Ultimately he and colleagues hope to be able to relate their findings in the fly brain with the operation of the brain in mammals.
Cities, farms reroute animals seeking cooler climesin spite of considerable human development the southeastern United states region could provide some of the Western hemisphere's more heavily used thoroughfares for mammals birds
The golden mouse ornate chorus frog and southern cricket frog--three of the species that will likely be on the move in southeastern U s.--were among the nearly 3000 mammals birds
Some animals particularly small mammals and amphibians are going to have to avoid highways agricultural development and the like.
Wolong is a biodiversity hotspot that's home to endangered giant pandas. Wolong and the conservation program became a stage on
However she said prenatal exposure to BPA did not lead to insulin resistance in sheep as was true in a previous mouse study.
After sequencing the L. gongylophorous genome the researchers noticed that the fungus seemed to be doing the lion's share of cellulose degradation with its specialized enzymes.
Mice that were fed cocoa with a high-fat diet experienced less obesity-related inflammation than mice fed the same high-fat diet without the supplement said Joshua Lambert associate professor of food science.
The mice ate the human equivalent of 10 tablespoons of cocoa powder--about four or five cups of hot cocoa--during a 10-week period.
and diabetes in the mice that were fed the cocoa supplement were much lower than the mice that were fed the high-fat diet without the cocoa powder
For example they had about 27 percent lower plasma insulin levels than the mice that were fed not cocoa.
The cocoa powder supplement also reduced the levels of liver triglycerides in mice by a little more than 32 percent according to Lambert who worked with Yeyi Gu graduate student in food science and Shan Yu a graduate student in physiology.
The mice also saw a slight but significant drop in the rate of body weight gain according to the researchers who reported their findings in the online version of the European Journal of Nutrition.
The plane draws nearer and the mysterious object reveals itself to be a massive herd of migrating caribou stretching for miles.
Seeing those caribou marching single-file across the tundra puts what we're doing here in the Arctic into perspective said Miller principal investigator of the Carbon in Arctic Reservoirs Vulnerability Experiment (CARVE) a five-year NASA-led field campaign studying how climate change is affecting the Arctic's carbon cycle.
#Bloodsucking deer keds are spreading in Norwaya high moose population density and mild autumn weather result in a higher prevalence of deer keds (louse fly parasite).
A great deal of pine forest in the habitat of the moose has the same effect. These are the results of new research into how deer keds are spreading in Southeast Norway.
The findings of this Phd project can be used to limit the damaging effects of the parasite in the Norwegian landscape.
Deer keds were discovered first in Norway in Halden in 1983. The parasite sucks blood principally from cervids (moose roe deer
and red deer) but it also attacks humans and other livestock. In Finland the parasite is regarded as a major obstacle to people's enjoyment of nature during the autumn
when it swarms and there are reports of increasing numbers of cases of skin inflammation in people bitten by deer keds Knut Madslien has monitored the spread pattern of deer keds in Fennoscandia produced a description of pathological hair loss
in moose in Southeast Norway in 2006/7 and studied environmental factors which can be favourable for the parasite and possible pathogens in the deer ked and its host.
The spread pattern was studied with the help of questionnaires amongst hunters and by using the website www. flattogflue. no.
The results showed that the parasite's area of distribution now stretches from Lillesand in the south to Elverum in the north with the greatest density along the border to Sweden.
The outbreak of hair-loss in moose in Southeast Norway in 2006/7 was probably due to an extraordinary high prevalence of deer keds
which in turn was caused most probably by a combination of high moose density and the particularly mild autumn of 2006.
A study of 350 moose killed in seven municipalities in Southeast Norway revealed that the coats of all the animals were infested with keds
but the density of the parasites varied to a significant degree. Madslien points to a clear positive connection between the amount of pine forest in the habitat of the moose and the infestation intensity of deer keds in the coats of the moose.
Madslien found a high prevalence of bacteria of the genus Bartonella spp. both in the moose's blood and in the keds themselves.
Whereas moose outside the distribution range of the ked were infected with only one type of Bartonella bacterium moose inside the distribution range were infected with two different Bartonella bacteria.
These findings indicate that moose are a reservoir for Bartonella spp . and that deer keds act as vectors for Bartonella bacteria infections.
