollowing its recent synonymisation with Meloidogyne ulmi a species known to parasitize elm trees in Europe it has become clear that M. mali has been in The netherlands for more than fifty years.
Many studies later on associated this nematode species with several plant species including Elms. In Europe however it was for years only known to parasitize Elms.
which were found to be hosts to this nematode species. The authors compounded a list of about 44 different plant species currently recognized as host to M. mali.
It is highly probable that this root-knot nematode has even a wider host range than
#Slippery bark protects trees from pine beetle attacktrees with smoother bark are better at repelling attacks by mountain pine beetles
The tiny beetles which are about the size of a grain of rice bore into the pine bark.
which pushes the beetles back out of the tree. Large-scale and continuous beetle attacks can kill the tree.
We thought the beetles were either choosing to avoid the smooth surface or they just couldn't hang onto it.
To determine which was the case the researchers tested how well the beetles could hold onto different bark textures.
They placed each of 22 beetles on a rough patch of bark and on a smooth patch.
They timed how long the beetle could stay on each surface before falling. Twenty-one of the 22 beetles were able to cling to the rough bark until the test ended after five minutes.
But all of the beetles fell from the smooth bark in less than a minute. The results--especially combined with the findings of a second study also recently published by the research team--provide information that may be useful to land managers who are trying to keep public parks and other relatively small forested areas healthy.
In the second study published online in the journal Oecologia Ferrenberg Mitton and Jeffrey Kane of Humboldt State university in California found that a second physical characteristic of a tree also helps predict how resistant the pine is to beetle infestation.
The number of resin ducts--which is related to the trees'ability to pitch out the beetles--is counted easily by taking a small core of the tree.
when mitigating properties to resist beetles. This contradicts the approach that has been historically common for fire management Ferrenberg said.
But if you want to defend a small amount of land against bark beetles that may not be the best strategy.
Unlike animals most plants can't move to escape the cold or generate heat to keep them warm.
The new species previously unknown to science include 38 different ants 12 fishes 14 plants eight beetles two spiders one reptile and one amphibian.
In addition Academy scientists discovered a new genus of beetle and a previously unidentified genus of sea fan.
More than a dozen Academy scientists along with several dozen international collaborators described the newly discovered plants and animals.
This year Academy scientists were able to identify 38 previously unknown ant species seven new plants and two new spider species from Madagascar.
Academy scientist Brian Fisher an entomologist who specializes in the study of ants calls them the glue that holds ecosystems together.
Ants are one of the most important members of ecosystems says Fisher. They turn over more soil than earthworms.
But they're also some of the most overlooked he says. If they were bigger they would be studied the most type of organism
and recent high-res images Fisher and his colleagues can identify which patches of forest are most likely to contain new species of ants based on their elevation vegetation and adjacent habitats.
If you base conservation on just vertebrates Fisher says it leads you to conclude that only the largest forests are important.
Ants and other insects provide a better map of true biodiversity. New species unearthed close to homewhile researchers from the California Academy of Sciences are spanning the far reaches of the globe to find new plants animals
and other life forms there are still many things to discover closer to Home in 2013 Academy scientists discovered two new plant species and eight new beetles from Mexico.
In his time as a naturalist Charles darwin was fascinated with beetles and amassed one of the world's most important collections.
According to Sokolov these miniscule ground beetles remain largely uninvestigated. Prior to his recent discoveries there were only two other species from two different genera described from Mexico.
These beetles rarely emerge and are so tiny that they have gone largely unnoticed. These types of beetles live all over the world including here in California
but are very difficult to collect says Dr. Dave Kavanaugh Senior Curator of Entomology at the Academy.
Then once you have found the beetles and get them back to the lab it takes a steady hand to dissect them and tediously compare each specimen under a microscope.
The study of these beetles illustrates how isolation and slight changes in habitat can influence the evolutionary process.
These beetles are blind flightless and don't move around very much yet they are found in nearly every corner of the world says Kavanaugh.
A case of mistaken identity points to need for increased protectionsthis year Academy scientists identified three new species of soft corals and two new species and a new genus
of sea fan found off the Pacific coast. For 100 years the fiery red sea fan with long elegant branches had been lumped in with 36 other species of Euplexaura until Academy octocoral expert Gary Williams was able to set the record straight.
