New model for infectious disease could better predict future pandemics
(Smithsonian National Zoological Park) In the midst of a devastating global pandemic of wildlife origin and with future spillovers imminent as humans continue to come into closer contact with wildlife, infectious-disease models that consider the full ecological and anthropological contexts of disease transmission are critical to the health of all life. Existing models are limited in their ability to predict disease emergence, since they rarely consider the dynamics of the hosts and ecosystems from which pandemics emerge. (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - May 18, 2021 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Bornean rajah scops owl rediscovered after 125 years
(Smithsonian National Zoological Park) The Bornean subspecies of Rajah scops owl (Otus brookii brookii), documented in the wild for the first time since 1892, may be its own unique species and deserving of a conservation designation. Published April 28 in The Wilson Journal of Ornithology, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center ecologist Andy Boyce reported the rediscovery and photographed this elusive subspecies in the mountainous forests of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Malaysia. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - May 3, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Researchers solve puzzle of origin and formation of specialized body plan in flatfishes
(Chinese Academy of Sciences Headquarters) Now, researchers from the Kunming Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology of CAS, the Institute of Hydrobiology of CAS, Zhejiang Ocean University and Northwestern Polytechnical University, have unraveled the evolutionary and genetic origins of the specialized body plan of flatfishes through comparative genomic analysis. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - April 26, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
The Unexpected Ways Climate Change is Reshaping College Education
In 2018, Scott McAulay had a “Wizard of Oz moment.” He was a final-year architecture student at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland when the U.N. published a report warning that the world had 12 years to transform society to avoid catastrophic, irreversible climate change. Buildings, the report said, account for 20% of energy-related global greenhouse-gas emissions, and the architecture and construction sectors needed to rapidly overhaul their practices. Sitting in classes, McAulay had a sinking feeling: his professors, the wizards behind the curtain, had no magical solution.
“We’re talking ab...
Source: TIME: Science - April 16, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Ciara Nugent Tags: Uncategorized climate change feature Londontime Magazine TIME 2030 Source Type: news
‘That’s a lot of teeth’: 2.5 billion T rex walked the earth, researchers find
Experts calculate the total number of the dinosaurs that lived over 127,000 generationsOne Tyrannosaurus rex seems scary enough. Now picture 2.5 billion of them. That ’s how many of the fierce dinosaur king probably roamed Earth over the course of a couple of million years, a new study finds.Using calculations based on body size, sexual maturity and the creatures ’ energy needs, a team at the University of California, Berkeley, figured out just how many T rex lived over 127,000 generations, according to a study in the journalScience on Thursday. It ’s a first-of-its-kind number, but just an estimate with a margin of ...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 15, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Associated Press Tags: Dinosaurs Science Zoology Biology Source Type: news
Flying giant pterosaurs had longer neck than a giraffe, say experts
Intact remains, discovered in Morocco, may help engineers create stronger lightweight structuresPterosaurs, one of the first and largest vertebrates to learn to fly, have often been seen as the cool cousins of the infamous Tyrannosaurus rex.Now scientists have discovered the 100m-year-old secret to the success of the flying pterosaur: a neck longer than a giraffe.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 14, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Rhi Storer Tags: Dinosaurs Science Fossils Biology UK news Zoology Source Type: news
A bug ’s life: how a volunteer army is putting Britain’s wildlife on the record
Amateur nature recorders are providing vital data on beetles, soldierflies and a host of lesser-known insectsAshleigh Whiffin ’s day job as assistant curator of entomology is to look after National Museums Scotland’s vast collection of preserved insects. But her passion for the creatures doesn’t end when she goes home; in her spare time she spends hours recording and verifying sightings of a specific group of large c arrion beetles in the familysilphidae.“Silphidae are absolutely brilliant,” Whiffin says from her Edinburgh office. “They’re decomposers, so they are really vital for recycling and also have fore...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 10, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Isabella Kaminski Tags: Insects Wildlife Environment Hobbies Life and style Animals Conservation UK news World news Zoology Biology Science Source Type: news
Can a 3D printed beetle model simulate the real thing?