However it is not yet clear to what degree these bacteria can cause disease. Measuring the stress hormone cortisol in the moose's coat was used as a method for appraising the long-term effect of the deer ked on the health
and welfare of moose but Madslien found that in general there was little connection between the number of deer keds the weight of moose at the time of slaughter and the level of cortisol in the hair.
This indicates that moose can tolerate limited amounts of the parasite relatively well. Madslien carried out his doctoral research at the Norwegian Veterinary Institute (VI)
but researchers engineers and students at VI the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science (NVH) the University of Oslo (Uio) Hedmark Univeristy College (Hihe) the Norwegian Institute for Nature Research
(NINA) Sweden's National Veterinary Institute Uppsala University Hospital Sweden and the University of Oulu Finland were key collaborators.
Knut Madslien defended his doctoral research on 4th june 2013 at the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science with a thesis entitled Deer ked (Lipoptena cervi) and moose (Alces alces) in Norway--interactions
#Iberian lynx attacks on farm animals are on the risescientists working on the LIFE IBERLINCE project have spent six years studying the hunting behaviour of the Iberian Lynx lynx pardinus) registering a total of 40 attacks with 716 farm animals killed.
Most studies on depredation of livestock in Spain have focused on wolves and little attention has been given to this type of conflict in smaller species. Within the LIFE IBERLINCE project Conservation
and reintroduction of the Iberian Lynx lynx pardinus) in Andalusia a team of scientists has spent six years monitoring lynxes'hunting habits in areas with nearby settlement.
In the eight years since this initiative began the number of lynxes in Spain has trebled.
Quite possibly when the lynx was present all over the peninsula these attacks were common but as they now have limited a very distribution
Compensation to farmersparallel to its conservation programme the group created a compensation scheme to mitigate the consequences of the conflict between humans and lynxes in this area.
which is developed colonising more areas as happens with the wolf whose conflict is generalised much more the researcher concludes.
Squirrels also store thousands of seeds underground. A diminished number of seed cones has an effect on grizzly bears the scientists say;
the bears regularly raid squirrel seed caches to prepare for winter hibernation. In the past low years for whitebark pine cones have led to six times more conflicts between grizzlies
and humans as hungry bears look for food in campgrounds says Crone. Now concerns about viability of whitebark pine populations are one of the main reasons grizzly bears in Yellowstone national park are listed still as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Birds squirrels and bears are not the only species that depend on whitebark pine. Vast stands of whitebark pine help to maintain the mountain snowpacks that provide water to more than 30 million people in 16 U s. states each year.
Whitebark pines are often the only trees at the highest elevations. Their branches retain snow as it blows across gusty mountaintops.
Their shade moderates snow-melt in the spring keeping flows down the mountain in check. A small percentage of whitebark pine trees have outlived the ongoing destruction by pests and disease.
These trees are the next area of focus for Crone's team. We want to find out whether the surviving trees are still producing cones Crone says.
#White-tailed deer and the science of yellow snownew research from wildlife ecologists at Michigan Technological University indicates that white-tailed deer may be making the soil in their preferred winter homes unfit to grow the very trees that protect them there.
Bryan Murray a Phd candidate at Michigan Tech and two faculty members Professor Christopher Webster and Assistant professor Joseph Bump studied the effects on soil of the nitrogen-rich waste that white-tailed deer
They compared eastern hemlock stands where deer congregated to stands where deer were fenced out and found a strong relationship between the amount of soil nitrogen from the deer's waste products
During cold northern winters deer seek out stands of evergreens with dense crowns such as eastern hemlock northern white cedar and balsam fir.
and blustery winds and to help deer hide from predators Murray explained. Deer instinctively seek deeryards
but their choice of location is passed knowledge from mother to fawn. Thus deeryards that are traditional favorites can harbor 100 deer
or more per square mile creating hotspots of high-nitrogen-content waste. Long ago before logging enabled the white-tailed deer to move further and further north
and before the deer population explosion more recently experienced the ecosystem stayed balanced because there were plenty of deeryards and fewer deer.
Now more deer are crowding into less winter cover shifting the dynamic balance of nature.
The Michigan Tech research demonstrates that the relationship of deer to their habitat is more complex than just the plants they eat Webster said.
