#New york takes lead in state efforts to end ivory tradethe following statement was released today by John Calvelli Wildlife Conservation Society Executive vice president for Public Affairs and Director of the 96 Elephants Campaign:
and stopping the demand of elephant ivory. WCS applauds the leadership of New york Assemblyman Robert K. Sweeney for introducing this much-needed legislation as New york is the number one importer of ivory into the U s. This legislation will enhance federal efforts announced last week
While these federal efforts are a major step in ending the ivory trade state collaboration is critical to ensuring that the sale of ivory is banned truly in the United states. WCS will work to support this legislation through its 96 Elephants Campaign named for the number of elephants gunned down each day in Africa.
We urge for its swift passage as time is running out for Africa's elephants
Just last week Wildlife Conservation Society scientists reported grim news that nearly ten percent of the world's forest elephants were killed in 2012 and again in 2013.
Since then there has been a growing rallying cry to save elephants with the U s. China France Chad
and we are hopeful that New york will be helping lead the charge to protect Africa's elephants.
New work from Carnegie's Cheng-Hsun Ho and Wolf Frommer developed tools that could help scientists observe the nitrogen-uptake process in real time
#Habitat of early apes: Evidence of the environment inhabited by Proconsula University of Rhode island anthropologist
along with colleagues from an international team of scientists has discovered definitive evidence of the environment inhabited by the early ape Proconsul on Rusinga Island Kenya.
and interpreting the connection between habitat preferences and the early diversification of the ape-human lineage.
Their research which was published today in the journal Nature Communications demonstrates that Proconsul and its primate relative Dendropithecus inhabited a widespread dense multistoried closed canopy forest.
Holly Dunsworth URI assistant professor of anthropology said that the research team found fossils of a single individual of Proconsul which lived 18 to 20 million years ago among geological deposits that also contained
tree stump casts calcified roots and fossil leaves. The discovery underscores the importance of forested environments in the evolution of early apes.
To have the vegetation of a habitat preserved right along with the fossil primates themselves isn't a regular occurrence in primate paleontology she said.
It's especially rare to have so many exquisite plant fossils preserved at ancient ape sites.
Rusinga has been known since the 1980s for preserving a fossil ape and other creatures in a hollowed out fossilized tree trunk.
But it wasn't until the research team's discovery of additional tree trunks and fossil primates preserved in the same ancient soil that there was a strong link between the ape and its habitat at the site.
It's probably the best evidence linking ape to habitat that we could ask for Dunsworth said.
Combined with analyses of the roots trunks and even beautifully preserved fossil leaves it's possible to say that the forest was closed a canopy one meaning the arboreal animals like Proconsul could easily move from tree-to-tree without coming to the ground.
This environmental evidence jibes with our behavioral interpretations of Proconsul anatomy--as being adapted for a life of climbing in the trees--and with present-day monkey and ape ecology.
Additional evidence from the excavation site has shown that the landscape was stable for many years
and has resulted in the collection of thousands of mammal fossils including many well-preserved specimens of Proconsul and other primates.
Evidence from these fossils indicate that Proconsul probably had a body position somewhat similar to modern monkeys
Since 2011 the research team's work at the fossil forest site has resulted in the collection of several additional new primate fossils.
but without a doubt if we keep searching we're going to find knowledge about early ape evolution which was of course a significant chapter in our own history she said.
#How evolution shapes the geometries of lifewhy does a mouse's heart beat about the same number of times in its lifetime as an elephant's
although the mouse lives about a year while an elephant sees 70 winters come and go?
Why do small plants and animals mature faster than large ones? Why has chosen nature such radically different forms as the loose-limbed beauty of a flowering tree and the fearful symmetry of a tiger?
These questions have puzzled life scientists since ancient times. Now an interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Maryland and the University of Padua in Italy propose a thought-provoking answer based on a famous mathematical formula that has been accepted as true for generations but never fully understood.
It's used to calculate the correct human dosage of a medicine tested on mice among many other things.
a tree and a tiger. In evolutionary terms the tree has the easier task: convert sunlight to energy and move it within a body that more or less stays put.
But because the tiger's surface area is proportionally smaller than its mass the surface is not up to the task.
We now have a really clear family tree of theses viruses in all those hosts--including birds humans horses pigs
Just like branches on a real tree you can see that the branches on the evolutionary tree grow at different rates in humans versus horses versus birds.
In the 1870s an immense horse flu outbreak swept across North america Worobey said City by city
and town by town horses got sick and perhaps five percent of them died. Half of Boston burned down during the outbreak
because there were no horses to pull the pump wagons. Out here in the West the U s. Cavalry was fighting the Apaches on foot
because all the horses were sick. This happened at a time when horsepower was actual horse power. The horse flu outbreak pulled the rug out from under the economy.
