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Low Quality Genes May Cause Mutational Meltdown

By Guest PostApril 19, 2012Scienceaneil agrawal, chromosome, DNA, dna damage, drosophila melanogaster, eeb, environmental stress, evolutionary biologist, extinction, fruit fly, genetic deficiencies, high quality gene, low quality gene, mammal, mutation, nathaniel sharp, poor genetic quality, repairing dna, species, university of toronto

Deficiencies compound over time, researchers say

Evolutionary biologists at the University of Toronto have found that individuals with low-quality genes may produce offspring with even more inferior chromosomes, possibly leading to the extinction of certain species over generations.

Their study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, predicts that organisms with such genetic deficiencies could experience an increased number of mutations in their DNA, relative to individuals with high-quality genes. The research was done on fruit flies whose simple system replicates aspects of biology in more complex systems, so the findings could have implications for humans. (more…)

Preserving a Language

By Guest PostApril 13, 2012Culture, Educationamerican indian, brady willette, culture, dictionary, english, eugene stillday, extinction, james parente, john nichols, larry smallwood, leona wakonabo, louise erdrich, minnesota ojibwe, native language, ojibwe, ojibwe language, persia erdrich, ponemah, preserving language, red lake indian reservation, rick moore, talking dictionary, travis zimmerman, tribal language, wade

U launches groundbreaking new Ojibwe-English ‘talking’ dictionary.

Eugene Stillday was born in Ponemah on the Red Lake Indian Reservation, where he grew up speaking Ojibwe. That is, until his public school teachers forbade him from the practice and punished him and his classmates for speaking the only language they knew.

“[So] we developed a system,” Stillday says. “We’d be talking to each other in Ojibwe, and when the teacher came nearby we’d just naturally swing into English, and when she left, you know, right back to Ojibwe.” (more…)

Which Plants Will Survive Droughts, Climate Change?

By Guest PostApril 9, 2012Environmentagaves, alahee, cacti, california, carbon dioxide, cell level loss, chaparral shrubs, China, christine scoffoni, climate change, desert plants, drought tolerance, ecosystems, extinction, faith inman narahari, hawaiian drought, lawren sack, megan bartlett, photosynthesis, plant species, psydrax odorata, sandalwood, santalum paniculatum, stiff cell wall, stomata, sunflower, tropical botanical gardens, turgor loss point, turgor pressure, xishuangbanna, yuccas, yunnan

New research by UCLA life scientists could lead to predictions of which plant species will escape extinction from climate change.

Droughts are worsening around the world, posing a great challenge to plants in all ecosystems, said Lawren Sack, a UCLA professor of ecology and evolutionary biology and senior author of the research. Scientists have debated for more than a century how to predict which species are most vulnerable.

Sack and two members of his laboratory have made a fundamental discovery that resolves this debate and allows for the prediction of how diverse plant species and vegetation types worldwide will tolerate drought, which is critical given the threats posed by climate change, he said. (more…)

Another Vertebrate Species Reported Extinct from the Hawaiian Islands

By Guest PostMarch 22, 2012Naturearchipelago, blue tailed skink, chris brown, cnrs, copper striped, cryptic extinction, emoia impar, extinction, hawaiian islands, ivan ineich, kauai, lizard, marcia mcnutt, maui, napali coast, oahu, oryx, Paris, robert fisher, skink, species, tropical, tropical pacific, united states, vertebrate species

HONOLULU – A species of lizard is now extinct from the Hawaiian Islands, making it the latest native vertebrate species to become extirpated from this tropical archipelago.

The copper striped blue-tailed skink (Emoia impar) — a sleek lizard with smooth, polished scales and a long, sky-blue tail — was last confirmed in the Na’Pali coast of Kauai in the 1960s. But repeated field surveys on Kauai, Oahu, Maui and Hawai’i islands from 1988 to 2008 have yielded no sightings or specimens. (more…)

Some Mammals Used Highly Complex Teeth to Compete With Dinosaurs

By Guest PostMarch 19, 2012Nature, Science3 d images, alistair evans, angiosperms, australia, back teeth, bumps, computed tomography, ct, cusps, dinosaur extinction, dinosaurs, event, extinction, finland, food, fossil, gregory p wilson, ian corfe, insect pollinators, jukka jernvall, mammal, mesozoic era, mikael fortelius, monash university, mountain range, multituberculates, Nature, paleontologist, peter smits, rodent, scanning, tooth surface, topography, tubercles, university of helsinki, university of washington, vince stricherz

Conventional wisdom holds that during the Mesozoic Era, mammals were small creatures that held on at life’s edges. But at least one mammal group, rodent-like creatures called multituberculates, actually flourished during the last 20 million years of the dinosaurs’ reign and survived their extinction 66 million years ago.

