Podcasts about Biology Letters

Analysis of over 70 spider venoms finds potency depends on a spider's diet Photo Credit: Andrew Downes, Xposure, A salmon pink tarantula Embargoed until 0001hrs Wednesday May 21, 2025: A new study by researchers at the University of Galway's School of Natural Sciences has revealed why some spiders possess venom that is far more potent than others. Why are some spiders are more venomous than others? By analysing the venoms of more than 70 different spider species, the team explored whether factors such as body size, prey type, and hunting method, including the use of webs, could explain the wide variation in venom strength. The research was published today in the journal Biology Letters. While spiders are infamous for the widespread arachnophobia they induce for a multitude of reasons, including erratic movements, eight spindly legs, sticky webs, and most notably, their venomous bites, the actual effects can vary dramatically depending on the species. For instance, a bite from the Brazilian wandering spider can result in serious medical complications, whereas the venom of a giant house spider typically poses no threat to humans, raising the question, what drives such differences in venom potency? The researchers discovered that diet is one of the most important drivers influencing the potency of spider venom. They found that spider venoms are what is called prey-specific, meaning if a spider primarily hunts insects, its venom is likely to be particularly effective at killing insects in general, such as crickets and flies, but far less effective against other non-insect prey, like small mammals. Lead author Dr Keith Lyons from University of Galway's School of Natural Sciences, said: "Our results show that spider venoms have evolved to be especially potent when tested on animals found in their diet in the wild. This may explain why species that are known to occasionally prey upon small mammals, such as the Brazilian wandering spider or Black widow, have venoms that can cause medically significant effects in us humans, whereas species that only prey on invertebrates, such as the Giant house spider, have evolved venoms that target invertebrate physiologies rather than our own, posing little threat to us." The researchers also tested whether the use of webs to capture prey was related to the potency or volume of a spider's venom. Dr Kevin Healy, Senior author and Head of the Macroecology lab at the University's School of Natural Sciences, said: "We predicted that web-hunting spiders might have less potent venoms because they may have evolved to rely more on their webs to immobilise prey. Surprisingly, we found no relationship between whether a spider used their web and the potency of their venom, suggesting that webs are likely important for restraining prey in web-hunters, regardless of how deadly their venom is. "This study helps us to understand the evolution of spider venoms and aids in our understanding of why some spiders, such as the Noble False widow become invasive species in some parts of the world, or how some venoms may be of particular interest for future drug discovery, or the development of pest species-specific, pollinator-friendly insecticides." Dr Michel Dugon, Head of the Venom Systems Lab, Ryan Institute, University of Galway, said: "By understanding the fundamental drivers of venom evolution we can better predict the types of biomolecules in spider venoms that have yet to be explored for drug discovery and why some species of spiders are more likely to become invasive species." About University of Galway Established in 1845, University of Galway is one of the top 2% of universities in the world. We are a bilingual university, comprised of four colleges, 18 schools and five research institutes, with more than 19,700 students, including around 3,000 international students. We have been accredited with an Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award, and 12 out of our 18 schools hold individual Athena SWAN Awards. We ...

Day geckos and certain plants share a long evolutionary history, with day geckos feasting on nectar and in return pollinating plants. A study from back in the mid 2000s proved this neatly, and we delve into it this episode. After that, we have a snake eating somebody's underwear, and a very novel new method for controlling invasive cane toads in Australia. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Hansen DM, Beer K, Müller CB. 2006. Mauritian coloured nectar no longer a mystery: a visual signal for lizard pollinators. Biology Letters 2:165–168. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0458. Other Links/Mentions: Brann M. 2025. Woman finds python eating her bra and shirt for breakfast. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-02-25/cattle-producer-finds-python-eating-bra-and-shirt/104976022 de Kruijff P. 2025. Cannibal cane toad tadpoles that never grow up could help toad control. ABC News. https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2025-04-08/cane-toad-created-that-never-grows-up-and-eats-its-siblings/105100286 Editing and Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com Intro visuals – Paul Snelling

The ‘bone collector' caterpillar covers itself with body partsIt's like something from a horror movie. A creeping, carnivorous creature that in a macabre attempt at disguise and protection, covers itself with the dismembered remains of dead insects. This super-rare caterpillar is one of the strangest insects in the world. It lives on spider webs inside of trees and rock crevices in a 15 square kilometre radius on the Hawaiian island of O'ahu. Daniel Rubinoff, from the University of Hawaii Insect Museum, found about 62 of these caterpillars over the past 20 years. Their research was published in the journal Science. If a dolphin pees in the water, does anybody know it?Researchers observing river dolphins in Brazil were first surprised to see the animals turning on their backs and urinating into the air, and then further amazed to see other dolphins sampling the falling stream. The Canadian and Brazilian team, led by Claryana Araújo-Wang from the CetAsia Research Group, believe this aerial urination may be a way to communicate dominance among males. The research was published in the journal Behavioural Processes.How the snowball Earth made life bloom on our planet700 million years ago our planet was frozen from pole to pole during a period known as snowball Earth. Glaciers at that time scoured deep into the continents below like a giant bulldozer, grinding the rock into fine sediments. In a new study in the journal Geology, scientists found that as the glaciers melted, a lot of that loose material was injected very rapidly into the oceans. Branden Murphy, from St. Francis Xavier University, said this chemical cocktail fertilized the oceans, and set the stage for rise of multicellular complex life on Earth.  How a team of microbiologists use cars to sample air across the countryUnderstanding the distribution of bacteria that might be a concern for human or animal health across an entire country is a huge job. But a team from Laval used a very clever shortcut to gather their data. They collected car air filters from vehicles across the nation, and looked in them to see what they sucked up. They found regional differences in the antimicrobial resistance genes specific to the agricultural activities and environmental factors at each location. Paul George, from Laval University, was the lead researcher on the study published in the journal Environmental DNA.Albertan obsidian artifacts are the end point of a widespread Indigenous trade networkObsidian — volcanic glass used to make super-sharp tools — is found as artifacts from chips to blades to arrowheads at hundreds of sites across the Rockies of Alberta and B.C., dating back thousands of years. However, there are no volcanos in the area so archaeologists are using this volcanic glass to chart Indigenous trade routes through North America. New research, led by Timothy Allan of Ember Archeology, has traced the obsidian's point of origin to a site nearly 1,000 kilometres away, suggesting the material travelled over long distances and passed through many hands. The research was published in the Journal of Field Archaeology.Do his gills ring a bell? Fish can recognize humansScientists at a Mediterranean research station kept noticing that particular fish would follow them around whenever they would try and do experiments. To find out if the fish were actually capable of recognizing individual humans, a team from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Germany decided to turn this annoying behaviour into a scientific experiment. They found that the fish were indeed capable of remembering which humans had shared tasty treats in the past. The research was published in the journal Biology Letters.

Certain words are overrepresented in text written by AI language models. A study investigates why such patterns develop. Also, the ends of chromosomes, called telomeres, typically shorten as an organism ages. But when some fat-tail dwarf lemurs hibernate, they lengthen.‘Delving' Into The ‘Realm' Of AI Word ChoiceSeveral years ago, some eagle-eyed readers of scientific papers noticed an unusual trend—an increase in the number of abstracts using certain words. The terms, including “delve,” “realm,” “evolving landscape,” and more, were suddenly appearing more often than they used to.Researchers analyzed the abstracts and compared them to abstracts written just a few years earlier, before the widespread availability of artificial intelligence large language model chatbots. They came to the conclusion that abstracts written by AI were more likely to use words from a list of around 20 favorites than regular human speech. The question was, why? If the models were trained on conventional writing, how did a preference for words such as “delve” creep in?Host Flora Lichtman talks with Dr. Tom Juzek and Dr. Zina Ward of Florida State University, who set out to try to understand the origins of some of AI's favorite words.When Dwarf Lemurs Hibernate, Their Chromosomes Do Something OddThe fat-tail dwarf lemur is one of the only primates that hibernate for the winter. A new study published in the journal Biology Letters takes a closer look at what's going on inside lemur cells when they are in this extended phase of suspended animation. It turns out that their telomeres, the ends of the chromosomes, actually grow longer when the dwarf lemurs hibernate. Typically telomeres shorten as we age, as cells continuously divide. So, what exactly does this finding mean for lemurs and other primates, like humans?Host Flora Lichtman talks with the co-authors of this study, Dr. Marina Blanco and Dr. Lydia Greene, research scientists at Duke University.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

Most people wouldn't guess ‘fish' when asked about intelligence in animals, but new research in the journal Biology Letters shows that fish might be smarter than many of us think. Previous lab studies have shown that captive archerfish, can recognise human faces in controlled settings, however there is little evidence that wild fish can do the same. To learn more about wild fish, researchers from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behaviour ran experiments to test whether they could distinguish between different humans based solely on visual recognition. They started by getting a diver to attract the attention of local fish 8 metres underwater in the Mediterranean sea. The diver wore a bright red vest and fed the fish while swimming in a straight line for 50 metres. Every day the diver repeated this process, but started to remove some of the visual cues on their dive gear like the red vest. They also stopped feeding the fish continually during the 50m swim, instead waiting until they had swam the whole 50m with them until feeding them. Two species of wild sea bream willingly engaged in the swimming task and after 12 days of training, around 20 fish would reliably follow the diver for 50m in order to get some food at the end. In the next part of the experiment, two divers entered the water, with the new diver wearing a different coloured wetsuit and fins. The divers swam 50m in opposite directions and on the first day the fish were confused as to which diver to follow. At the end of the 50m swim, only the original diver fed the fish and by day two the fish ignored the new diver and followed the original diver who fed them at the end. To see how the fish were recognising the original diver as the deliverer of food, the next part of the experiment involved both divers wearing exactly the same colour and style of dive gear. This confused the fish and they didn't know which diver to follow which suggests that wild fish can quickly learn to use specific cues like colour to recognise individual human divers and is a finding that challenges long-held assumptions about fish cognition. This study not only sheds light on the sophisticated cognitive abilities of fish but also prompts a re-evaluation of how we perceive and interact with marine life. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello everyone!  Episode 110 features another edition of Herp Science Sunday with Dr. Alex Krohn. Alex and I had a crazy cool conversation with Dr. Evan Grant, of the Northeastern Amphibian Research and Monitoring Initiative at the USGS Eastern Ecological Research Center, Dr. Grant is a co-author on a paper regarding range-wide salamander densities, focusing on the Redback Salamander (Plethodon cinereus), and he guides us through some mind-blowing discoveries about these mostly invisible creatures of the woodland realm. The paper we discussed in the episode is titled "Range-wide salamander densities reveal a key component of terrestrial vertebrate biomass in eastern North American forests", and was published in 2024 in the Biology Letters of the Royal Society Publishing, Vol 20 (https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2024.0033). If you would like a PDF copy of the paper, email me at somuchpingle@gmail.com and I will send it to you! Here is the link for the Salamander Population & Adaptation Research Collaboration Network (SPARCNet). And as always, I am grateful to all the show's patrons who help to keep the show moving forward. And if you're out there listening and you would like to kick in a few bucks, it's easy to do, you simply go to the So Much Pingle Patreon page. You can support the show for as little as three bucks a month – less than a fancy cup of coffee! You can also support the show via one-time contributions via PayPal or Venmo (please contact me via email to somuchpingle@gmail.com). And thanks for listening everyone! And as always, please keep the comments and suggestions coming, and please take time to rate the show on your podcast platform! The show email is somuchpingle@gmail.com, and there's also a So Much Pingle group on Facebook, for discussion, comments, feedback, suggestions, herp confessions, tips for herping better, etc. -Mike

Our understanding of the social lives of snakes is evolving at breakneck speed. This week we discuss a new study which has revealed that ball pythons have social behaviour. We also talk about sociality in rattlesnakes, before moving on to some news from the world of milk snake speciation - there may be fewer species than previously thought. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Clark RW, Brown WS, Stechert R, Greene HW. 2012. Cryptic sociality in rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) detected by kinship analysis. Biology Letters 8:523–525. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.1217. Skinner M, Kumpan T, Miller N. 2024. Intense sociability in a “non-social” snake (Python regius). Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 78:113. DOI: 10.1007/s00265-024-03535-7. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Kornai D, Jiao X, Ji J, Flouri T, Yang Z. 2024. Hierarchical Heuristic Species Delimitation Under the Multispecies Coalescent Model with Migration. Systematic Biology 73:1015–1037. DOI: 10.1093/sysbio/syae050. Other Links/Mentions: Salamander call and video by Heidi Rockney and Gary Nafis from: https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Dicamptodon&where-species=ensatus  Editing and Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com Intro visuals – Paul Snelling

Con Yaiza Santos No tuvo más remedio que ocuparse de las dos caras de la misma moneda, nuestro trumpiano familiar y el verdadero Trump, parecidos y distintos. En especial, observó divertido la pretensión en Davos del presidente español para erigirse en el fact checker global. Nadie se llame a engaño: a Sánchez no le importan la verdad o los ciudadanos, sino el blanqueamiento de la mugre que lleva encima, su preocupación por no pasar a la historia como el campeón europeo de la mentira. Este es un mero asunto higiénico y personal. Sobre el anonimato y los bulos tuvo mucho que decir. Por ejemplo, que la pretensión cumplida de Sánchez pudiera llevar a conocer los mensajes borrados del fiscal general. O que las empresas, ¡autopistas de la información, se llamaban!, son responsables e impunes por permitir no solamente mentiras sino delitos. No, no atenderá Murtra, ese nuevo lacayo. Está prestando gran atención al apoyo que parece dar el nuevo Gobierno de Estados Unidos a la inteligencia artificial. Con toda la aversión que le provoca el monigote Trump, sí vislumbra que puede ser el momento ideal para dar un impulso al fin de grandes fatalidades. Tras conocer la detención de quienes robaron a los abogados de González Amador, recordó lo que un policía le había contado sobre las mafias parásitas que surgen al calor de los momentos aldamas. Y preguntó a Santos: si, como dice el paper candente de la semana, las mujeres hacen más formidables a los hombres, ¿quién o qué hace formidables a las mujeres? Y fue así que Espada yiró. Bibliografía: Jean-François Revel, La obsesión antiamericana Thierry Meyssan, La gran impostura José Luis Pardo, «Verificaciones», en El Mundo Julio Trujillo, Bipolar Burning paper: «El cuerpo masculino sexy y formidable: la altura y el peso de los hombres son rasgos que dependen de la condición y seleccionados sexualmente», Biology Letters, 22 de enero de 2025, recogido por The Guardian See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Nach nur zwei Stunden war aufgenommenes Mikroplastik im Gehirn von Mäusen angekommen +++ Forschende haben 141 römische Goldmünzen in Luxemburg gefunden +++ Helfen Nagetieren Bäumen - oder doch nicht? +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Microplastics in the bloodstream can induce cerebral thrombosis by causing cell obstruction and lead to neurobehavioral abnormalities, Science Advances, 22.01.2025Energetic costs of social dominance in wild male baboons, Proceedings of the royal society B, 22.01.2025In Luxemburg gefundener Goldschatz ist wertvoller als erwartet, SWR, 23.01.2025Pathophysiological effects of hypoxia on testis function and spermatogenesis, Nature Reviews Urology, 06.01.2025Tracking individual seed fate confirms mainly antagonistic interactions between rodents and European beech, Biology Letters, 22.01.2025Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: TikTok auf&ab , TikTok wie_geht und Instagram .

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Mehr Gehalt und mehr Zufriedenheit nach Jobwechsel +++ Große unterirdische Wasserstoff-Vorkommen vermutet +++ Männer doppelt so stark gewachsen wie Frauen +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Erfolgreiche Jobwechsel. Wie berufliche Mobilität Einkommen und Arbeitszufriedenheit steigert, Bertelsmann Stiftung, 22.01.2025Model predictions of global geologic hydrogen resources, Sciences Advances, 13.12.2024„Super-Emittenten“ der Fleisch- und Milchwirtschaft in Deutschland, Germanwatch, 01/2025The sexy and formidable male body: men's height and weight are conditfion-dependent, sexually selected traits, Biology Letters, 22.01.2025KI an europäischen Schulen. Deutscher Bericht zur Befragung von 12- bis 17-jährigen Schüler:innen in sieben Ländern, Vodafone Stiftung, 22.01.2025Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: TikTok auf&ab , TikTok wie_geht und Instagram .

