July 2, 2009, 10:05 PM CT

Learning from locusts

A similarity in brain disturbance between insects and people suffering from migraines, stroke and epilepsy points the way toward new drug therapies to address these conditions.

Queen's University biologists studying the locust have observed that these human disorders are linked by a brain disturbance during which nerve cells shut down. This also occurs in locusts when they go into a coma after exposure to extreme conditions such as high temperatures or lack of oxygen.

The Queen's study shows that the ability of the insects to resist entering the coma, and the speed of their recovery, can be manipulated using drugs that target one of the cellular signaling pathways in the brain.

"This suggests that similar therapys in humans might be able to modify the thresholds or severity of migraine and stroke," says Gary Armstrong, who is completing his PhD research in Biology professor Mel Robertson's laboratory. "What especially excites me is that in one of our locust models, inhibition of the targeted pathway completely suppresses the brain disturbance in 70 per cent of animals," adds Dr. Robertson.

The Queen's research team previously demonstrated that locusts go into a coma as a way of shutting down and conserving energy when conditions are dangerous. The cellular responses in the locust are similar to the response of brain cells at the onset of a migraine......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 25, 2009, 6:05 PM CT

How piranhas got their teeth

How did piranhas the legendary freshwater fish with the razor bite get their telltale teeth? Scientists from Argentina, the United States and Venezuela have uncovered the jawbone of a striking transitional fossil that sheds light on this question. Named Megapiranha paranensis, this previously unknown fossil fish bridges the evolutionary gap between flesh-eating piranhas and their plant-eating cousins.

Present-day piranhas have a single row of triangular teeth, like the blade on a saw, explained the researchers. But their closest relatives a group of fishes usually known as pacus have two rows of square teeth, presumably for crushing fruits and seeds. "In modern piranhas the teeth are arranged in a single file," said Wasila Dahdul, a visiting scientist at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. "But in the relatives of piranhas which tend to be herbivorous fishes the teeth are in two rows," said Dahdul.

Megapiranha shows an intermediate pattern: it's teeth are arranged in a zig-zag row. This suggests that the two rows in pacus were compressed to form a single row in piranhas. "It almost looks like the teeth are migrating from the second row into the first row," said John Lundberg, curator at the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia and a co-author of the study......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 23, 2009, 5:00 PM CT

Prairie dogs and plants?

Prairie dogs may seem like harmless little creatures, but they can inflict serious injury on plants simply by snacking on them. Plants cannot flee from their furry predators, so how do they avoid becoming a prairie dog's lunch?.

Dr. John Freeman and his colleagues explore the role of metal hyperaccumulation in plant defense in the June 2009 issue of the American Journal of Botany Certain plants species growing on soils with high metal content (such as arsenic, copper, selenium, and lead) accumulate large quantities of metals in their leaves and stems. The purpose of this metal hyperaccumulation is not fully known, but metal hyperaccumulation may increase a plant's ability to respond to drought, compete with other plants, or provide a defense against bacteria, viruses, and animals.

"It is interesting to think about the effect of the prairie dog, which was an amazing ecosystem engineer on a very large scale here in North America," said Dr. Freeman, Colorado State University. "From their prehistoric ancestors the ground squirrel to the modern prairie dog, these animals may have driven the evolution of selenium hyperaccumulation as an elemental defense against herbivory in a number of different plant species".

Dr. Freeman's research focused on the role of selenium hyperaccumulation in Stanleya pinnata (prince's plume), a wildflower correlation to mustard plants. Eventhough low levels of selenium are essential for a number of animals, consumption of high levels is toxic. But just because an overdose of selenium is toxic to animals does not mean that the presence of high levels in leaves deters animals from eating the plants; prairie dogs may not know to avoid S. pinnata until it is too late. Few studies have addressed this question and whether metal hyperaccumulation actually acts as a deterrent......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 21, 2009, 8:48 PM CT

Dino-not-so-soaring

The largest animals ever to have walked the face of the earth may not have been as big as previously thought, reveals a paper published recently in the Zoological Society of London's Journal of Zoology

Scientists have discovered that the original statistical model used to calculate dinosaur mass is flawed, suggesting dinosaurs have been oversized.

Widely cited estimates for the mass of Apatosaurus louisae, one of the largest of the dinosaurs, may be double that of its actual mass (38 tonnes vs. 18 tonnes).

"Paleontologists have for 25 years used a published statistical model to estimate body weight of giant dinosaurs and other extraordinarily large animals in extinct lineages. By re-examining data in the original reference sample, we show that the statistical model is seriously flawed and that the giant dinosaurs probably were only about half as heavy as is generally believed" says Gary Packard from Colorado State University.

The new predictions have implications for numerous theories about the biology of dinosaurs, ranging from their energy metabolism to their food requirements and to their modes of locomotion......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 12, 2009, 5:16 AM CT

Zebra mussels hang on while quagga mussels take over

The zebra mussels that have wreaked ecological havoc on the Great Lakes are harder to find these days not because they are dying off, but because they are being replaced by a cousin, the quagga mussel. But zebra mussels still dominate in fast-moving streams and rivers.

Research conducted by Suzanne Peyer, a doctoral candidate in the University of Wisconsin-Madison Department of Zoology, shows that physiological differences between the two species might determine which mollusk dominates in either calm or fast-moving waters.

"Zebra mussels quite rapidly colonized rivers close to the Great Lakes right after their introduction, within a year or two," Peyer explains. "Quagga mussels were introduced in the Great Lakes around 20 years ago, but they are not yet found in the rivers or tend to be present in low numbers".

The mussels are similar in a number of ways. Their habitats overlap, and both are suspension feeders that filter water to extract their food. But the cousin species are different in a number of ways, too. Zebra mussels prefer to attach to a hard surface, while quagga mussels can live on soft bottoms, such as sand or silt. Zebra mussels also prefer warmer water temperatures and do not grow as big as quagga mussels.