Our hope is that by better understanding the links between habitat use and spatial patterning of resources
and plants in survivng hemlock stands we can identify sustainable management strategies for this critical resource.
It was fascinating to discover such complex interactions which have implications for sustainable management in a seemingly simple ecosystem Murray added Story Source:
#A grassy trend in human ancestors dietsmost apes eat leaves and fruits from trees and shrubs.
In four new studies of carbon isotopes in fossilized tooth enamel from scores of human ancestors and baboons in Africa from 4 million to 10000 years ago a team of two dozen researchers found a surprise
For a long time primates stuck by the old restaurants--leaves and fruits--and by 3. 5 million years ago they started exploring new diet possibilities--tropical grasses
We see an increasing reliance on this new resource by human ancestors that most primates still don't use today.
Why Our Ancestor's Diets Matterthe earliest human ancestor to consume substantial amounts of grassy foods from dry more open savannas may signal a major and ecological and adaptive divergence from the last common ancestor we shared with African great apes
Human brains were larger than those of other primates by the time our Genus homo evolved 2 million years ago.
Hominins are humans their ancestors and extinct relatives that split from the other apes roughly 6 million years ago.
Cerling also wrote a study about baboon diets. Sponheimer wrote a fourth study summarizing the other three.
or large grazing animals like zebras wildebeest and buffalo it also would appear they ate C4 grasses.
and rhinos that browsed on C3 leaves it would appear they ate C3 trees-shrubs.
Small mammals such as hyrax rabbits and rodents would have added C3 and C4 signals to the teeth of human ancestors.
The Only Surviving Primates with a C4 Grass Dietcerling's second new study shows that
while human ancestors ate more grasses and other apes stuck with trees and shrubs two extinct Kenyan baboons represent the only primate genus that ate primarily grasses and perhaps sedges throughout its history.
when the baboons lived between 4 million and 2. 5 million years ago contradicting previous claims that they ate forest foods.
Modern Theropithecus gelada baboons live in Ethiopia's highlands where they eat only C3 cool-season grasses.
Cerling notes that primate tropical grass-eaters--Theropithecus baboons and Paranthropus human relatives--went extinct
The impact we observed is different from that observed previously for mammals and birds. Instead of reducing the number of species oil palm affects amphibian communities by replacing habitat suitable for threatened species with habitat used by amphibian species that are not important for conservation.
Species of animals that are more vocal in their expression like macaques parrots or the zebra finch used in the Jove article are unique as they provide a landscape for scientists to study song acquisition storage and regurgitation.
and study in laboratories than other vocal animals like apes. By utilizing a high-resolution functional magnetic resonance imaging apparatus (fmri) Dr. Van der Linden
Until recently fmri in small animals was focused mainly on rats and to a lesser extent on mice Dr. Van der Linden explains.
Thus far songbird brains have been studied using electrophysiological and histological techniques. However these approaches do not provide a global view of the brain
Understanding how ecosystems respond to climate variability is a priority in a fast changing globe says Marten Scheffer who leads the research program on tipping points.
In its perfect crystalline form graphene (a one-atom-thick carbon layer) is the strongest material ever measured as the Columbia Engineering team reported in Science in 2008--so strong that as Hone observed it would take an elephant balanced on a pencil to break through a sheet
This gene is the insect equivalent of a transcription factor found in mammals. Transcription factors regulate the activity of other genes.
For the analysis researchers reviewed 104 studies that looked at exposure to weed fungus rodent or bug killers and solvents and the risk of developing Parkinson's disease.
#Bechsteins bat is more Mediterranean than originally thoughtalthough the Bechstein's bat is regarded as a Euro-Siberian species a study by researchers in the UPV/EHU's Department of Zoology
The Bechstein's Bat (Myotis bechsteinii) has a broad distribution: from the Iberian peninsula to the Caucasus in the East and as far as southern Scandinavia in the north.
and degradation of the forestry systems can have on the populations of forestry specialists like the Bechstein's bat.
#Monkey teeth help reveal Neanderthal weaningmost modern human mothers wean their babies much earlier than our closest primate relatives.
and from monkeys at the California National Primate Research center at the University of California Davis. Using the new technique the researchers concluded that at least one Neanderthal baby was weaned at much the same age as most modern humans.
