http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/animal-science-blog.html Animal science blog from biology-blog.com, the place for information. Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT en-us http://www.biology-blog.com/images/blogs/animal-science-blog.jpg http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/animal-science-blog.html 153 97 http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/platypus-genome-decoded.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/platypus-genome-decoded.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT The curious discovery of the duck-billed, egg-laying, otter-footed, beaver-tailed, venomous platypus in Australia in 1798 convinced British researchers that it must be a hoax. Sketches of its appearance were believed to be impossible. But new research proves that the oddness of the platypus' looks isn't just skin-deep. Platypus DNA is an equally cobbled-together array of avian, reptilian and mammalian lineages that may hold clues for human disease prevention........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/negatively-impact-tropical-species.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/negatively-impact-tropical-species.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Global warming is likely to reduce the health of tropical species, researchers from UCLA and the University of Washington report May 6 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. At the same time, a little bit of warming may actually move certain organisms, especially insects, in the high latitudes closer to their optimal temperature, the scientists say........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/bees-disease-one-step-closer-to-finding-a-cure.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/5-2008/bees-disease-one-step-closer-to-finding-a-cure.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Researchers in Gera number of have discovered a new mechanism of infection for the most fatal bee disease. American Foulbrood (AFB) is the only infectious disease which can kill entire colonies of bees. Every year, this notifiable disease is causing considerable economic loss to beekeepers all over the world. The only control measure is to destroy the infected hive........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/its-a-unisex-brain-with-specific-signals.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/its-a-unisex-brain-with-specific-signals.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Research by Yale researchers shows that males and females have essentially unisex brains at least in flies as per a recent report in Cell designed to identify factors that are responsible for sex differences in behavior. The scientists showed that a courting song and dance routine that only male flies naturally perform one wing is lifted and wiggled to make a humming song can also be triggered in female flies by artificially stimulating particular brain cells that are present in both sexes. It isnt what youve got its how you use it, the authors say........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/t-rex-confirms-dinosaurs-link-to-birds.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/t-rex-confirms-dinosaurs-link-to-birds.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Researchers have put more meat on the theory that dinosaurs' closest living relatives are modern-day birds. Molecular analysis, or genetic sequencing, of a 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein from the dinosaur's femur confirms that T. rex shares a common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/photochemical-compass-for-bird-navigation.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/photochemical-compass-for-bird-navigation.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT A team of scientists at Arizona State University and the University of Oxford are the first to model a photochemical compass that may simulate how migrating birds use light and Earth's weak magnetic field to navigate. The team reports in the April 30, 2008, online issue of Nature that the photochemical model becomes sensitive to the magnitude and direction of weak magnetic fields similar to Earth's when exposed to light. The research funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) demonstrates that this phenomenon, known as chemical magnetoreception, is feasible and gives insight into the structural and dynamic design features of a photochemical compass........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/engineering-and-invention-on-the-half-shell.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/engineering-and-invention-on-the-half-shell.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Marine snails, sea urchins, and other animals from the sea are teaching scientists in UC Riversides Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering how to make the world a better place. Consider, for example, the possibilities of designing a lightweight armor that would protect U.S. soldiers in Iraq from Improvised Explosive Devices. Or, what flexible ceramics might offer industry. Or, how everyone could benefit from new ways of producing and storing energy........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/bison-can-thrive-again.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/bison-can-thrive-again.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Bison can repopulate large areas from Alaska to Mexico over the next 100 years provided a series of conservation and restoration measures are taken, according to continental assessment of this iconic species by the Wildlife Conservation Society and other groups. The assessment was authored by a diverse group of conservationists, scientists, ranchers, and Native Americans/First Nations peoples, and appears in the recent issue of the journal Conservation Biology........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/protect-endangered-right-whales.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/protect-endangered-right-whales.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Endangered North Atlantic right whales are safer along Massachusetts Bay's busy shipping lanes this spring, thanks to a new system of smart buoys. The buoys recognize whales' distinctive calls and route the information to a public Web site and a marine warning system, giving ships the chance to avoid deadly collisions........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/are-ice-age-relics-the-climate-change.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/are-ice-age-relics-the-climate-change.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently launched a four-year study to determine if climate change is affecting populations of a quintessential Arctic denizen: the rare musk ox. Along with collaborators from the National Park Service, U. S. Geological Survey, and Alaska Fish and Game, Wildlife Conservation Society scientists have already equipped six musk ox with GPS collars to better understand how climate change may affect these relics of the Pleistocene........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/ways-to-fight-lake-trout-invasion.