Size matters if you're a rodent
...as been something of a puzzle. The new research in mammals adds to a growing body of evidence that sexual selection competition between males and potentially also choice by females is the driving force responsible. ...Fruit flies may pave way to new treatments for age-related heart disease
...he effects of aging, which is much harder to do in mammals with a relatively long lifespan. "Theres an amazing conservation of genes between flies and humans," Bodmer said. "We can now look at how heart function ages in a realistic timeframe." In addition to first author Ocorr, and contributions from co...A first glimpse of the influenza replication machine
...le in the transmission of avian influenza virus to mammals were located within, or close to, this site of interaction. This suggests that mutations may affect the efficiency of nuclear transport and through this the ability of the virus to replicate in different species. "Interfering with polymerase functi......g hundreds in humans. Moreover, microRNAs found in mammals regulate over a third of the human genome, as show...of a particular microRNA on a particular target in mammals (although such connections have been shown in plants, worms and flies). Several groups have demonstr...New bird, bat species revealed by extensive DNA barcode studies
...ldn't you think we'd have all of the world's 5,500 mammals identified by now? The scientific community has be.... Roughly 1,100 or 20 percent of the world's 5,500 mammals are bats. Adding six new bat species to the 87 surveyed from Guyana is a surprisingly high percent...Computer scientists join in search for ivory-billed woodpecker
...tural scientists observe animals whether birds or mammals in the animals' habitats. Song and Goldberg have developed robots to webcast images of animals from the animals' habitats to natural scientists' computers. In addition to the Cache River National Wildlife Refuge, they've installed one of their r...Neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky will discuss stress, health, Feb. 17 at AAAS meeting
...found that baboons have diseases that other social mammals generally don't have," Sapolsky said. "If you're a...for elephants, whales and other highly intelligent mammals that have complex emotional lives, he added. "The reason baboons are such good models is, like us,...Birth rate, competition are major players in hominid extinctions
... game, but switched to also fishing, snaring small mammals like rabbits and capturing turtles and birds. "Rather than being a specialized large mammal predator, modern humans would eat anything they could get their hands on. They eked out a living even if it meant eating grasshoppers or whatever," says Jab...Old dinosaur research leads to new honor
...gs of major evolutionary events to that time when mammals and reptiles and birds were just becoming separate from each other. It was an exciting time in history, about 270 million years ago it was between ice ages, just like the time we are living in now and I think my work has led to a greater understand...Antarctic warming to reduce animals at base of ecosystem, shift some penguin populations southward
...the loss of krill will reduce resources for higher mammals and birds. Data gained through the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) site near the American Palmer Station suggests that the ecosystem's response to warming in the region includes changes in both the krill's abundance and availability. "The ...Stem cells determine their daughters' fate
...he, as other types of stem cells in Drosophila and mammals do. Understanding such a niche could have huge implications for the study of certain kinds of cancer, including those of the brain and intestine. Future studies of ISCs might also reveal how the mammalian intestine responds to nutrition, stress, an...DNA gives new perspectives to understand the mysteries of nature
... the extinction of the mammoth while other ice age mammals like the musk ox just barely survived to present day. A new scientific methodological approach to detect genetic material will help researchers to solve the many mysteries of the past. "Im confident that the new methodological approach, will be of......ndividuals in a variety of species, including some mammals like rats and sheep. In this study the fish were kept in separate tanks so while they could see members of the opposite sex through the glass, they could not use other senses to respond to one another. Dr Walling continues: 'It's well established t...Good for the goose, not so great for the gander
... That tendency holds true in humans and many other mammals as well as in the much-studied fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. In genetic studies of Drosophila, Tower and his team have shown that genes known to increase longevity always affect male and female flies differently. "For a long time, we only ...Male sweat boosts women's hormone levels
...liminal or instinctual way similar to the way many mammals and even insects respond to pheromones, Wyart said. Though some humans exhibit a small patch inside their nose resembling the vomeronasal organ in rats that detects pheromones, it appears to be vestigial, with no nerve connection to the brain. "Phe...Scientists discover new species of distinctive cloud-forest rodent
... Andean tree line, Manu is home to more species of mammals and birds than any equivalently sized area in the world. "Like other tropical mountain ranges, such as the Himalayas, Ruwenzoris, Virungas and Kinabalu, the Andes support a fantastic variety of habitats," said Bruce Patterson, MacArthur Curator of M...Paleontologists discover most primitive primate skeleton
... evidence that plesiadapiforms, a group of archaic mammals once thought to be more closely related to flying lemurs, are the most primitive primates. The team analyzed 173 characteristics of modern primates, tree shrews, flying lemurs with plesiadapiform skeletons to determine their evolutionary relationship...Bats in flight reveal unexpected aerodynamics
... work in bats and point to the highly maneuverable mammals as a model for tiny flying machines. Breuer, a pr...ype animals," says Swartz. "Gliding has evolved in mammals seven times. That tells us that it's really easy for an animal with skin to evolve into a glider, bu...Big vegetarian mammals can play a critical role in maintaining healthy ecosystems, study finds
Removing large herbivorous mammals from the African savanna can cause a dramatic shif...de cattle, elephants, zebras and other herbivorous mammals from experimental plots on a ranch in central Kenya from May 2004 to December 2005. During that time......nivores are some of the widest ranging terrestrial mammals for their size, and this affects their energy intake and needs. This difference is also played out in the different hunting strategies of small and large carnivores. Smaller species less than 15-20 kg in weight specialize on very small vertebrates an...