The Biology, Agriculture, and Paleontology thread

Deep-sea shrimp’s eyes have 12 retinas: "In the deep sea, where light is dim and blue, animals with bigger eyes see better—but bigger eyes are more conspicuous to predators. In response, the small (10 mm to 17 mm), transparent crustacean Paraphronima gracilis has evolved a unique eye structure. Researchers collected the animals from 200- to 500-meter deep waters in California’s Monterey Bay using a remote-operated vehicle. They then characterized the pair of compound eyes, discovering that each one was composed of a single row of 12 distinct red retinas."

Preserved fossil represents oldest record of parental care in group of prehistoric reptiles: "New research details how a preserved fossil found in China could be the oldest record of post-natal parental care from the Middle Jurassic. The specimen, found by a farmer in China, is of an apparent family group with an adult, surrounded by six juveniles of the same species. Given that the smaller individuals are of similar sizes, the group interpreted this as indicating an adult with its offspring, apparently from the same clutch."

Fossil ankles indicate Earth's earliest primates lived in trees: "Earth's earliest primates have taken a step up in the world, now that researchers have gotten a good look at their ankles. A new study has found that Purgatorius, a small mammal that lived on a diet of fruit and insects, was a tree dweller. Paleontologists made the discovery by analyzing 65-million-year-old ankle bones collected from sites in northeastern Montana."

Predatory sea snails produce weaponized insulin: "As predators go, cone snails are slow-moving and lack the typical fighting parts. They've made up for it by producing a vast array of fast-acting toxins that target the nervous systems of prey. A new study reveals that some cone snails add a weaponized form of insulin to the venom cocktail they use to disable fish.

'It is very unlikely that it is serving a different purpose,' said lead author Helena Safavi-Hemami, a research assistant professor at the University of Utah.

'This is a unique type of insulin. It is shorter than any insulin that has been described in any animal,' said senior author Baldomero M. Olivera, a distinguished professor of biology at the University of Utah. 'We found it in the venom in large amounts.'

A synthetic form of the snail insulin, when injected into zebrafish, caused blood glucose levels to plummet. The insulin also disrupted swimming behavior in fish exposed through water contact, as measured by the percentage of time spent swimming and frequency of movements. The researchers propose that adding insulin to the mix of venom toxins enabled predatory cone snails to disable entire schools of swimming fish with hypoglycemic shock. The study appears in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences."

Silk-weaving ant study sees new behavior: "A professor's study of silk-weaving ants is promising to change our understanding of how all creatures work together. The study on the behaviour of the ants found the insects could evolve and abandon and then re-evolve the practice of building nests from silk, with different species adapting it in different ways once it was re-adopted."

Kennewick Man's DNA likely that of a Native: "Nearly two decades after the ancient skeleton called Kennewick Man was discovered on the banks of the Columbia River, the mystery of his origins appears to be nearing resolution. Genetic analysis is still underway in Denmark, but documents obtained through the federal Freedom of Information Act say preliminary results point to a Native American heritage.

The researchers performing the DNA analysis 'feel that Kennewick has normal, standard Native-American genetics,' according to a 2013 email to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for the care and management of the bones. 'At present there is no indication he has a different origin than North American Native American.'"

Sick honeybees may be nursed by doctors: "They are among the most industrious creatures on the planet, but honeybees still struggle when they’re ill. Once a disease takes hold inside a hive, the bees can become sluggish and disorientated, and many may die.

Now it seems honeybees may have a way of helping to keep their workforce healthy - by employing bees that feed 'medicinal honey' to other members of the hive.

A group of worker bees called 'nurse bees', if they are infected with a parasite, selectively eat honey that has a high antibiotic activity, according to Silvio Erler of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Halle, Germany and his colleagues."

Synthetic amino acid enables safe, new biotechnology solutions to global problems: "Scientists have devised a way to ensure genetically modified organisms can be safely confined in the environment, overcoming a major obstacle to widespread use of GM Os in agriculture, energy production, waste management, and medicine."

Doubt cast on global firestorm generated by dino-killing asteroid: "Pioneering new research has debunked the theory that the asteroid that is thought to have led to the extinction of dinosaurs also caused vast global firestorms that ravaged planet Earth. Scientists recreated the immense energy released from an extra-terrestrial collision with Earth that occurred around the time that dinosaurs became extinct. They found that the intense but short-lived heat near the impact site could not have ignited live plants, challenging the idea that the impact led to global firestorms."

Is this a new species of human?: "They're not quite Neanderthals and not quite modern humans. They're something else, but no one is sure what.

Newly-examined fossils suggest that an unknown species of human was roaming parts of northern China between 60,000 and 120,000 years ago. Alternatively, the fossils could be the result of interbreeding between two of the known species.

We know there were as many as four other early humans living on Earth when modern humans were still confined to Africa. The Neanderthals lived in Europe, the Denisovans in Asia and the "hobbit" Homo floresiensis in Indonesia: plus there was a mysterious fourth group from Eurasia that interbred with the Denisovans.

