Another flying reptile Icarosaurus was much smaller only the size of a hummingbird with wing membranes sprouting from modified ribs.
Most such as the shrew-like Eozostrodon were egg layers although they clearly had suckled fur and their young.
what appears to be a muddy log covered in useful nesting materials they become dinner for the waiting beast.
Biologists banded Wisdom in 1956 as she incubated an egg and have been following her ever since.
For example flying fish eggs are a key part of the albatross diet but flying fish sometimes attach their eggs to bits of discarded plastic floating at sea Leary explained.
Though the seafaring albatross (Phoebastria immutabilis) lays only one egg a year mothers spend much of their year incubating
and raising their chick according to FWS officials. Follow Megan Gannon on Twitter and Google+.+Follow us@livescience Facebook & Google
But the problem in recent years would be the food availability and the sea-ice conditions in Antarctica.
while on land and while they forage for food underwater. This will help reveal how the penguins spend their time away from their chicks
The unusual wetness in a typically arid region would have lead to carpets of greenery perfect food for the half dozen
The bone wand was carved likely from the rib of an auroch the wild ancestor of cows
Facts, Food & Bites Corn snakes are nonvenomous snakes found primarily in the southeastern United states. They are medium-size snakes brightly colored with individual patterns.
How Snakes Slither Up Trees Corn snakes enjoy a diet of rodents lizards frogs small birds bats and bird eggs.
Then corn snakes swallow their dinner whole usually head first. Occasionally they will swallow small prey alive.
They are oviparous meaning that the mothers lay eggs. Any time from May to July the mother pops out 10 to 30 eggs.
She lays them in rotting stumps piles of decaying vegetation or other places where there will be enough heat
and humidity for the eggs to incubate. Then she slithers off never to see the babies.
As with much of Europe and the world the eating habits of Germans have become more Westernized in the past several decades
but there is still a tendency to eat a large hot meal at midday especially when it comes to family meals on Saturdays and Sundays.
Pork is consumed the most meat with Schweinshaxe (braised pork hock) and Saumagen (pork stomach) being among the traditional pork dishes.
Bratwurst a form of sausage is associated closely with German food. Cabbage beets and turnips are incorporated commonly into meals as they are native to the region
and potatoes and sauerkraut are also stars of German cuisine. Beer is the most popular alcoholic beverage
and the country is known as the birthplace of a number of beer varieties including Pilsner Weizenbier (wheat beer) and Alt.
These beers were crafted according to Reinheitsgebot or the Purity Law a 16th century Bavarian law that decreed that beer could only be brewed from barley hops and water.
Brewers used the yeast available in the air. Brandy and schnapps are also favorite German alcoholic beverages. Germans have made tremendous contributions to classical music
and the traditions of famous German or Austrian composers such as Johann sebastian bach Wolfgang amadeus mozart Ludwig von Beethoven Johannes brahms Richard wagner and Gustav Mahler live on today.
With their penchant for precision and engineering it is not surprising that Germans have a strong tradition of printmaking by woodcut and engraving.
There is also a strong representation of all phases of architecture including Romanesque Gothic Classicist Baroque Rococo
and Renaissance represented in cathedrals castles and public buildings. One of the most well-known examples of Classicist art is the Brandenburg Gate a former city gate that was rebuilt in the 1700s as a triumphal arch.
The Schloss Charlottenburg and Schloss Sanssouci palaces are fine examples of Baroque and Rococo architecture.
The desire for orderliness spills over into the business life of Germans. There is a staunch adherence to hierarchy
While the country s big beer bash is called Oktoberfest its starts each year on a Saturday in September and ends 16 to 18 days later on the first Sunday in October.
#Drunken Monkeys: Does Alcoholism Have an Evolutionary Basis? As the child of an alcoholic father Robert Dudley long wondered what caused the destructive allure of alcohol.
Then while working in the Panamanian forest as a biologist Dudley saw monkeys eating ripe fruit
which likely contained small amounts of the stuff and an answer occurred to him: Maybe alcoholism is an evolutionary hangover.
Had fruit-eating animals including human ancestors gained an evolutionary advantage by learning to associate the smell and taste of alcohol with ripe fruit?
