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Categories: Biology: Evolutionary, Ecology: Trees
Published The counting of nine billion trees could help manage climate credits and nature restoration
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have developed a method that has now mapped several billion trees and their carbon uptake in Africa's Sahel. In the future, the method could be used to monitor whether climate credit purchases have a positive effect on the number of trees and whether nature restoration is working.
Published Pink + pink = gold: hybrid hummingbird's feathers don't match its parents
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists thought a gold-throated hummingbird was a new species. DNA revealed that it's a hybrid of two different species, each with pink throats. The discovery sheds light on how birds produce feather colors and how hummingbirds evolved their dazzling hues.
Published Better metric for prioritizing conservation of 'evolutionarily distinctive' species
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers have published an updated metric for prioritizing species' conservation that incorporates scientific uncertainty and complementarity between species, in addition to extinction risk and evolutionary distinctiveness.
Published Parental investment may have aided evolution of larger brains
(via sciencedaily.com) A review of evidence from prior research provides new support for the possibility that the evolution of larger brains in some species was enabled through increased energy investment by parents in their offspring.
Published Jurassic shark: Shark from the Jurassic period was already highly evolved
(via sciencedaily.com) Cartilaginous fish have changed much more in the course of their evolutionary history than previously believed. Evidence for this thesis has been provided by new fossils of a ray-like shark, Protospinax annectans, which demonstrate that sharks were already highly evolved in the Late Jurassic.
Published Who are the first ancestors of present-day fish?
(via sciencedaily.com) What is the origin of the ancestors of present-day fish? What species evolved from them? A 50-year-old scientific controversy revolved around the question of which group, the 'bony-tongues' or the 'eels', was the oldest. A study has just put an end to the debate by showing through genomic analysis that these fishes are in fact one and the same group, given the rather peculiar name of 'Eloposteoglossocephala'. These results shed new light on the evolutionary history of fish.
Published Evolutionary history of detoxifying enzymes reconstructed
(via sciencedaily.com) Biochemists have succeeded in resurrecting the ancestral genes of five detoxifying enzymes which are present in all tetrapods to show how their divergence in function has occurred.
Published The rediscovery of an ethereal fairy lantern brightly illuminates their mysterious past
(via sciencedaily.com) After more than 30 years, botanists have rediscovered Thismia kobensis, a type of mysterious-looking rare plant commonly referred to as 'fairy lanterns'. Thismia kobensis was presumed extinct and the surprise rediscovery of this Japanese variety has illuminated hidden aspects of fairy lanterns that have puzzled and fascinated botanists for centuries.
Published Ancient proteins offer new clues about origin of life on Earth
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source By simulating early Earth conditions in the lab, researchers have found that without specific amino acids, ancient proteins would not have known how to evolve into everything alive on the planet today -- including plants, animals, and humans.
Published How birds got their wings
(via sciencedaily.com) Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new research suggests it evolved in nonavian dinosaurs. The finding comes from statistical analyses of arm joints preserved in fossils and helps fill some gaps in knowledge about the origin of bird flight.
Published Deadly waves: Researchers document evolution of plague over hundreds of years in medieval Denmark
(via sciencedaily.com) Scientists who study the origins and evolution of the plague have examined hundreds of ancient human teeth from Denmark, seeking to address longstanding questions about its arrival, persistence and spread within Scandinavia.
Published Insect bite marks show first fossil evidence for plants' leaves folding up at night
(via sciencedaily.com) Plants can move in ways that might surprise you. Some of them even show 'sleep movements,' folding or raising their leaves each night before opening them again the next day. Now, researchers offer convincing evidence for these nightly movements, also known as foliar nyctinasty, in fossil plants that lived more than 250 million years ago.
Published A labyrinth lake provides surprising benefits for an endangered seal
(via sciencedaily.com) The endangered Saimaa ringed seal is an Ice Age relict living in the highly labyrinthine Lake Saimaa, Finland. The newly published work shows that although individual seals have greatly reduced genetic variation, the loss of variation has been complementary, preserving the adaptive potential of the whole population.
Published Single gene causes sea anemone's stinging cell to lose its sting
(via sciencedaily.com) When scientists disabled a single regulatory gene in a species of sea anemone, a stinging cell that shoots a venomous miniature harpoon for hunting and self-defense shifted to shoot a sticky thread that entangles prey instead, according to a new study.
Published Fungi that causes pine ghost canker detected in southern California trees
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Fungal pathogens that cause pine ghost canker are infecting conifer trees in urban forests of Southern California, scientists found.
Published Clever orchard design for more nuts
(via sciencedaily.com) To reduce biodiversity loss in agricultural landscapes, more sustainable and environmentally friendly agricultural practices are needed. A research team has investigated how ecosystem services such as pollination could be improved in macadamia plantations. The scientists showed that a certain design of plantations -- for instance, how the rows of trees are arranged, the varieties, and the integration of semi-natural habitats in and around the plantations -- can increase the pollination performance of bees.
Published A fifth of California's Sierra Nevada conifer forests are stranded in habitats that have grown too warm for them
(via sciencedaily.com) Researchers created maps showing where warmer weather has left trees in conditions that don't suit them, making them more prone to being replaced by other species. The findings could help inform long-term wildfire and ecosystem management in these 'zombie forests.'
Published A new model offers an explanation for the huge variety of sizes of DNA in nature
(via sciencedaily.com) A new model offers a possible solution to the scientific question of why neutral sequences, sometimes referred to as 'junk DNA', are not eliminated from the genome of living creatures in nature and continue to exist within it even millions of years later.
Published Symbiotic fungi transform terpenes from spruce resin into attractants for bark beetles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international research team demonstrates that the European spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus) uses volatile fungal metabolites of plant defense substances as important chemical signals in their attack on spruce trees. The researchers also show that the insects have olfactory sensory neurons specialized for detecting these volatile compounds. The fungal metabolites likely provide important clues to the beetles about the presence of beneficial fungi, the defense status of the trees, and the population density of their conspecifics. The study highlights the importance of chemical communication in maintaining symbiosis between bark beetles and their fungal partners.
Published Geckos know their own odor
(via sciencedaily.com) Geckos can use their tongue to differentiate their own odor from that of other members of their species, as researchers have shown in a new experimental study. The findings show that geckos are able to communicate socially, meaning that they are more intelligent than was previously assumed.