Peyer's research focused on the ability of the mussels to attach to underlying material. Both species attach to rocks, sand, silt or each other by producing tiny but strong "byssal" threads, string-like strands of protein. These threads act as an adhesive that enable the mussels to attach to surfaces, regardless of how slippery the surface is. Byssal threads are the reason mussels are so difficult to remove from boats or water intake pipes......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 10, 2009, 8:56 PM CT

The Secret of a Snake's Slither

Snake locomotion may seem simple in comparison to walking or galloping. But in reality, it's no easy task to move without legs. Prior research has assumed that snakes move by pushing off of rocks and debris around them. But a study published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences says that it's all in their design--specifically, their scales.

Overlapping belly scales provide friction with the ground that gives snakes a preferred direction of motion, like the motion of wheels or ice skates. Like wheels and ice skates, sliding forward for snakes takes less work than sliding sideways.

In addition, snakes aren't lying completely flat against the ground as they slither. They redistribute their weight as they move, concentrating it in areas where their bodies can get the most friction with the ground and therefore maximize thrust. In this way, snake slithering is not unlike human walking--we, too, shift our weight from left to right to enable us to move.

See the video........ Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 10, 2009, 8:50 PM CT

Evolution can occur in less than 10 years

How fast can evolution take place? In just a few years, as per a newly released study on guppies led by UC Riverside's Swanne Gordon, a graduate student in biology.

Gordon and her colleagues studied guppies small fresh-water fish biologists have studied for long from the Yarra River, Trinidad. They introduced the guppies into the nearby Damier River, in a section above a barrier waterfall that excluded all predators. The guppies and their descendents also colonized the lower portion of the stream, below the barrier waterfall, that contained natural predators.

Eight years later (less than 30 guppy generations), the scientists observed that the guppies in the low-predation environment above the barrier waterfall had adapted to their new environment by producing larger and fewer offspring with each reproductive cycle. No such adaptation was seen in the guppies that colonized the high-predation environment below the barrier waterfall.

"High-predation females invest more resources into current reproduction because a high rate of mortality, driven by predators, means these females may not get another chance to reproduce," explained Gordon, who works in the lab of David Reznick, a professor of biology. "Low-predation females, conversely, produce larger embryos because the larger babies are more competitive in the resource-limited environments typical of low-predation sites. Moreover, low-predation females produce fewer embryos not only because they have larger embryos but also because they invest fewer resources in current reproduction"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 8, 2009, 10:19 PM CT

Complexity of animal mating choices

When female tiger salamanders choose a mate, it turns out that size does matter - tail size that is - and that's not the only factor they weigh.

Findings of a Purdue University study show that animals make more complex decisions about choosing mates than once thought. The results of Andrew DeWoody's study, released Monday (June 8) in the journal Molecular Ecology, refute a theory that animals use major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes as the sole basis for mate choice. Immunologists have long known that MHC genes play key roles in the immune response, but more recently behavioral ecologists have postulated that animal mate choice is often based on MHC-type because of the function of those genes.

"Our data indicate that mate-choice decisions aren't solely dependent on MHC, tail length, body size or any other single factor," said DeWoody, a professor of genetics. "Mate choice is a complex process that takes a number of factors into account".

DeWoody and David Bos, a former postdoctoral assistant who is now a continuing lecturer at Purdue, set out to see how much MHC genes affected mate choice in wild animals. Most previous research showed that an animal would choose a mate with MHC that is the most divergent from its own so that offspring will have more effective immune systems......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 5, 2009, 4:57 AM CT

Bats recognize the individual voices of other bats

Bats can use the characteristics of other bats' voices to recognize each other, as per a research studyby scientists from the University of Tuebingen, Gera number of and the University of Applied Sciences in Konstanz, Gera number of. The study, published June 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Computational Biology, explains how bats use echolocation for more than just spatial knowledge.

The scientists first tested the ability of four greater mouse-eared bats to distinguish between the echolocation calls of other bats. After observing that the bats learned to discriminate the voices of other bats, they then programmed a computer model that reproduces the recognition behaviour of the bats. Analysis of the model suggests that the spectral energy distribution in the signals contains individual-specific information that allows one bat to recognize another.

Animals must recognize each other in order to engage in social behaviour. Vocal communication signals are helpful for recognizing individuals, particularly in nocturnal organisms such as bats. Little is known about how bats perform strenuous social tasks, such as remaining in a group when flying at high speeds in darkness, or avoiding interference between echolocation calls. The finding that bats can recognize other bats within their own species based on their echolocation calls may therefore have some significant implications......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 5, 2009, 4:47 AM CT

Different genes cause loss of body parts

New research shows that when two species of stickleback fish evolved and lost their pelvises and body armor, the changes were caused by different genes in each species.

That surprised researchers, who expected the same genes would control the same changes in both related fish.

Results of the study, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Divisions of Environmental Biology and Integrative Organismal Systems, are published online today in the journal Current Biology

"Earth's climate and biosphere are changing rapidly and in unpredictable ways," says Penny Firth, deputy director of NSF's Division of Environmental Biology. "A major challenge for biology is understanding the connections among evolving genomes, evolving populations and changing ecosystems. This research takes an important step by illuminating the genetic basis of evolutionary change in long-separated lineages".

Biologists knew that in a number of cases of evolution, "the same gene has been used over and over again--even in different species--to result in the same anatomy," says Mike Shapiro, first author of the paper and a biologist at the University of Utah. "What we are finding now is that different genes can have similar effects".

The findings shed new light on how evolution produces diversity in nature, and on the evolution of limb loss--and not just the loss of the pelvis and leg-like pelvic spines in certain sticklebacks......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

June 1, 2009, 7:17 PM CT

Coryphodon

Ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year in a far milder climate than today that featured lush, swampy forests, as per a newly released study led by the University of Colorado at Boulder.

CU-Boulder Assistant Professor Jaelyn Eberle said the study shows several varieties of prehistoric mammals as heavy as 1,000 pounds each lived on what is today Ellesmere Island near Greenland on a summer diet of flowering plants, deciduous leaves and aquatic vegetation. But in winter's twilight they apparently switched over to foods like twigs, leaf litter, evergreen needles and fungi, said Eberle, curator of fossil vertebrates at the University of Colorado Museum of Natural History and chief study author.