He named this concept the drunken monkey hypothesis. I thought it was too simple an idea not to have been thought of previously he told Live Science.
and biomechanics of flight at the University of California Berkeley has published a book The Drunken Monkey:
Why We Drink and Abuse Alcohol (University of California Press 2014) that delves into the evolution of humans
'and other animals'attraction to fruit and as a result alcohol. 10 Easy Paths to Self-destruction Introducing the drunken monkey The concept goes like this:
Microscopic fungi called yeast turn the naturally occurring sugar in fruit into a chemical known as ethanol
which most people know better as alcohol. Fruit-eating animals everything from primates and other mammals to insects and reptiles began to use the scent of ethanol as a cue to find ripe fruit.
and stimulates the appetite of whatever consumes it (think of an aperitif). Scientists know little about the natural occurrence of ethanol
and its role in diet for many species Dudley writes. It's not just Napa vineyards and drunks on the street.
There is actually a much broader natural background of alcohol production within fruit and consumption by tens of thousands of species of animals Dudley told Live Science.
His theory casts an attraction to alcohol as an adaptation to the natural world. However in the modern one where booze is plentiful this adaptation produces a major public health problem for some people according to his hypothesis. His idea echoes the thrifty gene hypothesis which proposes that millennia of natural selection for an efficient metabolism led to diabetes
and obesity amid today's excess of fat and sugar. 7 Foods You Can Overdose On
Despite the concept's name drunkenness is only a small part of the hypothesis. Stories of apparently intoxicated animals may get a lot of attention
Likewise most people manage to drink without getting drunk often consuming low levels of ethanol with food he said.
but found his drunken monkey hypothesis rather speculative and unsupported to say the least Miltontold Live Science in an email.
Dudley however points out that no one knows how much of the intoxicant fruit-eaters are consuming.
The health effects of alcohol are another point of contention. Dudley cites studies showing beneficial effects of moderate ethanol consumption in a few animals and in humans.
and transform it into a highly nutritious food. Human cultures have been fermenting alcohol for thousands of years
and generation after generation has learned to like it as a result The reason for this attraction probably has nothing to do with nutrition or health:
Humans love any mind-altering substance she said. Follow Live Science@livescience Facebook & Google+.+Original article on Live Science i
From moms who turn their bodies into food to others who encourage their young to become cannibals here are the weirdest mothering techniques in nature.</
</p><p>Chicken moms take their duties very seriously. Creating an endless amount of calcium carbonate for eggshells is a difficult task so if chickens don'
t get enough calcium in their diets they' ll actually dissolve their own bones to make baby-housing shells.
That' s one way to lose baby weight!</</p><p>Cuckoos have figured out a unique way to get the neighbors to do the difficult work of raising young.
Momma cuckoos will sneakily lay their eggs in another bird' s nest. In doing so the cuckoo tricks the other bird often a different smaller species into taking on the expensive burden of raising the chick.
</p><p>Pacific gray whales migrate thousands of miles from cold plankton-rich Arctic waters to relatively nutrient-poor tropical lagoons off of the coast of Mexico where they give birth.
While the journey takes the gray whales away from a bountiful food supply the southern neighborhood is free of the dangerous orcas (they stick to colder waters) that otherwise hunt the newborn whales.
Females attach their egg cocoons to their webs and watch over them until the babies hatch.
but regurgitates most of her meals as a nutrient soup for her offspring while the spiderlings stay in their mother'
Thanksgiving dinners are probably pretty awkward after that kind of upbringing.</</p><p>Talk about a painful pregnancy.
After laying as many as five eggs and watching them hatch the strawberry poison arrow frog carries her tadpoles one by one on her back from the rain forest floor up into trees as high as 100 feet.
The mother strawberry poison arrow frog then feeds each of her young with her own unfertilized eggs over the course of six to eight weeks
What eggs again?</</p p
#Simply Copying Nature is No Way to Succeed at Inventing Just Ask Leonardo Da vinci (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
in recent years we have seen the rise of university courses institutes and learned journals in the subject.
The crucial step to making aircraft was to separate these two functions leaving the wing to do the lifting
How Food Affects Mood and Mood Affects Food (Op-Ed) This article was published originally at The Conversation.
