The Biology, Agriculture, and Paleontology thread

Given that they're traceable as having been here right back to the Cambian... does it matter if bits of them came from Mars or wherever?

They're our little aliens.

Exactly!

Is there a term for genetically modifying an organism to introduce a new trait by reorganizing endogenous genetic material to simulate the structure of a foreign gene, rather than directly transplanting the foreign gene from a second organism that already has it?

edited 28th Nov '15 11:15:30 AM by MarqFJA

None, because it's a very sub-par way of going about it.

OK, so... Modern typical genetic engineering involves "manufacturing" the genes to be transplanted in modified bacteria, right? At least, that's what I got from a quick look at Wikipedia.

Extinction is key to terrestrial vertebrate diversity, new research reveals: "Periods of high extinction on Earth, rather than evolutionary adaptations, may have been a key driver in the diversification of amniotes (today's dominant land vertebrates, including reptiles, birds, and mammals), according to new research."

Sword and dagger arachnid fights may explain weapon evolution: "Choose your weapon… now fight! Harvestmen are the first animals found to have different types of weapon in a single species. Setting up fights between them could help explain why the weird and wonderful world of animal weaponry got so diverse."

Accidental discovery of how to stay young for longer works in worms: "In a new study, researchers administered an antidepressant called mianserin to Caenorhabditis elegans, a type of roundworm used frequently in research. In 2007, they discovered that the drug increases the lifespan of roundworms by 30-40 per cent. Their new goal was to investigate how."

First direct evidence for synaptic plasticity in fruit fly brain: "Scientists have resolved a decades-long debate about how the brain is modified when an animal learns. Using newly developed tools for manipulating specific populations of neurons, the researchers have for the first time observed direct evidence of synaptic plasticity — changes in the strength of connections between neurons — in the fruit fly brain while flies are learning."

Genetically modified mice reveal the secret to a painless life: "People born with a rare genetic mutation are unable to feel pain, but previous attempts to recreate this effect with drugs have had surprisingly little success. Using mice modified to carry the same mutation, researchers have now discovered the recipe for painlessness."

New way to make yeast hybrids may inspire new brews, biofuels: "Thanks to a new method for making interspecies yeast hybrids in the lab, the makers of beer, wine, biofuels and other products that depend on yeasts may soon have many more strains of the microorganism to work with."

First finding of crossbreeding between dogs and golden jackal confirmed: "A team of researchers with members from institutions in Croatia and Italy has confirmed the first known finding of crossbreeding between domesticated dogs and golden jackals. In their paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the researchers describe how the offspring of the bred pair were found, how they confirmed the crossbreeding and what it implies for crossbreeding between wild canines and domestic dogs heading into the future.

Biologists have seen instances of crossbreeding in other canine species with dogs before, e.g. dogs and coyotes and/or wolves. But never before has anyone seen, or at least reported, an example of a domestic dog mating and reproducing with a golden jackal, a native of Croatia. In this new effort, the researchers report that a group of hunters brought the dead samples, which they initially thought were jackals, to the attention of the researchers after noting some dog characteristics—hunting jackals in Croatia is legal because the small wolf-looking canines sometimes kill livestock. The animal carcasses were taken to a lab where tissue samples were taken and subsequently underwent chromosomal, DNA and other testing. The analysis confirmed that the dead animals were all offspring of female jackals and male domestic dogs, which make them the first known instances of such crossbreeding."

The scientific article this was based on actually mentions that they were all fertile, and two were backcrosses to jackal and dog respectively. (There's also pics.)

Fossil of dog-sized horned dinosaur shows east-west divide in America: "A scientist has uncovered the fossil of a dog-sized horned dinosaur that roamed eastern North America up to 100 million years ago.

The fragment of jaw bone provides evidence of an east-west divide in the evolution of dinosaurs on the North American continent.

During the Late Cretaceous period, 66 to 100m years ago, the land mass was split into two continents by a shallow sea – the Western Interior Seaway – which ran from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic Ocean.

