Milkweed's evolutionary approach to caterpillarsThe adage that your enemies know your weaknesses best is particularly true in the case of plants and predators that have co-evolved: As the predators evolve new strategies for attack, plants counter with their own unique defenses.
Milkweed is the latest example of this response, as per Cornell research suggesting that plant may be shifting away from elaborate defenses against specialized caterpillars toward a more energy-efficient approach.........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 8:17:41 PM)
Environmental factors linked to sex ratio of plantsEnvironmental factors can transform the ratio of females to males in plant populations as per new research out of the University of Toronto.
The study conducted by Ivana Stehlik, a lecturer, Jannice Friedman, a PhD candidate, and Spencer Barrett, a professor, involved a novel approach using genetic markers (known DNA sequences) to identify the sex of seeds. The team investigated six natural populations of the wind-pollinated herb Rumex........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 7:50:49 PM)
Odd-Looking Marine AnimalsThey exist. Don''t ask why, just accept their unbelievable strangeness and the fact that other surreal creatures may inhabit the oceanic depths, of which we have only explored a tiny fraction.Here are 10 odd-looking creatures, each one step short of an alien life form.........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/20/2008 4:16:58 PM)
Pregnant mice block out unwelcome admirersMouse mothers-to-be have a remarkable way to protect their unborn pups. Because the smell of a strange male's urine can cause miscarriage and reactivate the ovulatory cycle, pregnant mice prevent the action of such olfactory stimuli by blocking their smell. Scientists from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Monterotondo, Italy, have now revealed the nature of this ability. A surge of the chemical signal dopamine in the main........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/20/2008 2:17:23 PM)
Good breeding increases shelf lifeThe lettuce cut and packaged for food service and salad mixes is an increasingly important component of the produce industry. Lettuce is highly perishable, and the cutting mandatory in processing further shortens its shelf life.
Packaging cut lettuce and other fresh produce in semipermeable plastic films extends shelf life via a technique called "modified-atmosphere packaging". The success of modified-atmosphere (MA) packaging for lettuce........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/17/2008 9:30:34 PM)
Predicting the distribution of creatures great and smallIn studying how animals change size as they evolve, biologists have unearthed several interesting patterns. For instance, most species are small, but the largest members of a taxonomic group -- such as the great white shark, the Komodo dragon, or the African elephant are often thousands or millions of times bigger than the typical species. Now for the first time two SFI scientists explain these patterns within an elegant statistical framework.........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/17/2008 9:12:32 PM)
Vaccine Offers Hope for Endangered FerretsEndangered black-footed ferrets, like children, aren't exactly lining up to be stuck with a vaccine, but in an effort to help control an extensive outbreak of plague in South Dakota, some of the ferrets are getting dosed with a vaccine given by biologists.
This is the first time the vaccine has been used during a major plague epizootic-an animal version of a human epidemic. Sylvatic plague is an infectious bacterial disease commonly........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/16/2008 8:03:14 PM)
Spotted hyenas can increase survival rates by hunting aloneRecent research by Michigan State University doctoral student Jennifer Smith has shed new light on the way spotted hyenas live together and - more importantly - hunt for their food alone.
In a paper recently reported in the journal Animal Behaviour, Smith, a student in MSU's Department of Zoology, shows that while spotted hyenas know the value of living together in large, cooperative societies, they also realize that venturing on their own........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/16/2008 7:19:40 PM)
Genetic basis for the black sheep of the familyCoat color of wild and domestic animals is a critical trait that has significant biological and economic impact. As per a research findings published online in Genome Research (www.genome.org), scientists have identified the genetic basis for black coat color, and white, in a breed of domestic sheep.
In the wild, mammalian coat color is essential for camouflage and plays a role in social behavior. Coat color also strongly influences the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/10/2008 9:51:48 PM)
Wasps and Bumble Bees Heat UpGood pollen makes bees hot, biologists at UC San Diego have found. Wasps warm up too when they find protein-rich meat, a separate experiment has shown.
In both cases warmer flight muscles likely speed the insects' trips home, allowing them to quickly exploit a valuable resource before competitors arrive, the scientists report in separate studies, published this month in two scientific journals.
Because foragers of neither species eat the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/10/2008 8:13:56 PM)
Ground Cover To Reduce Impact Of Biomass HarvestGround cover may be one workable method to reduce the effects of erosion that future biomass harvests are predicted to bring.