The new findings suggest the picture is even more complicated."

Early human ancestors used their hands like modern humans: "New research suggests pre-Homo human ancestral species, such as Australopithecus africanus, used human-like hand postures much earlier than was previously thought. The distinctly human ability for forceful precision (e.g. when turning a key) and power "squeeze" gripping (e.g. when using a hammer) is linked to two key evolutionary transitions in hand use: a reduction in arboreal climbing and the manufacture and use of stone tools. However, it is unclear when these locomotory and manipulative transitions occurred."

Reducing Myc gene activity extends healthy lifespan in mice: "Mice with one rather than the normal two copies of the gene Myc (also found in humans) lived 15 percent longer and had considerably healthier lives than normal mice, according to a new Brown University-led study in Cell."

New tattoos discovered on Oetzi!: All of the skin marks on the mummy mapped: "With the aid of a non-invasive photographic technique, researchers at the EURAC-Institute for Mummies and the Iceman have been able to show up all the tattoos on the man who was found preserved in a glacier, and in the process have stumbled upon a previously unknown tattoo on his ribcage. This tattoo is very difficult to make out with the naked eye because his skin has darkened so much over time. The latest sophisticated photographic technology has now enabled tattoos in deeper skin layers to be identified as well."

Bioengineers develop tool for reprogramming genetic code: "Biology relies upon the precise activation of specific genes to work properly. If that sequence gets out of whack, or one gene turns on only partially, the outcome can often lead to a disease.

Now, bioengineers at Stanford and other universities have developed a sort of programmable genetic code that allows them to preferentially activate or deactivate genes in living cells. The work is published in the current issue of Cell, and could help usher in a new generation of gene therapies."

The world's oldest known snake fossils: Rolling back the clock by nearly 70 million years: "Fossilized remains of four ancient snakes have been dated between 140 and 167 million years old — nearly 70 million years older than the previous record of ancient snake fossils — and are changing the way we think about the origins of snakes."

Spider electro-combs its sticky nano-filaments: "A spider commonly found in garden centres in Britain is giving fresh insights into how to spin incredibly long and strong fibres just a few nanometres thick.

The majority of spiders spin silk threads several micrometres thick but unusually the 'garden centre spider' or 'feather-legged lace weaver'1 Uloborus plumipes can spin nano-scale filaments. Now an Oxford University team think they are closer to understanding how this is done. Their findings could lead to technologies that would enable the commercial spinning of nano-scale filaments."

I'm really, really excited for biotechnology, it seems like we'll be able to cure almost anything with it!

Supercomputing the evolution of a model flower: "Scientists using supercomputers found genes sensitive to cold and drought in a plant help it survive climate change. These findings increase basic understanding of plant adaptation and can be applied to improve crops.

The computational biology study on the flowering mustard weed Arabidopsis thaliana appeared in the journal Molecular Biology Evolution in September 2014. The iPlant Collaborative and the supercomputers Stampede, Lonestar and Ranger of the Texas Advanced Computing Center aided in the research. Study funding came from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the U.S. Department of Agriculture."

Blind beetles show extraordinary signs of sight: "Researchers have made a surprising discovery in the aquifers beneath the Western Australian desert, which challenges the traditional Darwinian view of evolution. They have discovered that a species of blind predatory water beetles — living underground for millions of years — express vision genes (opsin) which are usually only found in species with eyes."

Anthropology: Ancient skull from Galilee cave offers clues to the first modern Europeans: "The discovery of a 55,000-year-old partial skull in Northern Israel provides new insights into the migration of modern humans out of Africa. A key event in human evolution was the expansion of modern humans of African origin across Eurasia, replacing all other forms of hominin (humans and their predecessors), around 40,000-60,000 years ago. However, due to the scarcity of human fossils from this period, these ancestors of all present-day non-African modern populations have largely remained a mystery. Now, researchers describe a partial skull that dates to around 55,000, which was found at Manot Cave in Israel's Western Galilee."

Ancient human jawbone surfaces off coast of Taiwan: "A fisherman who pulled in his nets 25 kilometers off the coast of Taiwan got a surprising catch: the lower jawbone of an ancient human. The bone (pictured)—dredged from a watery grave in the Penghu Channel—is robust and sports unusually large molars and premolars, suggesting that it once belonged to an archaic member of our genus Homo, according to a report published online today in Nature Communications. The Penghu jaw and teeth most closely resemble a partial skull of H. erectus from Longtan Cave in Hexian on the mainland of China, as well as earlier H. erectus fossils."

Researchers find evolutionary reasons for homosexual behavior in beetles: "A small team of researchers with the University of Ulm's Institute of Experimental Ecology in Germany has found an evolutionary explanation for same-sex sexual behavior (SSB) in burying beetles. In their paper published in the journal Biology Letters, the team describes how they tested what is known as Reeve's acceptance threshold theory in male beetles and found that the evolutionary cost of possibly rejecting females was overridden when there were few of them to choose from.

