#NASA Mars rover preparing to drill into first Martian rocknasa's Mars rover Curiosity is driving toward a flat rock with pale veins that may hold clues to a wet history on the Red planet.
since the landing It has never been done on Mars said Mars Science Laboratory project manager Richard Cook of NASA's Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena Calif. The drill hardware interacts energetically with Martian material we don't control.
and use those to scrub the drill. Then the rover will drill and ingest more samples from this rock which it will analyze for information about its mineral and chemical composition.
Data support new branch of herpesvirus familyelephants are among the most intelligent nonhumans arguably on par with chimps
Seventeen percent of the leopard's diet consisted of assorted wild animals including rodents monkeys and mongoose and birds.
#Pigs hearts transplanted into baboon hosts remain viable more than a yearinvestigators from the National Heart Lung
and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National institutes of health (NIH) have transplanted successfully hearts from genetically engineered piglets into baboons'abdomens
and a more focused immunosuppression regimen in the baboon recipients according to a study published in The Journal of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery an official publication of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery.
The transplanted hearts were attached to the circulatory systems of the host baboons but placed in the baboons'abdomens.
The baboons'own hearts which were left in place maintained circulatory function and allowed the baboons to live despite the risk of organ rejection.
The researchers found that in one group with a human gene) the average transplant survival was more than 200 days dramatically surpassing the survival times of the other three groups (average survival 70 days 21 days
but the longest-surviving group was treated specifically with a high dose of recombinant mouse-rhesus chimeric antibody (clone 2c10r4).
when replacing the original baboon hearts. Xenotransplantation could help to compensate for the shortage of human organs available for transplant.
Our study has demonstrated that by using hearts from genetically engineered pigs in combination with target-specific immunosuppression of recipient baboons organ survival can be prolonged significantly.
which showed good protection in nonhuman primates against the Zaire Ebola virus. Currently the vaccine is being developed with the help of Peter Jahrling at the Integrated Research Facility at the NIH
or soap might not be ape friendly and the situation appears likely to get even worse according to an analysis in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on July 10.
The growing demand for vegetable oil has led already to the conversion of Southeast Asian forest into oil palm plantations bringing trouble for orangutans in particular.
If guidelines are not put in place very soon researchers say the spread of those large-scale industrial plantations from Asia into Africa will be bad news for great apes there as well.
Oil palm concessions that have already been given to companies for production in Africa show almost 60%overlap with the distribution of great ape species the new analysis finds.
Of the area suitable for growing oil palm in Africa there is a 42%overlap with great ape habitat.
Now that companies are looking to Africa we wanted to determine how large the potential threat to African ape species is.
The new analysis shows that the oil palm industry presents a significant threat to apes all across Africa.
which is the only home to the peaceful chimpanzee relatives known as bonobos. In each of those nations approximately 80%of the area suitable for oil palm growth overlaps with ape habitat.
There is an urgent need to develop guidelines for the expansion of oil palm in Africa to minimize the negative effects on apes
and other wildlife Wich and colleagues write. There is also a need for research to support land use decisions to reconcile economic development great ape conservation and the avoidance of carbon emissions.
For people looking to do something about the palm oil problem themselves now is the time to start the researchers say.
#Grass-in-the-ear technique sets new trend in chimp etiquette: Chimpanzees spontaneously copy arbitrary behaviorchimpanzees are copycats
and in the process they form new traditions that are often particular to only one specific group of these primates.
Such are the findings of an international group of scientists who waded through over 700 hours of video footage to understand how it came about that one chimpanzee stuck a piece of grass in her ear
and started a new trend and others soon followed suit. The findings of the study led by Edwin van Leeuwen of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in The netherlands are published in Springer's journal Animal Cognition.
In 2010 van Leeuwen first noticed how a female chimp named Julie repeatedly put a stiff strawlike blade of grass for no apparent reason in one or both of her ears.
On subsequent visits van Leeuwen saw that other chimpanzees in her group had started to do the same.
The research team including Zambians who monitor the chimpanzees daily collected and analyzed 740 hours of footage that had been shot during the course of a year of 94 chimpanzees living in four different social groups in the sanctuary.