The publication contributed the article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights.
Eating good food promotes overall health and well-being but what you eat may also impact how you feel.
Research suggests that not only can the food you eat affect your mood but that your mood may influence the foods you choose to consume.
Enjoying a wide variety of vegetables fruits nuts seeds wholegrain cereals legumes low-fat dairy lean meat
and oily fish for instance is associated with reductions in mood swings depression and anxiety. And the opposite holds for a diet based on foods high in refined sugar (think lollies) one that combines high levels of sugar
and fat (cakes for instance or pastries) or involves high intakes of caffeine or alcohol. Basically the nutrients found in healthy foods appear to work together to cause the brain to produce the feel-good hormone#serotonin
which is associated with improved mood and feelings of relaxation. And eating foods that maintain a steady blood-sugar level within the appropriate range such as wholegrain cereals helps to stabilise mood.
But how does your mood affect the foods you select? Results of research on the connection between food selection and poor mood are reasonably consistent people in a negative frame of mind are more likely to choose sugary fatty or salty indulgence or comfort foods rather than nutritious ones.
Indulgence foods may boost energy and improve mood in the short term but these positive effects are usually fleeting.
For some people such effects can often be followed by guilt (because we know those foods aren t good for us)
and a consequent drop in mood. This can trigger more bad eating and set up a vicious circle.
Better ways of overcoming negative thoughts include exercising which has been shown to improve mood by reducing anxiety
and stress or doing fun things such as watching a film listening to music or visiting friends.
Such activities not only enhance mood but also assist with controlling indulgence food intake. The connection between food selection and positive mood (if there is one) is still unclear.
Research suggests people in a good mood are more likely to prefer nutritious foods that are low in sugar salt
and fat and to focus on the long-term benefits of these healthy foods. But other studies point to the potential for people in a good mood consuming comfort foods or overeating.
There also evidence suggesting some people in a positive mood are more likely to choose healthy foods
if they feel their good mood is going to last. If not they may be more likely to choose indulgence foods to sustain positive feelings.
Other research indicates that regardless of mood long-term future-focused thinking can lead to healthier food choices.
And there s evidence for gender differences in the effects of mood on consumption of comfort foods.
One study found that women are more likely to eat indulgence foods when they re feeling depressed lonely or guilty.
While men are more likely to turn to soups pasta and steaks as a reward when they re feeling upbeat.
Clearly these relationships are complicated but which is likely to be the stronger driver mood or food?
In other words does the consumption of particular foods lead to mood changes or is our mood generally the predominant factor in determining the food we choose to eat?
Research suggests the foods we consume may be of paramount importance and that what s eaten today may affect mood a couple of days later.
This association was stronger for negative moods so consumption of excessive energy (kilojoules) saturated fat and sodium was associated with a worse mood two days later.
The association between eating fruits and vegetables one day and being in a positive mood the next day was stronger for men
but mood was lifted in both men and women after they ate vegetables. What then can we conclude from the current evidence about the relationship between food and mood?
Well research has highlighted some interesting (and complex! relationships that we re only now starting to tease out.
What we can say with confidence is that eating a well-balanced diet may confer not only physical health benefits but also better mental health through improved mood.
Kate Flinders is a member of the Dietitians Association of Australia (DAA) and as a member of this association she is accredited as an Accredited Practising Dietitan (APD) and Accredited Nutritionist (AN).
Chris Forbes-Ewan receives funding from the NHMRC. This article was published originally on The Conversation.
Read the original article. Follow all of the Expert Voices issues and debates and become part of the discussion on Facebook Twitter and Google+.
For one thing hookahs are smoked frequently in hookah bars and lounges where smokers can order their preferred flavor of tobacco along with their favorite cocktail or juice.
Some researchers are worried that hookah smoking will become a regular teen activity Palamar said. Now something called hookah pens which are similar to e-cigarettes are gaining popularity he said.
and those who used alcohol marijuana or other illicit substances were more likely to use hookah.
and gathering as the principal means for obtaining food. At the same time societies in which everyone had been more or less equal began to schism into classes with clear leaders emerging.
Many researchers have theorized that agriculture allowed people to hoard food and resources and that with this power they could induce others to follow them.