Iowa State University scientists are looking at ways to use ground cover, a living grass planted between the rows of corn, in production farming.
The seemingly limitless national appetite for ethanol has industry and government looking beyond the kernel to the entire corn plant for more fuel.
But corn, the........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/8/2008 6:52:42 PM)
Birds migrate together at night in dispersed flocksA new analysis indicates that birds don't fly alone when migrating at night. Some birds, at least, keep together on their migratory journeys, flying in tandem even when they are 200 meters or more apart.
The study, from scientists at the University of Illinois and the Illinois Natural History Survey, appears this month in Integrative and Comparative Biology. It is the first to confirm with statistical data what a number of ornithologists and........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/7/2008 10:05:30 PM)
Biodiversity Maps Will Help Conservation MeasuresBy Susan Brown.
Conservation biologists from UC San Diego are collaborating with researchers from the African Conservation Centre and other institutions to map patterns of biodiversity and land use in East Africa in unprecedented detail. Their maps, combined with climate models, will project how climate change will alter biodiversity and help to shape policy for setting aside conservation easements.
Wildlife, people and livestock have........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/7/2008 9:22:07 PM)
Abutilon 'Fool's Gold'Thank you to Dougeee@Flickr of Georgia, USA, for contributing today''s photograph to BPotD (via the Flickr BPotD Group Pool | original). Much obliged
This cultivar is a recent introduction from Tony Avent''s Plant Delights Nursery. I have to link to the commercial site to give you more information, since other resources about this cultivar are sparse to non-existent. Abutilons are also commonly known as flowering maples, due to the........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 9:50:08 PM)
Agriculture and frog sexual abnormalities A farm irrigation canal would seem a healthier place for toads than a ditch by a supermarket parking lot.
But University of Florida researchers have found the opposite is true. In a study with wide implications for a longstanding debate over whether agricultural chemicals pose a threat to amphibians, UF zoologists have observed that toads in suburban areas are less likely to suffer from reproductive system abnormalities than toads near........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 8:53:00 PM)
A very notable birth at the Los Angeles ZooTo kick off the Los Angeles Zoo's summer activities, the Zoo is cutting admission prices for the July 4 weekend. From Friday, July 4, to Sunday, July 6, 2008 everyone can slash $4 off the price of Zoo admission! In addition to the discount, guests will also be able to buy a delicious BBQ meal, get free samples of Nestle Juicy Juice and enjoy the music of a local surf band. Take advantage of this special holiday deal to visit all of the Zoo's........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 3:32:25 PM)
Plants in the fourth dimensionAs anyone who has suffered from jetlag knows, we have internal clocks that tell us when to sleep and wake, and we can be miserable when these are disrupted. The daily cycles of a number of organisms are well known, but what has not been clear is whether these cycles are just responses to external cues of light, dark, heat, and cold, or if there are internal clocks that are set and reset by environmental signals. In animals, circadian rhythms........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/1/2008 9:48:49 PM)
Human influences challenge penguin populationsThe ecology of penguins makes these iconic swimming and diving seabirds of the Southern Hemisphere uncommonly susceptible to environmental changes. Pronounced warming in the Antarctic, as well as commercial fishing, mining, and oil and gas development at lower latitudes, has led to declines in a number of species, as per P. Dee Boersma, of the University of Washington in Seattle. In the July/August 2008 issue of BioScience, Boersma provides a........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/1/2008 9:26:06 PM)
What It's Like to Be a BatNot a number of people think about what it's like to be a bat, but for those who do, it's enlightening and potentially groundbreaking for understanding aspects of the human brain and nervous system.
Cynthia Moss, a member of the Neuroscience and Cognitive Science program at the University of Maryland, College Park, Md., is one of few scientists who spend time trying to get into the heads of bats.
Her new research suggests there is more to........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/26/2008 8:52:57 PM)
Bird watchers, space technology come togetherAlmost every June for 30 years, Terry McEneaney drove around Yellowstone National Park and listed every bird he heard along three routes.
