June 13, 2006, 11:29 PM CT

Exinct Animal Captured On Video

The first images of a live specimen of a small, furry animal once believed to have gone extinct more than 11 million years ago have been captured during a Southeast Asian expedition led by a retired Florida State University researcher.

The remarkable video and photos shot by David Redfield, a professor emeritus of FSU's science education faculty, and Thai wildlife biologist Uthai Treesucon are being hailed as historic images documenting a true "living fossil," the Laotian rock rat.

The Laotian rock rat is so called for its only known habitat -- limestone outcroppings in Central Laos -- and the appearance of the animal's head and face, which sport long whiskers and beady eyes like those of a rat. (To view photographs and video of the Laotian rock rat, visit www.rinr.fsu.edu/rockrat.).

Redfield's video shows a docile, squirrel-sized animal covered with dark, dense fur and bearing a long tail that's not as bushy as that of a typical squirrel. Perhaps the most striking observation is how the animal walks -- like a duck. Clearly not adapted to climbing trees, the rock rat exhibits a duck-like waddle with its hind feet splayed out at an angle to its body.

An avid but otherwise amateur wildlife observer, Redfield has traveled the world since retiring in 1988 from a career in teaching and research at FSU. A passion for bird watching in the 1990s segued into an interest in seeing some of the world's rare mammals in their native habitats. When he learned about the discovery of the Laotian rock rat last year -- and that no one had seen a live specimen -- Redfield set out on a personal quest to accomplish the feat.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 13, 2006, 0:17 AM CT

Bacteria And Algae Destroy Coral

Researchers have discovered an indirect microbial mechanism whereby bacteria kill coral with the help of algae. Human activities are contributing to the growth of algae on coral reefs, setting the stage for the long-term continued decline of coral.

Reporting in the June 5 on-line version of the scientific journal Ecology Letters, researchers described laboratory experiments on coral and algae.

First author Jennifer Smith, a postdoctoral fellow at the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, explained that the team of scientists, as part of a research expedition to the Line Islands, put algae and coral in chambers of seawater with filters between them. All of the corals with neighboring algae died, while coral without neighboring algae did not die. However, with the addition of an antibiotic, coral death even in the presence of algae was prevented, showing that bacteria fed by the algae are the agents of coral death. "We are the first to link these processes together," said Smith.

"This study tightly links the fields of microbiology with coral reef ecology to help guide reef conservation efforts," said senior author Forest Rohwer, assistant professor of microbiology at San Diego State University.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

June 13, 2006, 0:05 AM CT

Rhesus Monkeys In Nepal And Research

Scientists investigating the genetic makeup of rhesus macaque monkeys, a key species used in biomedical research, have found the rhesus in Nepal may provide a suitable alternative to alleviate a critical shortage of laboratory animals used in work to develop vaccines against diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

Writing in the cover story of the current issue of the American Journal of Primatology, researchers headed by Randall Kyes of the University of Washington report that the Nepali macaques are more closely related genetically to rhesus macaques from India than rhesus macaques of China.

This is important because Indian-origin animals have been used for more than half a century in biomedical and behavioral research. Rhesus macaques have contributed to the discovery of vaccines to prevent diseases such as polio and yellow fever, and represent one of the most widely used primate models for AIDS-related research. India, however, banned the export of all macaques in 1978, thus leading to the current shortage. Although China has been exporting captive-bred animals for sometime, scientists have noted a number of behavioral and physiological differences in disease progression between animals from the two countries, and the Indian-origin macaques are generally preferred in research on certain diseases.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 11, 2006, 12:41 AM CT

Surviving Snow

It has been 2.3 billion years since Earth's atmosphere became infused with enough oxygen to support life as we know it. About the same time, the planet became encased in ice that some researchers speculate was more than a half-mile deep. That raises questions about whether complex life could have existed before "Snowball Earth" and survived, or if it first evolved when the snowball began to melt.