Only two of these groups could see one another. The research team found that only one of the four groups regularly performed this so-called grass-in-the-ear behavior.
In one other group one chimpanzee once did the same. Eight of the twelve chimpanzees in Julie's group repeatedly did so.
The first to copy her was her son Jack followed by Kathy Miracle and Val with
Generally at least two of the chimps put grass in their ear at the same time. Interestingly the chimpanzees Kathy and Val kept up the custom even after Julie the original inventor of this behavior died.
The observations show that there's nothing random about individual chimpanzees sticking grass into their ears.
They spontaneously copied the arbitrary behavior from a group member. Chimpanzees have a tendency to learn from one another--clearly a case of monkey see monkey do in fact.
Van Leeuwen suggests that those animals that find a specific behavior somehow rewarding will continue to do
so on their own even if the chimpanzee they have learned it from is no longer around. This reflects chimpanzees'proclivity to actively investigate
and learn from group members'behaviors in order to obtain biologically relevant information says van Leeuwen. The fact that these behaviors can be arbitrary
and outlast the originator speaks to the cultural potential of chimpanzees. Story Source: The above story is provided based on materials by Springer Science+Business Media.
Our study was motivated by the need for effective strategies that will enable small-scale growers who do not have access to drills to grow uniform
In vegetable and strawberry systems in the central coast region of California grain drills are used commonly by medium-to large-scale farms
#Thieving chimps changing the way African farmers feed their familieslight-fingered chimpanzees are changing the way subsistence farmers make a living in Africa by causing them to grow different crops
Unsurprisingly nonhuman primates are quite fond of the food crops we grow! The chimps are basically imposing a'natural tax'on farmers growing crops near the nutrient-rich soils of the forest said Shane Mcguinness lead author on the research
and Phd student in Geography at Trinity who conducted the interview-based study with the help of the Great apes Trust and local conservation workers.
Although their numbers are small in this forest chimpanzees are protected an internationally species and have the potential to generate substantial amounts of tourism-driven revenue.
Sylvain Nyandwi of the Great apes Trust of Iowa (the organisation currently charged with conserving the forest) said that 19 chimps had been identified
but there were likely to be more elusive thieves out there that had yet to be accounted for.
Actions to reduce the impact of the chimps must be measured carefully to balance the conservation of the important habitat in
Work is now being finalized on a much larger project around the Volcanoes National park in northern Rwanda made famousby the film Gorillas in the Mist where Mcguinness is assessing the impacts of mountain gorilla buffalo and golden monkey on the conservation of this park and the development
Humans and some primates are defective hosts for Sarcosystis hominis and S. suihominis after ingesting raw meat from cattle and pigs respectively.
Cool tree trunks are likely to be an important microhabitat during hot weather for other tree dwelling species including primates leopards birds and invertebrates.
#Skin grafts from genetically modified pigs may offer alternative for burn treatmenta specially-bred strain of miniature swine lacking the molecule responsible for the rapid rejection of pig-to-primate organ transplants may provide a new source of skin grafts
A team of investigators from Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) report that skin grafts from pigs lacking the Gal sugar molecule were as effective in covering burn-like injuries on the backs of baboons as skin taken from other
baboons a finding that could double the length of time burns can be protected while healing.
Since pig organs implanted into primates are rejected rapidly due to the presence of the Gal (alpha-13-galactose) molecule Sachs
When Cetrulo's team used skin from these Gal-free pigs to provide grafts covering burn-like injuries on the backs of baboons--injuries made
and identical to that observed when the team used skin grafts from other baboons. As with the use of second deceased-donor grafts to treat burned patients a second pig-to-baboon graft was rejected rapidly.
But if a pit-to baboon was followed by a graft using baboon skin the second graft adhered to the wound
and remained in place for around 12 days before rejection. The researchers also showed that acceptance of a second graft was similar no matter
whether a pig xenograft or a baboon skin graft was used first. These results raise the possibility
#Ape ancestors teeth provide glimpse into their diets and environments: Helped apes move to Eurasia,
may have led to extinctionnewly analyzed tooth samples from the great apes of the Miocene indicate that the same dietary specialization that allowed the apes to move from Africa to Eurasia may have led to their extinction according to results published May 21 2014 in the open access journal
PLOS ONE by Daniel Demiguel from the Institut Catalã¡de Palontologia Miquel Crusafont (Spain) and colleagues.