Reeve's acceptance threshold theory suggests that when gender recognition is prone to errors, the likelihood for greater acceptance goes up when there are fewer members of one gender or the other. Put another way, if a male burying beetle has difficulty determining if another beetle is male or female (which is does because gender identification with such beetles is difficult to determine) and if it is clear that there are few females around, than the males become less discriminating and will attempt to mate with whatever female or male beetle they find—because it increases the likelihood of passing on their genes (with male/female copulation, of course)."

Ancient 'genomic parasites' spurred evolution of pregnancy in mammals: "Large-scale genetic changes that marked the evolution of pregnancy in mammals have been identified by an international team of scientists. They found thousands of genes that evolved to be expressed in the uterus in early mammals. Surprisingly, these genes appear to have been recruited from other tissue types by transposons — ancient mobile genetic elements sometimes thought of as genomic parasites. The study sheds light on how organisms evolve new morphological structures and functions."

Newly Discovered Dinosaur Had Neck Half The Length Of Its Body: "A team of paleontologists from the University of Alberta has discovered a previously unknown species of long-necked, or sauropod, dinosaur from a skeleton unearthed in China almost a decade ago. The species has been named Qijanglong, which means 'dragon of Qijang.'

The fossil was first discovered back in 2006 when a group of construction workers digging near Qijang City, southern China, came across an impressive series of large bones buried within the ground. Further excavation revealed that the bones were the neck vertebrae of an extremely long-necked dinosaur which, remarkably, still had the head attached. It’s unusual to find both the head and neck of dinosaurs such as these because the tiny heads easily separate after the animal dies."

When attacked, some scorpions discard their stinger—and their anus: "Any kid knows that if you grab a lizard by its tail, it can snap off the tip and run away. Now it turns out some scorpions can pull the same stunt, sacrificing not only their stingers but also their ability to poop. Researchers have discovered 14 species of Ananteris scorpions in the northern jungles of South America that break off their tails to avoid capture. The discarded stingers writhe and wriggle on the ground, possibly to distract predators as the owner makes its escape. Back in the lab, researchers grabbed scorpions’ stingers with forceps and found that the armored arachnids actively tore off their own tails when they felt the pinch (see video). Surviving scorpions’ stumps healed within days, researchers found, but their tails, which contain the anus and part of the digestive system, did not grow back."

... What's the point of discarding part of your body to escape a predator if you also sacrifice your ability to excrete bodily waste, and thus doom yourself to certain death within days at most?

Evolution sometimes displays the forward planning capacity of a cross-eyed donkey.

If they still have their reproductive system, it wouldn't matter that much evolutionary. How long do scorpions live and how long do they need to find a partner?

It depends, some live for only a few years while others can live for decades.

Sucessful poison dart frog dads die young: "Having lots of offspring is linked to a shorter lifespan for both males and females in the colourful strawberry poison frog, a study has shown.

Scientists confirmed that raising large numbers of young reduced longevity in female frogs, but were surprised to discover that males may also pay a high price for having many offspring.

The findings suggest male frogs might work harder to look after their young than previously thought."

One additional advantage of escaping a predator I just thought of is that your predator will only get to eat your tail. Provided the scorpion corpse is later consumed by non-predatory scavengers, they effectively starve their natural enemies.

Bowhunting may have fostered social cohesion during the Neolithic: "Bowhunting during the Neolithic period may have been one of the pillars of unity as a group of primitive human societies. This is one of the main conclusions reached by a team of Spanish archaeologists that has analyzed the Neolithic bows found in the site of La Draga (Girona, Spain)."

Why is a dolphin not a cat? Repurposing non-coding elements in genome gave rise to great 'mammalian radiation': "A study of gene regulation in 20 mammals provides new insights into how species diverged millions of years ago. The findings demonstrate how methods and tools for genetic analysis of humans and mice can be adapted to study non-model species, such as whales and Tasmanian devils."

Picking up on the smell of evolution: Researchers discover changes that let a species drastically change its lifestyle: "Some of the changes in genes, physiology and behavior that enable a species to drastically change its lifestyle in the course of evolution have been discovered by researchers."

Friend, foe or queen? Study highlights the complexities of ant perception: "Researchers report that trap-jaw ants recognize the unique odor of a fertile queen only if the queen also shares the workers' own chemical cologne — a distinctive blend of dozens of smelly, waxy compounds that coat the ants' bodies from head to tarsus. The discovery offers new insights into how social animals evolved and communicate with others in their group, the researchers say."

A bit of altruism makes V-shaped flocks of birds possible

Scientists discover organism that hasn't evolved in more than 2 billion years: "The greatest absence of evolution ever reported has been discovered by an international group of scientists: a type of deep-sea microorganism that appears not to have evolved over more than 2 billion years. But the researchers say that the organisms' lack of evolution actually supports Charles Darwin's theory of evolution."

Rare goblin shark caught in Australian trawl net: ‘Living fossil’ species dates back 125 million years and is typically found in depths of 3,000 to 4,000 feet; this juvenile was taken at 2,000 feet.