New research shows organisms called eukaryotes - organisms of one or more complex cells that engage in sexual reproduction and are ancestors of the animal and plant species present today - existed 50 million to 100 million years before that ice age and somehow did survive. The work also shows that the cyanobacteria, or blue-green bacteria, that put the oxygen in the atmosphere in the first place, apparently were pumping out oxygen for millions of years before that, and also survived Earth's glaciation.

The findings call into question the direst models of just how deep the deep freeze was, said University of Washington astrobiologist Roger Buick, a professor of Earth and space sciences. While the ice likely was widespread, it probably was not consistently as thick as a half-mile, he said.

"That kind of ice coverage chokes off photosynthesis, so there's no food for anything, especially eukaryotes. They just couldn't survive," he said. "But this research shows they did survive."........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 11, 2006, 9:00 AM CT

Ant world cup

It can't be. But in fact it is. Here you see the first World Cup played completely by ants. Japan versus Brazil.

It says the match ended in a draw, which I feel is totally unacceptable. It doesn't say what the score was, either. Shoddy journalism.........

Posted by: Jim      Permalink         Source

June 10, 2006, 8:02 PM CT

Top 100 Ecological Questions

Environmental policy makers have come up with a list of the "top 100" ecological questions most in need of an answer. The list, published online in the British Ecological Society's Journal of Applied Ecology, is the result of an innovative experiment involving more than 600 environmental policy makers and academics, and includes crucial questions such as which UK habitats and species might be lost completely due to climate change, and what are the comparative biodiversity impacts of newly emerging types of renewable energy? The list should help bridge the gap between science and policy that exists in a number of disciplines - including ecology - and could therefore have a major impact on future ecological research and its funding.

As per the lead author, Professor Bill Sutherland of the University of East Anglia: "There is currently too little information flow between researchers and policy makers. Narrowing this gap would be very beneficial in generating policies that are based on sound science. On the other hand, it is desirable that research should be more clearly directed at issues that influence policy."

The list of 100 questions is the outcome of two days of discussion between 654 environmental policy makers and academics. The academics acted as facilitators, helping the policy makers arrive at a short-list of 100 key questions from an initial long-list of more than 1,000. Policy makers came from 30 leading environmental organisations and regulators, including the Environment Agency, SEPA, English Nature, the National Trust, Butterfly Conservation, the Wildlife Trusts, the Woodland Trust and the British Trust for Ornithology, and the short-list was agreed by consensus and compromise.........

Posted by: Tyler      Permalink         Source

June 9, 2006, 0:35 AM CT

Climate Change Is Driving Evolution Of Animal Species

Rapid climate changes over the past several decades have led to heritable, genetic changes in animals as diverse as squirrels, birds and mosquitoes, as per University of Oregon evolutionary geneticists.

Writing in the "Perspectives" section of the June 9 issue of SCIENCE, William E. Bradshaw, professor of biology, and Christina Holzapfel, biology research associate, show that diverse animal populations have changed genetically in response to rapid climate change. These genetic changes are in response to altered seasonal events and not to the expected direct effects of increased summer temperatures.

Global warming is proceeding fastest at the most northern latitudes, resulting in longer growing seasons while simultaneously alleviating winter cold stress without imposing summer heat stress. In short, northern climates are becoming more like those in the south.

"Over the past 40 years, animal species have been extending their range toward the poles and populations have been migrating, developing or reproducing earlier," said Bradshaw. "These expansions and changes have often been attributed to 'phenotypic plasticity,' or the ability of individuals to modify their behavior, morphology or physiology in response to altered environmental conditions."

However, adds Holzapfel, "phenotypic plasticity is not the whole story. Studies show that over the past several decades, rapid climate change has led to heritable, genetic changes in animal populations."........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

June 7, 2006, 11:53 PM CT

The Mini-dinosaurs From The Harz Mountains

When uncommonly small dinosaur fossils were found in a quarry on the northern edge of the Harz Mountains in 1998, it was initially assumed that these were the remains of a group of young dinosaurs. This was a fallacy, as the Bonn palaeontologist, Dr. Martin Sander, recently discovered. The microstructure of the bones, he says, makes it very likely that the animals involved were adults - a scientific sensation: at a maximum estimated weight of one tonne they were only a fiftieth the weight of their closest relatives, the brachiosaurs, and thus by far the smallest of the giant dinosaurs which have ever been found. The study will be published on 8 June in the journal 'Nature'.