Apes expanded into Eurasia from Africa during the Miocene (14 to 7 million years ago)
To better understand the apes'diet during their evolution and expansion into new habitat scientists analyzed newly-discovered wearing in the teeth of 15 upper
and lower molars belonging to apes from five extinct taxa found in Spain from the mid-to late-Miocene (which overall comprise a time span between 12. 3â#2. 2 and 9. 7 Ma).
They combined these analyses with previously collected data for other Western Eurasian apes categorizing the wear on the teeth into one of three ape diets:
and Turkey suggested that the great ape's diet evolved from hard-shelled fruits and seeds to leaves but these findings only contained samples from the early-Middle and Late Miocene while lack data from the epoch of highest diversity
and seeds at the beginning of the movement of great apes to Eurasia soft and mixed fruit-eating coexisted with hard-object feeding in the Late Miocene
and grass-grazing baboons digest different diets researchers have shown that ancestral human diets so called paleo diets did not necessarily result in better appetite suppression.
and from three gelada baboons the only modern primate to eat mainly grasses. Getting to the bottom of how our gut bacteria
Even the baboon cultures fed potato produced more SCFAS than the baboon cultures fed grass.
Those exposed to human cultures digesting a potato diet released the most PYY followed by those exposed to baboon cultures on a potato diet.
Rather the researchers propose little to no appetite suppression might help baboons maintain grazing all day to consume enough nutrients.
When it comes to urging young children to eat healthy foods most parents know the drill:
Howler monkeys wake him every morning. I learned I have to carry a camera with me 24/7 because you never know what you're going to find
The NHLBI group was fortunate to have access to GE pigs through close collaboration with Revivicor Inc. Experiments using these GE pig hearts transplanted in the abdomen of baboons
and B cell immune responses investigators were able to prolong the graft survival in baboons to over one year.
The researchers'next step is to use hearts from the same GE pigs with the same immunosuppression utilized in the current experiments to test their ability to provide full life support by replacing the original baboon heart.
#Chimpanzees prefer firm, stable bedschimpanzees may select a certain type of wood Ugandan Ironwood over other options for its firm stable and resilient properties to make their bed according to a study published April 16 2014 in the open-access
Chimpanzees use tree branches to build beds or nests in trees. They select certain tree species to sleep in more frequently than others
and bending strength of 326 branches from the seven tree species most commonly used by the chimps.
or architecture of each of the seven species. Of 1844 nests sampled chimpanzees selected Ugandan Ironwood for 73.6%of the nests
The authors suggest that chimpanzees select trees like the Ugandan ironwood due to these properties as they may provide protection from predators
Dr. Samson added Chimpanzees like humans are highly selective when it comes to where they sleep.
This suggests that for apes there is something inherently attractive about a comfortable bed down to what kind of wood you use to make it.
The zoo has identified already several species like the huge monkey-eating Philippine eagle that are endangered at once distinct
An international research team including scientists of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig Germany has counted now chimpanzees and other large mammals living in Liberia.
The census revealed that this country is home to 7000 chimpanzees and therefore to the second largest population of the Western subspecies of chimpanzees.
in order to protect the chimpanzees more effectively. Following the complete wartime collapse of the country's economy Liberia's government has been trying to fuel economic growth by selling large amounts of its rich natural resources including rubber timber and minerals.
To close this data gap researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig Germany The Wild Chimpanzee Foundation in Abidjan CÃ'te d'Ivoire
a survey of chimpanzees and other large mammals across the entire country of Liberia. For two years the survey teams searched for the presence of chimpanzees and other large mammals in more than 100 locations throughout the country.
This project was logistically very challenging says corresponding author Jessica Junker who also supervised all data collection in the field.
With an estimated population of more than 7000 individuals Liberia now officially holds the second largest population of West African chimpanzees after Guinea.
