Category Archives: Nature

Female Lemurs Play It Safe, Live Longer, Study Suggests

By Guest PostMarch 14, 2013Natureadipose tissue, brian gerber, colorado state university, endangered lemur species, escape from predators, females, hormone level, lifestyle, male testes, masculinized genitalia, milne edwards sifaka, mortality risk factors, mystery, patricia wright, primate, rainforest dweller, rainforests of madagascar, ranomafana national park, safer sex, shu fahk, southeastern madagascar, stacey tecot, stephen king, stony brook university, ua anthropologist, university of massachusetts

Females of a little-known primate from the rainforests of Madagascar have been known to outlive their male peers by many years, despite no obvious differences in hormone levels or lifestyle. A team led by a UA anthropologist has found the likely answer to the mystery.

Researchers studying aging in an endangered lemur species report that in old age, females are the safer sex: They live much longer than their male peers.

Females tend to outlive males in many animals, including humans. But in the Milne-Edwards’ sifaka – a rainforest-dweller with orange-red eyes, a black face and woolly dark brown fur – the sexes didn’t seem to differ in any of the ways thought to give females a survival advantage in other animals. (more…)

Antarctic and Arctic Insects Use Different Genetic Mechanisms to Cope With Lack of Water

By Guest PostMarch 13, 2013Environment, NatureAntarctic, antarctic midge, antarctic midge larvae, antarctic peninsula, anvers island, arctic circle, arctic insects, arctic springtail, belgica antarctica, coastal margins, collembola, cope, david denlinger, dry conditions, ecological niche, entomology, environmental ice, extreme ecosystems, folsomia candida, genetic mechanisms, genetics, genomic era, genomic revolution, genomic techniques, lack of water, liquid water, megaphorura arctica, national science foundation, nsf, oceans, ohio state university, peninsula region, polar arthropods, polar desert, polar environments, polar regions, risk of dehydration, sterile environments

Genomic techniques facilitate discovery that gene expression causes disparity

Although they live in similarly extreme ecosystems at opposite ends of the world, Antarctic insects appear to employ entirely different methods at the genetic level to cope with extremely dry conditions than their counterparts that live north of the Arctic Circle, according to National Science Foundation- (NSF) funded researchers.

Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers concluded, “Polar arthropods have developed distinct… mechanisms to cope with similar desiccating conditions.” (more…)

Researchers ID Queens, Mysterious Disease Syndrome as Key Factors in Bee Colony Deaths

By Guest PostMarch 11, 2013Natureapis mellifera, bee colony, bee colony deaths, bee larvae, commercial colonies, david tarpy, dennis vanenglesdorp, eastern united states, eugene lengerich, greatest risk factor, honey bees, ibds, idiopathic brood disease, jeffery pettis, key factors, large scale infestations, mysterious disease syndrome, north carolina state university, parasitic mites, penn state, queen event, queens, syndrome, university of maryland, usda

A new long-term study of honey bee health has found that a little-understood disease study authors are calling “idiopathic brood disease syndrome” (IBDS), which kills off bee larvae, is the largest risk factor for predicting the death of a bee colony.

“Historically, we’ve seen symptoms similar to IBDS associated with viruses spread by large-scale infestations of parasitic mites,” says Dr. David Tarpy, an associate professor of entomology at North Carolina State University and co-author of a paper describing the study. “But now we’re seeing these symptoms – a high percentage of larvae deaths – in colonies that have relatively few of these mites. That suggests that IBDS is present even in colonies with low mite loads, which is not what we expected.” The study was conducted by researchers from NC State, the University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University and the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). (more…)

UW Nautilus Expedition May Have Spied New Species

By Guest PostMarch 7, 2013Naturechambered nautilus, living fossil, nautilus expedition, samoan nautiluses

A University of Washington research team has captured color photographs of what could be a previously undocumented species of chambered nautilus, a cephalopod mollusk often classified as a “living fossil,” in the waters off American Samoa in the South Pacific. (more…)

Ancient Lamprey DNA Decoded

By Guest PostMarch 6, 2013Environment, Natureadaptive immune system, ancient lamprey dna, backbones, brain, bygone eras, cambrian period, canadian government, chu yin yeh, chung davidson, data, decode, evolution, fossil records, great lakes, invasive species, jeramiah smith, kaben nanlohy, michigan state university, modern era, modern humans, multicelled creatures, nature genetics, nervous system, pathways, prehistoric species, salmon, scot libants, sea lamprey genome, single celled organisms, spinal cords, spine, titus brown, trout, US, vertebrates, weiming li, yu wen

When it comes to evolution, humans can learn a thing or two from primeval sea lampreys.