Bien que les humains soient les seuls à produire et consommer intentionnellement des boissons alcoolisées, d'autres animaux consomment naturellement de l'alcool dans la nature. Ce phénomène est largement étudié en biologie et en éthologie, révélant des comportements intrigants chez diverses espèces.L'origine naturelle de l'alcoolL'alcool (éthanol) est un sous-produit naturel de la fermentation des sucres par des levures, un processus courant dans la nature. Les fruits mûrs ou en décomposition, riches en sucres, sont souvent une source d'éthanol. Une étude publiée dans Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Dudley, 2004) a exploré la "théorie du singe ivre", selon laquelle l'alcool a attiré les primates vers des fruits énergétiques, favorisant leur survie et leur adaptation.Consommation d'alcool chez les animauxDe nombreux animaux consomment de l'alcool, souvent par accident mais parfois de manière répétée. Voici quelques exemples documentés par des études scientifiques :1.Primates :oDes macaques à longue queue (Macaca fascicularis) ont été observés consommant des cocktails laissés par des touristes dans des stations balnéaires. Une étude de Brennan et Anderson (1985) a révélé que ces singes développent des préférences similaires à celles des humains : certains sont modérés, d'autres préfèrent une consommation excessive.2.Éléphants :oDes anecdotes populaires rapportent des éléphants ivres après avoir mangé des fruits de marula fermentés. Cependant, une étude de Morris et Humphreys (2013) dans Biology Letters a montré que les éléphants devraient ingérer des quantités irréalistes de fruits pour ressentir les effets de l'alcool.3.Oiseaux :oDes merles et des jaseurs boréaux consomment régulièrement des baies fermentées en hiver. Dans certains cas, ils montrent des signes d'ébriété, comme des vols désordonnés ou des chutes. Une étude de Carey et al. (2003) a documenté ces comportements.4.Mammifères terrestres :oLes rongeurs, comme les rats, consomment volontiers de l'alcool dans des expériences en laboratoire, ce qui en fait des modèles de choix pour l'étude de l'addiction humaine.5.Drosophiles (mouches des fruits) :oCes insectes préfèrent pondre leurs œufs sur des fruits fermentés, où l'éthanol protège leurs larves contre les parasites. Une étude publiée dans Nature (2012) par Kacsoh et al. a démontré que l'éthanol joue un rôle adaptatif dans leur comportement.Pourquoi les animaux consomment-ils de l'alcool ?La consommation d'alcool chez les animaux peut être accidentelle, mais elle offre parfois des avantages évolutifs. Par exemple, l'alcool attire les animaux vers des sources de nourriture riches en énergie. Cependant, les effets enivrants peuvent aussi les rendre vulnérables aux prédateurs ou entraîner des comportements désavantageux.ConclusionLes humains ne sont pas seuls à consommer de l'alcool, mais nous sommes uniques dans la fabrication et l'utilisation intentionnelle de cette substance pour des raisons culturelles et sociales. Chez les animaux, la consommation d'alcool est un phénomène naturel lié à l'environnement, parfois bénéfique et parfois risqué, illustrant les liens fascinants entre biologie, comportement et écologie. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

Octopus camouflage is incredibly hard workOctopuses have the remarkable ability to change their appearance in the blink of an eye – assuming new skin coloration and patterns for camouflage or communication. A new study in the journal PNAS has explored how much energy this takes, and it turns out transforming themselves is a workout harder than you'd ever get at the gym. Dr. Kirt Onthank is a professor of Biology at Walla Walla University and known as The Octopus Guy on social media.Bigger isn't better when it comes to dog brainsDog bodies and brain sizes vary enormously, but a new study comparing dogs' cognitive abilities and personalities with brain size reveals some surprises. The research, led by evolutionary biologist Ana Balcarcel, found that the biggest brains relative to their body sizes belong to the small, anxious, excitable companion dogs, while the trainable, obedient working breeds are not gifted when it comes to volume of brain tissue. The work was published in the journal Biology Letters.This universe is too sparse, this one's too dense, and this one? Well, it'll doOur universe might seem like it's perfectly tuned for life, but when it comes to the role dark energy plays in the emergence of life, it turns out that our universe might not be so special after all. A new study that simulated the development of hypothetical universes with different amounts of dark energy suggests the optimal amount of dark energy to enable the evolution of life is only one-tenth of the density in our universe. Daniele Sorini, a postdoctoral researcher at Durham University and his team published their work in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society.  Why a smack on the lips might have come from a snack on a tickLip mashing is an oddity in the animal kingdom. Other than humans, few species have adopted the custom of pressing lips together as a signal of affection. A new theory for why humans kiss suggests it emerged from primate grooming practices, and the lip-lock has its roots in us slurping up parasites we've combed from a companion's fur. Dr. Adriano Lameira, an evolutionary psychologist at the University of Warwick published his new hypothesis in the journal Evolutionary Anthropology. Taking out our brains' trash may be key to maintaining a healthy brainSome scientists think it's possible that a host of neurological disorders, from Alzheimer's to Parkinson's, could be connected to problems with the way the brain rids itself of metabolic waste. A couple of recent studies in Nature are helping this longstanding puzzle about how this waste removal system works and what we might be able to do about it when it doesn't. A study published in Nature describes how synchronized electrical waves help flush the waste out when we sleep. Jonathan Kipnis, a neuroimmunologist from Washington University in St. Louis, said our neurons that are driving this waste removal system through what's known as the glymphatic system. A separate study of how gamma frequency stimulation, at 40 cycles per second, can kickstart gamma waves that are compromised in the brains of people with Alzheimer's. Li-Huei Tsai, a neuroscientist from MIT, said they found this stimulation flushes out beta-amyloid peptides in the brains of mice that would otherwise build up and form plaques which are the hallmark of diseased Alzheimer's brains.

Blood drinking bats can suck energy out of their protein-rich mealsVampire bats are famous for exclusively drinking blood, but they're also surprisingly good runners. And part of why that's surprising is that blood contains very little carbohydrates or fat, which most other mammals rely on for fuel. So Kenneth Welch and Giulia Rossi at University of Toronto Scarborough ran bats on a specially-designed treadmill to find out more. They discovered that the bats can almost instantly convert the amino acids in their blood meals into usable energy. The research was published in the journal Biology Letters.Canada's most prestigious science prize goes to garbage scienceDr. Kerry Rowe of Queen's University's Civil Engineering Department has been awarded this year's Herzberg Canada Gold Medal for Science and Engineering for his critical work in designing landfills that have to contain our waste and pollutants for generations.UK sugar rationing in the 1950s led to lower risks of illness late in lifeSugar was rationed in the UK from 1940 to 1953 due to the war and postwar austerity, and so was consumed at about the level nutritionists now recommend. Dr. Claire Boone from McGill University was part of a new study published in the journal Science which found that the limited sugar intake by people in the UK during pregnancy and the first couple of years of life resulted in significant decreases in diabetes and hypertension.Reinventing the wheel to understand how the wheel was first inventedThe invention of the wheel is a milestone in human technological evolution, but it's not clear how it happened. A new study combines design science and computational mechanics to virtually re-invent the wheel and understand the developments that could have led to the creation of the first wheel-and-axle system. The research, led by Kai James from Georgia Institute of Technology, adds support to the theory that the wheel was likely first invented by Neolithic copper miners in around 3900 BC. The research was published in the journal Royal Society Open Science.Can high tech fishing gear limit losses of endangered whales?The endangered North Atlantic Right Whale has had a long and rocky road to recovery after the depredations of commercial whaling. One of the major threats to the species today is fishing line entanglements. In a documentary, producer Sonya Buyting explores how researchers, like Sean Brillant from the Canadian Wildlife Federation, and fishers, like Greg Beckerton in New Brunswick, are trialing high-tech ropeless fishing gear to save the whales while still preserving the fishers' livelihoods. 

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Wer als Kind Gewalt erlebt hat, leidet später häufiger unter psychischen Problemen +++ Neue Brennstoffzelle erzeugt Strom aus Ammoniak +++ Vampir-Fledermäuse verraten auf dem Lauf ihren Stoffwechsel +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:The Long-Term Consequences of Family Violence Victimization: An Umbrella Review of Longitudinal Meta-Analyses on Child Maltreatment and Intimate Partner Violence, Journal of Family Violence, 25.10.2024Wasserstofftechnologien: Klimafreundlicher Strom aus Ammoniak, Forschung Kompakt, Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., 04.11.2024Vampire bats rapidly fuel running with essential or non-essential amino acids from a blood meal, Biology Letters, 06.11.2024Nurse Burnout and Patient Safety, Satisfaction, and Quality of Care, JAMA Network Open, 05.11.2024Seiche-Induced Fish Kills in the Sea of Galilee—A Possible Explanation for Biblical Miracles? Water Resources Research, 24.10.2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: TikTok auf&ab , TikTok wie_geht und Instagram .

Text Light Pollution News!A lot to discuss this month! Host Bill McGeeney is joined by an expert panel featuring the astronomer and artist, Dr. Tyler Nordgren, photographer and Youtuber, Nico Carver, and, thought leader and CEO of Visibility Innovations, Nancy Clanton.See Full Show Notes, Lighting Tips and more at LightPollutionNews.com. Like this episode, share it with a friend!Bill's Picks:Rehabilitation outcomes of bird-building collision victims in the Northeastern United States, PLOS ONE. The effects of artificial light at night on spider brains, Biology Letters.In Iceland, humans throwing baby puffins is a good thing, Alisha McDarris, Popular SciencePiraeus Tower is a Greek high-rise icon revived through sustainable strategies, Ellie Stathaki, Wallpaper* Outdoor nighttime light exposure (light pollution) is associated with Alzheimer's disease, Frontiers in Neuroscience.  Support the showLike what we're doing? Your support helps us reach new audiences and help promote positive impacts. Why not consider becoming a Paid Supporter of Light Pollution News?

Estudo publicado por investigadores australianos no Biology Letters conclui que o white noise estimula um fungo que ajuda as plantas a crescer e combate parasitas. Pode ajudar na restauração de ecossistemas

Et si les plantes répondaient à la musique ? Une équipe de chercheurs australiens a découvert qu'un simple son monotone pouvait stimuler l'activité d'un champignon microscopique du sol, connu pour favoriser la croissance des végétaux. Face aux enjeux de l'érosion, de la pollution, et de la surexploitation agricole, cette découverte pourrait apporter un outil supplémentaire pour la restauration des sols, essentielle à la préservation de la biodiversité et à une agriculture durable.Dans une étude publiée dans *Biology Letters* de la British Royal Society, les chercheurs de l'Université de Flinders, en Australie, ont voulu explorer un domaine encore peu étudié : l'effet de la stimulation sonore sur le développement des micro-organismes. Le champignon en question, *Trichoderma harzianum*, est utilisé en agriculture biologique pour protéger les plantes et améliorer leur absorption des nutriments. Les chercheurs ont soumis ce champignon à des ondes sonores de 8 kHz, diffusées à 80 décibels pendant 30 minutes chaque jour, dans des chambres stériles.Le résultat ? Au bout de cinq jours, les champignons exposés à ce "paysage sonore" ont montré une croissance et une production de spores plus élevées que ceux cultivés en silence. Selon les scientifiques, ces effets pourraient être dus à des mécanismes tels que l'effet piézoélectrique, où la pression mécanique des ondes acoustiques est convertie en charge électrique, influençant les processus cellulaires. Une autre hypothèse pointe vers les mécanorécepteurs présents dans les membranes des champignons, similaires à ceux de la peau humaine, qui réagissent aux vibrations et pourraient activer des gènes liés à la croissance. « Pouvons-nous accélérer la restauration des sols avec des paysages sonores ? Quel impact sur la faune du sol ? » s'interroge Jake Robinson, co-auteur de l'étude. Une piste fascinante qui ouvre la voie à des recherches prometteuses. Hébergé par Acast. Visitez acast.com/privacy pour plus d'informations.

A Central American lizard creates a bubble of air underwater to breatheSemi-aquatic lizards in the western rainforests of Central America have the ability to hide from predators underwater by breathing from a bubble of air they forms over its head. In a new study in the journal Biology Letters, ecologist Lindsey Swierk from New York State University at Binghamton, found that the lizards with this bubble-breathing trick could stay underwater for 30 per cent longer than the lizards without a bubble. A really weird fish walks on its fingers and tastes with them tooThe sea robin is a strange fish with wing-like fins and finger-like bony structures that it uses to prop itself up as it roams the ocean floor. New research from a team of scientists from Harvard and Stanford Universities, including Nick Bellono, looked at how these bizarre creatures use their legs to hone in on their prey. It turns out these funny finny fingers can also taste food in the sediment of the sea bottom. The research was published in the journal Current Biology.We can make our food production systems more stable by reintroducing natureA new study by a team of researchers at the University of Guelph suggests that removing large animals and destroying natural habitat is making our agricultural systems and fisheries more unstable and vulnerable to boom and bust cycles. But the study, published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, also suggests that restoring nature can help stabilize our food production to better feed the world's billions. Giant clams live off sunlight and could inspire solar power systems Working in the protected reefs of Palau, Dr. Alison Sweeney, associate professor of physics and of ecology and evolutionary biology at Yale University, was intrigued by the iridescence of the giant clams. Her team discovered that the giant clams tissues are optimized to channel sunlight to photosynthetic algae that live inside them. They work like solar panels, but far more efficiently than manufactured versions, providing inspiration for bio-inspired energy technology. The study was published in the journal PRX Energy.Plastic: Understanding the problem, and the struggle for a solutionPlastic is a miracle material, and one of the most useful innovations of the modern age. But its ubiquity and the durability that makes it so useful mean it's also becoming one of our biggest waste problems. Twenty years after he discovered microplastics on beaches around the UK, marine biologist Richard Thompson has just released a new study looking at what we've learned about these pervasive plastics, and urges scientists to turn their research focus towards solving the problem. We also speak with RJ Conk from the University of Berkeley about his work on vaporizing plastics down to their chemical building blocks, which could finally make real recycling a reality.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Nur kurze Mathe-Hausaufgaben bringen was +++ Auch Pinguine haben sensible Schnäbel +++ Erde bekommt Asteroiden-Besuch +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Little and often: Causal inference machine learning demonstrates the benefits of homework for improving achievement in mathematics and science/ Learning and Instruction, Oktober 2024Tactile bill-tip organs in seabirds suggest conservation of a deep avian symplesiomorphy/ Biology Letters, 18.09.2024A Two-month Mini-moon: 2024 PT5 Captured by Earth from September to November/ NRAAS, September 2024Exploring the links between type and content of virtual background use during videoconferencing and videoconference fatigue/ Frontiers in Psychology, 19.09.2024Drip Bars: teurer Lifestyle-Trend ohne medizinischen Wirkungsnachweis/ DGIM,Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Kurze Wege vor allem in europäischen Städten +++ Algorithmus sagt, welche Kommune für Geflüchtete am besten passt +++ Pub-Versuch: Kleinere Gläser = weniger Alkoholkonsum +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:A universal framework for inclusive 15-minute cities, Nature, 16.9. 2024Algorithmus hilft dabei, Schutzsuchende besser auf Kommunen zu verteilen, FAU, 17.9. 2024Impact on beer sales of removing the pint serving size: An A-B-A reversal trial in pubs, bars, and restaurants in England, PLOS MEDICINE, 17.9. 2024Novel rebreathing adaptation extends dive time in a semi-aquatic lizard, Biology Letters, 18.9. 2024Scheduling meetings: are the odds in your favor?, The European Physical Journal B, 13.8. 2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Gespritztes Medikament weckt Hoffnung im Kampf gegen Aids +++ Merkur könnte Diamantenschicht haben +++ Athleten mit durchschnittlich 27 Jahren besonders fit +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Twice-Yearly Lenacapavir or Daily F/TAF for HIV Prevention in Cisgender Women, New England Journal of Medicine, July 24, 2024A diamond-bearing core-mantle boundary on Mercury, Nature Communications, 14 June 2024Peaks and primes: Do athletes get one shot at glory?, Significance, Volume 21, Issue 3, July 2024Sexually dimorphic eye size in dragonfishes, a response to a bioluminescent signalling gap, Biology Letters, 24 July 2024A medical language for climate discourse, Front. Clim., 06 May 2024Alle Quellen findet ihr hier.**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Arachnaphobes, look away- this is where all your problems originate! Today's story is basically How the Spider Came to Be. And yes, we know that about 6% of the population has a fear of spiders; let's hope Arachne's presence this episode doesn't alienate that many people... Sources for this episode: Agnarsson, I. (2023), Grand challenges in research on arachnid diversity, conservation, and biogeography. Fontiers in Arachnid Science 2: 1101141. Cohen, K. M., Finney, S. C., Gibbard, P. L. and Fan, J.-X. (2013, updated), The ICS International Chronostratigraphic Chart. Episodes 36: 199-204. The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), Arachne (online) (Accessed 08/05/2024). Olshan, Y. (2011), Arachne: The Origin. Thesis submitted to the University of Michigan. Riley, H. T. (1889), The Metamorphoses (Ovid), Literally Translated Into English Prose, With Copious Notes and Explanations. London: George Bell & Sons. Selden, P. A., Corronca, J. A. and Hünicken, M. A. (2005), The true identity of the supposed giant fossil spider Megarachne. Biology Letters 1: 44-48. Young, E., The British Psychological Society (2021), Fear of Spiders May Have Its Evolutionary Roots in Aversion to Scorpions (online) (Accessed 12/05/2024). Author unknown, Wikipedia (date unknown), Megarachne (online) (Accessed 08/05/2024).

500 million years ago, the world was a very different place. During this period of time, known as the Cambrian period, basically all life was in the water. The ocean was brimming with animals that looked pretty different from the ones we recognize today — including a group of predatory worms with a throat covered in teeth and spines. Researchers thought these tiny terrors died out at the end of the Cambrian period. But a paper published recently in the journal Biology Letters showed examples of a new species of this worm in the fossil record 25 million years after scientists thought they'd vanished from the Earth. One of the authors of the paper, Karma Nanglu, tells us how this finding may change how scientists understand the boundaries of time. Curious about other weird wonders of the ancient Earth? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Who doesn't love an eclipse? Apparently, wildlife has very mixed feelings about the whole affair. This month, the guys prepare for the upcoming 2024 total eclipse by looking into the research around how animals react to the moon photobombing the sun for a few minutes. The reactions are not universal, but they are varied. And trying to figure out what the animals are up to makes for a fascinating listen. This episode was recorded on March 20, 2024 at Reinstein Woods Nature Preserve in Cheektowaga, NY.Episode NotesBill mentioned that “wind is air moving between temperature differences.” When listening back to the episode during editing, he worried that maybe he was wrong on that. Looking it up, he did find some websites claiming that wind is due to differences in air pressure and that temperature has little to do with it, but it turns out that's not quite true either. According to the good people at NOAA (The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the organization referred to in this episode), the answer is both. Their short answer to “what makes wind?” is that it's the movement of gases from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. BUT, they go on to say that the main cause of wind is actually temperature. More specifically, it's differences in temperature that lead to different air pressures.It all starts because as the sun warms up the air on the Earth, it does so unevenly. Because the sun hits different parts of the Earth at different angles, and because Earth has oceans, mountains, and other features, some places are warmer than others. Because of this, we get pockets of warm air and cold air.Since gases behave differently at different temperatures, that means you also get pockets with high pressure and pockets with low pressure. Generally speaking (and notice we said generally), in areas of high pressure, the gases in the air are colder and more crowded. In low pressure zones, the gases are warmer and a little more spread out. And this is why wind happens. Gases move from high-pressure areas to low-pressure areas. And the bigger the difference between the pressures, the faster the air will move from the high to the low pressure. That rush of air is the wind we experience.Bill stated that perigee when the moon is farthest from the Earth. WRONG! The point in the moon's orbit where it is farthest from the earth is called apogee, while it's closest approach is known as perigee.Steve mentioned he though an eclipse viewer was like a camera obscura, and he was correct! A camera obscura is a darkened room with a small hole or lens at one side through which an image is projected onto a wall or table opposite the hole. The camera obscura was used to study eclipses without the risk of damaging the eyes by looking directly into the Sun. From WikpediaLinks Ways to get involved recording weather and/or animal behaviors during the eclipse:The Eclipse Soundscapes Project is a NASA Citizen Science project that's studying how eclipses affect life on EarthSolar Eclipse Safari is another Citizen Science option that invites you to collect data on animals and their behaviors during the eclipse. This project looks at domestic and well as wild animals. https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/ - a great website for general info about eclipses What Do Birds Do During a Total Eclipse? - an article compiling eBird sightings and descriptions of bird behavior during the 2017 eclipse, including an animation of radar data that shows bird activity during totality Sponsors and Ways to Support UsGumleaf Boots, USA (free shipping for patrons)Thank you to Always Wandering Art (Website and Etsy Shop) for providing the artwork for many of our episodes! Support us on Patreon!Check out the Field Guides merch at our Teespring store. It's really a great deal: you get to pay us to turn your body into a billboard for the podcast!Works CitedBuckley, E.M.B., Caven, A.J., Gottesman, B.L., Harner, M.J., Pijanowski, B.C. and Forsberg, M.L., 2018. Assessing biological and environmental effects of a total solar eclipse with passive multimodal technologies. Ecological Indicators, 95, pp.353-369.Fulton, S.A. and Dodd, L.E., 2018. Acoustic Activity of Bats in Kentucky During the Total Solar Eclipse of 2017. Northeastern Naturalist, 25(3).Hartstone-Rose, A., Dickinson, E., Paciulli, L.M., Deutsch, A.R., Tran, L., Jones, G. and Leonard, K.C., 2020. Total Eclipse of the Zoo: Animal Behavior during a Total Solar Eclipse. Animals, 10(4), p.587.Mekonen, S., 2021. Bird Behaviour during the June 21, 2020 Solar Eclipse. Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences, B. Zoology, 13(1), pp.103-115.Fazekas, Andrew. Surprising Ways Animals React to Solar Eclipses, Nationalgeographic.com, 14 August, 2017, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/animals-react-total-solar-eclipse-august-space-science. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.Gerasopoulos, E., Zerefos, C.S., Tsagouri, I., Founda, D., Amiridis, V., Bais, A.F., Belehaki, A., Christou, N., Economou, G., Kanakidou, M. and Karamanos, A., 2008. The total solar eclipse of March 2006: overview. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 8(17), pp.5205-5220.Nilsson, C., Horton, K.G., Dokter, A.M., Van Doren, B.M. and Farnsworth, A., 2018. Aeroecology of a solar eclipse. Biology Letters, 14(11), p.20180485.Platt, S.G. and Rainwater, T.R., 2018. Unusual diurnal roosting behavior by turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) during a solar eclipse. New York State Ornithological Association, Inc. Vol. 68 No. 1 March 2018.Ritson, R., Ranglack, D.H. and Bickford, N., 2019. Comparing social media observations of animals during a solar eclipse to published research. Animals, 9(2), p.59.Tramer, Elliot J. "Bird behavior during a total solar eclipse." The Wilson Bulletin 112, no. 3 (2000): 431-432.VanDoren, Benjamin. Project Update: What Do Birds Do During a Total Eclipse? Observations from eBird and Radar on August 21, 2017, The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, 26 Aug. 2017, birdcast.info/news/eclipse/. Accessed 17 Mar. 2024.Wheeler, W.M., MacCoy, C.V., Griscom, L., Allen, G.M. and Coolidge, H.J., 1935, March. Observations on the behavior of animals during the total solar eclipse of August 31, 1932. In Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Vol. 70, No. 2, pp. 33-70). American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Tortoises return to an island in the Galapagos and prove themselves to be solid ecosystem engineers. Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights Merch: https://www.redbubble.com/people/herphighlights/shop Full reference list available here: http://www.herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Tapia Aguilera W, Gibbs JP. 2023. Rewilding giant tortoises engineers plant communities at local to landscape scales. Conservation Letters 16:e12968. DOI: 10.1111/conl.12968. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Loconsole M, Stancher G, Versace E. 2023. Crossmodal association between visual and acoustic cues in a tortoise (Testudo hermanni). Biology Letters 19:20230265. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2023.0265. Starck, J. M., Schrenk, F., Schröder, S., & Pees, M. (2022). Malformations of the sacculus and the semicircular canals in spider morph pythons. Plos one, 17(8), e0262788. Other Links/Mentions: Scinax crospedospilus by Mario Sacramento from https://amphibiaweb.org/cgi/amphib_query?where-genus=Scinax&where-species=crospedospilus Charles Darwin Foundation. Studying the ecology and distribution of the invasive treefrog Scinax quinquefasciatus https://www.darwinfoundation.org/en/research/projects/invasive-treefrog Editing and Music: Podcast edited by Emmy – https://www.fiverr.com/emmyk10  Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Michael Timothy Other Music – The Passion HiFi, https://www.thepassionhifi.com

