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Categories: Offbeat: Plants and Animals
Published Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK.
Published Study finds iron-rich enamel protects, but doesn't color, rodents' orange-brown incisors
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Chattering squirrels, charming coypus, and tail-slapping beavers -- along with some other rodents -- have orange-brown front teeth. Researchers have produced high-resolution images of rodent incisors, providing an atomic-level view of the teeth's ingenious enamel and its coating. They discovered tiny pockets of iron-rich materials in the enamel that form a protective shield for the teeth but, importantly, don't contribute to the orange-brown hue -- new insights that could improve human dentistry.
Published Making crops colorful for easier weeding
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source To make weeding easier, scientists suggest bioengineering crops to be colorful or to have differently shaped leaves so that they can be more easily distinguished from their wild and weedy counterparts. This could involve altering the crops' genomes so that they express pigments that are already produced by many plants, for example, anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, or carotenoids, which make carrots orange. Then, they say, weeding robots could be trained to remove only the weeds using machine learning.
Published Older males out-compete young males outside breeding pairs, bird study shows
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Young male blue tits are less successful in fathering offspring outside their breeding pair, not because of a lack of experience, but because they are outcompeted by older males, researchers report.
Published Can animals count?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have made a groundbreaking discovery regarding number sense in animals by confirming the existence of discrete number sense in rats, offering a crucial animal model for investigating the neural basis of numerical ability and disability in humans.
Published Unlocking the 'chain of worms'
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source An international team of scientists has published a single-cell atlas for Pristina leidyi (Pristina), the water nymph worm, a segmented annelid with extraordinary regenerative abilities that has fascinated biologists for more than a century.
Published Evolution's recipe book: How 'copy paste' errors cooked up the animal kingdom
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source A series of whole genome and gene duplication events that go back hundreds of millions of years have laid the foundations for tissue-specific gene expression, according to a new study. The 'copy-paste' errors allowed animals to keep one copy of their genome or genes for fundamental functions, while the second copy could be used as raw material for evolutionary innovation. Events like these, at varying degrees of scale, occurred constantly throughout the bilaterian evolutionary tree and enabled traits and behaviours as diverse as insect flight, octopus camouflage and human cognition.
Published Even the simplest marine organisms tend to be individualistic
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Sport junkie or couch potato? Always on time or often late? The animal kingdom, too, is home to a range of personalities, each with its own lifestyle. Biologists report on a surprising discovery: even simple marine polychaete worms shape their day-to-day lives on the basis of highly individual rhythms. This diversity is of interest not just for the future of species and populations in a changing environment, but also for medicine.
Published Leptanilla voldemort, a ghostly slender new ant species from the dark depths of the underground
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source In the sun-scorched Pilbara region of north-western Australia, scientists have unearthed a mysterious creature from the shadows -- a new ant species called Leptanilla voldemort.
Published Oxidant pollutant ozone removes mating barriers between fly species
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers show that ozone levels, such as those found in many places on hot summer days today, destroy the sex pheromones of fruit fly species. As a result, some natural mating boundaries maintained by species-specific pheromones no longer exist. The research team has shown in experiments that flies of different species mate when exposed to ozone and produce hybrid offspring. Since most of these offspring are unable to reproduce, the results could provide another explanation for the global decline of insects.
Published 'Teacher Toads' can save native animals from toxic cane toads
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists from Macquarie University have come up with an innovative way to stop cane toads killing native wildlife by training goannas to avoid eating the deadly amphibians.
Published Do some mysterious bones belong to gigantic ichthyosaurs?
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate to this day. A study could now settle this dispute once and for all: The microstructure of the fossils indicates that they come from the lower jaw of a gigantic ichthyosaur. These animals could reach 25 to 30 meters in length, a similar size to the modern blue whale.
Published Toothed whale echolocation organs evolved from jaw muscles
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the jaw.
Published Mediterranean marine worm has developed enormous eyes
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Scientists are amazed at the discovery of a bristle worm with such sharp-seeing eyes that they can measure up to those of mammals and octopuses. The researchers suspect that these marine worms may have a secretive language, which uses UV light only seen by their own species. The advanced vision of such a primitive creature helps to finally settle an epic debate about the evolution of eyes.
Published Giant phage holds promise as treatment for lung infections
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have discovered a new bacterial killer that can target common lung infection caused by Burkholderia bacteria that has exciting potential for biotechnological applications.
Published Plastic-free vegan leather that dyes itself grown from bacteria
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have genetically engineered bacteria to grow animal- and plastic-free leather that dyes itself.
Published We've had bird evolution all wrong
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Genomic anamolies dating back to the time of the dinosaurs misled scientists about the evolutionary history of birds.
Published Genomic research may help explain cancer resistance in Tasmanian devils
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Through DNA sequencing of Tasmanian devils and their tumors, researchers have tracked the genomic interactions between the animals and the cancer.
Published Rock-wallaby bite size ‘packs a punch’
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Australian rock-wallabies are 'little Napoleons' when it comes to compensating for small size, packing much more punch into their bite than larger relatives. Researchers made the discovery while investigating how two dwarf species of rock-wallaby are able to feed themselves on the same kinds of foods as their much larger cousins.
Published Scientists extract genetic secrets from 4,000-year-old teeth to illuminate the impact of changing human diets over the centuries
(via sciencedaily.com) Original source Researchers have recovered remarkably preserved microbiomes from two teeth dating back 4,000 years, found in an Irish limestone cave. Genetic analyses of these microbiomes reveal major changes in the oral microenvironment from the Bronze Age to today. The teeth both belonged to the same male individual and also provided a snapshot of his oral health.