Williams the Academy's Curator of Invertebrate Zoology and Geology encountered the sea fan now named Chromoplexaura marki during a two-week survey of the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary
The proposed expansion--roughly 2000 additional square miles--would encompass the largest upwelling site in North america better protecting the nutrient-rich waters that support everything from reefs and seabird colonies to endangered whales.
Scientists at the Academy dove into their collections to discover 24 other new species that live in the world's oceans.
Along with the sea fan are three new species of worm eels three colorful gobies three nudibanchs two snappers two now-extinct species of sand dollars corals barnacles and two
The color pattern it displays is a perfect camouflage that helps the animal blend into its habitat on the bottom of the sea.
This bamboo shark like a similar species on display at the Academy's Steinhart Aquarium uses its pectoral fins to walk along the ocean floor.
According to the paper published this year in the International Journal of Ichthyology sharks of this genus are nocturnally active bottom-living animals
which exhibit a peculiar walking gait while foraging for invertebrates and smaller fishes. Due to their reproductive mode limited swimming ability and poor dispersal capability most species have restricted distributions
Cutting releases of methane and nitrous oxide two gases that pound-for-pound trap more heat than does CO2 should be considered alongside the challenge of reducing fossil fuel use.
Among the largest human-related sources of methane are ruminant animals (cattle sheep goats and buffalo) and fossil fuel extraction and combustion.
Ruminants are estimated to comprise the largest single human-related source of methane. By reflecting the latest estimates of greenhouse gas emissions on the basis of a life-cycle
Unlike nonruminant animals such as pigs and poultry ruminants produce copious amounts of methane in their digestive systems.
Although CO2 is the most abundant greenhouse gas the international community could achieve a more rapid reduction in the causes of global warming by lowering methane emissions through a reduction in the number of ruminants the authors said than by cutting CO2 alone.
In addition to reducing direct methane emissions from ruminants cutting ruminant numbers would deliver a significant reduction in the greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production of feed crops for livestock they added.#
#Among agricultural approaches to climate change reducing demand for meat from ruminants offers greater greenhouse gas reduction potential than do other steps such as increasing livestock feeding efficiency or crop yields per acre.
Agricultural researchers are also studying methane reduction through improved animal genetics and methods to inhibit production of the gas during digestion.
International climate negotiations such as the UNFCCC have not given#oeadequate attention#to greenhouse gas reductions from ruminants they added.
and colleagues infected mouse immune cells known as macrophages with each of the 29 strains they had collected representing global diversity.
Toxoplasma is one of the few parasites that can infect any warm-blooded animal says Mariane Melo an MIT postdoc and the paper's lead author.
She notes that a strain adapted to long-term survival in rats may cause a fatal infection in mice
In the same way that the genome sequence of the platypus--a survivor of an ancient lineage--can help us study the evolution of all mammals the genome sequence of Amborella can help us learn about the evolution of all flowers said Victor Albert of the University
#Controlling parasitic worms with genetic selectionhelminths are gastrointestinal parasitic worms that have become a major concern and source of economic loss for sheep producers around the world.
Over time these drugs are less effective as helminths become resistant to the drugs. Therefore there is pressure on the industry to find alternate strategies.
Certain breeds of sheep are more immune to helminths than the conventional breeds used in Canada
and ultimately limit production losses attributed to helminth infection. A key advantage to applying genetic selection rather than chemicals to get rid of the worms is that it is permanent
and it could help reduce the potential risk of chemical residues in products made for human consumption.
With today's developments in genomic selection breeding sheep for helminth resistance can be achieved efficiently without adversely affecting other economically important traits explained Niel Karrow lead author of the paper a researcher at the Centre for Genetic Improvement of Livestock at the University of Guelph.
We believe that breeding for helminth resistance when combined with good biosecurity and pasture management practises will greatly help to control against production losses due to gastrointestinal parasites.
#Evolution of plumage patterns in male and female birdsresearch published today looks at the evolutionary pathways to differences in bird plumage patterns between males
and females--and concludes that birds are able to adapt their appearance with remarkable ease.
Ducks geese and swans are waterfowl an order known to scientists as Anseriformes. Hens pheasants partridges and turkeys are game-birds (Galliformes.
Both orders are famous not just for their flesh but also for their striking and elaborate plumages
which are sought after as decorative flourishes. Some members of these orders show marked differences in appearance between the sexes:
Male and female mallards look so different that for many years they were thought to be different species. In other members of the same orders there is little apparent difference in the plumage of males and females.
and differences in plumage in almost 300 members of the Anseriformes and Galiformes orders --and focuses on patterning between male and female birds rather than colour.