In this episode, Dr. Marsha Penner delves into the neuroscience behind impulse control, why adolescent dogs notoriously struggle with it, and what we can do about it. We discuss:How reconnecting with her Native American heritage reaffirmed the way she works with animalsDifferent types of impulse controlHow adolescent brains developFinding more compassion and patience for the unruly adolescent dogHow trust can improve impulse controlDr. Penner's bio:Dr. Marsha Penner is a behavioral neuroscientist, certified dog trainer (KPA-CTP), and owner of Learning to Dog Training & Enrichment. Marsha worked as a research scientist and award winning professor, focusing her attention on learning, memory, and effective teaching strategies. She turned her love of learning, behavior, and teaching into a full time career as a professional dog trainer after graduating from the the Karen Pryor Academy for Animal Training and Behavior in 2015. She is a proud Anishinaabe Kwe from Treaty One, but currently lives in Durham, NC with her husband and two dogs.Links:https://learningtodog.com/https://www.marshapenner.com/A collection of studies analyzing impulse control - this is really cool for those who want to dive deeper!https://saverezdogs.com/Asher L, England GCW, Sommerville R, Harvey ND. 2020. Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog. Biology Letters. 16: 20200097. Contact Behavior Vets tweet us @BehaviorVets follow us on Facebook email us at nyc@behaviorvets.com follow us on Instagram Online courses Webinars and seminars

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Knabenchor-Gesang wird strahlender, wenn Mädchen im Publikum sind +++ Zufriedenheit in Deutschland wieder leicht gestiegen +++ ASMR kann Stimmung heben und Blutdruck senken +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Sex-related communicative functions of voice spectral energy in human chorusing, Biology Letters, 8.11.2023A multi-taxon analysis of European Red Lists reveals major threats to biodiversity, Plos One, 8.11.2023Die Erholung setzt sich langsam fort, SKL Glücksatlas 2023, 9.11.2023October 2023 capped the hottest 12-month span in recorded history, Climate Central, 9.11.2023Deutsche trinken weniger Alkohol, Rheinische Post, 8.11.2023Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR): A PRISMA-guided systematic review, Psychology of Consciousness, 2023**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Reste von Himmelskörper Theia im Erdmantel +++ Seesterne haben keine Arme, sondern nur Kopf +++ Diskriminierung schadet selbst den Profiteuren**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Moon-forming impactor as a source of Earth's basal mantle anomalies, Nature, 01.11.2023Molecular evidence of anteroposterior patterning in adult echinoderms, Nature, 01.11.2023Discrimination reduces work effort of those who are disadvantaged and those who are advantaged by it, Nature Human Behaviour, 21.09.2023Some deaf children in China can hear after gene treatment, MIT Technology Review, 27.10.2023The first European woolly rhinoceros mitogenomes, retrieved from cave hyena coprolites, suggest long-term phylogeographic differentiation, Biology Letters, 01.11.2023Thermal impact of underground car parks on urban groundwater, Science of The Total Environment, Ausgabe Dezember 2023**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.

Marcus and Will wrap up our feeding series by reviewing global drivers of supplemental feeding and breakdown a study reporting positive effects on wild turkey populations from supplemental feed.    Resources: Cox, D. T., & Gaston, K. J. (2018). Human–nature interactions and the consequences and drivers of provisioning wildlife. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1745), 20170092. Malpass, J. S., Rodewald, A. D., & Matthews, S. N. (2017). Species-dependent effects of bird feeders on nest predators and nest survival of urban American Robins and Northern Cardinals. The Condor: Ornithological Applications, 119(1), 1-16. Robb, G. N., McDonald, R. A., Chamberlain, D. E., & Bearhop, S. (2008). Food for thought: supplementary feeding as a driver of ecological change in avian populations. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6(9), 476-484. Robertson, B. C., Elliott, G. P., Eason, D. K., Clout, M. N., & Gemmell, N. J. (2006). Sex allocation theory aids species conservation. Biology Letters, 2(2), 229-231. Pattee, O. H., & Beasom, S. L. (1979). Supplemental feeding to increase wild turkey productivity. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 43(2), 512-516.   Dr. Marcus Lashley (@DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (@dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (@turkeysfortomorrow)  UF DEER Lab (@ufdeerlab) (YouTube)   Watch these podcasts on YouTube: Wild Turkey Science YouTube   Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund  This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.  Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family.    Music by Artlist.io Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak  

Marcus and Will wrap up our feeding series by reviewing global drivers of supplemental feeding and breakdown a study reporting positive effects on wild turkey populations from supplemental feed.    Resources: Cox, D. T., & Gaston, K. J. (2018). Human–nature interactions and the consequences and drivers of provisioning wildlife. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 373(1745), 20170092. Malpass, J. S., Rodewald, A. D., & Matthews, S. N. (2017). Species-dependent effects of bird feeders on nest predators and nest survival of urban American Robins and Northern Cardinals. The Condor: Ornithological Applications, 119(1), 1-16. Robb, G. N., McDonald, R. A., Chamberlain, D. E., & Bearhop, S. (2008). Food for thought: supplementary feeding as a driver of ecological change in avian populations. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 6(9), 476-484. Robertson, B. C., Elliott, G. P., Eason, D. K., Clout, M. N., & Gemmell, N. J. (2006). Sex allocation theory aids species conservation. Biology Letters, 2(2), 229-231. Pattee, O. H., & Beasom, S. L. (1979). Supplemental feeding to increase wild turkey productivity. The Journal of Wildlife Management, 43(2), 512-516.   Dr. Marcus Lashley (@DrDisturbance) (Academic Profile) Dr. Will Gulsby (@dr_will_gulsby) (Academic Profile) Turkeys for Tomorrow (@turkeysfortomorrow)  UF DEER Lab (@ufdeerlab) (YouTube)   Watch these podcasts on YouTube: Wild Turkey Science YouTube   Donate to wild turkey research: UF Turkey Donation Fund , Auburn Turkey Donation Fund  This podcast is made possible by Turkeys for Tomorrow, a grassroots organization dedicated to the wild turkey. To learn more about TFT, go to turkeysfortomorrow.org.  Help us help turkeys by rating this podcast and sharing it with your friends and family.    Music by Dr. David Mason & Artlist.io Produced & edited by Charlotte Nowak  

------------------------------- 強化英語課程資訊 ------------------------------- 「社會人核心英語」有聲書課程連結：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/554esm ------------------------------- 15Mins.Today 相關連結 ------------------------------- 歡迎針對這一集留言你的想法： 留言連結 官方網站：www.15mins.today 加入Clubhouse直播室：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/46hm8k 訂閱YouTube頻道：https://15minsengcafe.pse.is/3rhuuy 主題投稿/意見回覆 : ask15mins@gmail.com 商業合作/贊助來信：15minstoday@gmail.com ------------------------------- 以下有參考文字稿～ 各播放器有不同字數限制，完整文稿可到官網搜尋 ------------------------------- 每日英語跟讀 Ep.K622: Scientists Discover Unprecedented "Virgin Birth" of Crocodile at Costa Rica Zoo Researchers have made an extraordinary finding at a zoo in Costa Rica, as they document the first-known case of a "virgin birth" by a crocodile that had been isolated for 16 years. The female American crocodile laid 14 eggs in 2018 within her enclosure, a relatively common occurrence among captive reptiles. However, the true surprise came when one of the eggs was discovered to contain a fully formed stillborn baby crocodile after three months of incubation. 研究人員在哥斯大黎加的一個動物園達成了一項非凡的調查，他們記錄了鱷魚「孤雌生殖」的首例，而這隻鱷魚在動物園獨居了16年。這隻美洲鱷於2018年在圈養環境下產下了14個蛋，這對圈養爬行動物來說是相對常見的現象。然而，真正的驚喜出現在經過三個月孵化後，其中一個蛋被發現含有一隻完整的鱷魚寶寶死胎。 In a study published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists examined the genetic composition of the crocodile fetus. They identified DNA sequences indicating that the fetus resulted from facultative parthenogenesis (FP), a form of reproduction that does not involve the genetic contribution of males. Although this phenomenon, also known as a "virgin birth," has been observed in other species such as fish, birds, lizards, and snakes, this marks the first recorded instance in a crocodile. 在發表於《生物學報》期刊的研究中，科學家們檢驗了這隻鱷魚胎兒的基因組成。他們發現DNA序列表明這個胎兒是由「真孤雌生殖」（FP）產生的，即無需雄性基因參與的一種繁殖形式。雖然這種現象，也被稱為「處女生殖」，在其他物種如魚類、鳥類、蜥蜴和蛇類中已被觀察到，但這是首次在鱷魚中出現的記錄。 FP occurs when a female's egg cell develops into a viable offspring without being fertilized by a male's sperm cell. During the process of egg cell formation, a precursor cell divides into four cells. While one of these cells becomes the egg cell itself, retaining essential cellular structures and cytoplasm, the remaining cells contain extra genetic material. One of these additional cells functions similarly to a sperm cell, fusing with the egg and initiating the process of fertilization. 「真孤雌生殖」是指雌性的卵細胞在沒有雄性精子受精的情況下發育成一個能夠存活的後代。在卵細胞形成過程中，一個前體細胞分裂成四個細胞。其中一個細胞成為卵細胞本身，保留著關鍵的細胞結構和細胞質，而其他細胞則含有額外的遺傳物質。其中一個額外的細胞類似於精子細胞，與卵細胞融合，啟動了受精的過程。 The American crocodile is currently classified as vulnerable and faces the risk of extinction in the wild. The study suggests that FP may be more prevalent among species nearing extinction. The scientists believe that the Costa Rica "virgin birth" could provide valuable insights into the reproductive capabilities of ancient crocodile ancestors that existed during the Triassic Period, approximately 250 million years ago. The findings could offer new knowledge about the reproductive mechanisms of archosaurian relatives, including members of Pterosauria and Dinosauria. 美洲鱷目前被列為易危物種，面臨野外滅絕的風險。研究表明，「真孤雌生殖」在接近滅絕的物種中可能更為普遍。科學家們認為哥斯大黎加的「處女生殖」發現可能為早在約2.5億年前三疊紀時期存在的古代鱷魚祖先的繁殖能力提供寶貴的洞察資料。這些發現可為翼龍目和恐龍亞目等主龍類近親相關的繁殖機制提供新的知識。 Reference article: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/scientists-find-crocodile-virgin-birth-costa-rica-zoo-2023-06-07/

The world is experiencing a decline in overall insect populations as well as a collapse in insect diversity.  A recent special issue of the journal Biology Letters discusses the major causes of this alarming trend. According to the study, the primary causes of the worldwide decline in insect biomass are land-use intensification in the form […]

Cientistas confirmam que crocodilo em cativeiro e sem contacto com machos, autofecundou-se. Os investigadores afirmam que a partenogénese pode ter sido comum entre os dinossauros. Estudo publicado no Biology Letters

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Menschen am Meer sind gesünder +++ Implantat "überlistet" Querschnittslähmung +++ Möwen orientieren sich beim Fressen am Menschen +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Coastal proximity and visits are associated with better health but may not buffer health inequalities, Nature Communications Earth and Environment, 24.5.2023Walking naturally after spinal cord injury using a brain–spine interface, Nature, 24.5.2023The role of genetic selection and climatic factors in the dispersal of anatomically modern humans out of Africa, PNAS, 23.5.2023The distinct plastisphere microbiome in the terrestrial-marine ecotone is a reservoir for putative degraders of petroleum-based polymers, Journal of Hazardous Materials, 14.4. 2023Inter-species stimulus enhancement: herring gulls (Larus argentatus) mimic human food choice during foraging, Biology Letters, 24.5. 2023Faculty perceptions of unidentified aerial phenomena, Nature, 23.5. 2023**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.**********Weitere Wissensnachrichten zum Nachlesen: https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/nachrichten

Die Themen in den Wissensnachrichten: +++ Männliche Charaktere sprechen in Videogames öfter +++ Mäuse leben mit Höhenluft länger +++ Affen im Nationalpark haben Chemie im Kot +++**********Weiterführende Quellen zu dieser Folge:Gender bias in video game dialogue, Royal Society Open Science, 24.5.2023Hypoxia extends lifespan and neurological function in a mouse model of aging, PLOS Biology, 23.5.2023Vermächtnisstudie 2023 von DIE ZEIT, infas und WZBSuperkräuter gegen Hitzestress, 23.3.203Associations between faecal chemical pollutants and hormones in primates, Biology Letters, 24.5.2023Wissenschaftliches Gemeinschaftsprojekt lokalisiert die untergegangene Kirche von Rungholt, Universität Mainz, 23.5.3023**********Ihr könnt uns auch auf diesen Kanälen folgen: Tiktok und Instagram.**********Weitere Wissensnachrichten zum Nachlesen: https://www.deutschlandfunknova.de/nachrichten

Summary: What do these secretive amphibians eat? Join Kiersten as she takes you on a culinary journey in this episode on caecilian diet.   For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.   Show Notes:  “Caecilian jaw-closing mechanics: integrating two muscle systems” by Thomas Kleinteich, Alexander Haas, and Adam P. Summers. J R Soc Interface, 2008 Dec 6: 5(29): 1491-1504. doi: 10.1098/rsif.2008.0155   “Diet of the Banana Caecilian Ichthyophis bannanicus in Mekong Delta, Vietnam” by Binh V. Ngo, Nghiep T. Hoang, and Chung D Ego. Journal of Herpetology, 48(4):506-513 (2014). doi.org/10.1670/13-113.   “Rotational feeding in caecilians: putting a spin on the evolution of cranial design” by G. John Easy and Anthony Herrel. Biology Letters (2006) 2, 485-487. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2006.0516   “Dietary Partitioning in Two Co-occurring Caecilian Species (Geotrypetes seraphim and Herepele squalostoma) in Central Africa” by M. T. Kouete and D. C. Blackburn, Integr Org Bill, 2020; 2(1). doi:10.1093/iob/obz035    Music written and performed by Katherine Camp   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This episode continues caecilians and the sixth thing I like about these awesome amphibians is their diet. Our understanding of what and how caecilians eat is still evolving but we know enough to know that it is fascinating! First, let's talk about what they eat. Caecilians are carnivores. That means they eat meat. There have been enough studies into various species of caecilians that we have a decent idea of what prey items they tend to eat. In general they focus on invertebrates that are commonly found where they live, underground, in the leaf litter of tropical forests, and underwater. Some examples include ants, termites, earthworms, snails, and some caecilians have been recorded eating crabs, lizards, frogs, and blind snakes. Aquatic caecilians eat fish and aquatic invertebrates. You probably get the drift, if it's an insect or small animal that lives where caecilians live and it fits in their mouth, they'll eat it. Since caecilians have no limbs to help them catch or stabilize prey items their jaw muscles and skulls have evolved to produce a high bite force to help prevent prey items from squiggling away. Caecilians have developed a double jaw muscle mechanism that is special to these amphibians. These muscles are different from other vertebrates because they are actually located above and below the jaw as opposed to the side of the jaw. Take a moment here and place your hands on the side of your jaw. Now open and close your mouth. What you feel moving is your jaw muscles.  If we were able to place our hands on the sides of a caecilian's jaw, we would not feel those muscles. Scientists think that the placement of the  muscles on the top and bottom of the skull may be due to the close confines of burrows in which the caecilians live and hunt. Whatever the reason it's one more cool adaptations these amphibians have developed. In the last episode we talked about the two different skull formations found in caecilians. At first thought, these differences might be due to the burrowing needs of the caecilian, but upon studying bite force and diet the different skull formations may actually be related to bite force. Caecilians who have the perforated, or zygokrotaphic, skull structure utilize the leverage from the two jaw muscles more efficiently than caecilians with the completely roofed, or stegokrotaphic, skull. What exactly does this information indicate? We're not quite sure yet. We need more research to determine what these results may mean. For now, we'll just have to settle for the knowledge itself. Scientists, being the inquisitive people that they are, asked if caecilians might specialize in specific diet items. Two pieces of evidence leans us towards yes as the answer. One piece of evidence supporting this is tooth shape. Caecilains that eat mostly soft-bodied invertebrates, like earthworms, tend to have sharp curved teeth. This allows the teeth to hook into soft tissue and hold tight. Caecilians that tend to eat prey items that have a harder shell, such as snails, have flatter, pedestal style teeth. This allows them to crush and grind the hard shell.  While we're talking about teeth, let me toss this cool fact out there. Caecilians have two rows of teeth in their top jaw and may have one to two rows in the bottom jaw! Forgive my side trip, I just couldn't resist telling you this fascinating fact. The second form of evidence supporting diet specialization comes from a study done with two species of caecilians that live in the same area but in different layers of soil. Researchers analyzed the diet of Geotrypetes seraphini and Herpele squalostoma two terrestrial caecilians from Central Africa. G. seraphini lives lower in the soil and eats mostly earthworms, while mole crickets which are found higher in the soil or in leaf litter above ground dominated H. squalostoma's diet. Now, we don't know if the diet is dependent on where they live or if they live where their preferred diet can be found. That is a study for the future. Caecilians just can't stop surprising us! In another study looking at feeding  behavior of caecilians scientists discovered that these amphibians utilize  rotational feeding. What exactly is rotational feeding? Think about those nature programs you've seen about African animals being snatched up by a crocodile. The crocodile often catches something larger than it can swallow in one gulp and spins length wise. This behavior is used to reduce the size of a prey item so it can be easily consumed. In this study, two species of terrestrial caecilians were observed and recorded eating. They caught both species using rotational feeding to successfully maneuver large prey items into their mouths, just like crocodiles. Unexpectedly, the researchers also observed the caecilians using rotational feeding even when they caught smaller prey items that easily fit into their mouths. So the question is why do they spin when the prey item fits easily into their mouth? We don't have a solid answer to that question yet, but the researchers postulated that because caecilians are blind maybe they are using the rotational feeding to feel the prey item to help them determine what it is.  The last behavior we're going to talk about concerning caecilians' diet is the most fascinating and slightly disturbing food item I've come across in all my years as an animal caretaker. Boulengerula taitanus is an African caecilian that begins life by eating its mother's skin. You heard me correctly, they eat their mother's skin! What?!  So, while mom incubates her eggs that she laid in her subterranean tunnel the outer layer of her skin thickens with nutritious fatty lipids. When the young hatch they have special baby teeth that help them shave off the mother's outer skin layer. This is the only vertebrate known to use this type of parental feeding strategy! I am thankful everyday I wasn't born bird so my mother didn't have to puke into my mouth to feed and now I'm thankful I wasn't born a caecilian so I didn't have to eat my mother's skin. That's all for this episode and I know you loved this episode on caecilian diets because it's the most fascinating episode I've researched so far and it's my sixth favorite thing about this amphibian. If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another thing I like about caecilians!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.