The study has implications for the dispersal of early mammals across polar land bridges into North America and for modern mammals that likely will begin moving north if Earth's climate continues to warm. A paper on the subject co-authored by Henry Fricke of Colorado College in Colorado Springs and John Humphrey of the Colorado School of Mines in Golden appears in the recent issue of Geology

The team used an analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes extracted from the fossil teeth of three varieties of mammals from Ellesmere Island -- a hippo-like, semi-aquatic creature known as Coryphodon, a second, smaller ancestor of today's tapirs and a third rhino-like mammal known as brontothere. Animal teeth are among the most valuable fossils in the high Arctic because they are extremely hard and better able to survive the harsh freeze-thaw cycles that occur each year, Eberle said......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 28, 2009, 5:12 AM CT

City rats loyal to their neighborhoods

n the rat race of life, one thing is certain: there's no place like home.

Now, a study published this week in the journal Molecular Ecology finds the same is as true for rats as for humans.

Eventhough inner city rodents appear to roam freely, most form distinct neighborhoods where they spend the majority of their lives.

Like any major city, Baltimore, Md., has a number of lively neighborhoods--each with its own personality. But researchers from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health say humans aren't the only Baltimoreans loyal to their 'hoods.

Rats typically stay close to home, rarely venturing more than a city block away. In the face of danger, however, some rodents can travel as far as seven miles to repopulate abandoned areas.

An understanding of how rats in urban areas are connected provides information about which populations may spread disease, as per Sam Scheiner, program director in the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research through the joint NSF-National Institutes of Health Ecology of Infectious Diseases program.

Baltimore's port was a once major delivery point for grain, likely how Norway rats were first introduced to the city. Norway rats, also called wharf rats, sewer rats or brown rats, can weigh nearly two pounds and transmit a variety of diseases to humans......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 21, 2009, 6:10 AM CT

Contaminants in Marine Mammals' Brains

The most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals' brains reveals that these animals are exposed to a hazardous cocktail of pesticides such as DDTs and PCBs, as well as emerging contaminants such as brominated flame retardants.

Eric Montie, the main author on the study currently in press and published online April 17 in Environmental Pollution, performed the research as a student in the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution-MIT Joint Graduate Program in Oceanography and Ocean Engineering and as a postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). The final data analysis and writing were conducted at College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, where Montie now works in David Mann's marine sensory biology lab.

Co-author Chris Reddy, an associate scientist in the WHOI Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry Department, describes the work as "groundbreaking because Eric measures a variety of different chemicals in animal tissues that had not been previously explored. It gives us greater insight into how these chemicals appears to behave in marine mammals."

The work represents a major collaborative effort between the laboratories of Reddy and Mark Hahn in the WHOI Biology Department, where Montie was a graduate student and post doc, as well as Robert Letcher at Environment Canada. Montie traveled to Environment Canada in Ottawa to learn the painstaking techniques mandatory to extract and to quantify more than 170 different pollutants and their metabolites. He then brought the methods back to WHOI and performed the analyses in Reddy's laboratory. Reddy describes the methods as extremely unforgiving and explains, "This is not making Toll House cookies. The fact that Eric pulled it off so seamlessly is amazing considering that he did this by himself far away from Ottawa"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 7:34 PM CT

Endangered right whales found where presumed extinct

Using a system of underwater hydrophones that can record sounds from hundreds of miles away, a team of researchers from Oregon State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has documented the presence of endangered North Atlantic right whales in an area they were believed to be extinct.

The discovery is especially important, scientists say, because it is in an area that appears to be opened to shipping if the melting of polar ice continues, as expected.

Results of the study were presented this week at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America in Portland, Ore.

The researchers are unsure of exactly how a number of whales were in the region, which is off the southern tip of Greenland and site of an important 19th-century whaling area called Cape Farewell Ground. But they recorded more than 2,000 right whale vocalizations in the region from July through December of 2007.

"The technology has enabled us to identify an important unstudied habitat for endangered right whales and raises the possibility that contrary to general belief a remnant of a central or eastern Atlantic stock of right whales still exists and might be viable," said David Mellinger, an assistant professor at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and chief scientist of the project......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 7:30 PM CT

Green fluorescent proteins in marine creature

Scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have discovered a family of green fluorescent proteins (GFPs) in a primitive sea animal, along with new clues about the role of the proteins that has nothing to do with their famous glow.

GFPs recently gained international attention with the awarding of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, shared by UC San Diego's Roger Tsien, as word spread of their extensive presence in nature as well as benefit to researchers. GFPs, originally isolated from a luminous jellyfish, have gained scientific ubiquity in uses ranging from biomedical tracers to probes for testing environmental quality. But while the value of GFPs in biomedicine and bioengineering has become evident, their diversity across the tree of life and their role in nature haven't been as easily deciphered.

New hints have emerged as Erin Bomati, a former postdoctoral researcher at Scripps Oceanography, Gerard Manning of the Salk Institute for Biological Studies and Scripps lead-scientist Dimitri Deheyn discovered the largest known family of GFPs. They found 16 related types of GFPs in amphioxus, a thin, non-luminous fish-like animal that lives in coastal areas and spends most of its time burrowed in ocean sand. The discovery, described in the journal BioMed Central (BMC) Evolutionary Biology, was made in Branchiostoma floridae, an amphioxus species collected off Tampa, Fla......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 6:51 PM CT

Bird songs change with the landscape

When the going gets rough, the tough apparently sing slower.

As vegetation reclaimed formerly cleared land in California, Oregon and Washington over the last 35 years, male white-crowned sparrows have lowered their pitch and slowed down their singing so that their love songs would carry better through heavier foliage.

"This is the first time that anyone has shown that bird songs can shift with rapid changes in habitat," says biologist Elizabeth Derryberry who made the finding as part of her dissertation research at Duke University.

She compared recordings of individual birds in 15 different areas with some nearly forgotten recordings made at the same spots in the 1970s by a California Academy of Sciences researcher, and observed that the musical pitch and speed of the trill portion of the sparrows' short songs had dropped considerably. "I was really surprised to find that songs had changed in a similar way in so a number of different populations".

