Are museum collections of ancient life representative?
...sible," Barbour Wood said. Another finding is that shells in the museum collections are better preserved, she said. "It is an advantage of time. Museums can keep the best examples of specimens for collections gathered over time." However, collections in other institutions would also have to be examined prio...Ancient creature fossilized by the bacteria that ate it
...though they lack the mineral-rich bones, teeth, or shells that are normally required for the process. The... special chemistries at the sites enabled the soft shells to change to rock. With that in mind, he and his colleagues ventured to the Kirkpatri...Linking empires, economics, evolution
...le to sudden disruptions. Vermeij studies the shells of marine animals both living and long extinct. Blind since childhood, he works entirely by touch. His work on how shelled animals evolve to resist predators or attack their prey led him initially to questions about the "arms race" between groups of ...Study in Royal Society journal on first evidence for magnetic field detection in sharks
...morphological diversification. Strikingly stronger shells in the lake species, coupled with the occurence of large crabs with crusher claws, suggest a unique role for coevolution in this new model system for the study of adaptive radiation. In addition, highly diverse radulae (snail rasping organ) in the la...Drilled shells show extinction's lasting effects
...losing shell. The pattern of drill holes in fossil shells can give insight intowhat life in the ocean was li...The researchers looked at thousands of fossil clam shells from beforeand after the extinction and compared them with modern shells.Edge-drilled shells are abu...Holes in fossil shells show effects of competition and evolution
...nn. -- Fossil records of the holes drilled in clam shells before and after a mass extinction two million yea...he lab, under competitive conditions, 37.5% of the shells showed edge drilling, while only 2.6% did in unstressed conditions. Pliocene fossils had edge drilli...Sinking coastlines may precede large subduction zone quakes
... change in the types of microscopic organisms with shells specifically foraminifera and thecamoebians in t...hecamoebians essentially amoebas with microscopic shells deposited by past hurricanes along the Atlantic coast and into the Arctic. He was intrigued, howeve...... the decay of uranium-238 to thorium-238 in oyster shells from a rock layer near the skulls. Fleagle says no scientist has been bold enough to suggest Omo II is anything other than Homo sapiens, and that "quite often at the time of major events in evolution, one finds an increase in morphological [anato...Marine seaweed can detoxify organic pollutants
...e, or TNT, because of unexploded bombs or military shells found in some places around the world's oceans. There is a general concern these shells could potentially corrode. "It's important to know how corals, fisheries and plant life might respo...In the mating game, male wild turkeys benefit even when they don't get the girl
...en captured flightless young, scavenged broken egg shells from abandoned nests or lifted eggs from unattended nests to obtain the DNA of offspring. His study included 126 adult turkeys - 51 males and 75 females - and 325 offspring between 1999 and 2004, though only eight of his marked, resident males father...Hydrogen and methane provide raw energy for life at 'Lost City'
...ntimeter in size and have translucent or invisible shells so it's no wonder we didn't suspect the actual diversity," says Kelley, who was chief scientist on the expedition, which like the 2000 voyage was funded by the National Science Foundation. Other large organisms include crabs, corals and fish. Kelley ...Octopuses occasionally stroll around on two arms, UC Berkeley biologists report
...lots of sunken coconuts, and even hides out in the shells of coconuts, drawing two halves around it to hide. Its weird walking behavior, no doubt noticed by numerous other divers, has apparently never been reported in the scientific literature, she said. "We know so little about these animals," Huffard said...Prehistoric decline of freshwater mussels tied to large-scale maize cultivation
... from prehistoric shell middens -- refuse heaps of shells discarded after eating -- to examine differences in the abundance of Epioblasma species before and after maize cultivation started in the Southeast. They compiled data from both published and unpublished archaeological reports from 27 different sites...Fossils tell the hole story of killer drillers and their prey
...ors at Virginia Tech describe how they used fossil shells of animals called brachiopods to shed light on anc...fish is to look for round holes drilled into their shells by their enemies. The researchers studied more than 40,000 specimens from 18 museums, as well as fie...500 million years of errors: Brachiopod shells record shadow of arms race in ancient oceans
...ever, the rare predation traces left on brachiopod shells by unknown assailants coupled with a subtle increa...ds, as recorded by round drill holes bored in prey shells by some unknown drilling attackers, were rare but widespread and continuously present through the en...Oceans turning to acid from rise in CO2
...n it produces carbonic acid, which is corrosive to shells of marine organisms and can interfere with the oxygen supply. If current trends continue, the scientists believe the acidic water could interrupt the process of shell and coral formation and adversely affect other organisms dependent upon corals and ...Virginia Tech, Nanjing Institute researchers discover half-billion year-old fossils
...r back as 540 million years ago when animals with shells and bones began to become plentiful. But evidence ...t filled with cytoplasm. Ediacara organisms had no shells or bones. How could such soft and delicate organisms be preserved in rocks? Working with Geosciences...VCU research: Magnetic nanoparticles for potential cancer treatment
...e enhanced ferrites, it will be possible to create shells that help protect the metallic core from oxidation in biologically capable media," he said. Enhanced ferrites are a class of ferrites that are specially engineered to have enhanced magnetic or electrical properties and are created through the use of ...Oysters: The natural way to protect our shores
...r habitation, evidenced by the abundance of oyster shells in surrounding waters. Measuring erosion over a year, the authors found that their small, fringing oyster shell reefs were effective in slowing erosion for low wave energy shorelines, though less effective in higher wave energy environments. The a...Breakthrough in micro-device fabrication combines biology and synthetic chemistry
...ganisms that synthesize microscopic nanostructured shells with well-controlled and highly-reproducible 3-D shapes and features currently unattainable by manmade processes. However, the naturally occurring diatom microshells do not have the specific properties needed for device applications, such as electri...