Just as tree rings record the environment in which a tree grew traces of barium in the layers of a primate tooth can tell the story of
what age it was weaned said Katie Hinde professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard university and an affiliate scientist at the UC Davis Primate Center.
and behavior among rhesus macaques at UC Davis. The team was able to determine exact timing of birth
By studying monkey teeth and comparing them to center records they could show that the technique was accurate almost to the day.
The technique opens up extensive opportunities to further investigate lactation in fossils and museum collections of primate teeth.
Yet recent investigations of wild chimpanzees have shown that the first molar eruption occurs toward the end of weaning.
By applying these new techniques to primate teeth in museum collections we can more precisely assess maternal investment across individuals within species as well as life history evolution among species Hinde said.
and mammals but we need to refine them further make them more toxic to mosquitoes
Co-authors of the study are John Spangler M d. Mara Vitolins Dr. PH. Stephen Davis M. S. Edward Ip Ph d. Gail Marion Ph d. and Sonia Crandall
and be transmitted between ferrets. Ferrets are used often as a mammalian model in influenza research and efficient transmission of influenza virus between ferrets can provide clues as to how well the same process might occur in people.
The researchers dropped H7n9 virus into the noses of six ferrets. A day later three uninfected ferrets were placed inside cages with the infected animals
and another three uninfected ferrets were placed in cages nearby. All the uninfected ferrets inside the cages became infected
while only one of three placed in nearby cages became infected. The team concluded that the virus can infect ferrets
and be transmitted between ferrets both by direct contact and less efficiently by air. The scientists detected viral material in the nasal secretions of the ferrets at least one day before clinical signs of disease became apparent.
The potential public health implication of this observation is that a person infected by H7n9 avian influenza virus who does not show symptoms could
nevertheless spread the virus to others. The researchers also infected pigs with the human-derived H7n9 virus. In natural settings pigs can act as a virtual mixing bowl to combine avian-and mammalian-specific influenza strains potentially allowing avian strains to better adapt to humans.
New strains arising from such mixing have the potential to infect humans and spark a pandemic so information about swine susceptibility to H7n9 could help scientists gauge the pandemic potential of the avian virus. Unlike the ferrets infected pigs in this small study did not transmit virus to uninfected pigs
either through direct contact or by air. All the infected ferrets and pigs showed mild signs of illness such as sneezing nasal discharge
and lethargy but none of the infected animals became seriously ill. The research was supported in part by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases part of the National institutes of health.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by NIH/National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases.
and colleagues studied tomatoes enriched in anthocyanin a natural pigment that confers high antioxidant capacity The purple GM tomatoes have already been found to prolong the lives of cancer-prone mice
Here lions leopards elephants hippos and giraffes wander free. Rivers of wildebeests zebra and Thompson's gazelles--more than 2 million all told--cross the landscape in one of the largest animal migrations on the planet.
While the park is located ideally for wandering wildebeests its location is less than ideal for the region's residents.
Rounding out the list is a new monkey with a blue-colored behind and humanlike eyes a tiny violet and a black staining fungus that threatens rare Paleolithic cave paintings in France.
and that does not count most of the microbial world said Quentin Wheeler founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at ASU and author of What on earth?
which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century it is time to pick up the pace Wheeler added.
while securing evidence of the origins of the biosphere Wheeler said. Taxon experts pick top 10members of the international committee made their top 10 selection from more than 140 nominated species. To be considered species must have been described in compliance with the appropriate code of nomenclature
of which we are shared a part Wheeler. At the same time we search the heavens for other earthlike planets we should make it a high priority to explore the biodiversity on the most earthlike planet of them all:
Lesula Monkey Cercopithecus lomamiensis Country: Democratic Republic of the Congoold World monkey: Discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic republic of the congo the lesula is an Old world monkey well known to locals
but newly known to science. This is only the second species of monkey discovered in Africa in the past 28 years.
Scientists first saw the monkey as a captive juvenile in 2007. Researchers describe the shy lesula as having humanlike eyes.