According to Worobey the newly generated evolutionary trees show a global replacement of the genes in the avian flu virus coinciding closely with the horse flu outbreak
which the analyses also reveal to be the closest relative to the avian virus. Interestingly a previous research paper analyzing old newspaper records reported that in the days following the horse flu outbreak there were repeated outbreaks described at the time as influenza killing chickens
and other domestic birds Worobey said. That's another unexpected link in the history and the there is a possibility that the two might be connected given
what we see in our trees. He added that the evolutionary results didn't allow for a definitive determination of
whether the virus jumped from horses to birds or vice versa but a close relationship between the two virus species is clearly there.
The study reports estimated county-level energy and GHG intensity of grain corn stover and cob production in Ontario from 2006-2011.
#Why did the orangutan come down from the trees? Orangutans come down from the trees and spend more time on the ground than previously realised
--but this behaviour may be influenced partly by humans a new study has found. Dr Mark Harrison based in the Department of Geography at the University of Leicester
and Managing director of the Orangutan Tropical Peatland Project (Outrop) has along with international colleagues published results of a seven year study of Orangutans in Borneo in the journal Scientific Reports.
and March 2013 is based on a large-scale analysis of Orangutan terrestriality using comprehensive camera-trapping data from 16 sites across Borneo.
In total there were 641 independent Orangutan records taken at 1409 camera trap stations over 159152 trap days.
The Bornean Orangutan Pongo pygmaeus) is the world's largest arboreal (tree-dwelling) mammal. Records of terrestrial behaviour are rare
Marc Ancrenaz from the HUTAN/Kinabatangan Orangutan Conservation Programme in Malaysia and colleagues conducted the study.
We've known for some time that Orangutans use the ground to travel and search for food
and fragmentation which is slicing up the Orangutan's jungle home. We found that although the degree of forest disturbance and canopy gap size influenced terrestriality Orangutans were recorded on the ground as often in heavily degraded habitats as in primary forests.
All age-sex classes were recorded on the ground but flanged males--those with distinctive cheek pads and throat pouches--travel on the ground more.
This suggests that terrestrial locomotion is a greater part of the Bornean Orangutan's natural behavioural repertoire than previously understood
The capacity of Orangutans to come down from the trees may increase their ability to cope with at least smaller-scale forest fragmentation
The authors report that more than 70%of Orangutans occur in fragmented multiple-use and human-modified forests that have lost many of their original ecological characteristics.
Modified Orangutan behaviour which sees them increasingly spending time on the ground therefore has its pros and cons:
Unlike in Sumatra where tigers are present predation is less of a concern in Borneo
although infants might be at risk from bearded pigs and clouded leopards. In recent history their biggest predator has been man who is actually more likely to pick Orangutans off in the trees:
Orangutans make a lot of noise and so are very obvious in the trees whereas they can move with almost no noise
and so more easily get away on the ground. The scientists report that terrestrial behaviour therefore could also facilitate movement
Ultimately a better understanding of what drives Orangutan terrestriality how this influences their dispersal movement and survival in a human-modified landscapes is important for designing effective management strategies for conservation of this endangered species in Borneo.
However the precise details of how this happens remain largely unexplored says co-corresponding author Eric Martens Ph d. an assistant professor in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the U-M Medical school.
Martens is participating in the Host Microbiome Initiative part of the U-M Medical school's Strategic Research Initiative.
Martens worked with researchers from the University of British columbia Canada the Royal Institute of technology Sweden and the York University Structural Biology laboratory to carry out detailed structural and mechanistic studies into the precise functioning of specific enzymes.
Makira contains an estimated one percent of the world's biodiversity including 20 lemur species hundreds of species of birds
and wild boar and ate large quantities of sea food including seals and shellfish. With the introduction of domestic animals some 6000 years ago they quickly gave up wild foods
-and wildlife such as the Blue-banded Kingfisher and Whitehanded Gibbons as well for its rare and beautiful flora like Rafflesia's--known to hold some of the largest flowers on earth.
#Continued decline of African forest elephants, study showsnew data from the field in Central africa shows that between 2002 and 2013 65 percent of forest elephants were killed.
This new data marks an update to an earlier paper in the online journal PLOS ONE on the status of forest elephants across Central africa published by the same scientists.
and that elephants occupied only a quarter of the forests where they once roamed. The update released at the United for Wildlife symposium today in London was made by adding new data from 2012 and 2013
These new numbers showing the continuing decline of the African forest elephant are the exact reason why there is a sense of urgency at the United for Wildlife trafficking symposium in London this week said Dr. John Robinson WCS Chief
or the African forest elephant will blink out in our lifetime. United for Wildlife which is headed by The Duke of Cambridge is determined to work together to turn back these numbers.
At least a couple of hundred thousand forest elephants were lost between 2002-2013 to the tune of at least sixty a day or one every twenty minutes day and night.
By the time you eat breakfast another elephant has been slaughtered to produce trinkets for the ivory market. The results show that the relatively small nation of Gabon has the majority (almost 60 percent) of the remaining forest elephants.
Historically the enormous Democratic Republic of congo (DRC) would have held the largest number of forest elephants. The current number and distribution of elephants is compared mind-boggling
when to what it should be said WCS's Dr. Samantha Strindberg one of the co-authors.
About 95 percent of the forests of DRC are almost empty of elephants. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Wildlife Conservation Society.
