Study Zoology

Abbey Oxley, 21, Zoology Graduate, Chair of the CPRE - Northumberland.

[mindblowingscience]

Ancient genomes heat up dog domestication debate

Results point to a single origin for modern canines and push back the timing by thousands of years.

Researchers chasing the origin of modern dogs find that canines were domesticated once, between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago.

The results, published on 18 July in Nature Communications1, push back against a controversial 2016 study2 that suggested dogs were domesticated twice. The latest analysis also add weight to previous research that moves the timing of domestication back as far as 40,000 years ago.  

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[natural-selections]

You otter know better.

[rjzimmerman]

Plans for a 300-mile gas pipeline that would cut right through the Appalachian Trail have come to symbolize what environmentalists warn is a pipeline building frenzy out of control.

Excerpt:

The stretch of Appalachian Trail through the Blue Ridge Mountains here is prized by hikers from around the world for its open ridgelines, spectacular geologic formations and challenging slopes.

But one of the country’s most iconic viewsheds could soon be changed forever to make room for an energy project favored not just by fossil fuel industry boosters like President Trump, but also Virginia’s Democratic governor.

A natural gas developer with some powerful political allies is nearing final approval to plow a pipeline corridor as wide as 150 feet, tracking the trail for dozens of miles and burrowing through it at one point.

Amid the nation’s ongoing boom in natural gas production, federal rules have made pipeline construction an extremely lucrative enterprise, even in markets where the need is hotly debated.

To many, the Mountain Valley Pipeline has become a symbol of the building frenzy. Concern stretches all the way to California, where climate activists worry that such projects are undermining their efforts. Leaders of the Pacific Crest Trail Assn. fear that gas companies feel increasingly emboldened to impose an ever bigger footprint on protected lands.

“Everybody, not only in the East, but around every national scenic trail, should be concerned about this,” said Andrew Downs, regional director with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy, the 90-year-old nonprofit organization entrusted by the National Park Service decades ago with the task of managing the trail. The conservancy has never found it necessary to get involved in a pipeline fight in this way, but times have changed. “We’ve never seen pipelines of this size and magnitude,” Downs said.

The same glut of natural gas that helped the U.S. substantially cut its greenhouse gas emissions is now also threatening efforts to fight climate change. In communities being rattled by the rush to lay pipe, the natural gas projects are drawing the kind of rancor usually associated with more imposing and disruptive oil pipelines.With some 9,000 new miles of pipeline in the planning stages nationwide, natural gas expansions are threatening to undermine greenhouse gas emission reduction goals already agreed to by Virginia and other states hosting the projects.

A pastoral view from Mountain Lake Road near the historic town of Newport, Va., through which the pipeline would be built.

[bogleech]

Warning for animal death but it’s believed this small male Architeuthis floated to the surface and died after a botched mating attempt with a larger, more aggressive female. He dies shortly before they start hauling him ashore, and in the final moments of the video…he finally ejaculates.

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

So I obviously had to go look up why the ejaculate from the squid was all odd and noodley - because they look super self-contained, not like a fluid and man, I was not disappointed. Each of those little squiggles is a spermatophore, a packet that functions “autonomously and extra-corporeally.” So basically, it’s an ejaculatory apparatus that contains a bunch of sperm. When the cap holding it in place breaks (which could be from being touched by people, or just because of death) the spermatophore everts and springs out from the skin and drag the sperm mass with them. It’s a good thing nobody touched them, because those things are sharp enough to cut you - they embed themselves into the skin of female squid upon making contact. This sounds horrible, but it’s actually a way of making sure you’re successful at mating when you’re in potentially rough water or there’s other males competing for the same female. 

[asapscience]

Just some perspective! [@beatricebiologist]

[rjzimmerman]

Climate Change Could Threaten Up To 2 Billion Refugees By 2100

"It's coming at us faster than we thought."

Excerpt:

Charles Geisler, a sociologist at Cornell University, spent much of his career researching where poor people go when rich corporations swoop in and buy the land out from under their feet.

But his focus began to shift in 2005, after observing how storm surges tainted farmland in Bangladesh with salt water. Later that year, Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, submerging communities once believed to be safe behind levees and dikes. As floodwaters inundated Vietnam’s Mekong Delta last year, Geisler’s new worldview came into sharp relief.

Geisler began collating climate and demographic research, and came to a dire conclusion: By the year 2100, rising sea levels could force up to 2 billion people inland, creating a refugee crisis among one-fifth of the world’s population. Worse yet, there won’t be many places for those migrants to go.

His findings appear in the July issue of the journal Land Use Policy.

“We have a pending crisis,” Geisler, a professor emeritus of development sociology at Cornell, told HuffPost. “This relocation and huge mass migration from the coastal zone, it’s going to take place in this century and the next century.”

Geisler outlined three obstacles, or “barriers to entry,” to relocating people driven inland from their homes by rising seas. The first problem is that climate change isn’t just affecting coastal communities. Droughts and desertification could make areas safe from sea level rise uninhabitable at worst, and incapable of sustaining a large influx of migrants at best, Geisler said. The second issue is closely linked: If climate refugees flock to cities, increasing the urban sprawl into land once used to farm food, those metropoles could lose the ability to feed their inflated populations. The third issue involves physical and legal barriers, meaning regions and municipalities might erect walls and post guards to prevent climate migrants from entering and settling down. Geisler dubbed this phenomenon the “no-trespass zone.”

[rjzimmerman]

Killer whales are hunting fishing boats like prey

Killer whales are hunting Alaskan fishing boats and stealing their cargo.

Excerpt:

Fishing boats are coming under attack by an unlikely band of marauders bent on stealing their cargo.

Killer whales have reportedly been zeroing in on boats from the Gulf of Alaska to Aleutian Island to the Bering Sea — sometimes trailing them for days on end.