(Syracuse University) Zoology and biology researchers produce and test 3D printed beetle models to find out if they would be a feasible option when testing mate choice in these and possibly other insects (Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health)
Source: EurekAlert! - Medicine and Health - April 8, 2021 Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: news
Should we determine species through DNA? (part two) – podcast
In part two ofThe Age of Extinction takeover of Science Weekly, Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston explore a relatively new and controversial technology called DNA barcoding that is helping scientists to differentiate between species – including fungi, which we heard about inpart one. As the catastrophic loss of biodiversity around the world continues, could DNA barcoding at least allow us to accurately record the species that are perishing?Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - April 1, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Presented by Patrick Greenfield and Phoebe Weston and produced by Tiffany Cassidy Tags: Environment Science Biodiversity Zoology Conservation Biology Wildlife Source Type: news
Scientific Specimens Are Going Online, But Much Remains Hidden In Storage
From fish in jars to rare seeds and microbes, hundreds of millions of biological specimens are stored around the U.S., and caretakers are trying to make them accessible for future research.(Image credit: Melissa Aja/Museum of Comparative Zoology/President and Fellows of Harvard College) (Source: NPR Health and Science)
Source: NPR Health and Science - March 27, 2021 Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Nell Greenfieldboyce Source Type: news
Researchers find the secret of the bunny hop: it's all in the genes
Scientists pinpoint gene necessary for animals to adopt a typical gait by studying breed of rabbit that can ’t hopIt sounds like a conundrum that Rudyard Kipling would have tackled in hisJust So stories, but it turns out the reason why rabbits hop is rooted not in fables but genetics.Researchers say that by studying an unusual breed of bunny that walks on its front paws, they have pinpointed a key gene that is necessary for animals to adopt a typical gait. For rabbits, as well as animals such as hares and kangaroos, that is the ability to hop.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - March 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Nicola Davis Science correspondent Tags: Genetics Biology Science Animals Zoology Source Type: news
Highlands of diversity: Another new chameleon from the Bale region, Ethiopia
(Pensoft Publishers) Once again, the importance of the Bale Mountains in Ethiopia as a unique hotspot of species diversity is stressed: a new chameleon species from the northern slopes of this remarkable Afromontane plateau was discovered and described by Thore Koppetsch and his colleagues in the peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal Zoosystematics and Evolution. In honour of his outstanding research and passion for herpetology the new species is named after the German zoologist Wolfgang B ö hme. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - March 23, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Mitigating impact of artificial light at night in tropical forests
(Smithsonian National Zoological Park) Artificial light at night (ALAN) is a major factor in global insect decline. In a paper published today in Insect Conservation and Diversity, Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI) scientists and partners found that using amber-colored filters to remove the blue spectra of light from " warm white " LED (light-emitting diode) lamps drastically reduces insect attraction to nocturnal lighting in a tropical forest. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - March 17, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
Answer to fossil record puzzle may lie with teenage T rexes, study finds
Absence of smaller dinosaurs may be result of adolescent megatheropods crowding them outTeenage T rexes and othercarnivorous dinosaurs the size of lions or bears may have crowded out smaller species, explaining why there are so few of them preserved in the fossil record, research suggests.Despite dominating the land for more than 150 million years, dinosaurs were not particularly diverse, and most known species were giants weighing 1,000kg or more – including massive, meat-eating megatheropods such asTyrannosaurus rex.Continue reading... (Source: Guardian Unlimited Science)
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - February 25, 2021 Category: Science Authors: Linda Geddes Tags: Dinosaurs Evolution Biology Fossils Science Zoology Palaeontology Source Type: news
Animal evolution -- glimpses of ancient environments
(Ludwig-Maximilians-Universit ä t M ü nchen) Zoologists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich report the discovery of a trove of fossil fly larvae, and an intriguing caterpillar, encapsulated in samples of amber that are tens of millions of years old. (Source: EurekAlert! - Biology)
Source: EurekAlert! - Biology - February 19, 2021 Category: Biology Source Type: news