Note: Materials may be edited for content and length h
#Genetic find might lead to cattle that are more resistant to TBSCIENTISTS have identified genetic traits in cattle that might allow farmers to breed livestock with increased resistance to bovine tuberculosis (TB.
The management regimes were compared from the point of view of six forest species such as the capercaillie hazel grouse flying squirrel
and in different contexts then perhaps model organisms--such as bees and mice--can provide insights into the biological basis of aggression in all animals including humans the researchers said.
and mice and found a few genes that are associated consistently with aggression. This suggests that even after hundreds of millions of years of evolution some genes may retain their ancestral roles in similar forms of behavior like aggression.
The team then compared the wasp results to gene expression data already available in honey bees fruit flies and mice.
In solitary species like fruit flies and mice the same set of aggression genes controls fighting between males over territory.
and mice--can be used to study aggression in humans because they share some of the same genes that regulate aggression behaviors
#Excrement collected worldwide shows co-evolution of herbivores, their gut microbesan extensive study by Radboud University Nijmegen on excrement and rumen fluids in plant-eating mammals from all over
Herbivorous mammals are able to digest plant materials extremely efficiently thanks to certain microorganisms in their gastrointestinal system.
'foregut fermenters'such as cows goats and sheep and'hindgut fermenters'such as horses elephants and zebras.
In foregut fermenters better known as ruminants that process takes place in the first part of the gut (rumen.
Excrement from all over the world For this investigation excrement and rumen fluids were collected worldwide. The sources included Nijmegen goats French deer sheep from Poland and Utrecht an Indian elephant from Burger's Zoo in Arnhem and zebras and an African elephant from Tanzania.
All the samples were collected when fresh fixed in acetone and then sent by post to The netherlands.
Ruminants on the other hand can be infected with ciliates throughout their lives. However this still does not explain how the huge ciliate diversity arose
and control-group mice and all 21 humans whose stool was tested. Crannell said the method requires little equipment
#Researchers discover rare new species of deep-diving whaleresearchers have identified a new species of mysterious beaked whale based on the study of seven animals stranded on remote tropical islands in the Indian and Pacific oceans
Beaked whales a widespread but little-known family of toothed whales distantly related to sperm whales are found in deep ocean waters beyond the edge of the continental shelf throughout the world's oceans.
On 26 january 1963 a 4. 5 metre-long blue-grey beaked whale washed up at Ratmalana near Colombo.
Now it turns out that Deraniyagala was right regarding the uniqueness of the whale he identified.
While it is closely related to the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale it is definitely not the same species says Dr Dalebout.
For the others they drilled the bones of the whales in order to analyse short fragments of'ancient DNA'relying on techniques commonly used with old sub-fossil material from extinct species. The researchers also studied all other known beaked whale species to confirm the distinctiveness of Deraniyagala's whale
including six specimens of the closely related gingko-toothed beaked whale. A number of species in this group are known from only a handful of animals
and we are still finding new ones so the situation with Deraniyagala's whale is not that unusual Dr Dalebout says.
For example the ginkgo-toothed beaked whale first described in 1963 is known only from about 30 strandings
and has never been seen alive at sea with any certainty. It's always incredible to me to realise how little we really do know about life in the oceans.
Over the last 10 years or so two other new beaked whales have come to light; both through research in which Dr Dalebout was involved.
In 2002 Mesoplodon perrini or Perrin's beaked whale was described from the eastern North Pacific and in 2003 Mesoplodon traversii the spade-toothed whale was described from the Southern Ocean.
Both species are known from only about five animals each. With the re-discovery of Mesoplodon hotaula there are now 22 recognised species of beaked whales.
Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by University of New south wales. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.
which spreads a bacterium that causes zebra chip disease. Such low attack rates are unlikely to cause population declines of this pest.
#Market forces influence value of bat-provided services, such as pest controlservices provided by Mother Nature such as pest control from insect-eating bats are affected by market forces like most anything else in the economy a University of Tennessee Knoxville study finds.
There are more than 1200 bat species and two-thirds of them are insectivorous which means they help farmers by preying on pests and reducing the need for insecticides.
The researchers calculated the value of the bat pest control service each year from 1990 through 2008 by estimating the value of avoided crop damage and the reduced social and private costs of insecticide use in the presence of bats.
when ecosystem function in this case bat population numbers may remain constant said Mccracken. The findings fuel a discussion as to
The researchers point to mounting evidence of the evolution of pest resistance to Bt cotton suggesting that the value of bat pest control services may increase again.
More broadly this suggests that humans unlike some other nonhuman primates don't simply consider anything that goes into the mouth to be food.
Males of the species sound like braying donkeys when they vocalize. Of the Earth's 17 species of penguins 10--including Magellanics--breed where there is no snow it is relatively dry
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.
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
and her colleagues studied the behavior of the toxin in mice specifically which cells it targeted.
#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.
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.
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.
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.
Why does the sloth poop in the woods? Maybe because it's hungry. Maybe to better hide among the leaves.
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
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:
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
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
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