In the current issue of Nature Genetics, a team of scientists has presented an assembly of the sea lamprey genome – the first time the entire sequence has been decoded. The data is compelling as the sea lamprey is one of the few ancient, jawless species that has survived through the modern era.

The paper not only sheds light on how the venerable invasive species adapted and thrived, but it also provides many insights into the evolution of all vertebrates, species with backbones and spinal cords, which includes humans, said Weiming Li, Michigan State University fisheries and wildlife professor, who organized and coordinated the team. (more…)

Songbirds’ Brains Coordinate Singing with Intricate Timing, Study Shows

By Guest PostMarch 2, 2013Nature, Scienceactivity, ana amador, anatomy, aphasia, avian vocal organ, basic motor functions, brain, buenos aires, control vocalizations, coordinate singing, coordinating human speech, daniel margoliash, disorder, dynamics of movement, feedback, gabriel mindlin, highly skilled behavior, howard nusbaum, human brain, human speech production, model, neuroscientist, premotor cortical neurons, single neurons, song, song system, songbird, songs of birds, speech, speech problems, stroke, stuttering, syrinx, timing, university, university of chicago, vocal signals, yonatan sanz perl, zebra finches

Research may help explain how human brain governs speech

As a bird sings, some neurons in its brain prepare to make the next sounds while others are synchronized with the current notes—a coordination of physical actions and brain activity that is needed to produce complex movements, new research at the University of Chicago shows.

In an article in the current issue of Nature, neuroscientist Daniel Margoliash and colleagues show, for the first time, how the brain is organized to govern skilled performance—a finding that may lead to new ways of understanding human speech production. (more…)

Mussels Cramped by Environmental Factors

By Guest PostFebruary 22, 2013Environment, Natureautumn hurricanes, biodiversity, breed resistant, bungee cords, byssal threads, byssus, coast of washington, commercial growers, crabs, cramp, david garrison, emily carrington, environmental biologist, environmental factors, environmental fluctuation, fibrous threads, filaments, golden colored threads, hydrothermal vents, keystone species, laura newcomb, lobsters, marine food web, mass, mussel populations, mussels, Nature, ocean acidification, possible environmental culprits, rocky intertidal areas, science arena, sea anemones, seasonal weakening, spawning cycle, species, storms, stressor, typical summer temperatures, university of washington

The fibrous threads helping mussels stay anchored – in spite of waves that sometimes pound the shore with a force equivalent to a jet liner flying at 600 miles per hour – are more prone to snap when ocean temperatures climb higher than normal.

Emily Carrington, a University of Washington professor of biology, reported Saturday (Feb. 16) that the fibrous threads she calls “nature’s bungee cords” become 60 percent weaker in water that was 15 degrees F (7 C) above typical summer temperatures where the mussels were from. She spoke at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston. (more…)

Ancient Fossilized Sea Creatures Yield Oldest Biomolecules Isolated Directly from a Fossil

By Guest PostFebruary 21, 2013Nature, Scienceamerican midwest, analytical tools, ancient, aquatic sea creatures, aromatic compounds, biological signal, biomarkers, calcite crystal, carboniferous period, christina omalley, complex organic molecules, crinoids, crinoids today, DNA, feathery arms, fine grained sediment, fossil, fossilization, fossilized sea creatures, function, gas chromatograph, geochemist, geologic time, geologists, hard calcite shell, Indiana, iowa, layer, living tissue, mass spectrometer, midwest, mountain chains, North America, ohio, ohio state, ohio state geologists, ohio state university, oldest biomolecules, organic matter, organic molecules, pigments, pores, predators, quinines, sand dollars, sea lily, spindly animals, toxins, vast inland seas, volcanism, william ausich, yu ping chin

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Though scientists have long believed that complex organic molecules couldn’t survive fossilization, some 350-million-year-old remains of aquatic sea creatures uncovered in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa have challenged that assumption.

The spindly animals with feathery arms—called crinoids, but better known today by the plant-like name “sea lily”—appear to have been buried alive in storms during the Carboniferous Period, when North America was covered with vast inland seas. Buried quickly and isolated from the water above by layers of fine-grained sediment, their porous skeletons gradually filled with minerals, but some of the pores containing organic molecules were sealed intact. (more…)