A new study from <a href="https://www.osu.edu/">Ohio State University</a> reveals what is going on inside of your <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/gut-brain-interactions-have-an-influence-on-diseases/">brain</a> when you get lost in a fictional fantasy. The experts discovered that the more immersed we become in the lives of our favorite characters of fiction, the more our brain activity reflects how much we identify with them.
&#8220;When they think about a favorite fictional character, it appears similar in one part of the brain as when they are thinking about themselves,&#8221; said study lead author Timothy Broom.
The research was focused on self-described fans of the HBO series &#8220;Game of Thrones.&#8221; The individuals were instructed to think about themselves, nine of their friends, and nine characters from the drama series. The participants also reported on which character they felt closest to and liked the most.
According to Broom, Game of Thrones was ideal for this study because it attracted a devoted fan base and the large cast presented a variety of characters that people could become attached to.
One of the key findings involved participants who scored highest on &#8220;trait identification.&#8221; These individuals agreed most strongly with statements like &#8220;I really get involved in the feelings of the characters in a novel.&#8221;
&#8220;People who are high in trait identification not only get absorbed into a story, they also are really absorbed into a particular character,&#8221; said Broom. &#8220;They report matching the thoughts of the character, they are thinking what the character is thinking, they are feeling what the character is feeling. They are inhabiting the role of that character.&#8221;
The researchers used an fMRI machine to measure activity in various parts of the brain through small changes in blood flow. As the participants&#8217; brains were scanned, they were evaluating themselves, their friends, and Game of Thrones characters. 
A part of the brain called the ventral medial prefrontal cortex (vMPFC) is known to show increased activity when people think about themselves and, to a lesser extent, when they think about close friends.
While in the fMRI, the individuals were shown a series of names &#8211; including themselves, friends, or characters &#8211; along with a trait, such as lonely, sad, trustworthy, or smart. The participants simply said &#8220;yes&#8221; or &#8220;no&#8221; to imply whether the trait fit the person.
As expected, the vMPFC was most active when people were evaluating themselves, less active when they evaluated friends, and least active when they evaluated characters from Game of Thrones.
However, among those who were high in trait identification, the vMPFC was more active when they thought about the fictional characters than it was for participants who identified less with the characters. This region of the brain was particularly active when the individuals evaluated the character they identified with the most.
Study co-author Dylan Wanger said the findings help explain how fiction can have such a big impact on some people.
&#8220;For some people, fiction is a chance to take on new identities, to see worlds though others&#8217; eyes and return from those experiences changed,&#8221; said Wagner.
&#8220;What previous studies have found is that when people experience stories as if they were one of the characters, a connection is made with that character, and the character becomes intwined with the self. In our study, we see evidence of that in their brains.&#8221;
The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/scan">Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience</a>.
&#8211;&#8212;
By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

What happens in your brain while you're lost in fiction

Every year, hundreds of thousands of wild <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-in-the-mediterranean-are-moving-to-deeper-water-to-survive/">animals</a> are taken into captivity, to be cared for while they recover from injury or illness, or mature to the point that they can be released back into their natural habitats. Rehabilitation represents an increasingly important aspect of conservation efforts as animal numbers decline around the world. While in captivity, however, these animals are often fed soft food diets that differ substantially from what they would eat in the wild.



Although nutritionally balanced, captive diets often consist of soft or processed foods that lack the structural and textural diversity of the natural diet. For example, carnivores may be fed minced meat, and herbivores may receive pellets. These types of diets do not require the biting or chewing involved in a natural diet and may have a negative impact on an animal’s skull morphology and strength.



An international team of researchers led by Dr Rex Mitchell at <a href="https://www.flinders.edu.au/">Flinders University</a>&nbsp; has now shed light on the potentially harmful effects that soft food diets can have on the skulls of captive animals, particularly young animals that are still growing.&nbsp;



“Some scientists have suggested that captive diets may have unintended, negative effects on skull development that could impact the successful reintroduction of animals into the wild,” said Dr. Mitchell. “We wanted to know how much growing up on a diet that doesn’t need much biting can impact the ability of an animal to bite effectively in adulthood.”



