Ecology & Zoology

 Marsupials represent approximately 6% of all mammal species and include iconic pouched mammals like the kangaroo, wombat and koala. Compared to eutherian mammals like the dog, cow and human, marsupials have ultra-short pregnancies and give birth to very immature, almost embryonic, young that complete most of their development attached to the teat, usually within a pouch.Even kangaroos, the largest extant marsupials, give birth to a newborn that weighs less than one gram and must climb blind and unaided from the birth canal to the pouch.  Using high-resolution ultrasound, …

CITES today overruled objections from countries like Japan, China and India and listed five species of highly traded sharks under the CITES Appendices, along with both manta rays and one species of sawfish.  Japan, India and Gambia challenged the Committee's desire to list the oceanic whitetip shark, while Grenada and China objected to listing three hammerhead species.  Proponents of the various listing proposals include the USA, the EU, Australia, Brazil, Colombia, Comoros, Costa Rica, Croatia, Ecuador, Egypt, Honduras and Mexico. The shark and ray proposals received more than the…

Pigs are not known for being picky - 'eats like a pig' is not a colloquial metaphor, they are messy and eat everything - but new research shows they avoid bitter tastes when they can. In a new study of nursery pig diets, researchers offered pigs different amounts of soybean meal, napus canola meal and juncea canola meal. They found that pigs ate more soybean meal when given a choice. Of course, they choose to eat everything. They're pigs.  Napus canola meal and juncea canola meal come from rapeseed and mustard greens, respectively. Canola meals are less expensive than soybean meal. If…

Unlike a cryptic phrase, a cryptic species in biology is outwardly indistinguishable - until you look inside their genes. Two University of Michigan marine biologists have identified three cryptic species of tiny clams, long believed to be members of the same species, which have been hiding in plain view along the rocky shores of southern Australia for millions of years. The scientists conducted a genetic analysis after collecting thousands of the crevice-dwelling, rice grain-sized clams from hundreds of miles of southern Australia coastline over the past decade.  "This study provides…

It had been shown that the origin of pumpkins and cucumbers can be traced back to India and a new genetic analysis has updated that data.  Compared to grains and pulses, vegetables are under-investigated taxonomically, and information on their genome is scarce. The cucumber family, Cucurbitaceae, includes many of our favorite foods: pumpkins, melon, cucumber, watermelon, bottle gourds, and bitter gourd. Molecular data have recently revealed that both cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) and melon (Cucumis melo L.) are indigenous to India and likely to have originated from the foothills of the…

In America's modern monolithic science culture, when a desired plan of action is advocated, they call for a 'Manhattan Project of' whatever they are seeking. It's not a great analogy. It reminds people that the last real government science success was 70 years ago and feels rather militant, since the goal of the Manhattan Project was to blow enemies to smithereens. Yet after World War II, America changed from building bombs to use against enemies to building cities for former enemies - in Europe, that was called the Marshall Plan, named after government management whiz G.C. Marshall,…

How did the now extinct Falkland Islands wolf come to be the only land-based mammal there, when they islands are almost 300 miles from Argentina?. Previous hypotheses floated the idea that the wolf somehow rafted on ice or vegetation, crossed via a now-submerged land bridge or was even semi-domesticated and transported by early South American humans. The 320-year-old mystery was first recorded by early British explorers in 1690 and raised again by Charles Darwin following his encounter with the famously tame species on his Beagle voyage in 1834. Researchers from the University's Australian…

Pregnant women have long said that being pregnant changes their foot size - a new confirms that but also found that the size and shape change is permanent. Flat feet are a common problem for pregnant women. The arch of the foot flattens out, possibly due to the extra weight and increased looseness (laxity) of the joints associated with pregnancy. A new paper in the American Journal of Physical Medicine&Rehabilitation suggests that this loss of arch height is permanent. "I had heard women reporting changes in their shoe size with pregnancy, but found nothing about that in medical journals…

Dear Squid of the World, Excuse me. What is this? I have been your friend and advocate for years. No, DECADES. (Two, to be specific.) I have championed your cause to family and friends, students and total strangers. I wore the shirts. I read the books. I even got a PEE AITCH DEE in the science of baby squid. I think I've earned a modicum of consideration. A smidgeon of thoughtfulness. But no. I go on maternity leave to care for my firstborn and what do you do? Everything.  In the three months since my daughter's birth, this is what you've pulled: Humboldt squid stranding. Market squid…

The hypothesis that tomato fruits from organic farming and greater stressing conditions associated with organic farming leads to more nutritional compounds, such as phenolics and vitamin C, recently got tested. The research report on tomatoes (Solanum lycopersicum) obtained from the northeastern part of Brazil compared the weights and biochemical properties of tomatoes from organic and conventional farms. Growing conditions were reported by the farmers. The researchers found that tomatoes grown on organic farms were approximately 40% smaller than those grown by conventional techniques but…