New sucker-footed bat discovered in Madagascar
...rom east to west. Bats are the last group of land mammals on Madagascar that have not been intensively studied, Goodman said. "Until a decade ago, these animals remained largely understudied. On the basis of recent surveys and taxonomic research, about one-third of the island's bat species were unknown to s...'Marathon mice' elucidate little-known muscle type
..."light" amino acid chains. While most muscles in mammals contain a mixture of slow- and fast-twitch fiber types, some muscle beds are enriched for one type or the other, Spiegelman said. However, adult skeletal muscles also contain fibers with an abundance of a fourth MHC, type IIX, about which much less i...How does a zebrafish grow a new tail?
...cause this gene might also inhibit regeneration in mammals and man. So, if we find ways of interfering with the function of Wnt5b, we might be able to promote regeneration." Moon added that, because the same genes for turning on and turning off growth and development are found in humans, and drugs exist tha...Complexity constrains evolution of human brain genes
...idly in humans than in nonhuman primates and other mammals because of natural selection processes unique to the human lineage. The comparative pace of organ-specific evolution, however, turns out to be difficult to measure. To assess the speed with which both humans and chimpanzees accumulated many small d...Genomic variation easier to identify with UCSD/Brown software
...icroinversions in this region in the genomes of 15 mammals from human and chimp to cow and dog to possum and hedgehog and found that these mutations were found in all species and occur frequently. The team then used the results to reconstruct an evolutionary tree showing the relationship between these sp...Antarctic research within the International Polar Year IPY 2007/08
... to gain new insights into communication of marine mammals such as seals and whales. The data will also provide information about the effect of anthropogenic sounds on the behaviour of the animals. A live audio stream of PALAOA can be found on the internet at www.awi.de/acoustics . Diverse life in the co...Contrary to common wisdom, scientist discovers some mammals can smell objects under water
...rbilt researcher has discovered that some stealthy mammals have been doing something heretofore thought impos...a total surprise because the common wisdom is that mammals can't smell underwater,' said Catania, who earlier this year won a $500,000 "genius grant" from the ...Mayo researcher discovers target site for developing mosquito pesticides
...This serine residue is present in both insects and mammals and therefore, any pesticide targeting this amino acid affects both insects and mammals. Acetylcholinesterase is a vital enzyme to both insects and mammals. It breaks down the neurotransmitter acetylcholine, which is a primary neurotransmitter in th...Multinational scientific expedition kicks off International Polar Year 2007-2008
... that document the presence and behavior of marine mammals and seabirds. Scientists will work closely with educators and media to inform the public about ocean research in Antarctic waters and to develop educational materials for use in classrooms worldwide. "This kind of research is a major achievement,...History-hunting geneticists can still follow familiar trail
...publicly available mtDNA datasets of 47 species of mammals -- a subset of the animals that were in the French...t the dogma. This study shows the dogma is safe in mammals and probably in vertebrates, as well."...Sniffers show that humans can track scents, and that two nostrils are better than one
...ion, but part of an experiment to find out whether mammals compare information coming from their two nostrils in order to aid scent-tracking performance, much like they compare information from their ears in order to locate a sound. In a paper appearing this week in the advance online edition of Nature Neu......hat the so-called "land of birds" was once home to mammals as well. The tiny fossilised bones - part of a jaw...f Sciences. "This amazing find suggests that other mammals are waiting to be found there, and that New Zealand belonged to the birds only in more recent times,...Study questions the 'biodiversity hotspot' approach to wildlife conservation
...ts for determining conservation priorities for the mammals of the world." What they discovered is that there is actually very little overlap among the three types of hotspots-those defined by species richness, endemism or threat of extinction. In fact, only 16 percent of mammalian species were common to all...Mutant mouse provides insights into breast cancer
...volution and are evident in archaebacteria, yeast, mammals and more. It is unknown why the impaired Mcm4 genes in the Chaos3 mice led exclusively to breast cancer, Schimenti said. Mcm4 is essential for DNA replication and thus cell growth, according to Schimenti. Partially impaired Mcm4 genes, however, allow...Small, smaller, smallest -- The plight of the vaquita
...as a very good record in helping endangered marine mammals to recover. There are no better examples anywhere in the world than eastern Pacific gray whales and northern elephant seals, both of which came back from low numbers and now represent true conservation success stories. Similar efforts are needed urge...How mammals fuel milk production may have implications for cancer
...ght into the manner in which the mammary glands of mammals meet the incredible metabolic demands of milk production. As the normal pathways of breast development undoubtedly affect breast cancer, the findings may have therapeutic implications, the researchers said. The researchers found that one of three i...Sandia research to focus on early detection of harmful algal blooms
...ellfish, eventually harming or even killing marine mammals and humans that consume tainted shellfish. Sandia to focus on early-warning detection methods The Sandia research will focus on enhancing the early-warning capability of detection and is expected to lay the groundwork for the development of a rel...News tips from the Journal of Neuroscience
...and Anjen Chenn They say that with evolution, us mammals got smarter, thanks to an increase in our cerebral cortex. A clue to the molecules involved in cortical expansion comes from transgenic mice overexpressing -catenin, a component of the Wnt signaling pathway. These mice have enlarged brains with an in...Humpback whales have brain cells also found in humans
Cetaceans, the group of marine mammals that includes whales and dolphins, have demonstrat... dolphins. The large area of cortex found in these mammals is thought to be related to acoustic capabilities and the current study shows that it is organized i...... indeterminate, the authors wrote. Animals such as mammals exhibit determinate growth, in which there is a fi...g that zebrafish reach a growth plateau similar to mammals and hence exhibit determinate growth. The zebrafish exhibited little hyperplastic growth after the j...