Schandalen bij Facebook, chaos bij Twitter. Ondanks deze berichten, lijkt het aantal social media kanalen en gebruikers nog altijd toe te nemen. In een recent artikel in The Atlantic wordt echter het einde van sociale media aangekondigd. Dit einde zou onder andere voortkomen uit de kwaliteit en de kwantiteit van onze online relaties. Wat is daarmee aan de hand? En hoe kunnen die de ondergang van sociale media betekenen? Aan de hand van recent psychologisch onderzoek proberen we deze vragen te beantwoorden.Muziek geschreven en gespeeld door Rolf ZwaanBronnenBogist, I. (2022). The Age of Social Media Is Ending. It never should have begun. The Atlantic (November 10).https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/11/twitter-facebook-social-media-decline/672074/Lindenfors P., Wartel A., & Lind J. (2021). ‘Dunbar's number' deconstructed. Biology Letters.172021015820210158 http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2021.0158Pennington, N. (2020). Quitting social media: a qualitative exploration of communication outcomes. Qualitative Research Reports in Communication, 1–9. doi:10.1080/17459435.2020.1817140 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ya podemos asegurar que no somos el único mamífero con sentido del ritmo gracias a un estudio experimental publicado en Biology Letters, donde un equipo de investigadores muestran que la capacidad rítmica de las focas puede estar relacionada con su capacidad para aprender vocalizaciones, habilidades que pueden haber evolucionado conjuntamente tanto en humanos como en focas.Compra tu entrada para el SCIENCE FEST en http://bit.ly/3tmGu4ZSuscríbete a MUY HISTORIA con un descuento del 50% usando el código especial para podcast - PODCAST1936https://bit.ly/3TYwx9aComparte nuestro podcast en tus redes sociales, puedes realizar una valoración de 5 estrellas en Apple Podcast o Spotify.Documentación: Elena VargasDirección, locución y producción: Iván Patxi Gómez GallegoSuscríbete a Muy Interesante https://suscripciones.zinetmedia.es/mz/ Contacto de publicidad en podcast: podcast@zinetmedia.es

Trichobatrachus robustus, a.k.a the Hairy/Horror/Wolverine frog. Described somewhere after the late 1880s. Short and hairy, it prefers to inadvertently stab everyone who hugs it. Powers & Abilities include enhanced senses, animal-like attributes, a regenerative healing factor, retractable bone claws, an indestructible skeleton (it will destroy it itself before ever giving you a chance) and is a master foot-to-foot combatant. Its whole life, it felt like an animal. Nature made it a freak, we made it into an episode...but we also made it last too long :) ====================== Intro/outro sampled from "Sequence (Mystery and Terror) 3" by Francisco Sánchez (@fanchisanchez) at pixabay.com Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com SOURCES: Squeakers: Frogs with Claws, Frogs with "Hair" About the Horror Frog 'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws Blackburn et al. Concealed weapons: erectile claws in African frogs. Biology Letters, 2008; 1 (-1): -1 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0219 BAREJ, M.F., BÖHME, W., PERRY, S.F., WAGNER, P., SCHMITZ, A. (2010) The hairy frog, a curly fighter? – A novel hypothesis on the function of hairs and claw-like terminal phalanges, including their biological and systematic significance (Anura: Arthroleptidae: Trichobatrachus). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 117(2): 243-263.

Trichobatrachus robustus, a.k.a the Hairy/Horror/Wolverine frog. Described somewhere after the late 1880s. Short and hairy, it prefers to inadvertently stab everyone who hugs it. Powers & Abilities include enhanced senses, animal-like attributes, a regenerative healing factor, retractable bone claws, an indestructible skeleton (it will destroy it itself before ever giving you a chance) and is a master foot-to-foot combatant. Its whole life, it felt like an animal. Nature made it a freak, we made it into an episode...but we also made it last too long :) ====================== Send us suggestions and comments to darwinsdeviations@gmail.com Intro/outro sampled from "Sequence (Mystery and Terror) 3" by Francisco Sánchez (@fanchisanchez) at pixabay.com Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com ====================== SOURCES: Squeakers: Frogs with Claws, Frogs with "Hair" About the Horror Frog 'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws Blackburn et al. Concealed weapons: erectile claws in African frogs. Biology Letters, 2008; 1 (-1): -1 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0219 BAREJ, M.F., BÖHME, W., PERRY, S.F., WAGNER, P., SCHMITZ, A. (2010) The hairy frog, a curly fighter? – A novel hypothesis on the function of hairs and claw-like terminal phalanges, including their biological and systematic significance (Anura: Arthroleptidae: Trichobatrachus). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 117(2): 243-263.

Pollinators, such as bees and bats, are vital for global food production.  They provide an ecological service that's necessary for the reproduction of nearly 75% of the world's flowering plants, including more than two-thirds of global food crops. Bumblebees are among the most important plant pollinators.  They pollinate many food crops, including apples, tomatoes, blueberries […]

The gang discusses two papers that look at the impact of the end Cretaceous mass extinction. The first paper looks at ecomorphospace changes in mosasaur communities prior to the extinction event, and the second paper discusses the importance of a large freshwater gar which lived through the recovery. Meanwhile, James has some new and interesting ecological theories, Curt is simpatico with his recording equipment, and Amanda acts as our resident “fish” expert.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): Our friends talk about two papers that look at a time when a big rock hit us a long long time ago. The first paper looks at how big angry animals in the water that you can not drink did before the big rock hit. There is a big question about if these big angry animals that live in water you can not drink were doing well before the big rock hit, or if they were already on their way out. This paper looks at how the heads of these animals changed over space and time by looking at a large number of these from lots of different places. What they find is that there is a lot going on before the big rock hit. Some places are having their big animals look like they are having real problems, but in other places there seems to be a lot of new change in these big animals. It seems that this time before the big rock was a time when these big animals were going through a lot of changes. The big rock may have hit at a very bad time because things were not calm because of all of these changing going on. The second paper looks at animals living in water you can drink after the big rock hit. This paper finds a very large animal that breathes water head. Since this is a group of animals that are still around today, they can use the head to figure out how big the animal would have been, and they find that it would have been pretty big and also would have eaten other animals. This animal lived pretty soon after the big rock hit. This might mean that animals living on land and in the water that you can drink may have been doing a lot better than things living in the water you can not drink. If an animal was able to get that big eating other animals, it seems that these places were doing well. One of the ways animals respond when things get bad and foot is short is that they get smaller. Since we do not see that happening in this place, it could mean that places like this were not hit that bad when the rock hit.   References: MacLaren, Jamie A., et al. "Global ecomorphological restructuring of dominant marine reptiles prior to the Cretaceous–Palaeogene mass extinction." Proceedings of the Royal Society B 289.1975 (2022): 20220585. Brownstein, Chase Doran, and Tyler R. Lyson. "Giant gar from directly above the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary suggests healthy freshwater ecosystems existed within thousands of years of the asteroid impact." Biology Letters 18.6 (2022): 20220118.

The gang discusses two sets of papers about how we study crocodylomorphs, with each of these topics being replies to previous studies. The first paper looks at the importance of total evidence approaches in determining the evolutionary placement of fossil pseudosuchians, and the second set of papers discusses the potential biases and issues associated with how we handle body size data in evolutionary studies. Meanwhile, Curt goes Camus, Amanda has some bizarre funeral plans, and James continues to have opinions about pies.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): Our friends look at a lot of papers that were written to reply to another paper. All of these papers look at how we study big angry animals that spend a lot of time in water and jump out to eat things. This group of animals has been around for a long time and before today they used to do a lot of different things, even though now most of them spend a lot of time in water and jump out to eat things. These papers look at the older groups of these animals. The first paper looks at how we try and understand how these older groups go together. It shows that if you only look at how these things look, there are a lot of different ways these groups could go together. They say that things get better if we use both how they look and the changes in the small stuff that helps build up all life. This is important, because how these old groups go together will change how and when we think the groups of big angry animals we see today first came to be. The second group of papers looks at how big these angry animals were in the past. One of these papers looked at how big these animals got over time, but the reply shows that there are some problems with how that was done. If you just take how big these animals are without doing anything to those numbers, it means that something that is big getting slightly bigger is going to seem like more than something small getting bigger about the same. It is because the bigger thing starts with bigger numbers. You can fix this by doing some things to the numbers to make sure that you can better look at changes in both small and big animals. When you do that, it does change the story of the paper.   References: Darlim, Gustavo, et al. "The impact of  molecular data on the phylogenetic position of the putative oldest  crown crocodilian and the age of the clade." Biology Letters 18.2 (2022): 20210603. Stockdale, Maximilian T., and Michael J. Benton. "Environmental drivers of body size evolution in crocodile-line archosaurs." Communications biology 4.1 (2021): 1-11. Benson, Roger BJ, et al.  "Reconstructed evolutionary patterns for crocodile-line archosaurs  demonstrate impact of failure to log-transform body size data." Communications Biology 5.1 (2022): 1-4. Stockdale, Maximilian T., and Michael  J. Benton. "Reply to:‘Reconstructed evolutionary patterns from  crocodile-line archosaurs demonstrate the impact of failure to  log-transform body size data'." Communications biology 5.1 (2022): 1-4.

In a study titled “Canine Sense of Quantity” published in Biology Letters earlier this month, researchers from Atlanta's Emory University found that a dog's brain processes numbers in a similar way to the human mind. Read more: Dogs Can Naturally Count and Process Numbers Like Humans, New Study Finds Support our work: Donate Now 

Victoria Gill hears of ancient DNA evidence for an unrecognised mass migration from continental Europe 3,000 years ago that may even have brought the Celtic languages with it. In a paper in the journal Nature, an international team of researchers have gathered hundreds of middle-late Bronze Age DNA samples to identify a moment in pre-history when half the ancestry of people living in southern Britain became continental European. Sometime around 1000 BC, continental Europeans living in Kent spread rapidly into what is now England and Wales. As Prof Ian Armit tells Vic, the spread need not have been one event, and likely spanned around 200 years, but by the start of the Iron Age, Britons' DNA was 50% changed. The researchers suggest further that this may have been the time when Celtic languages spread from the continent into the islands too. Data are starting to be published that suggest the Omicron variant of SARS CoV-2 may be a little less awful than was first feared, though it clearly is still a lethal foe. Prof Penny Moore, one of the scientists in South Africa who helped alert the world to the new virus is very tentatively relieved that death and hospitalisation numbers there and in the UK are beginning to show clinically some of the resilience that earlier strains and vaccines may have bestowed on populations. Three "Glimpses of Spike", either through prior infection and survival or vaccination and boosting seem to be accompanied by improved survival rates. Gaia Vince has been to the Arctic Circle to talk climate change and reindeer. Sami language and culture in Lapland is under strain as climate change rapidly changes alters the predatory threats reindeer farmers face, increasing numbers of wolves and even sea-eagles that prey on young reindeer calves. And over at UCSC in California, recordings of elephant seal pups have been played to maternal harems to ascertain how well mothers recognize their own. Caroline Casey and colleagues report in Royal Society journal Biology Letters, how they can spot their own offspring from their call alone in as little as two days after birth. But if they can do that, why then do so many lactating females feed pups that aren't their own? Elephant seal mothers fast throughout lactation and lose a huge percentage of their own body weight, quite what the evolutionary driver is for this behaviour remains uncertain, but it can't now be a case of mistaken identity. Presenter Victoria Gill Producer Alex Mansfield Assistant Producer Emily Bird Made in Association with The Open University

The gang discusses two papers that look at how trace fossils can give important clues to ancient ecological interactions. The first paper identifies a unique behavior using trace fossils, and the second paper uses bite marks on bone to infer ontogenetic ecological shifts in a large caiman species. Meanwhile, Curt investigates, Amanda collects, and James fixates.   Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition): This week our friends talk about animals that roll in wet tiny pieces of rock that are really very tiny tiny. We also talk about a very big very slow animal with hair that got bit by a very large animal with no hair but hard skin and lots of big teeth that has a very long face. The animal with hair that rolled in wet tiny very very tiny pieces of rock shows that these animals did this thing a very long time ago; it shows that these animals with hair and two fingers on each leg were in this place at this time, along with animals with stuff that wasn't hair but made of the same stuff as hair and could fly, too. The second paper looks at how we can talk about a hard part of a very big very slow animal with hair could have gotten grabbed by a small one of a very, very, very big animal with no hair but hard skin and lots of big teeth with a very long face. It tells us that these very big animals with no hair but hard skin and lots of big teeth ate different things when they were small than when they were very, very, very big.   References: Abbassi, Nasrollah, et al. "Vertebrate  footprints and a mammal mud-bath trace fossil (Laspichnia) from the  Mukdadiya Formation (Late Miocene–Pliocene), Chamchamal Area, Kurdistan  Region, Northeast Iraq." Ichnos 28.1 (2021): 72-83. Pujos, François, and Rodolfo  Salas-Gismondi. "Predation of the giant Miocene caiman Purussaurus on a  mylodontid ground sloth in the wetlands of proto-Amazonia." Biology Letters 16.8 (2020): 20200239.

A Word on First Impressions—and Walking the Walk Fascinating research is continually uncovering all the tiny bits of data people perceive (even unconsciously) and analyze in a split second to make a judgment about the people in front of them. Some studies have found that even before you approach someone, they are able to generate lasting first impressions about the kind of person you are — and people may make snap decisions long before you even open your mouth. A 2012 study in the journal Cognition published findings that suggest that people can make pretty quick judgments about others based on an astonishingly small amount of visual data and “ motion components. A 2019 study by Fink et. al. in Biology Letters explains how women are able to accurately assess a man's physical strength by watching his gait, with strong walkers assessed as more attractive —however, this is not universal and varies depending on culture. Another study by Nicolas Guéguen in the journal Gait and Posture explored how women who are ovulating (and therefore more fertile) may unconsciously walk more slowly and in a way that observers rate as sexier. First impressions about who you are can greatly impact how attractive you seem to others —so it would be wise to make sure you' re making the best first impression possible. An upright posture usually signals to people that you are confident and self-assured, because people who are comfortable in themselves hold themselves (literally) in high regard. Similarly, be mindful of how you walk and hold yourself in space. Finally, be more aware of not just your posture, but how you move in space. If you are comfortable in your skin, it shows. Relationships and dating come down to sex and sexual attractiveness, and that comes down to what bodies think of other bodies. The best way to make a first impression is to think carefully—what message might your body be sending long before you open your mouth to speak.

Random computer glitches are unable to stop the gang from delivering another podcast! This week, they focus on two papers that look at the importance history for understanding trends in our modern biosphere. The first paper discusses how speciation trends are important for planning future conservation efforts, and the second paper looks at the importance of exaptive traits (characters evolved for one purpose but used for another) in the evolutionary history of sea snakes. Meanwhile, Amanda cuts deep, Curt has done this before, and James waits for his time to tell his very good joke.   Up-Goer Five (Curt Edition): Our friends talk about how the past is important. And this is funny because they already did this before but the big boxes with bits that will shock your hand if you touch them lost the talk they did about the past being important so they are doing it again. The first paper they look at is short. It is about how animals living in places that are high up but in warm places make new types of animals that stay at the same high up place, not higher or lower. This means new animals will more often be living the same types of places as the older animals they came from, and this means that as places change we need to make sure the types of places where these animals live can stay open. The second paper looks at how long animals without legs moved into the water. There are many groups of animals without legs that moved into water, and this paper wants to know the types of places they were in before they moved into water and also if the things they all have that make it easier to be in water were things that appeared before they moved into water (letting them move in there) or after they moved into water (making it better to be in water). They find that most of these groups started in areas with trees before moving into water. They also find that the things which make it easier to be in water appeared in older groups well before these animals moved into water. This means that the things that made it easy to go in water appeared first, and then this made it so these animals could then move into water.   References: Linck, Ethan B., et al. "Evolutionary conservatism will limit responses to climate change in the tropics." Biology Letters 17.10 (2021): 20210363. Gearty, William, Elsie Carrillo, and  Jonathan L. Payne. "Ecological filtering and exaptation in the evolution  of marine snakes." The American Naturalist 198.4 (2021): 506-521.

V chování včelích dělnic se může ukrývat klíč k pochopení alkoholové závislosti. Vědci totiž zjistili, že včely stejně jako lidé po odejmutí alkoholu prožívají abstinenční příznaky, všímá si server americké stanice ABC News. Portál odkazuje na studii odborníků z Polské akademie věd, která byla zveřejněna v úterý ve vědeckém žurnálu Biology Letters.