And when those nets are teeming with the day’s catch, they make their move, sawing through twine and feasting on the cargo.

Killer whales, famed for their complex and patient hunting techniques, follow the beleaguered boats, encircling and harassing the vessel, much like a “motorcycle gang,” fisherman John McHenry told the newspaper. “You’d see two of them show up, and that’s the end of the trip. Pretty soon all 40 of them would be around you,” he said.

The shakedowns have taken a heavy toll on the Alaskan fishing industry, with a University of Alaska study suggesting that commercial anglers lose as much as $1,000 per day to the pirating pods.

So what’s driving whales to a life of plunder and pillage? It’s possible they were inspired by sperm whales — behemoths that have been vexing fishing boats for decades. The biggest factor, however, may not be a dearth of fish in the ocean, but rather an abundance of intelligence on the whale’s part. Quite simply, they’re studying patterns in their environment.

[studyzoology]

Extremely happy to say that I'll be graduating with a 2:1!

[earthstory]

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Clearly one of the trilobites that came after they evolved the ability to roll up.

cornerstoneminerals Cornuproetus Cornutus is a species of #trilobite that dates back as far as 390 Million years ago. This beautiful #fossil specimen was found in Alnif, Morocco!

[rjzimmerman]

‘It’s going to be grim, but there will still be coral’: Scientists call for realism about reefs

There's still hope for the future of coral reefs, scientists say.

Excerpt:

With coral reefs all over the world suffering ongoing bleaching and death at the hands of warming ocean waters — from remote coral atolls in the Indian Ocean to Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef — the future of these beloved marine ecosystems appears increasingly grim. But while experts almost universally agree that climate change will continue to shape the future of the world’s corals, some scientists insist that there’s still hope for them.

In a paper out Wednesday in the journal Nature, more than a dozen experts from around the world say that coral reefs are likely to undergo major changes as a result of continued climate change and other human activities, like fishing. But while future coral ecosystems might look a lot different than they do today, from the species they contain to the places they live, they aren’t necessarily doomed. In fact, accepting this transition and helping them through it might be the best — and even only way — to save them.

Research has already shown that some types of coral are better at handling environmental stress than others. At many sites where bleaching events have occurred in the past few years, scientists have noticed that certain species tend to fare better than others, suggesting that they might have some kind of an evolutionary edge that helps them survive.

Scientists now say that, in the future, some of the species that are common today might begin to disappear and be replaced by hardier varieties. Additionally, some corals might be forced to migrate to cooler and more hospitable parts of the ocean. Instead of actively working to prevent these changes from happening, some scientists are now suggesting that allowing this transition process to happen — or even helping it along — may be for the best.

[neurosciencenews]

Neurons That Distinguish Between Reality and Imagination Discovered

New Western University research shows that neurons in the part of the brain found to be abnormal in psychosis are also important in helping people distinguish between reality and imagination.

The research is in Nature Communications. (full open access)

[biotechnlgy]

[mindblowingscience]

'Faceless' fish missing for more than a century rediscovered by Australian scientists

Expedition leader says the deep-sea fish had not been seen in waters off Australia since 1873

A “faceless” deep-sea fish not seen for more than a century has been rediscovered by scientists trawling the depths of a massive abyss off Australia’s east coast, along with “amazing” quantities of rubbish.

The 40cm fish was rediscovered 4km below sea level in waters south of Sydney by scientists from Museums Victoria and the Australian government’s Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) on the weekend.

Dr Tim O’Hara, the chief scientist and expedition leader, who is a senior curator of marine invertebrates at Museums Victoria, said it was the first time the fish had been seen in waters off Australia since 1873, when one was dredged up by a British ship near Papua New Guinea.

“This little fish looks amazing because the mouth is actually situated at the bottom of the animal so, when you look side-on, you can’t see any eyes, you can’t see any nose or gills or mouth,” O’Hara said via satellite phone from the research vessel Investigator on Wednesday. “It looks like two rear-ends on a fish, really.”

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[fuckyeahfluiddynamics]

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the star-nosed mole looks funny. Its distinctive star-shaped nose is a highly-sensitive organ, but the mole doesn’t just use it for finding its way through the underground tunnels it lives in. These moles can actually sniff underwater. By exhaling a bubble and then re-inspiring it, the moles collect scent particles that they can use to locate food. In experiments, both star-nosed moles and water shrews could use this technique to successfully follow a scent trail, demonstrating exploring and pausing behaviors similar to terrestrial sniffing as they did. To learn more about this impressive mammal, listen to the latest episode of Science Friday, where research Ken Catania describes his work with them. (Image credits: K. Catania; via Science Friday)

[currentsinbiology]

Freaky mole.

[sergle]

hey! ducks are adorable and everybody likes feeding them, but bread causes a number of environmental and health problems that could easily be avoided. instead of bread, consider feeding duckies:

frozen peas or corn that’s been defrosted!

romaine lettuce (torn into small pieces)

bird feed of any kind

rice (cooked or uncooked!)

uncooked oats

grapes cut in half

earthworms

[currentsinbiology]

Octopus and squid evolution is officially weirder than we could have ever imagined

Just when we thought octopuses couldn’t be any weirder, it turns out that they and their cephalopod brethren evolve differently from nearly every other organism on the planet.

In a surprising twist, scientists have discovered that octopuses, along with some squid and cuttlefish species, routinely edit their RNA (ribonucleic acid) sequences to adapt to their environment.

This is weird because that’s really not how adaptations usually happen in multicellular animals. When an organism changes in some fundamental way, it typically starts with a genetic mutation - a change to the DNA.

The findings have been published in Cell.

Olga Visavi/Shutterstock

[everydaylouie]

a most paradoxical frog