New research led by a University of Washington paleontologist suggests that the multituberculates did so well in part because they developed numerous tubercles (bumps, or cusps) on their back teeth that allowed them to feed largely on angiosperms, flowering plants that were just becoming commonplace. (more…)

Number of Dead California Sea Otters Recovered in 2011 a Record High

By Guest PostFebruary 25, 2012Natureattacks by sharks, bacterial infections, boat strikes, brian hatfield, california, california coast, california sea otter, carcharodon carcharias, cayucos, enhydra lutris nereis, extinction, gun shot wounds, harmful algal toxins, heart disease, infectious diseases, lilian carswell, marcia mcnutt, michael harris, monterey bay aquarium, population growth, population mortality, sea lions, sea otter, seals, shark bites, southern sea otter, strandings, tim tinker, tooth fragments, u s geological survey, white sharks

*Evidence Builds for White Shark Factor in Otter Mortality*

SANTA CRUZ, Calif. — The California or southern sea otter (Enhydra lutris nereis) appears to be experiencing an unprecedented increase in mortality from attacks by sharks, according to federal and state scientists.

Since 1968, biologists and veterinarians at the U.S. Geological Survey and California Department of Fish and Game have documented and examined all reported sea otter “strandings” — counting the number of dead, sick or injured sea otters recovered along California’s coast each year. (more…)

Global Extinction: Gradual Doom as Bad as Abrupt

By Guest PostFebruary 8, 2012Environment, Sciencebrooks ellwood, canadian arctic, carbon dioxide, charles henderson, coal deposit, dead zone, earth, ellesmere island, extinction, factor, fossil, geologic history, geology, global extinction, greenhouse, greenhouse gas, h richard lane, harry rowe, indian ocean, katherine freeman, marine life, mass extinction, national science foundation, ocean, permian period, permian triassic boundary, sedimentary rock, siberian traps, siberian volcanic activity, south china, steven bates, tethys, the great dying, thomas algeo, timothy lyons, united states, university of calgary, university of cincinnati, volcanic deposit, volcanic rock, volcanism in siberia, warming, west blind fiord

*In “The Great Dying” 250 million years ago, the end came slowly*

The deadliest mass extinction of all took a long time to kill 90 percent of Earth’s marine life–and it killed in stages–according to a newly published report.

It shows that mass extinctions need not be sudden events.

Thomas Algeo, a geologist at the University of Cincinnati, and 13 colleagues have produced a high-resolution look at the geology of a Permian-Triassic boundary section on Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic. (more…)

Ancient Meat-Loving Predators Survived for 35-Million Years

By Guest PostDecember 9, 2011Scienceagile predators, ancient predator, beaufort group, cape breton university, dental, extinction, fossil, hypercarnivores, komodo dragon, lizards, mammals, middle permian, pristerognathus assemblage zone, robert reisz, saw like teeth, sean modesto, skeletal design, South Africa, species, terrestrial fauna, university of toronto mississauga, varanopid pelycosaur, varanopids

Lived through period of species extinction

A species of ancient predator with saw-like teeth, sleek bodies and a voracious appetite for meat survived a major extinction at a time when the distant relatives of mammals ruled the earth.

A detailed description of a fossil that scientists identify as a varanopid “pelycosaur” is published in the December issue of Naturwissenschaften – The Science of Nature. Professors Sean Modesto from Cape Breton University, a U of T alumnus, and Robert Reisz from University of Toronto Mississauga provide evidence that a group of ancient, agile predators called varanopids survived for more than 35 million years and co-existed with more advanced animals. (more…)

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