If leaders give their people an advantage in producing food the people will follow them he added.
For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived in hunter-gatherer societies eating wild plants and animals.
Inequality in these groups is thought to have been very low with evidence suggesting food and other resources were shared equally between all individuals.
and positioning hunters agriculture presented an opportunity to massively increase the amount of food that could be produced.
This would provide the benefit of increased food production enhancing both their quality of life and the number of surviving offspring they could produce.
And empirically hierarchy formation most often cooccurs with an increase in food production that drives population growth.
Even in ancient times at the dawn of agriculture there was it seems no such thing as a free lunch.
Uric acid is created a waste product during the normal breakdown of purines naturally occurring substances found in foods such as liver mushrooms anchovies mackerel and dried beans according to the NIAMS.
and breakdown of purines patients can reduce the concentration of uric acid in the blood by avoiding high-purine foods such as anchovies asparagus dried beans and peas mushrooms and organ meats (such as livers
and less alcohol because alcohol can raise the level of uric acid in the blood. This article is for informational purposes only
Leopard Poop Reveals Leopards that roam rural India have a surprising favorite food: dogs. The big cats even seem to prefer eating domestic dogs in areas where cows goats
and other farm animals are plentiful according to a new study. To reconstruct leopard diets scientists had to take a close look at leopard poop.
A team led by researchers with the Wildlife Conservation Society scooped up 85 leopard fecal samples as they scoured footpaths dried-up streams
Back in a lab the researchers looked for signs of claws hoofs and hair and other indigestible parts of unlucky prey in the scat.
and accounted for 12 percent of the mass of leopards'meals. By comparison livestock were a relatively small portion of the leopard diet.
Domestic goats for example accounted for just 11 percent of the mass of the big cats'meals even though they were seven times more abundant than dogs in the study area.
All told 87 percent of the leopards'diet was made up of domestic animals including both livestock and pets;
though considered wild are completely dependent on human-related sources of food. The small portion of the wild animals in the leopards'diet consisted of mostly rodents as well as civets monkeys mongooses and birds.
Is It Safe to Cut Mold Off Food? This article was published originally at The Conversation.
and release poisons called mycotoxins into the food that could over time make you very sick.
Some moldy foods should simply be discarded (ideally to compost. For others though you can salvage
That s good if your moldy food is an expensive vintage cheddar cheese! Molds are fungi.
or convert sugars to alcohol. They are heterotrophs meaning they can t make their own food (unlike plants.
Instead they degrade complex organic molecules in their environment into smaller molecules they can absorb to meet their energy and nutrient needs.
When water and nutrients are available (such as in semi-perishable foods) they grow in number:
This is the furry growth we can see for example on crumpets berries jam tomato paste cheese and so on.
The growing tips of the hyphae release enzymes into the environment to degrade complex organic molecules into usable nutrients.
So wherever the mycelia go in search of nutrients toxins may also be found. The extent of spread of the mycelium is not always visible
however and herein lies the problem. Many molds can grow on and spoil our foods.
Among those we are likely to encounter on foods in our homes are Penicillium(#oecousins#of those used to make antibiotics
or to ripen some cheeses) Aspergillus and on fruits Botrytis. You re unlikely to experience any immediate symptoms from ingestion of mycotoxin-contaminated foods.
Ongoing exposure increases the chances of a range of diseases including include kidney liver and immune system damage increased risk of a range of cancers and neurological symptoms;
though these worst-case scenarios are rare. Not all molds on foods will produce mycotoxins
or produce them at harmful levels but without a microscope and laboratory its hard to distinguish the dangerous and harmless ones.
Given the risk to your health its best to take a very cautious approach to visible mold growth on any food with some exceptions.
A good rule of thumb to judge whether a moldy food can be saved#is its moisture content or firmness.
Foods with a high moisture content such as cooked casseroles soft fruit and vegetables pastes/sauces and soft cheeses can have invisible hyphae growing below the surface
and producing mycotoxins. The same is true for porous foods such as bread and cakes where the hyphae can penetrate.
All of these foods should be discarded if you see mold on the surface. Conversely a cheddar or a salami or carrot that have dense structure are less likely to have extensive hyphal growth away from the visible mycelium.