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Tess Gridley about an epic journey made by a grey whale that travelled more than 25,000 kilometres from the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean, where this species typically feed and breed, to Walvis Bay in Namibia. Gridley, who is co-director of the Namibia Dolphin Project/Sea Search and research associate in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University was part of the team that first spotted the lone 12-metre-long cetacean in 2013. The findings of the researchers from Stellenbosch University and Durham University in the United Kingdom was published earlier this week in the journal, Biology Letters. It's also available online at: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl

In this week's edition of Being Green, Glynis Crook speaks to Dr Tess Gridley about an epic journey made by a grey whale that travelled more than 25,000 kilometres from the waters of the northern Pacific Ocean, where this species typically feed and breed, to Walvis Bay in Namibia. Gridley, who is co-director of the Namibia Dolphin Project/Sea Search and research associate in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University was part of the team that first spotted the lone 12-metre-long cetacean in 2013. The findings of the researchers from Stellenbosch University and Durham University in the United Kingdom was published earlier this week in the journal, Biology Letters. It's also available online at: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rsbl

New research has found that a gray whale has swum the longest distance ever recorded in a marine vertebrate, over 25,000 kilometres, from the North Pacific to Walvis Bay in the southern hemisphere. The lone male cetacean was spotted off the coast of Namibia in 2013 but it took several years of genetic research to confirm its origins much further north near Sakhalin island in Russia. The paper was published earlier this week in the journal Biology Letters. We speak to Dr Simon Elwen, co-director of the Namibia Dolphin Project/Sea Search and research associate in the Department of Botany and Zoology at Stellenbosch University, who was one of the team that first sighted the whale. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Learn about dog jealousy; physical activity at work vs. at play; and why only certain parts of us get pruney when wet. Dogs act jealous of their owner's attention to other dogs even when they can't see the dog by Steffie Drucker Dogs act jealously even when they don’t see their rival. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/afps-daj040821.php   Bastos, A. P. M., Neilands, P. D., Hassall, R. S., Lim, B. C., & Taylor, A. H. (2021). Dogs Mentally Represent Jealousy-Inducing Social Interactions. Psychological Science, 095679762097914. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620979149  Coren, S. (2017, January 19). Do Dogs Feel Jealousy or Envy? American Kennel Club; American Kennel Club. https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/lifestyle/do-dogs-feel-jealousy-or-envy/  Physical activity for leisure is good for your health, but physical activity on the job is not by Kelsey Donk Leisure physical activity is linked with health benefits but work activity is not. (2021). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2021-04/esoc-lpa040721.php  Holtermann, A., Schnohr, P., Nordestgaard, B. G., & Marott, J. L. (2021). The physical activity paradox in cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality: the contemporary Copenhagen General Population Study with 104 046 adults. European Heart Journal, 42(15), 1499–1511. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurheartj/ehab087  Why do our fingers get pruney in water but not our mouths? by Ashley Hamer (Listener question from Ethan in Ithaca) Summers, B. (2013). Science gets a grip on wrinkly fingers. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature.2013.12175  ‌Yong, E. (2011). Pruney fingers grip better. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/news.2011.388  Water-induced finger wrinkles improve handling of wet objects | Biology Letters. (2013). Biology Letters. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rsbl.2012.0999  Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to learn something new every day withCody Gough andAshley Hamer — for free!  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Become smarter in 5 minutes by signing up for free today: http://cen.yt/mbminuteearth - Thanks to Morning Brew for sponsoring today’s video. Because there are so many different types of penises among our evolutionary relatives, we didn’t know until a recent discovery whether they all had the same origin. LEARN MORE ************** To learn more about this topic, start your googling with these keywords: - Amniote: Vertebrates whose embryos are enclosed in a thin sac. - Cloaca: A posterior orifice used for excretion and reproduction. - Cloacal Kiss: A method that penisless amniotes use to mate, which involves males and females momentarily pressing their cloacae together. - Tuatara: Reptiles endemic to New Zealand that are the only surviving members of their ancient amniote group. - Hemipenis: One of the paired copulatory organs of lizards and snakes. - Bmp4: A protein that, when present, stifles the growth of penises in chick embryos. - Convergent Evolution: The independent evolution of similar features in different species. SUPPORT MINUTEEARTH ************************** If you like what we do, you can help us!: - Become our patron: https://patreon.com/MinuteEarth - Share this video with your friends and family - Leave us a comment (we read them!) CREDITS ********* Emily Willingham | Script Writer David Goldenberg | Script Editor & Narrator Adam Thompson | Illustration, Video Editing and Animation Ever Salazar | Director Nathaniel Schroeder | Music MinuteEarth is produced by Neptune Studios LLC https://neptunestudios.info OUR STAFF ************ Sarah Berman • Arcadi Garcia i Rius David Goldenberg • Julián Gustavo Gómez Melissa Hayes • Alex Reich • Henry Reich • Peter Reich Ever Salazar • Leonardo Souza • Kate Yoshida OUR LINKS ************ Youtube | https://youtube.com/MinuteEarth TikTok | https://tiktok.com/@minuteearth Twitter | https://twitter.com/MinuteEarth Instagram | https://instagram.com/minute_earth Facebook | https://facebook.com/Minuteearth Website | https://minuteearth.com Apple Podcasts| https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/minuteearth/id649211176 REFERENCES ************** Ortiz-Ospina, E. (2017). “Life Expectancy” – What does this actually mean?. Our World In Data. Retrieved from: https://ourworldindata.org/life-expectancy-how-is-it-calculated-and-how-should-it-be-interpreted. Dendy, Arthur. 1899. “Memoirs: Outlines of the Development of the Tuatara, Sphenodon (Hatteria) punctatus.” Journal of Cell Science s2-42: 1–87. Cree, Alison. 2014. Tuatara: Biology and Conservation of a Venerable Survivor. Christchurch, New Zealand: Canterbury University Press. Gans, Carl, James C. Gillingham, and David Lang Clark. 1984. “Courtship, Mating and Male Combat in Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus.” Journal of Herpetology 18 (2): 194–97. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.2307/1563749. Sanger, Thomas J., Marissa L. Gredler, and Martin J. Cohn. 2015. “Resurrecting Embryos of the Tuatara, Sphenodon punctatus, to Resolve Vertebrate Phallus Evolution.” Biology Letters 11 (10): pii: 20150694. REtreieved from: https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2015.0694. Herrera, Ana María, Simone G. Shuster, Claire L. Perriton, and Martin J. Cohn. 2013. “Developmental Basis of Phallus Reduction During Bird Evolution.” Current Biology 23 (12): 1065–74. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.04.062. Brennan, Patricia L. R. 2016a. “Evolution: One Penis After All.” Current Biology 26: R29–R31. Retrieved from: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2015.11.024. Willingham, Emily. 2020. Fallacy: Life Lessons from the Animal Penis. Avery. Retrieved from: https://www.amazon.com/Phallacy-Life-Lessons-Animal-Penis/dp/0593087178

PODCAST EPISODE 47: Phil Lester, Author and Professor of Ecology and Entomology, Wellington, New Zealand A German proverb reads: “God made the bee, but the Devil made the wasp.” Anyone who knows me knows, I am not a wasp fan in the slightest, especially not of the nasty European wasp. As Australia's warm climate extends the life cycle of the introduced species, and a lack of predators increases its chance of survival, European wasps have become notorious in the antipodes. Reaping the benefits of mild winters that generate longer lifecycles, the introduced species has been found to build nests four times larger than those found in Europe! And that's just the beginning. European wasps prey on indigenous fauna, kill pets and livestock, raid beehives for honey and bees, decimate grape and fruit crops, and threaten humans with their fatal sting. In order to delve deep into the lives of these destructive pests for episode 47 of the BEES WITH BEN beekeeping podcast, I was lucky enough to chat to Professor of Ecology and Entomology Phil Lester – author of two of my favourite books and over 125 articles on invasive ants, wasps and other insects in journals such as Biology Letters, Ecology, and Proceedings of the Royal Society. What an incredible wealth of knowledge! Phil's stellar book from 2018 ‘The Vulgar Wasp: The Story of a Ruthless Invader and Ingenious Predator' unpacks the mysteries of the despised common wasp, asking questions such as: how can we manage wasps? Can we ever learn to live with them? What can they teach us about the challenges we face for pest control? His more recent book from 2020 ‘Healthy Bee, Sick Bee: The Influence of Parasites, Pathogens, Predators and Pesticides on Honey Bees' presents quite an opposite story: the story of one of the most well-loved creatures on the planet! Both publications are packed with information and anecdotes that will educate and surprise even the savviest beekeeper, and Phil's wit and intelligence make both books great page turners. Tune in to hear Phil and I chat about the good, bad and the ugly of the bee and wasp universe – perfect timing considering European wasps have been very active with the La Nina weather cycle! Eeek!

In this instalment we are talking tortoises - how clever are they, and how well do they get on with ravens? We follow up the tortoise double header with a miniature Species of the Bi-Week.  Become a Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/herphighlights FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Santacà, M., Petrazzini, M. E. M., Agrillo, C., & Wilkinson, A. (2019). Can Reptiles Perceive Visual Illusions? Delboeuf Illusion in Red-Footed Tortoise (Chelonoidis carbonaria) and Bearded Dragon (Pogona vitticeps). Journal of Comparative Psychology, 133(4), 419–427. https://doi.org/10.1037/com0000176 Segura, A., Jimenez, J., & Acevedo, P. (2020). Predation of young tortoises by ravens: the effect of habitat structure on tortoise detectability and abundance. Scientific Reports, 10(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58851-5 Species of the Bi-Week: Loc-Barragán, J. A., Reyes-Velasco, J., Woolrich-Piña, G. A., Grünwald, C. I., de Anaya, M. V., Rangel-Mendoza, J. A., & López-Luna, M. A. (2020). A new species of mud turtle of genus kinosternon (Testudines: Kinosternidae) from the pacific coastal plain of northwestern Mexico. Zootaxa, 4885(4), 509–529. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4885.4.3 Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Smith, S. N., Jones, M. D., Marshall, B. M., Waengsothorn, S., Gale, G. A., & Strine, C. T. (2021). Native Burmese pythons exhibit site fidelity and preference for aquatic habitats in an agricultural mosaic. Scientific Reports, 11(1), 1-13. Soldati, F., Burman, O. H. P., John, E. A., Pike, T. W., & Wilkinson, A. (2017). Long-term memory of relative reward values. Biology Letters, 13, 20160853. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0853 Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Species Bi-week theme – Mike Mooney Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

Dr. David Beerling: works as a soil researcher at The University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, is Director of the Leverhulme Centre for Climate Change Mitigation and Sorby Professor of Natural Sciences in the Department of Animal and Plant Sciences at the University of Sheffield, UK. He also is Editor in Chief of the Royal Society journal Biology Letters. He talks about soil sequestration of carbon and specifically spreading rock dust on soil, a process known as enhanced rock weathering. This interview was aired 4/2/21 on Planet Philadelphia, a radio show about our shared environment, on 92.9FM WGGT-LP in Philadelphia and streamed on at gtownradio.com. For more information go to: www.planetphiladelphia.com | @planetphila --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kay-wood9/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kay-wood9/support

In this episode of The Woof Meow Show from January 23rd, 2021, Kate and Don address four topics; What is the ideal age for spaying or neutering your dog, the behavior of adolescent or teenage dogs, how much water should a dog be drinking, and new DNA research about the evolution and domestication of the domestic dog. Contact Info Don Hanson & Kate DutraGreen Acres Kennel Shop & The Woof Meow Show Bangor, ME (207) 945-6841 https://www.greenacreskennel.com/ https://www.facebook.com/GreenAcresKennelShop/ https://woofmeowshow.libsyn.com/ https://www.facebook.com/WoofMeowShow/   Recommended Resources Links to Articles in the Podcast Ideal Timing for Spaying or Neutering Your Dog, Karen Becker – https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2020/08/22/ideal-age-for-neutering-dogs.aspx Young Dogs Might Be More Similar to Human Teenagers Than We Think: New Research, BARKS from the Guild – https://barksfromtheguild.com/2020/09/21/young-dogs-might-be-more-similar-to-human-teenagers-than-we-think-new-research/ Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog, Biology Letters – https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0097 Is Your Dog Drinking the Right Amount of Water – Dr. Karen Becker – https://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2014/05/07/dog-water-consumption.aspx Ancient Dog DNA Shows Early Spread Around the Globe, NY Times, Oct. 2020 – https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/29/science/ancient-dog-dna.html#:~:text=Research%20on%20fossil%20canine%20genomes,and%20humans%20in%20prehistoric%20times.&text=The%20most%20extensive%20study%20of,a%20group%20of%20extinct%20wolves. How dogs tracked their humans across the ancient world, Science, Oct. 2020 – https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/10/how-dogs-tracked-their-humans-across-ancient-world Study of ancient dog DNA traces canine diversity to the Ice Age, Science Daily, Oct. 2020 – https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201029141945.htm#:~:text=A%20global%20study%20of%20ancient%20dog%20DNA%2C%20led%20by%20scientists,immediately%20following%20the%20Ice%20Age. Ancient dog DNA reveals 11,000 years of canine evolution, Nature, Oct. 2020 – https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03053-2

Welcome to the first episode of 2021 where we dissect a scientific study which, although valid and adhering to professional standards, begs the question as to whether the exercise,  grounded in positive reinforcement training used to determine the results,  is a factor in creating the change in behaviors commonly associated with the adolescent stage.In other words: are the methods we use to solve the problems actually causing the problems?NOTE: You do not need to be a scientist to understand the info in this episode, nor do you need to review the study before hand.   Dr. Naomi Harvey - on her twitter page, she condenses the study into a reader-friendly version:https://mobile.twitter.com/Naomi_D_HarveyHere is the link to the study:Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog | Biology Letters (royalsocietypublishing.org)Links to Billie Groom and UPWARD Dogology: https://www.upwarddogology.com/   Billie Groom | LinkedIn(2) UPWARD Dogology (@UDogology) / TwitterUPWARD Dogology (@upwarddogology) • Instagram photos and videosUpward Dogology | FacebookAs you can see, we have moved to a monthly schedule to allow more time to pursue options for sharing the UPWARD Dogology formula on a larger scale, and to create episodes with in-depth information on dog behavior.Season 6 dissects dog behavior using various scientific studies and methods to help us better understand adolescent and rescued dogs.  Season 5 is a "Dogology" of tips, Q and A's, interviews, discussions and a deeper look UPWARD Dogology all with the goal of making the world a better place! Season 4 is interviews with people and organizations. Be part of the solution by listening, sharing, and reviewing.  Season 3 dives deep into trending methods. Are they right for you and your dog? Season 2 shares the learning journey of my clients with dogs; always interesting and a great way to feel a connections with others who have similar experiences.  Season 1 outlines my  learning journey and dives into the limitations of positive reinforcement training and introduces cognitive behavioral therapy.Thanks to Open Strum for the music!Open Strum (facebook.com)

Welcome to the final episode of 2020, where I give a short description on my developments with professionals in the early part of 2020 and then moved onto researching and pursuing ways to spread awareness of CBT for dogs by making connections with all kinds of interesting people and professionals. I talk about the surge of scientific studies in dog behavior and provide an example of how a common study on object permanence validates UPWARD Dogology.  I then talk briefly about the study by Dr. Naomi Harvey on adolescent dogs, and provide a challenge for the listeners. 2021 will be all about spreading awareness in the effort to make UPWARD Dogology mainstream. Thank you for all your support. Dr. Naomi Harvey - on her twitter page, she condenses the study into a reader-friendly version: https://mobile.twitter.com/Naomi_D_HarveyHere is the link to the study: Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog | Biology Letters (royalsocietypublishing.org)Article discussing object permanence:A Dog's Brain: Inside the Complex Canine Mind | TimeLinks to Billie Groom and UPWARD Dogology: https://www.upwarddogology.com/   Billie Groom | LinkedIn(2) UPWARD Dogology (@UDogology) / TwitterUPWARD Dogology (@upwarddogology) • Instagram photos and videosUpward Dogology | FacebookSeason 5 is a "Dogology" of tips, Q and A's, interviews, discussions and a deeper look UPWARD Dogology all with the goal of making the world a better place! Season 4 is interviews with people and organizations. Be part of the solution by listening, sharing, and reviewing.  Season 3 dives deep into trending methods. Are they right for you and your dog? Season 2 shares the learning journey of my clients with dogs; always interesting and a great way to feel a connections with others who have similar experiences.  Season 1 outlines my  learning journey and dives into the limitations of positive reinforcement training and introduces cognitive behavioral therapy.Thanks to Open Strum for the music!Open Strum (facebook.com)

A Biology Letters publicou em setembro um novo estudo sobre comportamento canino, que pode explicar mais um ponto na domesticação dos nossos cães domésticos. O artigo The link between selection for function and human-directed play behaviour in dogs, escrito pelos … O post #73 – Drops: Brincar com pessoas contribuiu com a domesticação do cães apareceu primeiro em Meu Nome Não É Não.

Trichobatrachus robustus, a.k.a the Hairy/Horror/Wolverine frog. Described somewhere after the late 1880s. Short and hairy, it prefers to inadvertently stab everyone who hugs it. Powers & Abilities include enhanced senses, animal-like attributes, a regenerative healing factor, retractable bone claws, an indestructible skeleton (it will destroy it itself before ever giving you a chance) and is a master foot-to-foot combatant. Its whole life, it felt like an animal. Nature made it a freak, we made it into an episode...but we also made it last too long :) ====================== Send us suggestions and comments to darwinsdeviations@gmail.com Intro/outro sampled from "Sequence (Mystery and Terror) 3" by Francisco Sánchez (@fanchisanchez) at pixabay.com Sound effects obtained from https://www.zapsplat.com Image Credit: Emőke Dénes, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (Episode image is heavily edited, the image owner reserves all rights to their image, and is not affiliated with our podcast) SOURCES: Squeakers: Frogs with Claws, Frogs with "Hair" About the Horror Frog 'Horror frog' breaks own bones to produce claws Blackburn et al. Concealed weapons: erectile claws in African frogs. Biology Letters, 2008; 1 (-1): -1 DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0219 BAREJ, M.F., BÖHME, W., PERRY, S.F., WAGNER, P., SCHMITZ, A. (2010) The hairy frog, a curly fighter? – A novel hypothesis on the function of hairs and claw-like terminal phalanges, including their biological and systematic significance (Anura: Arthroleptidae: Trichobatrachus). Revue Suisse de Zoologie 117(2): 243-263.