She then used archival aerial photography to see how the foliage had changed in a subset of those spots, and observed that the one population whose song hadn't slowed down lived in an area where the foliage hadn't changed either.

The physics is clear, but the biology is a little less certain. A lower, slower song suffers less reverberation in denser foliage and will be heard more accurately. In turn, that means it is more likely to be copied by young males who are choosing which song they will learn. Over generations, that should cause the song to slow down and drop in pitch as the foliage changes......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 6:49 PM CT

Snail venoms reflect reduced competition

A study of venomous snails on remote Pacific islands reveals genetic underpinnings of an ecological phenomenon that has fascinated researchers since Darwin.

The research, by University of Michigan evolutionary biologists Tom Duda and Taehwan Lee, is scheduled to be published online May 20 in the open-access journal PLoS ONE

In the study, Duda and Lee explored ecological release, a phenomenon believed to be responsible for some of the most dramatic diversifications of living things in Earth's history. Ecological release occurs when a population is freed from the burden of competition, either because its competitors become extinct or because it colonizes a new area where few or no competitors are found. When this happens, the "released" population typically expands its diet or habitat, taking over resources that would be off-limits if competitors were present. This expansion is believed to drive the evolution of adaptations for taking advantage of the new resources, such as venoms tailored to a broader array of prey.

"Eventhough there are plenty of examples of populations expanding into a variety of niches after experiencing ecological release, little is known about the evolution of genes linked to this phenomenon," said Duda, an assistant professor in the U-M Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 20, 2009, 6:27 PM CT

Small evolutionary shifts make big impacts

In the developing fetus, cell growth follows a very specific schedule. In the eye's retina, for example, cones -- which help distinguish color during the day -- develop before the more light-sensitive rods -- which are needed for night vision.

But minor differences in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the large differences found in the eyes of two species -- owl monkeys and capuchin monkeys -- that evolved from a common ancestor.

Scientists from Cornell, St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Tennessee and the Federal University of Para, Brazil, have found an evolutionary mechanism that provides insight into how important changes in brain structure of primates can evolve.

That evolution appears to proceed via simple genetic changes that affect the timing of development of brain regions, they report in a paper published May 18 online and in a future print issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In both monkey species, the specialized eye cells develop in the growing embryo from a single retinal progenitor cell. In their basic design, the eyes of these primates have the capability and necessary architecture to be either nocturnal or diurnal, based on a species' ecological niche and needs, said Cornell neurobiologist and psychology expert Barbara Finlay......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 19, 2009, 5:11 AM CT

New insight into primate eye evolution

Scientists comparing the fetal development of the eye of the owl monkey with that of the capuchin monkey have observed that only a minor difference in the timing of cell proliferation can explain the multiple anatomical differences in the two kinds of eyes.

The findings help researchers understand how a structure as complex as the eye could change gradually through evolution, yet remain functional. The findings also offer a lesson in how seemingly simple genetic changes in the brain and nervous system could produce the multiple evolutionary changes seen in more advanced brains, without compromising function.

Analysis for this study waccording toformed at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. The primates were housed at the Centro Nacional de Primates in Brazil. Contributing scientists at Cornell University and Universidade Federal do Par, Brazil, approved all procedures. The scientists published their findings in the early online issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

"The molecular, cellular and genetic pathways that coordinate proliferation during development have been fine-tuned since the first multicellular organisms emerged millions of years ago," said Michael Dyer, Ph.D., member of St. Jude Developmental Neurobiology and the paper's first author. "When these pathways are deregulated during human development, one of the consequences is childhood cancer. Therefore, by studying how changes in the regulation of proliferation during development can lead to dramatic changes in form and function during evolution, we can gain a deeper understanding of these ancient pathways that lie at the heart of a number of pediatric cancers"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 18, 2009, 5:32 AM CT

World's largest leatherback turtle population

An international team of researchers has identified a nesting population of leatherback sea turtles in Gabon, West Africa as the world's largest. The research, reported in the recent issue of Biological Conservation, involved country-wide land and aerial surveys that estimated a population of between 15,730 and 41,373 female turtles using the nesting beaches. The study highlights the importance of conservation work to manage key sites and protected areas in Gabon.

Leatherbacks are of profound conservation concern around the world after populations in the Indo-Pacific crashed by more than 90 percent in the 1980s and 1990s. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists leatherback turtles as critically endangered globally, but detailed population evaluations in much of the Atlantic, particularly Africa, are lacking.

The research was led by the University of Exeter working in collaboration with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) which spearheads the Gabon Sea Turtle Partnership, a network of organisations concerned with the protection of marine turtles in Gabon.

During three nesting seasons between 2002 and 2007, the team's members carried out the most comprehensive survey of marine turtles ever conducted in Gabon. This involved aerial surveys along Gabon's 600 km (372 mile) coast, using video to capture footage for assessment, and detailed ground-based monitoring. By covering the entire coastline, they were not only able to estimate the number of nests and nesting females, but also to identify the key sites for leatherback nesting, data which are crucial to developing conservation management plans for the species. Leatherbacks were first described nesting in Gabon in 1984......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 13, 2009, 5:25 AM CT

Predators ignore peculiar prey

Rare traits persist in a population because predators detect common forms of prey more easily. Scientists writing in the open access journal BMC Ecology observed that birds will target salamanders that look like the majority even reversing their behavior in response to alterations in the ratio of a distinguishing trait.

Benjamin Fitzpatrick, from the University of Tennessee, worked with Kim Shook and Reuben Izally to study the effects of the prevalence of a dorsal stripe among a group of model salamanders on the foraging behavior of a flock of Blue Jays. He said, "Maintenance of variation is a classic paradox in evolution because both selection and drift tend to remove variation from populations. If one form has an advantage, such as being harder to spot, it should replace all others. Likewise, random drift alone will eventually result in loss of all but one form when there are no fitness differences. There must therefore be some advantage that allows unusual traits to persist".