In dinosaur bones there are what are known as growth marks, similar to the annual rings on trees. When the dinosaurs are young the growth marks are comparatively far apart, because the animal is still growing fast. When the dinosaur has reached its maximum size, the growth marks lie correspondingly close together. 'And it is precisely these tightly compressed marks that we have discovered just beneath the surface of the fossil's bones,' says Bonn lecturer Dr. Martin Sander, one of the few experts worldwide on the micro-structure of dinosaur skeletons. 'So the dinosaurs must have been fully grown when they died.' The newly discovered species is a dwarf compared with the other giant dinosaurs: the animals were only just longer and heavier than a car. 'They stopped growing when they reached 6 metres in length and a tonne in body mass,' Martin Sander estimates. Their cousins, by contrast, were up to 45 metres long and weighed in at 80 tonnes - as much as a small town of over 1,000 inhabitants. They are the biggest land animals which have ever existed.........

Posted by: William      Permalink         Source

June 6, 2006, 11:47 PM CT

More than drought affecting wheat yields

Wheat producers have more than the drought cutting into their yields this year, said two Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researchers.

Dr. Tom Allen, Experiment Station assistant research scientist and plant disease diagnostician, saw more than 150 wheat samples sent to the Great Plains Diagnostic Network lab this growing season, in addition to 400-plus samples the plant pathology staff gathered across the Panhandle.

Ninety-five percent of these samples were diagnosed with the wheat streak mosaic virus. In addition, 50 percent of the samples contained maize red stripe virus, more usually known as High Plains virus. Both diseases are vectored by the wheat curl mite, Allen said. And so far, there's no therapy for either the viruses or the mite.

The Great Plains Diagnostic Network is a part of a national plant disease monitoring system, which is divided into five regions. The Amarillo facility, a satellite lab to one at Kansas State University, is operated under the Experiment Station's plant pathology program, headed by Dr. Charlie Rush.

Samples came by mail, through Texas Cooperative Extension agents or were dropped off by producers, Allen said.

They came from as far north as Nebraska and as far south as Dallas and the Hill Country, Rush said, making this one of the most widespread years for wheat streak mosaic damage.........

Posted by: Jessica      Permalink         Source

June 5, 2006, 9:30 PM CT

About Beaver Dams

Beavers, long known for their beneficial effects on the environment near their dams, are also critical to maintaining healthy ecosystems downstream. Researchers have found that ponds created by beaver dams raised downstream groundwater levels in the Colorado River valley, keeping soil water levels high and providing moisture to plants in the otherwise dry valley bottom. The results will be published 8 June in Water Resources Research, a journal of the American Geophysical Union.

Cherie Westbrook of Colorado State University and colleagues there and at the U.S. Geological Survey in Fort Collins, Colorado, conducted a three-year study in Rocky Mountain National Park, examining valley ecosystems downstream in the Colorado River. They noted that water diverted by beaver dams is forced out of the natural stream channel and spreads across and down the valley for hundreds of meters [yards]. In addition, dams built on the river changed the direction of groundwater flow in the valley. The changes caused water to infiltrate the river banks and flow underground toward the sides of the valley, instead of down the center of the valley.

The researchers suggest that the elevated moisture levels found in soil surrounding the dams would otherwise require water from a very large natural flood, which they estimate as the 200-year flood, to achieve the same expansive water availability to the valley bottom. Additionally, beaver dams built away from natural river channels further redirect water across the valley, enhancing the depth, extent, and duration of inundation associated with smaller floods; they also elevate the water table to sustain plant and animal life during the dry summer season.........

Posted by: Ashley      Permalink         Source

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