Dinosaurs living in the western continent, called Laramidia, were similar to those found in Asia. However, few fossils from the eastern 'lost continent' of Appalachia have been discovered as dense vegetation has made it difficult to find and excavate fossils.

Dr Nick Longrich, from the Milner Centre for Evolution at the University of Bath in the UK, studied one of these rare fossils kept in the Peabody Museum at Yale University. It turned out to be from a member of the horned dinosaurs, the Ceratopsia."

The Amazing Adaptable Whitetail Deer

It's kinda old, but I found it interesting.

edited 7th Dec '15 2:38:38 AM by rmctagg09

Mammal diversity exploded immediately after dinosaur extinction: "The diversity of mammals on Earth exploded straight after the dinosaur extinction event, according to new research. New analysis of the fossil record shows that placental mammals, the group that today includes nearly 5,000 species including humans, became more varied in anatomy during the Paleocene epoch — the 10 million years immediately following the event."

Crows caught on camera fashioning special hook tools: "Scientists have been given an extraordinary glimpse into how wild New Caledonian crows make and use 'hooked stick tools' to hunt for insect prey. Biologists have captured first recordings documenting how these tropical corvids fashion these particularly complex tools in the wild."

Arms race between Ebola virus and bats, waged for millions of years: "Ebola virus and bats have been waging a molecular battle for survival that may have started 25 million years ago, according to a new study. The findings shed light on the biological factors that determine which bat species may harbor the virus between outbreaks in humans and how bats may transmit the virus to people."

Wild bee decline threatens US crop production: "The first national study to map US wild bees suggests they're disappearing in many of the country's most important farmlands. If losses of these pollinators continue, the new nationwide assessment indicates that farmers will face increasing costs — and that the problem may even destabilize the nation's crop production."

Does anyone know what tree species that is native to Japan is the largest?

The Japanese cedar.

Scientists just discovered a weird new shark that glows in the dark: "Say hello to the ninja lanternshark, a species of shark that has only just been discovered. It's really weird. It hides in the deep - and its black skin keeps it camouflaged - but it also glows in the dark.

The ninja lanternshark was discovered by a team at the Pacific Shark Research Centre, in Moss Landing, California. Its official Latin name is Etmopterus benchleyi, after Jaws author Peter Benchley."

'Pre-historic' animal shell found in Argentina: "A passer-by on Christmas Day found a meter-long shell on a riverbank in Argentina which may be from a glyptodont, a prehistoric kind of giant armadillo, experts said Tuesday."

Technically glyptodonts weren't armadillos but I digress.

Technically they seem to be, most recent studies find Glyptodontoidea nested within Euphractinae, so they are true armadillos.

Billet et al., 2011; Gaudin & Wible, 2006

(I was blown out when a mate working on xenarthans shared that)

Social behavior in carpenter ants reprogrammed using epigenetic drugs: "In Florida carpenter ant colonies, distinct worker castes called minors and majors exhibit pronounced differences in social behavior throughout their lives. In a new study, a multi-institution team found that these caste-specific behaviors are not set in stone. Rather, this pioneering study shows that social behavior can be reprogrammed, indicating that an individual's epigenetic, not genetic, makeup determines behavior in ant colonies."

Tweak in gene expression may have helped humans walk upright: "Researchers have identified a change in gene expression between humans and primates that may have helped give us this edge when it comes to walking upright. And they did it by studying a tiny fish called the threespine stickleback that has evolved radically different skeletal structures to match environments around the world."

Given that Agriculture is in this thread's title, and my question will be related, I'll ask this here. Can you grow like say, five acres, when utilizing hydroponics?

One, five acres of what would seem to be relevant. Some crops need more water than others.

Also by hydroponics I assume you mean irrigation systems? Because hydroponics refers to something rather specific and is a relatively recent invention in the history of agriculture.

Which returns to the question of what you're trying to grow. And where you're trying to grow. A wetter environment, at least at the right point in the growing season) could hypothetically get away with nothing but ambient rain for all their nutritionally needs.

Tubers like potatoes and carrots. And as to where, a Colony Ship with facilities for self-sustaining.