She said: The colour of plumage has attracted much research interest but the exquisite patterns of bird plumage such as the spots of the guinea fowl and the barred patterns of ducks and turkeys to just name a few have received much less attention.
Since the 1980s differences in the appearances of male and female birds have been seen through a prism of genetic correlation.
In other words it was thought that female birds may have evolved similar patterning to males due to common genes but that female patterns would be lost subsequently as it is not beneficial.
It was argued that male birds developed their spectacular colours and elaborate patterning as a result of their mating patterns--they used their plumage to compete for
and attract females. On the other hand female birds needed to blend into their surroundings in order to nest safely and protect their young--so they became drab and dull to protect themselves
and their young from predators said Gluckman. My research looked at the plumage patterns of male and female birds on a separate and equal basis
--and then went on to identify similarities and differences between them. By tracing the evolutionary pathways in the dimorphism of 288 species of waterfowl and gamebirds
I reconstructed the evolutionary history of plumage pattern sexual dimorphism which allowed me to demonstrate that plumage patterns in females are not a result of genetic correlation.
Essentially what I found was that plumage patterning is remarkably labile--both male and female birds have the capacity to change between different types of patterns.
What's interesting is to consider what are the forces driving these changes in male and female plumage patterns
--whether they have an environmental basis and/or whether they have a signalling function between birds of different sexes or within the same sex.
As early as 1780 the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London published a paper by John Hunter proposing that plumage differences between the sexes were driven by sexual selection.
Ever since the prevailing view of sexual dimorphism has been one of showy males strutting their stuff to win over demure females.
The predominant explanation put forward to explain how differences in dimorphism evolved hinges on mating habits;
males of polygamous species (those with more than one mate) had developed spectacular plumage in order to attract a maximum number of females while monogamous species (those with one mate) retained similar plumage.
Gluckman said: Previous research has shown that the traditional argument that differences in plumage between the sexes stem from differences in breeding systems doesn't always hold up.
In many putatively monogamous species the plumage of the males is significantly different to that of females
and likewise males and females in many polygamous species have the same type of plumage.
This suggests that plumage is not exclusively an outcome of breeding habits --but is a matter of function in a highly complex way.
In her study of patterning Gluckman looked at the variations between the sexes of the same species and across species in order to build a picture of the pathways to similarity and differences between male and female bird plumage patterns.
She used a classification of four broad types of patterning: mottled scaled barred and spotted.
Birds exhibit a fabulous number of variations and combinations of these visual patterns in females as well as males.
By emphasising similarities as well as differences in plumage patterns between male and female birds rather than
whether one sex is the same as the other I found that sexual dimorphism in the plumage pattern of birds is nuanced highly
and that there can be multiple types of sexual dimorphism. In expanding the definition of sexual dimorphism
and reconstructing evolutionary history I found that changes in sexual dimorphism could be due to changes in males and/or females.
In addition the plumage patterns of birds seem to transition easily between different types of dimorphism
which is congruent with adaptation to fluctuating social and environmental conditions said Gluckman. Thanh-Lan Gluckman is a Phd candidate in the Evolutionary genetics group at the Department of Zoology at the University of Cambridge.
She carried out this research during her MPHIL in the Department of Zoology University of Melbourne Australia.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of Cambridge. The original story is licensed under a Creative Commons Licence.
#Corn pest decline may save farmers moneypopulations of European corn borer (ECB) a major corn crop pest have declined significantly in the eastern United states according to Penn State researchers.
ECB which was introduced to North america from Europe in the 1900s used to be the most important pest of corn in the United states said John Tooker assistant professor of entomology.
and $35 million in the northeastern United states. According to Tooker to protect their crops from ECB many farmers have grown a genetically modified type of corn that expresses insecticidal toxins that kill the worms.
During September of each season they assessed corn borer damage on 400 random plants at each site.
The team's results appeared in an early online edition of the journal Pest Management Science in December.
and other moth species and provides data about their prevalence. While traps within the Pestwatch network provide insight on ECB population size where moths are active
and periods of ECB activity their utility as a predictive tool particularly for field corn has been limited Bohnenblust said.
We found that ECB moths captured in the Pestwatch network correlate well with in-field populations of ECB in field corn which means that Pestwatch data hold potential to inform decisions about
and Pestwatch reflects low moth captures in their area we would recommend that in the next season they give competitive non-Bt hybrids a try on some of their acres
In the same spirit we leave out sherry and biscuits for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer.