The authors placed a selection of food-bearing model salamanders into a field for six days, with striped models outnumbering the unstriped by nine to one, or vice versa. On test days, the numbers were evened out. In each case, Blue Jays were more likely to attack the models that had been most prevalent over the prior six-day period. As per Fitzpatrick, "We think that the different color forms represent different ways of blending in on the forest floor. Looking for something cryptic takes both concentration and practice. Predators concentrating on finding striped salamanders might not notice unstriped ones"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 13, 2009, 5:10 AM CT

New dinosaur species possible

EdmontonThe discovery of a gruesome feeding frenzy that played out 73 million years ago in northwestern Alberta may also lead to the discovery of new dinosaur species in northwestern Alberta.

University of Alberta student Tetsuto Miyashita and Frederico Fanti, a paleontology graduate student from Italy, made the discovery near Grande Prairie, 450 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

Miyashita and Fanti came across a nesting site and found the remains of baby, plant-eating dinosaurs and the teeth of a predator. The scientists matched the teeth to a Troodon, a raptor-like dinosaur about two metres in length. This finding has opened new doors in dinosaur research on this part of the continent: "It established that dinosaurs were nesting at this high latitude," said Miyashita. "It also shows for the first time a significant number of Troodons in the area [who] hunted hatchling dinosaurs".

Over the course of two summers of field work Miyashita and Fanti began building a theory that Grande Prairie is a "missing link" between known dinosaur species that existed much further to the north and south. "Previous to this there were no localities with a variety of dinosaurs and other animals between Alaska and southern Alberta," said Myiashita. The list of new finds for the area includes armoured and thick-headed plant eaters and fossilized freshwater fish and reptiles......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 12, 2009, 10:08 PM CT

Global warming driving Michigan mammals north

Some Michigan mammal species are rapidly expanding their ranges northward, apparently in response to climate change, a newly released study shows. In the process, these historically southern species are replacing their northern counterparts.

The finding, by scientists at the University of Michigan, Michigan State University and Ohio's Miami University, appears in the recent issue of the journal Global Change Biology.

"When you read about changes in flora and fauna correlation to climatic warming, most of what you read is either predictive-they're talking about things that are going to happen in the future-or it's restricted to single species living in extreme or remote environments, like polar bears in the Arctic," said main author Philip Myers, professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at U-M. "But this study documents things that are happening right now, here at home".

What will be the ultimate impact of Michigan's changing mammal communities?

"We're talking about the commonest mammals there, mammals that have considerable ecological impact," Myers said. "They disperse seeds, they eat seeds, they eat the insects that kill trees, they disperse the fungus that grows in tree roots that is necessary for trees to grow, and they're the prey base for a huge number of carnivorous birds, mammals and snakes. But we don't know enough about their natural history to know whether replacing a northern species with a southern equivalent is going to pass unnoticed or is going to be catastrophic. It could work either way......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 7, 2009, 10:18 PM CT

Northern Shrimp Populations in the North Atlantic

Even for Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis), which support commercial fisheries worldwide, timing is everything in life. The tiny creatures, eaten in shrimp rolls and shrimp salad, occupy a pivotal role in the oceanic food chain and may serve as early indicators of changing climate due to their sensitivity to temperature. Northern shrimp also seem to have an uncanny sense of reproductive timing, releasing their larvae to match the arrival of food and thus maximizing larval survival.

In a study to be published May 8 in the journal Science, Anne Richards of NOAA's Northeast Fisheries Science Center (NEFSC) laboratory in Woods Hole, Mass. and international colleagues reviewed the timing of the annual shrimp hatch between 1998 and 2007 in populations or stocks at different latitudes across the North Atlantic Ocean from Maine to Norway. The scientists also estimated the timing of spring phytoplankton blooms - the major source of food for the shrimp larvae - in each location using satellite images that show biological productivity in surface waters, usually called ocean color.

"In the Gulf of Maine we have seen years when there is a good match in timing between when shrimp larvae are released and when the annual spring bloom begins. In these years larvae tend to have high survival rates, resulting in large year classes and a very successful fishery," said Richards, who has been studying Northern shrimp for almost two decades. "In other years that timing is off, leading to lower survival rates and a poorer fishery. The match or mismatch between the larvae and their food may be a key factor in shrimp production."........ Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 7, 2009, 9:35 PM CT

Gecko vision

Rockville, MD Nocturnal geckos are among the very few living creatures able to see colors at night, and scientists' discovery of series of distinct concentric zones may lead to insight into better cameras and contact lenses.

The key to the exceptional night vision of the nocturnal helmet gecko is a series of distinct concentric zones of different refractive powers, as per a research studyreported in the Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology's peer-evaluated, online Journal of Vision ("The pupils and optical systems of gecko eyes," http://www.journalofvision.org/9/3/27).

This multifocal optical system is comprised of large cones, which the scientists calculated to be more than 350 times more sensitive than human cone vision at the human color vision threshold.

"We were interested in the geckos because they and other lizards differ from most other vertebrates in having only cones in their retina," said project leader Lina Roth, PhD, from the Department of Cell and Organism Biology at Lund University in Sweden. "With the knowledge from the gecko eyes we might be able to develop more effective cameras and maybe even useful multifocal contact lenses".

The nocturnal geckos' multifocal optical system gives them an advantage because light of different ranges of wavelengths can focus simultaneously on the retina. Another possible advantage of their optical structure is that their eyes allow them to focus on objects at different distances. Therefore the multifocal eye would generate a sharp image for at least two different depths. Geckos that are active during the day do not possess the distinct concentric zones and are considered monofocal, Roth said......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 1, 2009, 5:27 AM CT

Wildlife Trade And Ecosystems

Wildlife imports into the United States are fragmented and insufficiently coordinated, failing to accurately list more than four in five species entering the country.

So reports a team of researchers from the Wildlife Trust, Brown University, Pacific Lutheran University, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Global Invasive Species Programme.

A paper on their findings is published in this week's issue of the journal Science.

The poorly regulated U.S. wildlife trade can lead to devastating effects on ecosystems, native species, food supply chains and human health.