More easily heard than seen the monkeys perform a booming dawn chorus. Adult males have a large bare patch of skin on the buttocks testicles
and perineum that is colored a brilliant blue. Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote the species is hunted for bush meat
and its status is vulnerable. No to the Mine! Snake Sibon noalamina Country: Panamasnail-eating snake:
A beautiful new species of snail-eating snake has been discovered in the highland rainforests of western Panama.
or spinal column--range in size from this tiny new species of frog as small as 7 millimeters to the blue whale measuring 25.8 meters.
Scientists will need access to as much evidence of evolutionary history as possible said the institute's Wheeler who is also a professor in ASU's School of Life sciences in the College of Liberal arts and Sciences and in the School of Sustainability as well as a senior sustainability scientist
and know nothing about Wheeler added. No investment makes more sense than completing a simple inventory to the establish baseline data that tells us what kinds of plants
and the biology of other ruminant species. The Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsonii) is a native of the high mountain steppes and semidesert areas of the Tibetan plateau.
For nonnative mammals such as humans they may experience life-threatening acute mountain sickness when visiting high-altitude regions.
Through the comparison between Tibetan antelope and other plain-dwelling mammals researchers found the Tibetan antelope had the signals of adaptive evolution
and the highland American pika have signals of positive selection for genes involved in DNA repair and the production of ATPASE.
Also known as elephant grass miscanthus is one of a new generation of renewable energy crops that can be converted into renewable energy by being burned in biomass power stations.
--and there are dozens--sacred lotus bears the closest resemblance to the ancestor of all eudicots a broad category of flowering plants that includes apple cabbage cactus coffee cotton grape melon peanut poplar
and could be scavenged as even the largest African predators like lions and hyenas were unable to break them open to access their nutrient-rich brains.
Tool-wielding hominins at KJS on the other hand could access this tissue and likely did so by scavenging these heads after the initial nonhuman hunters had consumed the rest of the carcass Ferraro said.
In our study we used mice that were engineered genetically to develop an aggressive form of prostate cancer.
and soy had no cancerous lesions in the prostate at study's End all mice in the control group--no soy no tomato--developed the disease said John Erdman a U of I professor of food science and nutrition.
Only 45 percent of mice fed both foods developed the disease compared to 61 percent in the tomato group and 66 percent in the soy group he said.
Soy isoflavone serum and prostate levels in the mice are similar to those found in Asian men who consume one to two servings of soy daily.
The results of the mouse study suggest that three to four servings of tomato products per week
#Differences between marathon mice and couch potato mice reveal key to muscle fitnessresearchers discovered that small pieces of genetic material called micrornas link the two defining characteristics of fit muscles:
The team used two complementary mouse models--the marathon mouse and the couch potato mouse--to make this discovery.
But what's more they also found that active people have higher levels of one of these micrornas than sedentary people.
To do this they turned to two different mouse models each specially engineered to produce distinct but related proteins that turn muscle-specific genes on and off.
The first model dubbed the marathon mouse has a muscle-gene regulator called PPARÎ/Î'.These mice can run much further than normal mice.
These mice are able to burn a lot of fuel but they can't run very far.
and muscle fiber type-switching Kelly's team compared the molecular differences between these two disparate mouse models.
First the team found that PPARÎ couch potato mice have the optimal metabolic switch but lack the muscle fiber switch.
In contrast PPARÎ/Î'marathon mice have the whole package necessary for muscle fitness. The two mouse models also differed in molecular profiling according to this study.
The team discovered that marathon mice produce certain micrornas that are capable of activating the fiber switch.
By comparison this same circuitry is suppressed in couch potato mice. Digging a little deeper Kelly's team determined that PPARÎ/Î'is connected to micrornas via an intermediary called estrogen-related receptor (ERRÎ.
This protein collaborates with PPARÎ/Î'to turn on micrornas. That's why marathon mice are fitter
and have more type I muscle fibers than couch potato mice--their PPARÎ/Î 'and ERRÎ induce the right micrornas.
Muscle-boosting potential for patientsto determine if their findings were relevant to human health Kelly
Sure enough ERRÎ and one of the micrornas elevated in PPARÎ/Î'marathon mice were increased also in active people but not the sedentary group.
Some studies have shown that trained dogs can detect cancerous tumours such as lung cancer by smelling a person's breath.
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