Shark guide probes uncharted waters
... search of food. Difficulties in identifying these creatures for stock assessment and for understanding biological and behavioral characteristics prompted the National Marine Fisheries Service (NOAA Fisheries) and Rhode Island Sea Grant to produce a 124-page guide that will help users distinguish among 44 high...Mouth microbes may help shape immune system, says Stanford research team
...nd a unique field in which to study how these tiny creatures interact with their hosts. Relman's group has concentrated efforts on the subgingival crevice - the deep gap between the gums and teeth - in their search for microbes. Even though almost 500 bacterial strains or species have been identified in this ...Out-of-balance ecosystems play role in demise of amphibian populations
..., fat and other nutrients that are needed by other creatures higher in the food chain, Beasley said. Amphibians are clearly important players in ecosystem functioning, he added. "The frogs that develop from tadpoles subsequently devour thousands of insects," he said. "The frogs themselves are also important p...University of Colorado archaeologist, colleagues hot on the trail of ancient Persian warships
...s a pile of artifacts collected by these wonderful creatures with an antiquarian's passion for old things." The researchers hypothesize a vessel likely sunk there and landed on a deep shelf, spilling cargo. The site was chosen for the first survey by the team after two local fishermen raised two Greek bronze ...Scientists discover where snakes lived when they evolved into limbless creatures
...t snakes lived as they were evolving into limbless creatures from their lizard ancestors has intrigued scientists for centuries. Now, the first study ever to analyze genes from all the living families of lizards has revealed that snakes made their debut on the land, not in the ocean. The discovery resolves ...Genetic master switch sends bacteria toward 'seafood dinner'
...y of skeletal debris discarded daily by crustacean creatures in the world's oceans. If left undisturbed, this tough insoluble material, a cousin to cellulose, would pile up on the ocean's floor and wreak havoc with marine ecosystems. Fortunately, armies of bacteria act as chitin's cleanup crew, and two Johns H...Avoid bad memories: Targeting genes and drugs
... This property can provide selection advantages to creatures that can learn to avoid fearful situations and improve their chances to survive in a dangerous world. However, the intensification of fearful memories sometimes charges a high toll. Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, for example, can never...Extreme 2003 takes students worldwide to the oceans depth
...rothermal vents nearly two miles deep to study the creatures that inhabit the scalding hot water surrounding the vents. Said Lisa Rom, director of the National Science Foundation (NSF)'s ocean education program, which funded the research, "We are delighted that so many students have taken advantage of the opp...Expedition will retrace legendary Steinbeck-Ricketts voyage to the Sea of Cortez
...pt was made to conduct an accurate census of these creatures or collect much physical data, such as water tempe...ibutes." Our fear and fascination with giant sea creatures is nothing new, of course. As Steinbeck and Ricketts observed 63 years ago in the Sea of Cortez: "Me......ere this animal can reach very high densities. The creatures exude a noxious substance as a byproduct of their metabolic processes, one that prevents fouling of its exterior and discourages predators. The origin of this "squirt" is not known. Photos: http://www.usgs.gov/features/marineinvasives.html . Con...New evidence says Earths greatest extinction caused by ancient meteorite
.... Thus the culprit that wiped out nine of every 10 creatures on the Earth and nearly ended life when it was just taking hold may have been created before the Earth itself was fully formed. Basu and Poreda plan to continue searching for evidence of a catastrophic impact in the P/T layer in different sites aroun...Bush Administration plan to reduce global warming could devastate sea life
...lls and causes coral reefs to dissolve. Deep-sea creatures are even more sensitive to environmental changes, he said. In some species, their metabolism would become suppressed and lead to retarded growth and reproduction, while others would be unable to transport oxygen in their blood. "CO2 injection would...Naked mole-rats bare pain relief clues
...eating chronic pain in humans. The blind, furless creatures that live underground in colonies lack a body chem...possible explanation is that because these curious creatures have had to cope with high levels of carbon dioxide in their crowded underground tunnel colonies -- ...Mantis shrimp fluoresce to enhance signaling in the dim ocean depths
...and squid and mantis shrimp aren't the only marine creatures that fluoresce: bristleworms, anemones and the occasional shrimp and fish also emit light, though probably not as a functional part of behavior. The authors note that "Fluorescent signal enhancements are used by humans as well, both in ambient illumi...Study of primitive life form expected to provide clues to biological processes in higher organisms
...croorganisms provide important clues as to how all creatures employ a basic regulatory mechanism to conduct the business of life. Peter Kennelly, professor of biochemistry at Virginia Tech, is studying a primitive organism discovered in acidic hot springs at Yellowstone National Park to find clues about that m...Scientists believe ancient arachnids may have spun silk like modern spiders
... of tiny bumps called microtubercle rows along the creatures hindmost legs -- could shed light on the early evolution of arachnids, silk use, and life on land. If trigonotarbids did spin silk like a spider, they had the right structures in the right places to do it, said Cary R. Easterday, a masters degree stu...Specialized brain helped ancient reptiles fly and hunt
... brains of the modern birds and the extinct flying creatures bore some similarities, but the pterosaur had a mu...d, visually oriented flying predator, he said. The creatures may have lived over the ocean and hunted fish on the wing to survive. The CT scans of the pterosaur......walrus. This means that our understanding of these creatures is remarkably limited. The scuba-diving researchers from Denmark, Greenland and Sweden went to Northeast Greenland to film male Atlantic walruses while they ate. Walruses eat invertebrate animals that live on the seabed. They are particularly fond of...New research finds garlic kills slugs
... weather. Poison baits can also be toxic to other creatures living in the soil, as well as birds and mammals s...ial. We want to find out how garlic affects other creatures living in the soil, the right concentration to use, how it affects the taste of food once it has bee...Fishing for photos of rare or unknown deep-sea creatures with an electronic jellyfish lure
... the seafloor have relied on bright and, for those creatures accustomed to the darkness of the depths, frightening lights. The Eye in the Sea has been tested alone during brief deployments, and has already captured unusual interactions, such as a primitive hagfish annoying a shark (photo available). Widder now...