Like many a fossorial snake, Sand Boas hold many surprises; this episode we explore some of those. First, an investigation into Dollo’s “Law”, then a couple of natural history notes providing some insight into Sand Boa diets. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Lobo, J. V., & Streepada, K. S. (2015). First report on Whitaker’s boa Eryx whitakeri feeding on common vine snake. Reptile Rap, 17. Londei, T. (2015). Arabian sand boa Eryx jayakari (Squamata: Boidae) preying on Arabian toad-headed agama Phrynocephalus arabicus (Squamata: Agamidae): A nocturnal-to-diurnal species interaction. Herpetology Notes, 8, 155–15. Lynch, V. J., & Wagner, G. P. (2010). Did Egg-laying Boas Break Dollo’s Law? Phylogenetic Evidence For Reversal To Oviparity In Sand Boas (Eryx: Boidae). Evolution, 64(1), 207–216. doi: 10.1111/j.1558-5646.2009.00790.x Species of the Bi-Week: Nguyen, H. N., Tran, B. V., Nguyen, L. H., Neang, T., Yushchenko, P. V., & Poyarkov, N. A. (2020). A new species of Oligodon Fitzinger, 1826 from the Langbian Plateau, southern Vietnam, with additional information on Oligodon annamensis Leviton, 1953 (Squamata: Colubridae). PeerJ, 8, e8332. doi: 10.7717/peerj.8332 Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Laird, M. K., Thompson, M. B., & Whittington, C. M. (2019). Facultative oviparity in a viviparous skink (Saiphos equalis). Biology Letters, 15(4), 20180827. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2018.0827 Recknagel, H., Kamenos, N. A., & Elmer, K. R. (2018). Common lizards break Dollo’s law of irreversibility: genome-wide phylogenomics support a single origin of viviparity and re-evolution of oviparity. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 127, 579-588. Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

Researchers Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast will talk about the lessons we’ve learned from amazing new discoveries of extinct human species. Plus: learn about how dogs can be moody teenagers, too. Dogs can be annoying teenagers, too by Steffie Drucker Adolescence is ruff for dogs too. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-05/nu-air051220.php  Teenage dogs? Evidence for adolescent-phase conflict behaviour and an association between attachment to humans and pubertal timing in the domestic dog | Biology Letters. (2020). Biology Letters. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0097  Additional resources from Elizabeth Sawchuk and Mary Prendergast: Sawchuk, E., & Prendergast, M. (2019, December 23). Archaeological discoveries are happening faster than ever before, helping refine the human story. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/archaeological-discoveries-are-happening-faster-than-ever-before-helping-refine-the-human-story-128743  Lipson, M., Ribot, I., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Olalde, I., Adamski, N., Broomandkhoshbacht, N., Lawson, A. M., López, S., Oppenheimer, J., Stewardson, K., Asombang, R. N., Bocherens, H., Bradman, N., Culleton, B. J., Cornelissen, E., Crevecoeur, I., de Maret, P., Fomine, F. L. M., … Reich, D. (2020). Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history. Nature, 577(7792), 665–670. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-1929-1  Follow @prendydigs on Twitter https://twitter.com/prendydigs Mary Prendergast. (2019). Slu.edu. https://www.slu.edu/madrid/academics/faculty/mary-prendergast.php  Springer Verlag. (2020, February 15). Elizabeth SAWCHUK | Doctor of Philosophy | University of Alberta, Edmonton | UAlberta | Department of Anthropology. ResearchGate; ResearchGate. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Elizabeth_Sawchuk  Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY 

Learn about why it might actually be pretty easy to drink an elephant under the table; how carrier pigeons like Cher Ami helped win the world wars; and why night owls may have worse emotion regulation than morning people. Apparently, elephants get drunk and they're total lightweights by Cameron Duke Burke, J. (2010, December 3). Elephants on drunken rampage kill three people. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/dec/03/elephants-drunken-rampage-india Elephants Drunk in the Wild? Scientists Put the Myth to Rest. (2005, December 21). Animals. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2005/12/news-elephants-drunk-wild-myth/ Goldman, J. G. (2014). Do animals like drugs and alcohol? BBC.com; BBC Future. https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140528-do-animals-take-drugs Janiak, M. C., Pinto, S. L., Duytschaever, G., Carrigan, M. A., & Melin, A. D. (2020). Genetic evidence of widespread variation in ethanol metabolism among mammals: revisiting the ‘myth’’ of natural intoxication.’ Biology Letters, 16(4), 20200070. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0070 No, a bunch of elephants didn’t get drunk and fall asleep in a tea garden. (2020, March 20). The Daily Dot. https://www.dailydot.com/unclick/drunk-elephant-viral-story-debunked/ Siegel, R. K., & Brodie, M. (1984). Alcohol self-administration by elephants. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 22(1), 49–52. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03333758 Yirka, B. (2020, April 29). Study suggests elephants may get drunk naturally after all. Phys.org. https://phys.org/news/2020-04-elephants-drunk-naturally.html  Carrier pigeons helped win the world wars by Steffie Drucker Shapiro, M. D., & Domyan, E. T. (2013). Domestic pigeons. Current Biology, 23(8), R302–R303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2013.01.063  Guilford, T. (2014, April 23). Explainer: how do homing pigeons navigate? The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/explainer-how-do-homing-pigeons-navigate-25633  Dash, M. (2012, April 17). Closing the Pigeon Gap. Smithsonian Magazine; Smithsonian Magazine. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/closing-the-pigeon-gap-68103438/  Unsung heroes of World War I: the carrier pigeons. (2018, January 8). Pieces of History. https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2018/01/08/unsung-heroes-of-world-war-i-the-carrier-pigeons/  Maksel, R. (2018, August 29). When War Gets Weird. Air & Space Magazine; Air & Space Magazine. https://www.airspacemag.com/daily-planet/when-war-gets-weird-180970156/  ‌Pigeons in bras go to war. (2013, September 4). National Museum of American History. https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2013/09/pigeons-in-bras-go-to-war.html  Wings of Valor - The Lost Battalion in the Argonne Forest. (2014). Accessed via Archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20180705234207/http://www.homeofheroes.com:80/wings/part1/3_lostbattalion.html  Night owls may have worse emotion regulation than morning larks by Grant Currin Night Owls May Use Poorer Emotion Regulation Strategies Than Early Birds. (2020, April 16). Research Digest; Research Digest. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/04/16/night-owls-may-use-poorer-emotion-regulation-strategies-than-early-birds/  ‌Antúnez, J. M. (2020). Circadian typology is related to emotion regulation, metacognitive beliefs and assertiveness in healthy adults. PLOS ONE, 15(3), e0230169. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0230169  Resnick, B. (2016, March 18). If you’re just not a morning person, science says you may never be. Vox; Vox. https://www.vox.com/2016/3/18/11255942/morning-people-evening-chronotypes-sleeping  Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

Learn about how astronauts may build the first moon base with help from their own urine; how musicians and audiences synchronize their brain activity; and more than you ever thought you wanted to know about narwhal tusks. Astronauts may use their own urine to help build the first moon base by Cameron Duke Astronaut urine to build moon bases. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/f-sf-aut032720.php  How to build a Moon base. (2018). Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-07107-4  Pilehvar, S., Arnhof, M., Pamies, R., Valentini, L., & Kjøniksen, A.-L. (2020). Utilization of urea as an accessible superplasticizer on the moon for lunar geopolymer mixtures. Journal of Cleaner Production, 247, 119177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119177  What is Artemis? (2019). NASA. https://www.nasa.gov/what-is-artemis  Musicians and their audiences sync their brain activity by Grant Currin Young, E. (2020, March 23). Musicians and Their Audiences Show Synchronised Patterns of Brain Activity. Research Digest; British Psychological Society. https://digest.bps.org.uk/2020/03/23/musicians-and-their-audiences-show-synchronised-patterns-of-brain-activity/  ‌Hou, Y., Song, B., Hu, Y., Pan, Y., & Hu, Y. (2020). The averaged inter-brain coherence between the audience and a violinist predicts the popularity of violin performance. NeuroImage, 211, 116655. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2020.116655  Taylor, J.M. (2016, July 25). Mirror Neurons After a Quarter Century: New light, new cracks. Science in the News. Harvard University. http://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2016/mirror-neurons-quarter-century-new-light-new-cracks/  Why do male narwhals have tusks? Because the ladies love 'em by Grant Currin For narwhals, the “unicorn of the seas,” size matters for sexual selection. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/asu-fnt031220.php  The longer the better: evidence that narwhal tusks are sexually selected | Biology Letters. (2020). Biology Letters. https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0950  ‌Narwhal Tusk Research -- Anatomy and Morphology of the Tusk. (2012). Narwhal.org. https://www.narwhal.org/anatomy.html  Sexual Selection | Learn Science at Scitable. (2010). Nature.com. https://www.nature.com/scitable/knowledge/library/sexual-selection-13255240/  Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

Learn about why you eat differently when you’re stressed; how humpback whales use “bubble nets” to catch fish; and the surprising genetic reason why females outlive males. Why do we eat differently when stressed? by Steffie Drucker How to Manage Stress Eating (or Not Eating). (2020, March 25). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/25/well/how-to-manage-stress-eating-or-not-eating.html  Harvard Health Publishing. (2018, July 18). Why stress causes people to overeat. Harvard Health; Harvard Health. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/why-stress-causes-people-to-overeat  Adam, T. C., & Epel, E. S. (2007). Stress, eating and the reward system. Physiology & Behavior, 91(4), 449–458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.physbeh.2007.04.011  Rutledge, T., & Linden, W. (1998). Journal of Behavioral Medicine, 21(3), 221–240. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1018784015771  Exercise and stress: Get moving to manage stress. (2018). Mayo Clinic. https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/stress-management/in-depth/exercise-and-stress/art-20044469  Humpback whales use 'bubble nets' to catch fish by Cameron Duke How humpback whales catch prey with bubble nets. (n.d.). ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 26, 2020, from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110624083516.htm Humpback whales use their flippers and bubble “nets” to catch fish. (2019, October 15). Science News. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/humpback-whales-bubble-nets Kosma, M. M., Werth, A. J., Szabo, A. R., & Straley, J. M. (2019). Pectoral herding: an innovative tactic for humpback whale foraging. Royal Society Open Science, 6(10), 191104. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191104 Trifonovitch, K. (n.d.). Whale bubble-net feeding documented by UH researchers through groundbreaking video | University of Hawaiʻi System News. Retrieved March 26, 2020, from https://www.hawaii.edu/news/2019/10/13/whale-bubble-net-feeding-video/ The surprising genetic reason females outlive males by Cameron Duke Inherited Colour Vision Deficiency - Colour Blind Awareness. (2019). Colour Blind Awareness. http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/inherited-colour-vision-deficiency/  Why do men — and other male animals — tend to die younger? It’s all in the Y chromosome. (2020). EurekAlert! https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-03/uons-wdm030320.php  Xirocostas, Z. A., Everingham, S. E., & Moles, A. T. (2020). The sex with the reduced sex chromosome dies earlier: a comparison across the tree of life. Biology Letters, 16(3), 20190867. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2019.0867 Subscribe to Curiosity Daily to learn something new every day with Cody Gough and Ashley Hamer. You can also listen to our podcast as part of your Alexa Flash Briefing; Amazon smart speakers users, click/tap “enable” here: https://www.amazon.com/Curiosity-com-Curiosity-Daily-from/dp/B07CP17DJY

Scientists have modified the genes of a certain type of bacterium to use it to fight climate change. Escherichia coli [esh-uh-RIK-ee-uh KOH-lahy] (E. coli) is a kind of bacterium that is usually found in human and animal intestines. While some strains are usually associated with food poisoning, most types of this bacterium are not harmful to humans and are useful in creating biofuels. In a study published in the journal Biology Letters, scientists found that aside from its known benefits, E. coli bacteria can be altered to live off carbon dioxide (CO2) in a similar way that plants do. The team wanted to find out whether modifying E. coli's genetic makeup could possibly switch the bacteria's sugar-based diet to a CO2-based one. The scientists added genes to an E. coli strain that enabled it to chemically process CO2. They also removed genes that are involved in processing sugar. To test the effectiveness of the modifications, the scientists left the bacteria in the lab for 200 days without any sugar. After this period, they found that the bacteria survived. Despite the finding, the scientists believe that more research is required for the modified bacteria to be useful in tackling climate change. Currently, the modified E. coli bacteria consume CO2 for their growth, but the amount of gas they release is greater than the amount they consume. However, if this technique is developed well, the modified bacteria can have a lot of potential uses, according to Professor Francis Sargent of Newcastle University. Aside from being used to cut down CO2 emissions, bacteria may also be modified to produce important medical substances like insulin.

Discussions of the reptiles of Christmas Island(s) abound in episode 42. We kick off with a paper about juvenile snake sizes and follow up with some info about reptiles crossing oceans. The Species of the Bi-Week is a brand new reptile which takes it's name from a fluffy mammal. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Aubret, F. (2015). Island colonisation and the evolutionary rates of body size in insular neonate snakes. Heredity, 115(4), 349–356. https://doi.org/10.1038/hdy.2014.65 Oliver, P. M., Blom, M. P. K., Cogger, H. G., Fisher, R. N., Richmond, J. Q., & Woinarski, J. C. Z. (2018). Insular biogeographic origins and high phylogenetic distinctiveness for a recently depleted lizard fauna from Christmas Island, Australia. Biology Letters, 14(6), 20170696. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0696 Species of the Bi-Week: Wostl, E., Hamidy, A., Kurniawan, N., & Smith, E. N. (2017). A new species of Wolf Snake of the genus Lycodon H. Boie in Fitzinger (Squamata: Colubridae) from the Aceh Province of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Zootaxa, 4276(4), 539. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4276.4.6 Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Andrew, P., Cogger, H., Driscoll, D., Flakus, S., Harlow, P., Maple, D., ... & Tiernan, B. (2018). Somewhat saved: a captive breeding programme for two endemic Christmas Island lizard species, now extinct in the wild. Oryx, 52(1), 171-174. Aubret, F., & Shine, R. (2009). Genetic Assimilation and the Postcolonization Erosion of Phenotypic Plasticity in Island Tiger Snakes. Current Biology, 19(22), 1932–1936. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2009.09.061 Holt, B. G., Lessard, J.-P., Borregaard, M. K., Fritz, S. A., Araujo, M. B., Dimitrov, D., … Rahbek, C. (2013). An Update of Wallace’s Zoogeographic Regions of the World. Science, 339(6115), 74–78. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1228282 Herrel, A., Huyghe, K., Vanhooydonck, B., Backeljau, T., Breugelmans, K., Grbac, I., ... & Irschick, D. J. (2008). Rapid large-scale evolutionary divergence in morphology and performance associated with exploitation of a different dietary resource. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105(12), 4792-4795. Rocha, S., Carretero, M. A., Vences, M., Glaw, F., & James Harris, D. (2006). Deciphering patterns of transoceanic dispersal: the evolutionary origin and biogeography of coastal lizards (Cryptoblepharus) in the Western Indian Ocean region. Journal of Biogeography, 33(1), 13–22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2005.01375.x Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com  

This week, we’re presenting stories about unexpected friendships in science, whether they’re formed in the field or at Burning Man. Part 1: Looking to connect with new people, mathematician Seth Cottrell sets up an ‘Ask a Mathematician’ booth at Burning Man. Part 2:  When herpetologist Joseph Mendelson gets his an opportunity to do fieldwork in Guatemala during his first year of graduate school, he struggles to connect with the locals. Seth Cottrell earned his PhD in mathematics from the Courant Institute at NYU.  His research is in quantum information and he teaches at New York City College of Technology.  For ten years, Seth has talked to complete strangers about math and physics and written about it at askamathematician.com.  His new book is “Do Colors Exist?: And Other Profound Physics Questions.” Joseph R. Mendelson III has been studying amphibians and reptiles for more than 30 years, concentrating mostly on Mexico and Central America. Most of his work has involved evolutionary studies and taxonomy―including the discovery and naming of about 40 new species. Other studies have included ecology, biomechanics, and natural history. Formerly an Associate Professor in Biology at Utah State University, Mendelson transitioned his career to balance his energies between research and conservation, while still teaching at the university level. Currently he is Director of Research at Zoo Atlanta and Adjunct Associate Professor of Biology at Georgia Tech University, where he teaches regularly. He also is Past-President of the Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, the world’s largest professional herpetological society. Joe has published more than 100 technical papers in peer-reviewed journals such as Science, Biology Letters, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Journal of Experimental Biology, Journal of Herpetology and Molecular Ecology.  He has also authored a number of articles and essays. His work has been featured in media outlets such as National Public Radio, National Geographic, Nature, New York Times, CNN, and Comedy Central’s Colbert Report. Additionally, Joe is a guitarist in the Atlanta-based science punk-rock band Leucine Zipper and the Zinc Fingers.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Smart lizards!? Traditionally, lizards are thought of as simple, but this episode we look at some smart skinks whose intelligence allows them to learn from each other. We look at a couple factors that influence that itelligence. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Munch, K. L., Noble, D. W. A., Botterill-James, T., Koolhof, I. S., Halliwell, B., Wapstra, E., & While, G. M. (2018). Maternal effects impact decision-making in a viviparous lizard. Biology Letters, 14(4), 20170556. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0556 Whiting, M. J., Xu, F., Kar, F., Riley, J. L., Byrne, R. W., & Noble, D. W. A. (2018). Evidence for Social Learning in a Family Living Lizard. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 6(May). https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00070 Species of the Bi-Week: Grismer, L. L., Wood, P. L., Lim, K. K. P., & Liang, L. J. (2017). A new species of swamp-dwelling skink (Tytthoscincus) from Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia. Raffles Bulletin of Zoology, 65(October), 574–584. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Beck, B. B. (1967). A Study of Problem Solving By Gibbons. Behaviour, 28(1–2), 95–109. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853967X00190 Dayananda, B., & Webb, J. K. (2017). Incubation under climate warming affects learning ability and survival in hatchling lizards. Biology Letters, 13(3). https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2017.0002 Duckett, P. E., Morgan, M. H., & Stow, A. J. (2012). Tree-dwelling populations of the skink Egernia striolata aggregate in groups of close kin. Copeia, 2012(1), 130-134. Gardner, M. G., Hugall, A. F., Donnellan, S. C., Hutchinson, M. N., & Foster, R. (2008). Molecular systematics of social skinks: phylogeny and taxonomy of the Egernia group (Reptilia: Scincidae). Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 154(4), 781-794. Munch, K. L., Noble, D. W. A., Wapstra, E., & While, G. M. (2018). Mate familiarity and social learning in a monogamous lizard. Oecologia, 188(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-018-4153-z Riley, J. L., Küchler, A., Damasio, T., Noble, D. W. A., Byrne, R. W., & Whiting, M. J. (2018). Learning ability is unaffected by isolation rearing in a family-living lizard. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, 72(2), 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-017-2435-9 Riley, J. L., Noble, D. W. A., Byrne, R. W., & Whiting, M. J. (2017). Early social environment influences the behaviour of a family-living lizard. Royal Society Open Science, 4(5), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.161082 Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