Park ornithologist at the time, he would drive to a designated spot and identify the birds there. Then he'd drive another half mile, repeat the process and continue until he had stopped 50 times in 24.5 miles for the North American Breeding Bird Survey. Trying to finish before the birds quit singing, he'd........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/24/2008 10:40:39 PM)
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Measuring the stress of forested areasPlants undergo stress because of lack of water, due to the heat or the cold or to excess of light. A research team from the University of the Basque Country have analysed the substances that are triggered in plants to protect themselves, with the goal of choosing the species that is best suited to the environment during reforestation under adverse environmental conditions.
Droughts, extreme temperatures, contamination, and so on - all are........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 8:28:28 PM)
Greater bamboo lemur found in MadagascarScientists in Madagascar have confirmed the existence of a population of greater bamboo lemurs more than 400 kilometers (240 miles) from the only other place where the Critically Endangered species is known to live, raising hopes for its survival.
The discovery of the distinctive lemurs with jaws powerful enough to crack giant bamboo, their favorite food, occurred in 2007 in the Torotorofotsy wetlands of east central Madagascar, which is........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/22/2008 8:01:23 PM)
30 Creepiest Trees On EarthIf you are a horror movie buff, you''ve certainly noticed the liberal use of trees to set the mood. Halloween is hardly complete without the image of a moon-lit and fog-laden tree.However, some trees have been molded by Mother Nature into specters of their own. Scary, frightening, or downright weird, these trees will leave you wondering if Mother Nature herself digested some magic mushrooms.(thanks Chris)........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/20/2008 4:17:27 PM)
The genetics of the white horseThe white horse is an icon for dignity which has had a huge impact on human culture across the world. An international team led by scientists at Uppsala University has now identified the mutation causing this spectacular trait and show that white horses carry an identical mutation that can be traced back to a common ancestor that lived thousands of years ago. The study is interesting for medical research since this mutation also enhance the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/20/2008 2:32:10 PM)
Dr. Andrew Bass about fish vocalizationTalking fish are no strangers to Americans. From the comedic portrayal of "Mr. Limpet" by Don Knotts, to the children's Disney favorite, "Nemo," fish can talk, laugh and tell jokes--at least on television and the silver screen. But can real fish verbally communicate? Scientists say, "Yes," in a paper reported in the July 18 issue of the journal Science. Further, the findings put human speech--and social communications of all vertebrates--in........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/19/2008 10:05:42 AM)
Lionfish decimating tropical fish populationsThe invasion of predatory lionfish in the Caribbean region poses yet another major threat there to coral reef ecosystems a new study has observed that within a short period after the entry of lionfish into an area, the survival of other reef fishes is slashed by about 80 percent.
Aside from the rapid and immediate mortality of marine life, the loss of herbivorous fish also sets the stage for seaweeds to potentially overwhelm the coral reefs........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/17/2008 9:20:21 PM)
Do birds have a good sense of smell?The sense of smell might indeed be as important to birds as it is to fish or even mammals. This is the main conclusion of a study by Silke Steiger (Max Planck Institute for Ornithology) and her colleagues. The sense of smell in birds was, until quite recently, believed to be poorly developed. Recent behavioural studies have shown that some bird species use their sense of smell to navigate, forage or even to distinguish individuals. Silke........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/16/2008 8:55:27 PM)
Pollination Habits of Endangered Texas RiceA type of wild rice that only grows in a small stretch of the San Marcos River is likely so rare because it plays the sexual reproduction game poorly, a study led by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center at The University of Texas at Austin has revealed.
The first study of breeding habits of this endangered, aquatic grass (Zizania texana) observed that the pollen of Texas wild-rice can only travel about 30 inches away from a parent plant.........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/15/2008 10:10:00 PM)
Environmental Programs in China SuccessfulTwo of the world's largest environmental programs in China are generally successful, eventhough key reforms could transform them into a model for the rest of the world, as per research results published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Jianguo "Jack" Liu, a scientist at Michigan State University, is the lead researcher on the project. Liu and other researchers evaluated China's Natural Forest........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/10/2008 8:32:32 PM)
Who dares sings and who sings winsHumans often choose partners based on behavioural keys that are displayed during social interactions. The way we behave in different social contexts can reflect personality traits or temperament that may inspire long-term love. Behavioural norms that we perceive as sexually attractive are not culturally or evolutionarily arbitrary.
