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All for One: What Makes an Individual

By Guest PostJune 27, 2013Scienceall for one, arizona, bacterial colony, chromosomes in cells, david shahnooshi, deborah shelton, environmental stress, erik hanschen, evolutionary process, genes in chromosomes, genomes, germ cells, hierarchy of life, individual, individual organism, Japan, Johannesburg, michods lab, molecular biology, morphology, multicellular colonies, NASA, patrick ferris, pierre durand, primate colony, rega like genes, richard michod, rick michod, somatic cell functions, somatic cells, South Africa, south america, university of arizona, university of the witwatersrand, volvocine algae, zachariah grochau wright

Life as we know it has certain properties that are consistent regardless whether you’re looking at a bacterial colony in a petri dish or a primate colony in South America. Rick Michod, UA professor and department head of ecology and evolutionary biology, has received $1.3 million from NASA to investigate what properties of biology define an individual organism.

Many things in life are not fair. But some things are at least consistent.

For example, all life as we know it has certain universal properties, which presumably define how life would be organized anywhere it evolved in the universe, said Richard Michod, professor and head of the department of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Arizona. (more…)

An Ancient Biosonar Sheds New Light on the Evolution of Echolocation in Toothed Whales

By Guest PostMay 9, 2013Natureaarhus university, acoustic monitoring, ancient biosonar, aquatic mammals, Bangladesh, biosonar signals, bottlenose dolphin, denmark, earth, evolution of echolocation, evolutionary process, frants havmand jensen, freshwater, freshwater cetaceans, freshwater dolphins, ganges river dolphins, hole, low frequent click, mangrove forest, marine dolphins, marine environments, oceanographic institution, oldest species, peter teglberg madsen, platanistidae family, river habitats, river systems, toothed whales, woods

Some thirty million years ago, Ganges river dolphins diverged from other toothed whales, making them one of the oldest species of aquatic mammals that use echolocation, or biosonar, to navigate and find food. This also makes them ideal subjects for scientists working to understand the evolution of echolocation among toothed whales.

New research, led by Frants Havmand Jensen, a Danish Council for Independent Research | Natural Sciences postdoctoral fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, shows that freshwater dolphins produce echolocation signals at very low sound intensities compared to marine dolphins, and that Ganges river dolphins echolocate at surprisingly low sound frequencies. The study, “Clicking in shallow rivers,” was published in the journal PLOS ONE. (more…)

Predators Drive the Evolution of Poison Dart Frogs’ Skin Patterns

By Guest PostNovember 25, 2011Natureamazon forest, athieu chouteau, biologist, butterfly, evolutionary process, exotic defensive signal, forest, heliconius genus, mathieu robert sauve, museum national d histoire naturelle, natural selection, Paris, peruvian, plasticine models, poison dart frog, poisonous frog, predators, ranitomeya, salamanders, skins patterns, snakes, tarapoto, university of montreal

Natural selection has played a role in the development of the many skins patterns of the tiny Ranitomeya imitator poison dart frog, according to a study that will be published in an upcoming edition of American Naturalist by University of Montreal biologist Mathieu Chouteau. The researcher’s methodology was rather unusual: on three occasions over three days, at two different sites, Chouteau investigated the number of attacks that had been made on fake frogs, by counting how many times that had been pecked. Those that were attacked the least looked like local frogs, while those that came from another area had obviously been targeted. (more…)

Tag Archives: evolutionary process

All for One: What Makes an Individual

An Ancient Biosonar Sheds New Light on the Evolution of Echolocation in Toothed Whales

Predators Drive the Evolution of Poison Dart Frogs’ Skin Patterns