#Emerald ash borer may have met its matchwoodpeckers find emerald ash borers a handy food source and may slow the spread of this noxious pest even ultimately controlling it suggest researchers from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Their findings are published online in the journal Forest Ecology and Management. We found we have a native predator that is able to detect
and respond to this new rich food resource said Charles Flower UIC postdoctoral research associate in biology and first author of the study.
Since the emerald ash borer was first found feeding on trees in southeastern Michigan in 2002 this Asian invader has been responsible for the death of 30 million trees in the northeastern U s. and Canada.
In Chicago where the emerald ash borer is already destroying trees 17 percent of the street trees are ash--85000 trees with an estimated 300000 more ash trees on private property.
if native bark-foraging birds including woodpeckers and nuthatches were feeding on the emerald ash borer.
They hoped that unlike other exotic invasive species which run amok in new regions because of the lack of predators to keep them in check the emerald ash borer might meet its match in native predators--bark foraging birds like the woodpecker and nuthatch.
This kind of bio-control would be as or perhaps more efficient than other methods to slow the spread of this pest said Flower.
Chemical treatments are expensive and may cause harm to trees and other fauna and the introduction of an ash borer predator from its native range in Asia might bring with it a host of new problems he said.
One of the ways a predator can respond to a new abundant food source according to Flower is a functional response:
the woodpeckers alter their behavior in a way that allows them to find emerald ash borers more efficiently
and then consume them more than other prey. One woodland area being monitored lay behind Dempsey Middle school in Delaware Ohio.
The researchers enlisted the help of schoolchildren to do a precise accounting of bug and woodpecker activity in the area said Christopher Whelan an avian ecologist with the Illinois Natural history Survey UIC adjunct assistant professor of biology
and a co-author of the study. When emerald ash borer larvae emerge from eggs laid on the tree they burrow in
and eat their way through the phloem layer of the tree the vascular system that delivers water and nutrients from root to branch.
The insects create characteristic serpentine galleries that cut this vascular system starving the tree. Eventually mature adults exit the tree to start the process again.
and painted all the holes they found in the bark of each tree--a different color each for large round woodpecker holes for the characteristic crescent-shaped holes mature emerald ash borers
and for holes made by other insects. Paint seeped through to dye the stem beneath
and after the bark was stripped the students could identify woodpecker holes that penetrated into emerald ash borer galleries
or into holes made by other bugs. The students tracked the fate of each bug that had been in the tree.
Instead of relying on a statistical estimate of the insect population and thus the food source available every bug and its fate were accounted for.
This was looking at woodpecker foraging at a fine tree-by-tree scale said Flower.
Their results proved that woodpeckers were indeed choosing to prey on emerald ash borers--eating 85 percent of the emerald ash borer in an infested tree.
Another type of predator response to a new food source is a numerical response: the numbers of the predator in this case woodpeckers and other bark foraging birds increase either because they were moving into the area
or reproducing more successfully. In a related study researchers at Cornell tracked the movement of emerald ash borer from Detroit
and around the Great lakes using a citizen scientist data base--the Project Feeder Watch --which showed that the numbers of three woodpecker species
and the white-breasted nuthatch the important bark foraging birds in this region increased as the emerald ash borer increased.
But that study examined the bird population response and didn't tell you what the birds were doing there said Flower.
With the numerical response they found and the functional response we found we have really powerful evidence of the potential of the woodpeckers
and the nuthatch to have an impact on the population of the emerald ash borer said Whelan.
Very little is known about emerald ash borer habits in its native environment its natural predators
or how its population is controlled said Flower. Slowing its course may give researchers time to learn more about how it can be controlled.
Woodpeckers won't save a tree once it's infested but they may save the forest.
Or at least save a nearby forest said Flower. The research suggests that the woodpeckers are likely slowing the spread of emerald ash borer.
Woodpeckers may not be able to snuff them out but they may be able to control them said Whelan.
Lawrence Long The Ohio State university Wooster Ohio; Kathleen Knight and Joanne Rebbeck USDA Forest Service Delaware Ohio;
and Joel Brown and Miquel Gonzalez-Meler UIC were co-authors on the study. This research was supported by NSF grants DGE-0549245 and DEB-0919276 UIC Hadley grant and Provost Fellowship and US Forest Service Northern Research Station Civil rights Diversity
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