This fortnight we are delving into the peculiar world of caecilians. Fossorial amphibians that seldom show their faces on the surface. We chat about caecilians' strange adaptations and how a ten-year study has shed some light on their reproductive habits. The Species of the Bi-week is a suitably elongated and slimy critter. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Jared, C., Mailho-Fontana, P. L., Jared, S. G. S., Kupfer, A., Delabie, J. H. C., Wilkinson, M., & Antoniazzi, M. M. (2018). Life history and reproduction of the neotropical caecilian Siphonops annulatus (Amphibia, Gymnophiona, Siphonopidae), with special emphasis on parental care. Acta Zoologica, (March), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1111/azo.12254 Jared, C., Mailho-Fontana, P. L., Marques-Porto, R., Sciani, J. M., Pimenta, D. C., Brodie, E. D., & Antoniazzi, M. M. (2018). Skin gland concentrations adapted to different evolutionary pressures in the head and posterior regions of the caecilian Siphonops annulatus. Scientific Reports, 8(1), 1–7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-22005-5 Species of the Bi-Week: Maddock, S. T., Wilkinson, M., & Gower, D. J. (2018). A new species of small, long-snouted Hypogeophis Peters, 1880 (Amphibia: Gymnophiona: Indotyphlidae) from the highest elevations of the Seychelles island of Mahé. Zootaxa, 4450(3), 359–375. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4450.3.3 Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Jared, C. et al. (2005). Head co-ossification, phragmosis and defense in the casque-headed tree frog Corythomantis greeningi. Journal of Zoology, 265. Sawaya, P. (1940) Sobre o veneno das glândulas cutâneas, a secreção e o coração de Siphonops annulatus. Bot. Fac. Fill. Ci. Let. Univ. São Paulo. Ser. Zool. 4, 207–270 Wilkinson, M., Kupfer, A., Marques-Porto, R., Jeffkins, H., Antoniazzi, M. M., & Jared, C. (2008). One hundred million years of skin feeding? Extended parental care in a Neotropical caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona). Biology Letters, 4(4), 358–361. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2008.0217 Wilson, N. J., Stokes, A. N., Hopkins, G. R., Brodie, Jr., E. D., & Williams, C. R. (2014). Functional and physiological resistance of crayfish to amphibian toxins: tetrodotoxin resistance in the white river crayfish (Procambarus acutus). Canadian Journal of Zoology, 92(11), 939–945. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjz-2014-0128 Other Links/Mentions: BBC Life in Cold Blood - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCF4qmxdkkM Video of caecilian babies eating the skin of their mother: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K6szXrBHwM Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

The gang discusses two papers that investigate the ways that tetrapods return to the sea. It's another opportunity for Amanda talk at length about her favorite topic, CONVERGENCE. Meanwhile, James has ideas about "moral fortitude", Curt makes slightly off references to 80s films, Amanda exercises her desire to be deadly, and Mr. Jowls has some opinions that need to be heard.   Up-Goer Five (Amanda Edition):  Today our friends talk about animals with four feet that go back to the water. This is just a reason for our friends to talk about why some animals that are not very close like brothers look very much the same. The first paper says that since the start of the time of large animals with no hair and big teeth, there are more animals with four feet that go back to the water. Many of the animals with four feet that go back to the water look so very the same it is sometimes hard to tell that they are different if you do not look close. They talk about things that make these animals with four feet that go back to the water better for being in water, and how whole big groups of animals do not all change the same, but small groups change faster or more than others. They also talk about how and why these animals are changing. The second paper is about an animal with four feet and a long neck that goes back to the water. It has funny teeth and did not eat very small things like the largest animals living today that have no teeth, even though some things about this animal with four feet and a long neck that goes back to the water that might make you think that they ate very small things. It also has very heavy inside hard parts like big heavy water animals that get hit by people in wood things that go fast. This makes it heavy in water so it does not stay on top of the water but goes down to the bottom. This is how it ate food maybe.    References: de Miguel Chaves, Carlos, Francisco Ortega, and Adán Pérez-García. "New highly pachyostotic nothosauroid interpreted as a filter-feeding Triassic marine reptile." Biology Letters 14.8 (2018): 20180130.   Kelley, Neil P., and Nicholas D. Pyenson. "Evolutionary innovation and ecology in marine tetrapods from the Triassic to the Anthropocene." Science 348.6232 (2015): aaa3716. 

Generally speaking, toads are laid back, easy-going creatures. But every so often a species will find itself an invader in a new land and wreak total havoc. We discuss one such toad (but not necessarily the one you might think). Of course there is a toad which is brand new to science as well, in our Species of the Bi-Week. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com  Main Paper References: Moore, M, JFSN Fidy, and D Edmonds. 2015. “The New Toad in Town: Distribution of the Asian Toad, Duttaphrynus Melanostictus, in the Toamasina Area of Eastern Madagascar.” Tropical Conservation Science 8 (2): 440–55. Marshall, BM, NR Casewell, M Vences, F Glaw, F Andreone, A Rakotoarison, G Zancolli, F Woog, and W Wüster. 2018. “Widespread Vulnerability of Malagasy Predators to the Toxins of an Introduced Toad.” Current Biology 28 (11): R654–55. Species of the Bi-Week: Landestoy T., MA, DB Turner, AB Marion, and SB Hedges. 2018. “A New Species of Caribbean Toad (Bufonidae, Peltophryne) from Southern Hispaniola.” Zootaxa 4403 (3): 523. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Brown, GP, BL Phillips, JK Webb, and R Shine. 2006. “Toad on the Road: Use of Roads as Dispersal Corridors by Cane Toads (Bufo marinus) at an Invasion Front in Tropical Australia.” Biological Conservation 133 (1): 88–94. Feit, B, CE Gordon, JK Webb, TS Jessop, SW Laffan, T Dempster, and M Letnic. 2018. “Invasive Cane Toads Might Initiate Cascades of Direct and Indirect Effects in a Terrestrial Ecosystem.” Biological Invasions. Springer International Publishing, 1–15. Jenkins, RKB, A Rabearivelo, CT Chan, WM Andre, R Randrianavelona, and JC Randrianantoandro. 2009. “The Harvest of Endemic Amphibians for Food in Eastern Madagascar.” Tropical Conservation Science 2 (1): 25–33. Kelly, E, and BL Phillips. 2018. “Targeted Gene Flow and Rapid Adaptation in an Endangered Marsupial.” Conservation Biology, June. Kuo, H-Y, C-W Hsu, J-H Chen, Y-L Wu, and Y-S Shen. 2007. “Life-Threatening Episode after Ingestion of Toad Eggs: A Case Report with Literature Review.” Emergancy Medecine Journal 24 (3): 215–16. Llewelyn, J, K Bell, L Schwarzkopf, RA Alford, and R Shine. 2012. “Ontogenetic Shifts in a Prey’s Chemical Defences Influence Feeding Responses of a Snake Predator.” Oecologia 169 (4): 965–73. O’Shea, M, A Kathriner, S Mecke, C Sanchez, and H Kaiser. 2013. “‘Fantastic Voyage’: A Live Blindsnake (Ramphotyphlops Braminus) Journeys through the Gastrointestinal System of a Toad (Duttaphrynus melanostictus).” Herpetology Notes 6 (1): 467–70. Mohammadi, S, Z Gompert, J Gonzalez, H Takeuchi, A Mori, and AH Savitzky. 2016. “Toxin-Resistant Isoforms of Na+/K+-ATPase in Snakes Do Not Closely Track Dietary Specialization on Toads.” Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 283: 20162111. Phillips, BL, and R Shine. 2004. “Adapting to an Invasive Species: Toxic Cane Toads Induce Morphological Change in Australian Snakes.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 101 (49): 17150–55. Pramuk, JB, T Robertson, JW Sites, and BP Noonan. 2008. “Around the World in 10 Million Years: Biogeography of the Nearly Cosmopolitan True Toads (Anura: Bufonidae).” Global Ecology and Biogeography 17 (1): 72–83. Reardon, J. T., Kraus, F., Moore, M., Rabenantenaina, L., Rabinivo, A., Rakotoarisoa, N. H., & Randrianasolo, H. H. (2018). Testing tools for eradicating the invasive toad Duttaphrynus melanostictus in Madagascar. Conservation Evidence 15, 12-19. Ujvari, B, HC Mun, AD Conigrave, A Bray, J Osterkamp, P Halling, and T Madsen. 2013. “Isolation Breeds Naivety: Island Living Robs Australian Varanid Lizards of Toad-Toxin Immunity via Four-Base-Pair Mutation.” Evolution 67 (1): 289–94. Ujvari, B, H Mun, AD Conigrave, C Ciofi, and T Madsen. 2014. “Invasive Toxic Prey May Imperil the Survival of an Iconic Giant Lizard, the Komodo Dragon.” Pacific Conservation Biology 20 (4): 363–65. Ujvari, B, NR Casewell, K Sunagar, K Arbuckle, W Wüster, N Lo, D O’Meally, et al. 2015. “Widespread Convergence in Toxin Resistance by Predictable Molecular Evolution.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112 (38): 11911–11916. Vences, M, JL Brown, A Lathrop, GM Rosa, A Cameron, A Crottini, R Dolch, et al. 2017. “Tracing a Toad Invasion: Lack of Mitochondrial DNA Variation, Haplotype Origins, and Potential Distribution of Introduced Duttaphrynus melanostictus in Madagascar.” Amphibia-Reptilia 38 (2): 197–207. Wogan, GOU, BL Stuart, DT Iskandar, and JA McGuire. 2016. “Deep Genetic Structure and Ecological Divergence in a Widespread Human Commensal Toad.” Biology Letters 12 (1): 20150807. Other Links/Mentions: CrocFest - www.crocfest.org Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

Vipers, sedentary and slow, until it matters most. But how fast can vipers strike? And how do other snakes compare? We check out a couple of papers answering these questions this fortnight as well as checking in on another Species of the Bi-week. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Higham, TE, RW Clark, CE Collins, MD Whitford, and GA Freymiller. 2017. “Rattlesnakes Are Extremely Fast and Variable When Striking at Kangaroo Rats in Nature: Three-Dimensional High-Speed Kinematics at Night.” Scientific Reports 7: 40412. Penning, DA, B Sawvel, and BR Moon. 2016. “Debunking the Viper’s Strike: Harmless Snakes Kill a Common Assumption.” Biology Letters 12 (3): 20160011. Species of the Bi-Week: Wickramasinghe, LJM, DR Vidanapathirana, HKD Kandambi, RA Pyron, and N Wickramasinghe. 2017. “A New Species of Aspidura Wagler, 1830 (Squamata: Colubridae: Natricinae) from Sri Pada Sanctuary (Peak Wilderness), Sri Lanka.” Zootaxa 4347 (2): 275–92. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Devan-Song, A, P Martelli, D Dudgeon, P Crow, G Ades, and NE Karraker. 2016. “Is Long-Distance Translocation an Effective Mitigation Tool for White-Lipped Pit Vipers (Trimeresurus Albolabris) in South China?” Biological Conservation 204: 212–20. O’Hanlon, SJ, A Rieux, RA Farrer, GM Rosa, B Waldman, A Bataille, TA Kosch, et al. 2018. “Recent Asian Origin of Chytrid Fungi Causing Global Amphibian Declines.” Science 360 (6389): 621–27. Rundus, A. S., Owings, D. H., Joshi, S. S., Chinn, E. and Giannini, N. (2007). Ground squirrelsuse an infrared signal to deter rattlesnake predation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 104, 14372–14376. Schraft, H. A., & Clark, R. W. (2017). Kangaroo rats change temperature when investigating rattlesnake predators. Physiology & behavior, 173, 174-178. Other Links/Mentions: Videos from Higham et al. 2017 Snake miss: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBEp2LtQwZ8&feature=youtu.be Rat escapes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jCxvIk8wS_8&feature=youtu.be Rattlesnake falls down hill from Barbour and Clark 2012 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJ0EmVnDHkE Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

Monitor lizards are renowned savengers... or so is widely thought. There are a few species that have cast aside the scavenger ways of their compatriots, opting for more relaxed arboreal lifestyles, spending their days high in the tree tops foraging for fruit. These frugivorous monitor lizards are are joined by a serpentine Species of the Bi-week. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Bennett, D. 2014. “The Arboreal Foraging Behavior of the Frugivorous Monitor Lizard Varanus Olivaceus on Polillo Island.” Biawak 8 (1): 15–18. Law, SJ, SR De Kort, D Bennett, and M Van Weerd. 2016. “Morphology, Activity Area, and Movement Patterns of the Frugivorous Monitor Lizard Varanus Bitatawa.” Herpetological Conservation and Biology 11 (3): 467–75. Species of the Bi-Week: Brown, RM, U Smart, AE Leviton, and EN Smith. 2018. “A New Species of Long-Glanded Coralsnake of the Genus Calliophis (Squamata: Elapidae) from Dinagat Island, with Notes on the Biogeography and Species Diversity of Philippine Calliophis and Hemibungarus.” Herpetologica 74 (1): 89–104. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Bennett, D. 2014. “A Dubious Account of Breeding Varanus Olivaceus in Captivity at the Paradise Reptile Zoo in Mindoro, Philippines.” Biawak 8 (1): 12–14. Bennett, D, and T Clements. 2014. “The Use of Passive Infrared Camera Trapping Systems in the Study of Frugivorous Monitor Lizards.” Biawak 8 (1): 19–30. Gunawardena, S. A. 2016. “Forensic Significance of Monitor Lizard Scavenging Activity on Human Corpses.” Biawak 10 (2): 45-47. Koch, A., and E. Arida. 2017. “A coconut-eating monitor lizard? On an unusual case of frugivory in the melanistic Sulawesi water monitor (Varanus togianus).” Herpetological Bulletin 139: 41. Sugiura, S, and T Sato. 2018. “Successful Escape of Bombardier Beetles from Predator Digestive Systems.” Biology Letters 14 (2): 20170647. Sy, E. Y. 2012. “First record of Varanus bitatawa in the Philippine pet trade.” Biawak 6 (2): 73. Other Links/Mentions: Smallest monitor lizard article/video: http://www.australiangeographic.com.au/blogs/creatura-blog/2015/05/australian-lizard-the-worlds-smallest-monitor Music: Intro/outro – Treehouse by Ed Nelson Other Music – The Passion HiFi, www.thepassionhifi.com

Snakes of the sea. Yellow, striped, you name it. We look into some factors changing their colours, and how has the yellow-bellied sea snake become so widespread? Another Species of the Bi-week that’s entirely yellow but not entirely a species. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com Main Paper References: Brischoux, François, Cédric Cotté, Harvey B. Lillywhite, Frédéric Bailleul, Maxime Lalire, and Philippe Gaspar. 2016. “Oceanic Circulation Models Help to Predict Global Biogeography of Pelagic Yellow- Bellied Sea Snake.” Biology Letters 12: 6–9. Goiran, Claire, Paco Bustamante, and Richard Shine. 2017. “Industrial Melanism in the Seasnake Emydocephalus Annulatus.” Current Biology. 1–4. Species of the Bi-Week: Bessesen, Brooke L., and Gary J. Galbreath. 2017. “A New Subspecies of Sea Snake, Hydrophis Platurus Xanthos, from Golfo Dulce, Costa Rica.” ZooKeys 686: 109–23. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Bonnet, Xavier, Marine J. Briand, François Brischoux, Yves Letourneur, Thomas Fauvel, and Paco Bustamante. 2014. “Anguilliform Fish Reveal Large Scale Contamination by Mine Trace Elements in the Coral Reefs of New Caledonia.” Science of the Total Environment 470–471. Elsevier B.V.: 876–82. Chatelain, M., J. Gasparini, L. Jacquin, and A. Frantz. 2014. “The Adaptive Function of Melanin-Based Plumage Coloration to Trace Metals.” Biology Letters 10 (3): 20140164. Cook, Timothée R., Xavier Bonnet, T. Fauvel, Richard Shine, and François Brischoux. 2016. "Foraging behaviour and energy budgets of sea snakes: insights from implanted data loggers." Journal of Zoology 298(2): 82-93. Lillywhite, Harvey B., Coleman M. Sheehy Iii, François Brischoux, and Joseph B. Pfaller. 2015 "On the abundance of a pelagic sea snake." Journal of Herpetology 49(2): 184-189. Pickwell, George V. 1971. "Knotting and coiling behavior in the pelagic sea snake Pelamis platurus (L.)." Copeia 1971(2): 348-350. Reading, C. J., L. M. Luiselli, G. C. Akani, X. Bonnet, G. Amori, J. M. Ballouard, E. Filippi, G. Naulleau, D. Pearson, and L. Rugiero. 2010. “Are Snake Populations in Widespread Decline?” Biology Letters 6: 777–80. Sanders, Kate L., Michael SY Lee, Terry Bertozzi, and Arne R. Rasmussen. 2013. "Multilocus phylogeny and recent rapid radiation of the viviparous sea snakes (Elapidae: Hydrophiinae)." Molecular phylogenetics and evolution 66(3): 575-591. Shine, R., R. Reed, S. Shetty, and H. Cogger. 2002. "Relationships between sexual dimorphism and niche partitioning within a clade of sea-snakes (Laticaudinae)." Oecologia 133(1): 45-53. Shine, Richard, Terri Shine, James M. Shine, and Benjamin G. Shine. 2005. “Synchrony in Capture Dates Suggests Cryptic Social Organization in Sea Snakes (Emydocephalus Annulatus, Hydrophiidae).” Austral Ecology 30 (7): 805–11. Other Links/Mentions: Yellow bellied sea snakes ‘knotting’ and feeding: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=meGFcJ03bg0 iHerp Magazine Issue 3: https://view.joomag.com/iherp-australia-issue-3/0682664001501470952 Music – Treehouse by Ed Nelson