"As our world, in a number of senses, grows smaller and smaller with the ease of international travel, the network of connections has increased, facilitating the spread of diseases," said Rita Teutonico, senior advisor for integrative activities in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences (SBE).

SBE co-funded this research through the agency's Human and Social Dynamics (HSD) priority area. HSD was supported by all NSF Directorates, and by NSF's Office of International Science and Engineering and Office of Polar Programs.

"These researchers report a pattern of trade in wildlife that includes a very large number of animals, coupled with a poor understanding of what species are traded," said James Collins, NSF Assistant Director for Biological Sciences. "The findings highlight the need for further research because of the unknown effects these animals and their pathogens can have on native organisms"......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

May 1, 2009, 5:11 AM CT

Dolphins maintain round-the-clock visual vigilance

Dolphins have a clever trick for overcoming sleep deprivation. Sam Ridgway from the US Navy Marine Mammal Program explains that they are able to send half of their brains to sleep while the other half remains conscious. What is more, the mammals seem to be able to remain continually vigilant for sounds for days on end. All of this made Ridgway and colleagues from San Diego and Tel Aviv wonder whether the dolphins' unrelenting auditory vigilance tired them and took a toll on the animals' other senses? Ridgway and his team set about testing two dolphins' acoustic and visual vigilance over a 5 day period to find out how well they functioned after days without a break. The team publish their results on May 1 2009 in the Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org.

First Ridgway and colleagues, Mandy Keogh, Mark Todd and Tricia Kamolnick, trained two dolphins to respond to a 1.5 s beep sounded randomly against a background of 0.5 s beeps every 30 s. Ridgway explains that the sounds were low enough for the dolphins to barely notice them as they swam through their enclosure, but the animals sprung into action every time they heard the 1.5 s tone, even after listening to the sounds for 5 days without a break. Their auditory vigilance remained as sharp as it had been 5 days earlier......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 30, 2009, 9:35 PM CT

Fish may feel pain and react like humans

Fish don't make noises or contort their faces to show that it hurts when hooks are pulled from their mouths, but a Purdue University researcher believes they feel that pain all the same.

Joseph Garner, an assistant professor of animal sciences, helped develop a test that found goldfish do feel pain, and their reactions to it are much like that of humans. A paper detailing the finding was reported in the early online version of the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science.

"There has been an effort by some to argue that a fish's response to a noxious stimuli is merely a reflexive action, but that it didn't really feel pain," Garner said. "We wanted to see if fish responded to potentially painful stimuli in a reflexive way or a more clever way".

Garner and Janicke Nordgreen, a doctoral student in the Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, attached small foil heaters to the goldfish and slowly increased the temperature. The heaters were designed with sensors and safeguards that shut off the heaters to prevent any physical damage to a fish's tissue.

Half of the fish were injected with morphine, and the others received saline. The scientists believed that those with the morphine would be able to withstand higher temperatures before reacting if they actually felt the pain. However, both groups of fish showed a response at about the same temperature......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 24, 2009, 5:03 AM CT

US shorts critical farm animal research

Dwindling federal funding jeopardizes important animal and biomedical research, together with the institutional research programs that focus on them, a group of Michigan State University researchers warn.

The alarm was sounded today in the journal Science by MSU scientists James Ireland, George Smith, Jose Cibelli and five colleagues from other institutions. It comes just as the landmark sequencing of the domestic cattle genome is published in the same issue.

Only $32 million of the $88 billion 2007 U.S. Department of Agriculture budget went toward competitive farm animal research grants, the group wrote. The proportion of the National Institutes of Health budget for extramural support of human health research is more than 900 times larger, they said, while U.S. livestock and poultry sales exceed $132 billion annually.

Animal science programs are withering at American institutions as a consequence, they warned. Not only are certain farm animal species themselves facing threats -- poultry in particular face loss of breed genetic diversity but human health studies might also suffer from lack of funding for large-animal research.

Seventeen Nobel laureates have used farm animals as research models, they wrote, and new information on animal genetics such as the bovine genome sequence reported today promise new insights into gene function as well as genetic and environmental influences on animal production and human disease......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

Fri, 24 Apr 2009 04:50:46 GMT

Scenes From The Zoo

According to the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, over 600 million visitors pass through the gates of over 1,300 zoological parks, reserves and aquariums worldwide every year.

Springtime brings many new animals to these parks as well, as newborns. Collected here are some photographs from zoos and aquariums around the world from the past couple of months. Posted by: Gerard      Read more     Source

April 22, 2009, 5:17 AM CT

How genes are controlled in mammals

Researchers at the Omics Science Center (OSC) of the RIKEN Yokohama Institute in Japan along with scientists from McGill University and other institutions worldwide are challenging current notions of how genes are controlled in mammals. Three years of intensive research by members of the international FANTOM consortium will culminate with the publication of several milestone scientific papers in Nature Genetics and other journals on April 20.

FANTOM4, the fourth stage of the Functional Annotation of the Mammalian cDNA collaboration, is led by Dr. Yoshihide Hayashizaki of OSC. Dr. Jose Dostie, a biochemist at McGill's Faculty of Medicine joined the FANTOM4 collaboration in 2007 and is its only Canadian member.

For several years, FANTOM scientists have provided the scientific community with extensive data on the genome of mammals, including detailed information on molecular function, biology and individual cell components. Now, the FANTOM4 stage of the collaboration has culminated in a breakthrough that will alter the way researchers understand transcription, the process of cellular copying and reproduction.

"This study really challenges the way we understand cellular differentiation," explained Dr. Dostie, who participated in the primary FANTOM4 research and also authored a satellite paper for publication in the journal Genome Biology. "The dogma right now is that there are so-called 'master regulators,' a series of protein switches that sit in specific places on the genome and induce genes. This is supposed to lead to a cascade that leads to cellular differentiation......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 21, 2009, 5:20 AM CT

Lizards bask for more than warmth

Keeping warm isn't the only reason lizards and other cold-blooded critters bask in the sun. As per a research studyreported in the May/recent issue of Physiological and Biochemical Zoology, chameleons alter their sunbathing behavior based on their need for vitamin D.