However, personality-mediated sexual selection is not just the privilege of mankind. As per a research findings........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/8/2008 8:36:16 PM)
Insect warning colors aid cancer drug discoveryBrightly colored beetles or butterfly larvae nibbling on a plant may signal the presence of chemical compounds active against cancer cell lines and tropical parasitic diseases, according to researchers at Smithsonian's Tropical Research Institute in Panama. Such clues could speed drug discovery and provide insight into the ecological relationships between tropical-forest plants and insects that feed on them. The report is published in the........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/8/2008 6:40:31 PM)
Climate Effects on Young FishFrom the surface, the two areas of ocean off the coasts of northern New Jersey and Long Island, New York look the same. But to NOAA scientists, the four-square-mile patches could not be more different as they view real-time underwater images and environmental data to try to figure out what lives there and how climate change is affecting marine life, particularly very young fish.
"These areas are much more dynamic than terrestrial landscapes........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/7/2008 10:02:31 PM)
Species Diversity Less Dramatic Than BelievedA study reported in the current issue of Science challenges the long-held belief that diversity of marine species has been increasing continuously since the origin of animals. Dr. Thomas D. Olszewski, a geology and geophysics professor at Texas A&M University, has been a part of the international team that carried out this decade-long study, which concludes that most of the diversification occurred early on - relatively speaking.
"The........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 7/7/2008 5:28:03 PM)
Giving nature a helping handPeople in the tropics depend heavily on the products and services the forest supplies. However, the natural regeneration process from agricultural land to forest often stagnates at the scrub stage. Some plants and shrubs grow vigorously and become dominant as a result of which young trees do not receive enough light to grow.
Cutting free.
Cutting young trees free generally results in increased growth. Van Kuijk discovered that the........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 9:29:41 PM)
Species Have Come and GoneView a video interview with researcher John Alroy of the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis.
Diversity among the ancestors of such marine creatures as clams, sand dollars and lobsters showed only a modest rise beginning 144 million years ago with no clear trend afterwards, as per an international team of researchers. This contradicts prior work showing dramatic increases beginning 248 million years ago and may shed light........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 7/3/2008 9:17:54 PM)
Ethanol byproduct produces green resultsCommercial flower and plant growers know all too well that invasive, ubiquitous weeds cause trouble by lowering the value and deterring healthy growth of potted ornamental plants. To control weeds, a number of commercial nursery owners resort to the expensive practice of paying workers to hand-weed containers. Some growers use herbicides, but efficacy of herbicides is questionable on the wide range of plant species produced in nurseries, and a........Go to the Plant-science-blog (Added on 7/2/2008 10:27:08 PM)
Crossed (Evolutionary) Signals?What do humans and single-celled choanoflagellates have in common? More than you'd think. New research into the choanoflagellate genome shows these ancient organisms have similar levels of proteins that cells in more complex organisms, including humans, use to communicate with each other.
As per a paper published last week in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, these findings help confirm choanoflagellates' role as an........Go to the Biology-blog (Added on 7/1/2008 9:53:56 PM)
'Early bird' project really gets the wormResearchers from the LSU Museum of Natural Science, or MNS, recently participated in a project joining together the most prominent ornithological research programs in the world. This study the largest study of bird genetics ever completed has not only shaken up the avian evolutionary tree, but completely redrawn it. The results of this massive research project, which relied heavily upon the LSU MNS' genetic resources collection, will be........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/26/2008 9:25:03 PM)
Where Are You Now, My Love?Having a good nose is essential to a Japanese beetle's survival. The beetle's sense of smell helps it avoid enemies and zero in on a mate. Meanwhile, the potential mate is programmed to release sex pheromones in exactly the right proportions. Like cheap perfume, there is such a thing as too much: Excessive pheromones can get the attention of a passing fly, leading her to the beetle. The fly can then lay her eggs on the beetle's back, setting up........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/25/2008 10:26:57 PM)
Genomics of large marine animals showcasedThough the slow moving purple sea urchin may look oblivious, lacking a head, eyes and ears, this prickly creature has an impressive suite of sensory receptors to detect outside signals. And don't overlook this animal's self-defense abilities: it has much more ammunition to activate its innate immune system than humans have. The starlet sea anemone lives in coastal areas that face increasing pollution, and it is better equipped than a number of........Go to the Animal-science-blog (Added on 6/24/2008 10:18:33 PM)
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