The Golden Mantella frog is the subject of this fortnights episode. Starting with a little bit about how they live in the wilds of Madagascar; followed by the larger portion of the podcast looking at a couple of the studies that have come out of the captive breeding initiatives. Species of the Bi-week returns, and features a couple of newly described frogs from Papua New Guinea. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com   Main Paper References: Passos, Luiza Figueiredo, Gerardo Garcia, and Robert John Young. 2017. “The Tonic Immobility Test: Do Wild and Captive Golden Mantella Frogs (Mantella Aurantiaca) Have the Same Response ?” PLoS ONE 12 (7): e0181972. OPEN ACCESS Passos, Luiza Figueiredo, Gerardo Garcia, and Robert John Young. 2017. “Neglecting the Call of the Wild : Captive Frogs like the Sound of Their Own Voice.” PLoS ONE 12 (7): 1–11. OPEN ACCESS Woodhead, C., Vences, M., Vieites, D.R., Gamboni, I., Fisher, B.L. and Griffiths, R.A., 2007. “Specialist or generalist? Feeding ecology of the Malagasy poison frog Mantella aurantiaca.” The Herpetological Journal 17 (4): 225-236. Species of the Bi-Week: Günther, Rainer, and Stephen Richards. 2016. “Description of Two New Species of the Microhylid Frog Genus Oreophryne (Amphibia: Anura: Microhylidae) from Southern Papua New Guinea.” Vertebrate Zoology 66 (2): 157–68. OPEN ACCESS Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Bee, M.A., Perrill, S.A. and Owen, P.C. 1999. “Size assessment in simulated territorial encounters between male green frogs (Rana clamitans).” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 45 (3-4): 177-184. Biju, S.D., and Franky Bossuyt. 2003. “New Frog Family from India Reveals an Ancient Biogeographical Link with the Seychelles.” Nature 425 (2001): 711–14. Bossuyt, Franky, and Kim Roelants. 2009. “Frogs and Toads (Anura).” In The Timetree of Life, edited by S. Blair Hedges and Sudhir Kumar, 357–64. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Burghardt, Gordon M. 2013. “Environmental Enrichment and Cognitive Complexity in Reptiles and Amphibians: Concepts, Review, and Implications for Captive Populations.” Applied Animal Behaviour Science 147 (3–4): 286–98. Gerhardt, H. C., and J. Rheinlaender. 1980. “Accuracy of Sound Localization in a Miniature Dendrobatid Frog.” Naturwissenschaften 67 (7): 362–63. Günther, Rainer, Stephen J. Richards, David Bickford, and Gregory R. Johnston. 2012. “A New Egg-Guarding Species of Oreophryne (Amphibia, Anura, Microhylidae) from Southern Papua New Guinea.” Zoosystematics and Evolution 88 (2): 223–30. Heying, Heather. 2001. “Mantella Laevigata (Climbing Mantella). Aborted Predation.” Herpetological Review 32 (1): 34–34. OPEN ACCESS Janani, S. Jegath, Karthikeyan Vasudevan, Elizabeth Prendini, Sushil Kumar Dutta, and Ramesh K. Aggarwal. 2017. “A New Species of the Genus Nasikabatrachus (Anura, Nasikabatrachidae) from the Eastern Slopes of the Western Ghats, India.” Alytes 34 (1–4): 1–19. OPEN ACCESS Johnson, J.A. and Brodie Jr, E.D. 1975. “The selective advantage of the defensive posture of the newt, Taricha granulosa.” American Midland Naturalist:.139-148. OPEN ACCESS Jovanovic, Olga, Miguel Vences, Goran Safarek, Falitiana C E Rabemananjara, and Rainer Dolch. 2009. “Predation upon Mantella Aurantiaca in the Torotorofotsy Wetlands, Central-Eastern Madagascar.” Herpetology Notes 2 (1): 95–97. Ligon, R.A. and McGraw, K.J. 2013. “Chameleons communicate with complex colour changes during contests: different body regions convey different information.” Biology Letters 9 (6): 20130892. OPEN ACCESS Mayer, Michael, Lisa M. Schulte, Evan Twomey, and Stefan Lötters. 2014. “Do Male Poison Frogs Respond to Modified Calls of a Müllerian Mimic?” Animal Behaviour 89: 45–51. Narins, Peter M, Walter Hödl, and Daniela S Grabul. 2003. “Bimodal Signal Requisite for Agonistic Behavior in a Dart-Poison Frog, Epipedobates Femoralis.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 100 (2): 577–80. OPEN ACCESS Rabemananjara, Falitiana C E, Noromalala Rasoamampionona Raminosoa, Olga Ramilijaona Ravoahangimalala, D. Rakotondravony, Franco Andreone, P. Bora, Angus I Carpenter, et al. 2008. “Malagasy Poison Frogs in the Pet Trade: A Survey of Levels of Exploitation of Species in the Genus Mantella.” Monografie Del Museo Regionale Di Scienze Naturali Di Torino XLV: 277–300. OPEN ACCESS Rodríguez, Ariel, Dennis Poth, Stefan Schulz, and Miguel Vences. 2011. “Discovery of Skin Alkaloids in a Miniaturized Eleutherodactylid Frog from Cuba.” Biology Letters 7: 414–18. OPEN ACCESS Saporito, Ralph A., Maureen A. Donnelly, Thomas F. Spande, and H. Martin Garraffo. 2012. “A Review of Chemical Ecology in Poison Frogs.” Chemoecology 22 (3): 159–68. Vences, Miguel, Frank Glaw, and Wolfgang Böhme. 1998. “Evolutionary Correlates of Microphagy in Alkaloid-Containing Frogs (Amphibia : Anura).” Zoologischer Anzeiger 236: 217–30. Woodhead, Cindy, Miguel Vences, David R. Vieites, Ilona Gamboni, Brian L. Fisher, and Richard A. Griffiths. 2007. “Specialist or Generalist? Feeding Ecology of the Malagasy Poison Frog Mantella Aurantiaca.” Herpetological Journal 17 (4): 225–36. Other Links/Mentions: Association Mitsinjo Madagascar – https://associationmitsinjo.wordpress.com/ Donate to – http://www.amphibianark.org/donation-for-mitsinjo-project/ Music – http://www.purple-planet.com

The gang discuss two papers that attempt to resolve the taxonomic placement of animals with complex or confusing morphologies. Also, they somehow go off on a tangent about careers in academia, publish or perish, and the various lengths people can go to try and maximize their research output. Meanwhile, Amanda has some issues with her light sockets, James tries to pass off "facts"about rats, Curt makes references to 90's cartoons, and everyone greets our new guest, the "Pony".   Up-Goer Five (James Edition):  The group looks at two studies where animals that were thought to be one thing were shown to be another. The first paper looks at a very old animal known from three parts. One part was thought to be a soft animal that moved in the water and had the same thing for a mouth and a bottom, another part was thought to be an animal that hid in a hard house and grabbed food as it passed, and another was thought to be something that has a soft thing in it for sending news from end to end. The new study shows that these are all the same thing, and that is part of a big group of animals that can move in water or stick to rocks and attack things with small arms. The other study is looking at big angry animals with no hair, especially one big angry animal that it is not known where it should go. The big angry animal is not that big and not that angry, and seems to be like both big angry animals with no hair that ate other animals and big angry animals with no hair that ate green things that do not move. The new study shows that it is part of one of the groups of big angry animals with no hair that eats green things that do not move, but the ones that have big heads and short necks. Parts of it look like big angry animals with no hair that eat other animals because it is an early part of the big angry animals with no hair that eat green things that do not move that have big heads and short necks even though we find it after we find some of its friends. References: Ou, Qiang, et al. "Three Cambrian fossils assembled into an extinct body plan of cnidarian affinity." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences(2017): 201701650.  Baron, Matthew G. and Barrett, Paul M. "A dinosaur missing-link? Chilesaurus and the early evolution of ornithischian dinosaurs" Biology Letters(2017): https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.

The gang discuss two papers that study how the geographic ranges of turtles and frogs changed through time, and how these changes affected their ecology and evolution. Also, James drinks what he presumes is ground horse, Curt goes full Ian Malcolm, Amanda shares life lessons about furniture, and everyone imagines what turtle they are. [Editor's note: The actual science starts about 13 minutes in, I just didn't have the heart to cut it down.]   Up-Goer Five (Amanda and James Edition): Today our friends talk about animals with hard backs and no hair, and also animals that jump and have little skin. The group looks at two studies that look to see whether where animals are and have been is important. We talk about how animals with hard backs and no hair used to live in many, many places. Today they live in less places. Maybe some day they will live in more places again if it gets warm because of people. But maybe not because some animals with hard backs and no hair do need it to be wet. And if it is not wet when it gets warm again then they will not be able to live in more places again. We don't know. Being wet does seem to matter a lot, though. With animals that jump and have little skin, maybe they changed in place or maybe they went all over the place and changed as they went. We read that people think that they did not change as they went, but rather changed in one place and then went to other places.    References: Waterson, Amy M., et al. "Modelling the climatic niche of turtles: a deep-time perspective." Proc. R. Soc. B. Vol. 283. No. 1839. The Royal Society, 2016.  Chan, Kin Onn, and Rafe M. Brown. "Did true frogs ‘dispersify’?." Biology Letters 13.8 (2017): 20170299. 

This fortnight’s episode is dedicated to boas. The first portion looks into how boas hunt; their ability to subdue prey and potentially hunt in a “coordinated” fashion. After, we dig into some landscape genetics and see how the success of cave dwelling boas could boost their conservation chances. Staying on message, our Species of the Bi-week is another ghostly snake from a tropical island. To round the episode off we slide into a lengthy tangent concerning the “dual purpose” of locality data and how it can feed into poaching activity. FULL REFERENCE LIST AVAILABLE AT: herphighlights.podbean.com   Main Paper References: Boback, S. M., K. J. McCann, K. A. Wood, P. M. McNeal, E. L. Blankenship, and C. F. Zwemer. 2015. “Snake Constriction Rapidly Induces Circulatory Arrest in Rats.” Journal of Experimental Biology 218 (14): 2279–88. doi:10.1242/jeb.121384. OPEN ACCESS Dinets, Vladimir. 2017. “Coordinated Hunting by Cuban Boas.” Animal Behaviour and Cognition 4 (1): 24–29. OPEN ACCESS Puente-Rolón, Alberto R., R. Graham Reynolds, and Liam J. Revell. 2013. “Preliminary Genetic Analysis Supports Cave Populations as Targets for Conservation in the Endemic Endangered Puerto Rican Boa (Boidae: Epicrates Inornatus).” PLoS ONE 8 (5). OPEN ACCESS Species of the Bi-Week: Reynolds, R Graham, Alberto R. Puente-Rolón, Anthony J. Geneva, Kevin J. Aviles-Rodriguez, and Nicholas C Herrmann. 2016. “Discovery of a Remarkable New Boa from the Conception Island Bank, Bahamas.” Breviora 549 (1): 1–19. Other Mentioned Papers/Studies: Boback, S. M., A. E. Hall, K. J. McCann, A. W. Hayes, J. S. Forrester, and C. F. Zwemer. 2012. “Snake Modulates Constriction in Response to Prey’s Heartbeat.” Biology Letters 8 (3): 473–76. OPEN ACCESS Chiszar, David, Donal Boyer, Robert Lee, James B. Murphy, and Charles W. Radcliffe. "Caudal luring in the southern death adder, Acanthophis antarcticus." Journal of Herpetology (1990): 253-260. Day, M. and P. Tolson. 1996. “Chilabothrus angulifer.” The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 1996: e.T7815A12852846. http://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.1996.RLTS.T7815A12852846.en Dinets, V., J.C. Brueggen, and J.D. Brueggen. 2015. “Crocodilians Use Tools for Hunting.” Ethology Ecology & Evolution 27 (1). Taylor & Francis: 74–78. . Dinets, Vladimir. 2014. “Apparent Coordination and Collaboration in Cooperatively Hunting Crocodilians.” Ethology Ecology & Evolution, 27 (2): 1–7. Hardy, D. L. 1994. ”A re-evaluation of suffocation as the cause of death during constriction by snakes.” Herpetological Review: 25, 45-47 James, M., and T. Fox. 2007. “The Largest of Lizards.” The Newsletter of the Gippsland Plains Conservation Management Network 1 (XII): 9. OPEN ACCESS Lindenmayer, David and Ben Scheele. 2017. “Do Not Publish.” Science Magazine. 356 (6340) : 800-801.  Madsen, Thomas, Bo Stille, and Richard Shine. 1996. "Inbreeding depression in an isolated population of adders Vipera berus." Biological conservation 75 (2): 113-118. Murphy, James B., Charles C. Carpenter, and James C. Gillingham. 1978. "Caudal luring in the green tree python, Chondropython viridis (Reptilia, Serpentes, Boidae)." Journal of Herpetology 12 (1): 117-119.  O'Shea, M. 2007. Boas and Pythons of the World. New Holland Publishers. Puente-Rolón, Alberto R., and Fernando J. Bird-Picó. 2004. “Foraging Behavior, Home Range, Movements and Activity Patterns of Epicrates Inornatus (Boidae) at Mata de Plátano Reserve in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.” Caribbean Journal of Science 40 (3): 343–52. OPEN ACCESS Pyron, R. Alexander, R. Graham Reynolds, and Frank T. Burbrink. 2014. “A Taxonomic Revision of Boas (Serpentes: Boidae).” Zootaxa 3846 (2): 249–60. Radcliffe, Charles W., D. Chiszar, and H. B. Smith. 1980. "Prey-induced caudal movements in Boa constrictor with comments on the evolution of caudal luring." Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 16: 19-22. Reynolds, R. Graham, Glenn P. Gerber, and Benjamin M. Fitzpatrick. 2011. "Unexpected shallow genetic divergence in Turks Island Boas (Epicrates c. chrysogaster) reveals single evolutionarily significant unit for conservation." Herpetologica 67 (4): 477-486.  Reynolds, R. Graham, Matthew L. Niemiller, S. Blair Hedges, Alex Dornburg, Alberto R. Puente-Rolón, and Liam J. Revell. 2013. “Molecular Phylogeny and Historical Biogeography of West Indian Boid Snakes (Chilabothrus).” Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 68 (3). Elsevier Inc.: 461–70. OPEN ACCESS Rocha-Santos, Gilson da, Eder Barbier, and Marcelo Oscar Bordignon. 2014. “Sweet Trap: Boa Constrictor (Serpentes: Boidae) Preying on Passerines on Cecropia Pachystachya (Urticales: Cecropiaceae) in Fruiting Period.” Biota Neotropica 14 (2): e20140003. OPEN ACCESS Tzika, Athanasia C., Susan Koenig, Ricardo Miller, Gerardo Garcia, Christophe Remy, and Michel C. Milinkovitch. 2008. "Population structure of an endemic vulnerable species, the Jamaican boa (Epicrates subflavus)." Molecular ecology 17 (2): 533-544. Wilson, Byron S., Susan E. Koenig, Rick van Veen, Erika Miersma, and D. Craig Rudolph. 2010. “Cane Toads a Threat to West Indian Wildlife: Mortality of Jamaican Boas Attributable to Toad Ingestion.” Biological Invasions 13 (1): 55–60. OPEN ACCESS Yang, Jian-Huan, and Bosco Pui-Lok Chan. 2015. "Two new species of the genus Goniurosaurus (Squamata: Sauria: Eublepharidae) from southern China." Zootaxa 3980 (1): 067-080. Other Links/Mentions: BBC Planet Earth II - Islands Clip on Galapagos Racers (Philodryas biserialis) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3OjfK0t1XM BBC Planet Earth - Shallow Seas Clip on Banded Sea Kraits (Laticauda colubrina) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0038t09 Music – http://www.purple-planet.com

Sometimes, it makes sense for critters across the animal kingdom to chow down on their own young. Thanks to http://www.audible.com/minuteearth for sponsoring this video. Thanks also to our supporters on https://www.patreon.com/MinuteEarth : - Maarten Bremer - Jeff Straathof - Tony Fadell - Muhammad Shifaz - Mark Roth - Melissa Vigil - Valentin - Alberto Bortoni ___________________________________________ Credits (and Twitter handles): Script Writer: Rachel (@RA_Becks) Script Editor: Alex Reich (@alexhreich) Video Illustrator: Ever Salazar (@eversalazar) Video Director: Emily Elert (@eelert) Video Narrator: Emily Elert (@eelert) With Contributions From: Henry Reich, Kate Yoshida, Peter Reich, David Goldenberg Music by: Nathaniel Schroeder: http://www.soundcloud.com/drschroeder _________________________________________ Like our videos? Subscribe to MinuteEarth on YouTube: http://goo.gl/EpIDGd Support us on Patreon: https://goo.gl/ZVgLQZ Also, say hello on: Facebook: http://goo.gl/FpAvo6 Twitter: http://goo.gl/Y1aWVC And find us on itunes: https://goo.gl/sfwS6n ___________________________________________ FYI: We try to leave jargon out of our videos, but if you want to learn more about this topic, here are some handy keywords to get your googling started: - Filial cannibalism: is a form of infanticide that occurs when an adult individual of a species consumes all or part of the young of its own species or immediate offspring. Species featured in this video: - Hamsters (Cricetinae family) - Assassin bug (Rhinocoris tristis) - Red Tailed Monkeys (Cercopithecus ascanius) - Long Tailed Skink (Eutropis longicaudata) - Egg-eating snake (Oligodon formosanus) - Sand goby (Pomatoschistus minutus) ___________________________________________ References: Special thanks to Professor Hope Klug, from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, for help with research on this video! Day, C. S., & Galef, B. G. (1977). Pup cannibalism: One aspect of maternal behavior in golden hamsters. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 91(5), 1179-1189. doi:10.1037/h0077386 Gilbert, W. M., Nolan, P. M., Stoehr, A. M., & Hill, G. E. (2005). Filial Cannibalism at a House Finch Nest. The Wilson Bulletin, 117(4), 413-415. doi:10.1676/04-003.1 Full text: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20060130?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents Huang, W. (2008). Predation risk of whole-clutch filial cannibalism in a tropical skink with maternal care. Behavioral Ecology, 19(6), 1069-1074. Full text: http://beheco.oxfordjournals.org/content/19/6/1069.full#ref-1 Klug, H., & Bonsall, M. (2007). When to Care for, Abandon, or Eat Your Offspring: The Evolution of Parental Care and Filial Cannibalism. The American Naturalist, 170(6), 886-901. doi:10.1086/522936 Abstract: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/522936#rf13 Klug, H., & Lindstrom, K. (2008). Hurry-up and hatch: Selective filial cannibalism of slower developing eggs. Biology Letters, 4(2), 160-162. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2007.0589 Abstract: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/4/2/160 Why do some fish eat their own eggs? - Phys.org. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2016, from http://phys.org/news/2016-02-fish-eggs.html

Interview with Professor Matthew Fisher (Imperial University, London) about his research on the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis that causes the often lethal disease, Chytridiomycosis in amphibians. UAR interviewed Prof Matthew Fisher of Imperial University London about his work on the fungus, Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) currently devastating amphibian species around the world. Matthew and his team have been the first to successfully treat infected frogs and their tadpoles. They 'cured' individual midwife toads (Alytes obstetricans) with a dilute solution of a fungicide Itraconazole and after cleaning their habitat in the mountains of Majorca were able to re-introduce the species where they had previously become locally extinct. This is the first time amphibians have been successfully re-introduced following an outbreak of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis. While this method is not an answer to removing the fungus from the wider environment it does make it possible for people to remove threatened species into captivity and maintain them in 'arks' until their descendants can be returned to the wild. Read more here: http://www.britannica.com/topic/Bd-The-Amphibian-Plague-2037002 Download a transcript of the interview here. References Bosch J, Sanchez-Tomé E, Fernández-Loras A, Oliver JA, Fisher MC, Garner TWJ. (2015) Successful elimination of a lethal wildlife infectious disease in nature. Biology Letters. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2015.0874 Fisher MC, Henk DA, Briggs C, Brownstein JS, Madoff L, McCraw SL, Gurr S. (2012) Emerging fungal threats to animal, plant and ecosystem health. Nature 484: 186-194

The brood parasitic behaviour of the commoon cuckoo is well known, with observations by Edward Jenner back in the 1780s having been publishing in Philosophical Transactions. The African greater honeyguide chick exhibits rather more brutal adaptations to kill its host siblings and the first detailed observations of this behaviour have been documented in a Biology Letters paper by Claire Spottiswoode and Jeroen Koorevaar.

Dr Martin Bidartondo, Professor Jeff Duckett and their colleagues have published a paper in Biology Letters which studies the symbiosis between plants and fungi. In this video podcast Charlotte Wray asks them about their findings which suggest that fungi of the Mucoromycotina rather than the Glomeromycota enabled the establishment and growth of early land colonists.

Charlotte Wray reports novel findings in how bumblebees perceive colour in a paper written by 8-10 year old pupils at Blackawton School in Devon under the supervision of scientist Beau Lotto .

Wendy Barnaby talks to Dr Mim Bower about her co-authored paper in Biology Letters which traces the origins of Thoroughbred foundation mares.