The scientists used a 40 captive laboratory rats and fed them different diets from weaning until adulthood. Four different diet regimens were used, with ten rats in each group. One group was fed hard pellets throughout the study, and another was fed the same pellets but ground up in the form of meal. The third group received pellets initially, but then switched diet and were fed meal, while the fourth group received meal to begin with but subsequently switched diet to hard pellets.



Dr Mitchell and colleagues then used computed-tomography (CT) scans of the skulls of the rats that were fed different diets. CT scans were taken at different ages, from when the rats finished suckling right up until adulthood. The scans were used to create three-dimensional digital models of each rat skull and then the models were used in computer-based 3D bite simulations to test the levels of stress at the muzzle, palate and zygomatic arch.



Bone is a dynamic, living tissue that responds to the demands placed on it. Each time a bone is used, it bends a bit and the bone cells in that area lay down more layers of bone for additional strength. The researchers hypothesized that rats with softer diets would have less work for their skulls to do and so the skull bones would become thinner and weaker at the points tested.&nbsp;



“The simulations showed that the rats fed the softest diet indeed grew up to have the weakest skulls, but our research also found something unexpected,” explained study co-author Professor Stephen Wroe from the University of New England in Armidale, Australia.



Although rats fed soft food diets had the weakest muzzles and palates, their skulls were not the weakest in the region of the zygomatic arch. Instead, the group that was switched from hard to soft food as juveniles had the weakest skulls in this region.



“This certainly surprised us. So, we had to do some digging in the literature to explain it,” said Mitchell.



In previous research, rats that were sent to space and experienced a sudden and prolonged disuse of bone responded by producing fewer bone cells, the cells that are responsible for depositing new layers of bone. The researchers in the current study attribute the weakening of the zygomatic arch in rats that switched diet to a similar loss of bone cells.



“We often think of bones as simple, hard objects,” said study co-author Dr. Rachel Menegaz. “But bone is actually a complex living tissue that is constantly adapting.”



The findings suggest that if an animal suddenly stops needing to bite its food during development, it might then lose many of the cells needed for depositing bone while it is still growing, which could impact on normal bone growth and result in a weaker adult skull. Skull weaknesses such as these may result in injury to animals reintroduced into the wild, or may limit the kinds of natural foods they can utilize.



The authors suggest that captive diet plans consider not just nutritional requirements but also the mechanical properties of food, when rearing wildlife to adulthood for reintroduction. Thus, food offered to animals in captivity should not be overly processed, deboned, cut, peeled or portioned but should simulate, as far as possible, the mechanical and structural properties of their wild diets.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://academic.oup.com/iob">Integrative Organismal Biology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Soft food diet weakens skull strength in captive animals

Every year, hundreds of thousands of wild animals are taken...

A study from <a href="https://en.nagoya-u.ac.jp/">Nagoya University</a> may ultimately lay the groundwork for preventing black rot disease in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/children-who-eat-fruit-and-vegetables-have-greater-well-being/">vegetables</a>. Black rot is a deadly disease that destroys plants in the crucifer family, including broccoli, cabbage, and cauliflower.



The research was focused on phytochromes, which are proteins found in plants, bacteria and fungi. Their molecular structure involves the existence of units, or modules, that can change position within the overall protein, thus changing the shape of the phytochrome molecule and altering it from an active to an inactive form. This happens in response to the molecule’s exposure to red light. Phytochromes are thus photosensitive and use light as a source of information to regulate the physiological processes of the organism (plant, bacteria or fungus).