In these cases the mycelium can be cut away (to a centimetre or two depth) and the remaining food consumed with little risk.
The United states'Department of agriculture s website is a good source of advice for dealing with mold contamination on a wide variety of foods.
The authors do not work for consult to own shares in or receive funding from any company
or organisation that would benefit from this article. They also have no relevant affiliations. This article was published originally on The Conversation.
Read the original article. The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher.
This version of the article was published originally on Live Science.
#Forest Elephant Numbers Decline More than 60 Percent in Decade About 65 percent of forest elephants were killed mostly for their ivory across Central africa in the last decade new research finds.
The grim numbers were released at a wildlife trafficking symposium in London this week to update a study published last year in the journal PLOS ONE
#Food poisoning: Are Older Adults At Greater Risk? The Healthy Geezer answers questions about health and aging in his weekly column.
Are older people at greater risk of getting food poisoning? Answer: The people at highest risk for suffering from food poisoning are seniors pregnant women young children and those with chronic diseases.
When you age your immune system may not respond as well to infectious organisms as it did when you were younger.
and circulation can increase food poisoning risk. The immune systems of infants and young children are developed not fully.
Food poisoning is caused by eating food contaminated by organisms such as bacteria viruses and parasites. Symptoms include nausea vomiting diarrhea abdominal cramps and fever.
The onset of symptoms can occur hours after consumption of the tainted food. However symptoms can take days
The following in alphabetical order) are some possible food contaminants: Campylobacter Clostridium botulinum Clostridium perfringens Escherichia coli (E coli) Giardia lamblia Hepatitis a Listeria noroviruses rotavirus Salmonella Shigella Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio vulnificus.
meat and poultry soiled by animal feces during processing foods kept warm for too long unpasteurized milk
and apple cider raw produce contaminated water improperly canned commercial foods smoked or salted fish cream sauces undercooked ground beef alfalfa sprouts raw
or undercooked shellfish raw eggs prepared salads and cream-filled pastries. The symptoms of food poisoning usually diminish without help in about two days.
However some cases need treatment. The treatment for food poisoning varies according to the source. For example antibiotics are used to combat bacterial food poisoning.
Dehydration which can be fatal is the major complication of food poisoning because you lose fluids from vomiting and diarrhea.
Older people and others with inadequate immune systems can become extremely dehydrated. Hospitalization for intravenous hydration may be necessary.
Diarrhea can be much more than an inconvenience. Diarrhea can be lethal to older people. With the fluid you lose from diarrhea you also lose salts that your body needs.
Diarrhea can make a victim pass more than a quart of watery stools a day. Dehydration symptoms include thirst reduced urination dark urine dry skin fatigue dizziness
In many cases of diarrhea the only treatment needed is lost replacing fluid and salts. Adults should consume broth non-citrus fruit juices flat ginger ale and ice pops.
As your condition improves you can start eating bananas plain rice boiled potatoes toast crackers and cooked carrots.
Smaller meals are recommended because they're easier to digest. Here are some tips to prevent food poisoning:
Do not eat the following foods: anything that contains raw eggs such as cookie dough or hollandaise sauce packaged foods with broken seals
or cans that are bulging or dented honey that hasn't been heat-treated soft cheeses alfalfa sprouts raw ground beef or fish.
If you would like to read more columns you can order a copy of How to be a Healthy Geezer at www. healthygeezer. com. All rights Reserved 2014 by Fred Cicett t
#The Benefits of Digging in the Dirt (Op-Ed) Laura Wright Treadway is a regular contributor to Onearth magazine published by the Natural resources Defense Council.
This article was published originally by Onearth magazine. Treadway contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices:
Op-Ed & Insights. In his 2005 book Last Child in the Woods which introduced the world to the term nature-deficit disorder journalist Richard Louv argued that children need to unplug from computers
I'm increasingly aware that it's not just the eco-minded who are calling for more mud pies and fewer Leapfrog computers for preschoolers.
and now live on top of a building on campus where their main forage might be drops of soda on discarded cans around campus says Moran who for many years studied the maternally transmitted symbionts of aphids
Gut microbes very plausibly play a role in host resistance to these things and also in improving nutrition.
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