"It's a longstanding assumption that thermoregulation is the only reason that lizards bask," says Kristopher Karsten, a biologist at Texas Christian University who led the study. "Our results suggest that in addition to thermoregulation, vitamin D regulation appears to have a significant impact on basking behavior as well".

Chameleons, like humans and most other vertebrates, get vitamin D in two ways: They can absorb it from food, and they can produce it in their skin. In order to produce vitamin D, however, the skin must be exposed to UV radiation.

To test whether chameleons alter their sunning behavior based on dietary vitamin D intake, Karsten observed the behavior of two different groups of chameleons. One group had high internal vitamin D levels, thanks to a diet of crickets dusted with a vitamin D powder. The other group ate regular crickets and had low vitamin D. The chameleons were then placed in individual outdoor enclosures that offered open area for direct sun, and a tree to offer filtered sun and shade......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 17, 2009, 5:22 AM CT

Museum specimens aid conservation efforts

There is a new tool for those developing conservation strategies for threatened species and landscapes: museum specimens. Richard Pearson and Christopher Raxworthy of the American Museum of Natural History dusted off many collections from Madagascar and used the location information linked to each species to test different ideas regarding the evolution of locally distributed endemism (unique species confined to small regions). The research paper published this month in Evolution found support for alternative hypotheses, suggesting that multiple processes develop local endemism. This improved knowledge of the processes that lead to endemism can help to identify priorities in conservation planning.

"Museum records can be used for conservation purposes, particularly because they tie together generations of data," says Pearson, a Biodiversity Scientist at the Museum's Center for Biodiversity and Conservation. "Madagascar is a unique natural laboratory for this project because of the large amount of local endemism and because the government's decision to set aside land has spurred an effort to prioritize the location of reserves within the landscape".

Madagascar is an island nation in the Indian Ocean that has been completely isolated from other land masses for the last 80 million years. Isolation has led to a high number of unique species like chameleons (Furcifer petteri), lemurs (Lemur catta), and day geckos (Phelsuma madagascariensis) which, in turn, has led Madagascar to be labeled a biodiversity "hotspot" by conservation groups. The Malagasy government pledged to set aside 10 percent of the land for conservation purposes as part of the 2003 World Parks Congress in Durban. Prior research papers have attempted to use species location records to determine which areas of the island would conserve the largest number of species......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 17, 2009, 5:20 AM CT

Size and suitability as a mate

A new study by scientists at the University of Alaska Fairbanks offers evidence that in one breed of northern seabird, the size of males' feather crests appears to be more than simple ornamentation.

Their study, published this month in of the Journal of Comparative Physiology B, shows that crest size appears to be a physical indicator of a male crested auklet's quality as a mate.

Researchers have long noted that female auklets prefer males with larger crests. But until recently, they did not know why. Low levels of stress hormones in males with larger crests indicate that they cope better with the stresses of reproduction, such as finding food, competing with thousands of other birds for mates and nest sites, and helping rear chicks.

"Females will divorce shorter-crested mates for the opportunity to mate with longer-crested males. Our study suggests that longer-crested males could contribute more to reproductive success because they have greater capacity to meet the social and physiological costs," said Hector Douglas, assistant professor of biology at the Kuskokwim Campus in Bethel.

Douglas and collaborator Alexander Kitaysky, an associate professor at the UAF Institute of Arctic Biology, say their results fit into a larger theory about animal societies......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 17, 2009, 5:17 AM CT

What life may have been like for dinosaurs?

During the last 540 million years, the earth's oxygen levels have fluctuated wildly. Knowing that the dinosaurs appeared around the time when oxygen levels were at their lowest at 12%, Tomasz Owerkowicz, Ruth Elsey and James Hicks wondered how these monsters coped at such low oxygen levels. But without a ready supply of dinosaurs to test their ideas on, Owerkowicz and Hicks turned to a modern relative: the alligator. 'We knew testing the effects of different oxygen levels would work with alligators,' Owerkowicz explains, 'because crocodilians have survived in their basic shape and form for 220 million years. They must be doing something right to have survived the oxygen fluctuations.' Choosing to start at the beginning of alligator development, the trio decided to try incubating alligator eggs at different oxygen levels, to find out how the youngsters grew and developed and publish their results on April 17 2009 in The Journal of Experimental Biology at http://jeb.biologists.org.

Receiving newly laid alligator eggs from Elsey at the Rockefeller Wildlife Refuge, Owerkowicz divided the eggs into groups incubated at 12% (low) oxygen, 21% (normal) oxygen and 30% (high) oxygen, and waited to see what would happen. After almost 10 weeks of waiting, the eggs began hatching and Owerkowicz could see that there were no obvious differences between the alligators that developed in normal and high oxygen atmospheres......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 16, 2009, 5:26 AM CT

Red pandas and sweet tooth

PHILADELPHIA (April 15, 2009) -- Scientists from the Monell Center report that the red panda is the first non-primate mammal to display a liking for the artificial sweetener aspartame. This unexpected affinity for an artificial sweetener may reflect structural variation in the red panda's sweet taste receptor.

The findings may shed light on how taste preferences and diet choice are shaped by molecular differences in taste receptors.

"The red panda's unique taste receptor gives us a tool to broaden our understanding of how we detect sweet taste," said the paper's senior author, Joseph G. Brand, PhD, a biophysicist at Monell. "Greater insight into why we like artificial sweeteners could eventually lead to the development of more acceptable sugar substitutes, potentially benefiting diabetics and other individuals on sugar-restricted diets".

A number of species like sweet-tasting foods, but there are some exceptions. In an earlier study, Brand and Monell comparative geneticist Xia Li, PhD, reported that cats both domestic and wild can not taste sweets due to a defect in one of the genes that codes for the sweet taste receptor.

The current research extended those findings by relating sweet preferences to genetic analyses of sweet receptor structure in six related species. Like the cat, each of the species tested -- red panda, ferret, genet, meerkat, mongoose, and lion -- belongs to the Order Carnivora......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 8, 2009, 5:24 AM CT

Studying migration of threatened whale sharks

Whale sharks -- giants of the fish world that strike terror only among tiny creatures like the plankton and krill they eat -- are imperiled by over-fishing of the species in parts of its ocean range.