Even more excitingly for conservation due to its relatively wide and continuous distribution within the country the chimpanzee population of Liberia is also probably one of most viable chimpanzee populations in West Africa making it a regional conservation priority.
Surprisingly the survey results showed that more than 70 percent of the chimpanzees as well as some of the most species-diverse communities of large mammals occurred outside the fully-protected areas
and selection in this ongoing process says lead author Clement Tweh of the Wild Chimpanzee Foundation in Liberia.
Our survey makes it clear that this action has saved also a large number of West african chimpanzees says co-author Menladi Lormie Max Planck researcher and FDA ecologist of the President's decision.
and using different types of drill seeding equipment. Reseeding burns with local varietals or close genetic matches could improve recruitment.
Besides charismatic species such as the orangutans that the students encounter every day in the forest the tropical ecosystem consists of scores of unseen organisms
But just as with humans and monkeys they sometimes show a less is more effect. Thus conclude Kristina Pattison
This quick decision making was demonstrated first in humans and later in monkeys. People for instance tend to place greater value on a set of six baseball cards that are in perfect condition than on the same set of six perfect cards together with three more cards in fair condition.
A similar effect was reported also in studies of monkeys where the animals would eat both grapes and cucumbers but preferred one grape over one grape plus a slice of cucumber when given the option.
and other primates but can occur in other mammalian species at least those that are organized socially such as carnivores like wolves dogs
This year global methane emissions from palm oil wastewater are expected to equal 30 percent of all fossil fuel emissions from Indonesia where widespread deforestation for palm oil production has endangered orangutans.
The study is part of a long history of research aimed at understanding the origins of primate intelligence.
and other primates owe their smarts to the demands of getting along in a group.
But far fewer studies have examined the idea that some aspects of primate intelligence arose because they helped the animals deal with other challenges such as foraging for food.
#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.
#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:
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
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.
-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.
More broadly this suggests that humans unlike some other nonhuman primates don't simply consider anything that goes into the mouth to be food.
Study author Dr Gabriele Macho examined the diet of Paranthropus boisei nicknamed Nutcracker Man because of his big flat molar teeth and powerful jaws through studying modern-day baboons
Dr Macho's study finds that baboons today eat large quantities of C4 tiger nuts
Her finding is grounded in existing data that details the diet of year-old baboons in Amboseli National park in Kenya--a similar environment to that once inhabited by Paranthropus boisei.
Dr Macho's study is based on the assumption that baboons intuitively select food according to their needs.
Dr Macho modified the findings of the previous study on baboons by Stuart Altmann (1998) on how long it took the year-old baboons to dig up tiger nuts
She calculated the likely time taken by hominins suggesting that it would be at least twice that of the yearling baboons once their superior manual dexterity was taken into account.
The study finds that baboons'teeth have similar marks giving clues about their pattern of consumption.
This fits comfortably within the foraging time of five to six hours per day typical for a large-bodied primate.
Temperature decreases have also been noted around the noses of rhesus monkeys in response to negative emotions
They're building a computer model that unlike other AI projects does not mimic the brains of human, monkeys or mice.
Wild monkeys with radiation collars to help Fukushima researchersresearchers from Fukushima University are planning to equip local,
wild monkeys with special collars to help track contamination levels in places that are hard for us to reach.
The monkeys will wearing radiation-measuring collars as they go deep into forests oe an area that has only been studied from the air via helicopters
The collars worn by the monkey assistants will be equipped with: a dosimeter, a small radiation-measuring instrument GPS tracking a device that detects the monkey s distance from the ground as the radiation level is measured.
As the radiation moves from the forest to the ocean, it is important to set a baseline of knowledge to see how it affects humans and animals in the long run,
As many as 14 groups of monkeys are residing in those forests. As early as February
2 or 3 monkeys will be tracked for a month or two, after which the collars will detach (via remote control)
The big gorilla on the map is our new red line light rail that will connect East Baltimore to West Baltimore
Two female elephants stand in a shed surrounded by fodder and cocky monkeys. Despite being chained at the foot,
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