First evidence for independent 'working memory' systems in animals: "A new study is the first to confirm that animals possess multiple 'working memory' systems, or the ability to remember more information across two categories versus a single category. The paper is the first to confirm that a key aspect of human memory impaired in memory disorders exists in the type of pre-clinical animal models that influence major decisions about drug development."

My understanding of hydroponics is that mostly, you need resources and room. If you have that, I don't see anything stopping you from doing that. Hard to predict yield, of course.

Is it possible — no matter how remote/infinitesimal the chance is — for convergent evolution to result in two species who, despite their phylogenetic lineages being only very distantly related, are so similar to each other that one could expect them to be part of the same family/genus?

edited 22nd Jan '16 6:56:47 AM by MarqFJA

Convergent evolution is intriguing...◊

The rest of the body is quite distinct tho, but the cranium is almost the same; you need to look at the dentition (the thylacine has more incissors and lacks carnasials) and the holes in the palate to know which one is a marsupial.

Rare dinosaur from Appalachia identified: "Researchers have identified and named a new species of dinosaur that is the most complete, primitive duck-billed dinosaur to ever be discovered in the eastern United States.This new discovery also shows that duck-billed dinosaurs originated in the eastern United States, what was then broadly referred to as Appalachia, before dispersing to other parts of the world."

Animals with larger brains are best problem solvers, study shows: "Despite decades of research, the idea that relative brain size predicts cognitive abilities remains highly controversial, because there is still little experimental evidence to support it. However, a new paper describes a massive experiment that supports the theory."

Honeybees, ants may provide clues to suicide in humans: "Researchers have been examining scientific knowledge and drawing parallels between suicide in humans and the self-sacrificial behaviors of colony-like — or eusocial — species such as shrimp, mole rats and insects."

What a moth's nose knows: "Moths sniff out others of their own species using specific pheromone blends. So if you transplant an antenna — the nose, essentially — from one species to another, which blend of pheromones does the moth respond to? The donor species', or the recipients'? The answer is neither."

Males can drive creation of new species, new finding shows: "Evolutionary biologists often debate on whether sexual selection can lead to new species. Most studies have focused on natural selection or, for the few studies that considered sexual selection, on how picky females select mates and drive evolution. Researchers, with the help of some stickleback fish, have shown that intense competition among males most definitely has a big say in creating new species."

Interesting. That said, the reason I ask this question is that I had this following scenario in one of my story ideas:

All on Earth is the result of a Panspermia operation by Sufficiently Advanced Alien Precursors, which involves a Progenitor entity creating the "primordial soup" from which all life originates, and then covertly guiding the evolution of the emergent lifeforms over the aeons through its vast quasi-supernatural powers. (Think Neon Genesis Evangelion's Seeds of Life.)

Skip to several hundred million years before modern history. Earth is a thriving planet, home to a technologically and magically hyperadvanced civilization built by a sapient species that is biologically nigh-indistinguishable from Homo sapiens (they can interbreed with H. sapiens, for one). Disaster strikes, however, when an Eldritch Abomination orchestrates the destruction of that civilization, as well as makes sure that no trace of the civilization's existence is left (no ruins, no technology, even the land itself is twisted and warped to make it look like it was never touched by living beings). The end result sees the planet eradicated of all forms of life (all survivors of the aforementioned proto-human species escaped to a Pocket Dimension), forcing the aforementioned Progenitor to restart the life-creation process all over again.

Skip to the modern 21st century, when H. sapiens makes its first contact with the descendants of the proto-human survivors, and find that both species are biologically nigh-identical despite a vast gulf in taxonomic relation.

So... Would the proto-humans be classified as a wholly separate species? (tentative binomial name: Proteranthropus archegonus, lit. "primordial first human")

edited 29th Jan '16 1:14:26 PM by MarqFJA

If animals with larger relative brain sizes are better problem solvers, why haven't sparrows and finches developed civilizations, and why are crocodilians, elephants and orcas (and humans to a lesser extent) not incredibly stupid?