That threat is underscored in a newly released study from geneticists led by Jennifer Schmidt, University of Illinois at Chicago associate professor of biological sciences, reported online April 7 in the journal PLoS One

Schmidt and her colleagues studied the DNA of 68 whale sharks from 11 locations across the Indian and Pacific Oceans and the Caribbean Sea -- an area that covers most of the shark's known range. Results showed little genetic variation between the populations, which indicates migration and interbreeding among far-flung populations of the big fish.

"Our data show that whale sharks found in different oceans are genetically quite similar, which means that animals move and interbreed between populations," said Schmidt. "From a conservation standpoint, it means that whale sharks in protected waters cannot be assumed to stay in those waters, but may move into areas where they appears to be in danger".

A tropical fish that can grow 50 feet or longer and weigh over 20 tons, a whale shark's range can span oceans. They do not breed until they are about 25 to 30 years old, so it will take a long time for the species to recover from recent population declines......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 8, 2009, 5:15 AM CT

Switch one dietary poison for another

As the U.S. Southwest grew warmer between 18,700 and 10,000 years ago, juniper trees vanished from what is now the Mojave Desert, robbing woodrats of their favorite food.

Now biologists have narrowed the hunt for detoxification genes that let the rodents eat the toxic creosote bushes that replaced junipers.

"It was either eat it or move out," says biologist Denise Dearing of the University of Utah, main author of a paper detailing the results, published on-line on April 7, 2009, in the journal Molecular Ecology

"This is an excellent example of research that bridges the fields of ecology and physiology," says Mary Chamberlin, acting deputy division director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s Division of Integrative Organismal Systems, which funded the research.

"It underscores the importance of studying organismal biology in order to understand how animals may or may not adapt to changes in their ecosystems".

During the study, eight woodrats were captured from each of two western regions: the Mojave Desert and the cooler Great Basin. Rats from both areas were fed rabbit chow mixed with either creosote or juniper.

The researchers then scanned the rodents' genetic blueprints to look for active genes known as "biotransformation genes" because they produce liver enzymes to detoxify the poisons in creosote and the less-toxic juniper......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

April 2, 2009, 5:21 AM CT

Sexy or Repulsive?

Butterflies seem able to both attract mates and ward off predators using different sides of their wings, as per new research by Yale University biologists.

Trying to find the balance between these two crucial behaviors is one of nature's oldest dilemmas, as per Jeffrey Oliver, a postdoctoral associate in Yale's Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and main author on the study, which appears online today in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.

"You want to be noticeable and desirable for mates, but other onlookers, including predators, are paying attention to those signals as well".

Oliver was interested in whether the eyespots on the upperside of butterflies' wings - specifically, those of bush brown butterflies - serve a different purpose than the ones on the underside. Ever since Darwin's time, biologists (including Darwin himself) have postulated whether the upperside patterns could be used to attract mates, while at the same time, those on the underside could help avoid predators.

Working with Yale biologist Antonia Monteiro, Oliver used new tools to put the old theory to the test. Using different evolutionary models, he observed that the eyespots on the upperside of the butterflies' wings appear to evolve much more quickly than those on the underside, meaning they appear and disappear frequently through the course of evolution. The result is consistent with the theory that these are used to attract mates, as signals used for sexual selection tend to evolve faster than others......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 31, 2009, 5:14 AM CT

Why a chimp is so strong?

February's brutal chimpanzee attack, during which a pet chimp inflicted devastating injuries on a Connecticut woman, was a stark reminder that chimps are much stronger than humansas much as four-times stronger, some scientists believe. But what is it that makes our closest primate cousins so much stronger than we are? One possible explanation is that great apes simply have more powerful muscles. Indeed, biologists have uncovered differences in muscle architecture between chimpanzees and humans. But evolutionary biologist Alan Walker, a professor at Penn State University, thinks muscles may only be part of the story.

In an article to be reported in the recent issue of Current Anthropology, Walker argues that humans may lack the strength of chimps because our nervous systems exert more control over our muscles. Our fine motor control prevents great feats of strength, but allows us to perform delicate and uniquely human tasks.

Walker's hypothesis stems partly from a finding by primatologist Ann MacLarnon. MacLarnon showed that, relative to body mass, chimps have much less grey matter in their spinal cords than humans have. Spinal grey matter contains large numbers of motor neuronsnerves cells that connect to muscle fibers and regulate muscle movement.

More grey matter in humans means more motor neurons, Walker proposes. And having more motor neurons means more muscle control......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source

March 26, 2009, 9:44 PM CT

MRI for a Gorilla

Talk about house calls! The Wildlife Conservation Society thanks The Brain Tumor Foundation and its "Road To Early Detection" campaign for their assistance in performing a brain scan on a gorilla at the Bronx Zoo.

The on-site procedureperformed by dozens of wildlife veterinarians, zookeepers, and medical personnel from several institutionswas made possible by the Bobby Murcer Mobile MRI Unit, a 48-foot-long MRI facility on wheels that conducted a comprehensive neurological scan on the brain of Fubo, a 42-year-old western lowland gorilla. Fubo is one of two adult males, or silverbacks, living in the Bronx Zoo's Congo Gorilla Forest exhibit, which houses one of the largest breeding groups of western lowland gorillas in North America (more than 20 individuals). Fubo recently suffered a seizure, prompting WCS health and curatorial staff to seek out a neurological diagnosis.

The Brain Tumor Foundation responded to WCS's request for assistance with Fubo by sending its mobile MRI facility and staff to the Bronx Zoo's campus, free of charge. The gorilla was sedated for the two-hour procedure, placed into the MRI's magnetic tube for the scans (a snug fit for a patient with gorilla-sized shoulders), and returned to the Congo Gorilla Forest as planned. Under strict protocol, the MRI Unit was cleaned and sanitized after the procedure......... Posted by: Kelly      Read more         Source