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/ways-to-fight-lake-trout-invasion.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Natural barriers like waterfalls play an important role in preventing lake trout from spreading through Glacier National Park, so maintaining those barriers should be a priority, Montana State University scientists said after conducting a four-year study in the park. Park workers might have to remove ice, logs or debris to keep the water from rising behind those barriers, said graduate student Michael Meeuwig and his adviser Christopher Guy. If they don't, lake trout will have an easier time swimming up the rivers and invading new lakes........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/mosquitoes-fatten-up-slow-down-for-winter.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/mosquitoes-fatten-up-slow-down-for-winter.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Two genes that help insulin regulate mosquitoes' growth have been identified as key contributors to how the insects enter a dormant state to survive winter's cold. The research finding broadens the understanding of the mosquito life cycle and appears to shed some light on how other insects and invertebrate species weather the winter months........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/ugandan-monkeys-poxvirus.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/ugandan-monkeys-poxvirus.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Scientists report this month that red colobus monkeys in a park in western Uganda have been exposed to an unknown orthopoxvirus, a pathogen correlation to the viruses that cause smallpox, monkeypox and cowpox. Most of the monkeys screened harbor antibodies to a virus that is similar - but not identical - to known orthopoxviruses........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/can-certain-metals-repel-sharks-from-fishing-gear.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/can-certain-metals-repel-sharks-from-fishing-gear.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Sharks in captivity avoid metals that react with seawater to produce an electric field, a behavior that may help fishery biologists develop a strategy to reduce the bycatch of sharks in longline gear. Shark bycatch is an increasing priority worldwide given diminished populations of a number of shark species, and because sharks compete with target species for baited lines, reducing fishing efficiency and increasing operating costs........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/lizard-hunting-styles-impact-ability-to-walk-run.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/lizard-hunting-styles-impact-ability-to-walk-run.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT The technique lizards use to grab their grub influences how they move, as per scientists at Ohio University. A research team led by doctoral student Eric McElroy tracked 18 different species of lizards as they walked or ran in order to understand how their foraging styles impact their biomechanics. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation, was featured in the April 1 edition of the Journal of Experimental Biology........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/insects-radically-different-strategy-to-smell.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/insects-radically-different-strategy-to-smell.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Darwin's tree of life represents the path and estimates the time evolution took to get to the current diversity of life. Now, new findings suggest that this tree, an icon of evolution, may need to be redrawn. In research would be reported in the April 13 advance online issue of Nature, scientists at Rockefeller University and the University of Tokyo have joined forces to reveal that insects have adopted a strategy to detect odors that is radically different from those of other organisms -- an unexpected and controversial finding that may dissolve a dominant ideology in the field........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/and-the-first-animal-on-earth-was-a-.....html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/and-the-first-animal-on-earth-was-a-.....html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT A new study mapping the evolutionary history of animals indicates that Earth's first animal--a mysterious creature whose characteristics can only be inferred from fossils and studies of living animals--was probably significantly more complex than previously believed. The study, which was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), is the cover story of the April 10, 2008 issue of Nature Using new high-powered technologies for analyzing massive volumes of genetic data, the study defined the earliest splits at the base of the animal tree of life. The tree of life is a hierarchical representation of the evolutionary relationships between species that was introduced by Charles Darwin. (See diagram........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/dna-analysis-of-california-wolverine.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/dna-analysis-of-california-wolverine.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT Preliminary results from DNA analysis of wolverine scat samples collected on the Tahoe National Forest do not match those of historic California wolverine populations, as per U.S. Forest Service scientists. Geneticists with the agencys Rocky Mountain Research Station recently began analyzing samples, when wildlife biologists with the Tahoe National Forest and California Department of Fish and Game began sending hair and scat samples they collected from wolverine detection sites on the national forest to a lab in Missoula, Mont........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/asian-waterbirds-stage-remarkable-comeback.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/asian-waterbirds-stage-remarkable-comeback.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT NEW YORK (April 3, 2008) As per a report released recently by the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), several species of rare waterbirds from Cambodias famed Tonle Sap region have staged remarkable comebacks, thanks to a project involving a single team of park rangers to provide 24-hour protection to breeding colonies. The project pioneered a novel approach: employing former hunters and egg collectors to protect and monitor the colonies, thereby guaranteeing the active involvement of local communities in the initiative........ ]]> http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/hatchery-fish-outnumber-wild-chinook-salmon.html http://www.biology-blog.com/blogs/permalinks/4-2008/hatchery-fish-outnumber-wild-chinook-salmon.html Thu, 08 May 2008 00:26:29 GMT A recent study indicates that wild salmon may account for just 10 percent of California's fall-run chinook salmon population, while the vast majority of the fish come from hatcheries. The findings are particularly troubling in light of the disastrous decline in the population this year, which will probably force the closure of the 2008 season for commercial and recreational salmon fishing........ ]]>