The way in which phytochromes function to switch from active to inactive form has not been fully understood. One of the problems has been that scientists had not mapped out the complete structure of phytochrome molecules and so they did not understand how the structural changes could lead to different signals from the phytochrome molecule. Unfortunately, the fact that phytochrome molecules change shape when they are exposed to light makes detailed study even more complicated.



This is particularly relevant in the example of Xanthomonas campestris, a bacterium that causes black rot in may important vegetable crops. This bacterium is a significant pest, particularly of crops from the brassica family, which include cabbage, broccoli, kale and Brussels sprouts. Xanthomonas causes the most important disease of vegetable brassica crops worldwide and is therefore an economically important pathogen.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Phytochrome molecules in Xanthomonas bacteria function as virulence regulators, by modulating key physiological processes when exposed to light, including xanthan production, biofilm formation, and infection capacity. Vegetable farmers and scientists would like to know how the phytochrome molecules function in these bacteria, so that they could potentially switch them to inactive form and, thereby, render the pathogen less destructive.&nbsp;



A research team led by Professor&nbsp;Hernán Bonomi from the Fundación Instituto Leloir, Argentina, has now shed light on how light signals sensed by phytochromes are created and propagated. The team is a large international collaboration that includes researchers from Argentina, France, and Japan. Professor&nbsp;Leonard Chavas from Nagoya University provided expertise in synchrotron radiation and structural analysis. The work was published in the journal&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/journal/sciadv">Science Advances</a>.



The researchers worked on understanding how light signals, detected by the light-sensing module of a phytochrome molecule, are transmitted to an output (or “effector”) module that converts the light stimulus into a specific physiological signal.&nbsp; This process involves changes in the structure of the phytochrome molecule that cause it to twist, bend and turn. Up until this study, no full-length phytochrome structure had been reported at&nbsp;atomic&nbsp;scale resolution for both the activated and the non-activated states.&nbsp;



In their paper, the research team presents a complete characterization of the light-sensing module in phytochrome molecules of the&nbsp;Xanthomonas&nbsp;bacterium, both in its activated and inactivated state. Also, the light-induced shape changes of the modules making up the protein are described down to atomic scale resolution, highlighting for the first time in this family of photoreceptors, the remarkable structural rearrangements that take place.&nbsp;



By combining these results with biochemical and computational studies, the scientists propose a new photoactivation model that explains the signaling mechanism, from the changes in chemical structure of the light-sensing module (that receives stimuli from red and “far red” light), to the complex ways in which the entire photochrome molecule is remodeled and takes on a new structure and shape.



The research results have implications in photobiology, as well as for understanding the mechanisms whereby bacterial pathogens cause disease in plants, particularly the disease of black rot in important crop vegetables.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New hope for preventing black rot disease in vegetables

A study from Nagoya University may ultimately lay the groundwork...

Scientists warn that without changing our course, multiple antibiotic resistant bacterial <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/cannabis-use-increases-the-risk-of-covid-breakthrough-infections/">infections</a> could become "catastrophic" by the year 2050. The National Institutes of Health awarded a $1.8 million grant to Joseph Boll, whose research seeks a solution to the problem. Boll, an assistant professor at the <a href="https://www.uta.edu/">University of Texas at Arlington</a>, looks to research the defense mechanisms of Acinetobacter baumannii, a common bacteria in hospitals.&nbsp;



The bacterial species A. baumannii causes infections throughout the human body - in wounds, blood, the respiratory system and urinary tract. Of course, under normal circumstances, these infections are treated with antibiotics. Unfortunately however, many strains of the bacteria are resistant to antibiotics. This includes the carbapenems, strong antibiotics used in many cases of antibiotic resistant bacteria.&nbsp;



“In previous research, we discovered that when A. baumannii experiences stress, such as antibiotic treatment, it modifies its cell envelope to tolerate the antibiotic for extended periods of time," said Professor Boll.



"Specific modifications allow the bacteria to survive long enough to acquire true antibiotic resistance, which can lead to antibiotic treatment failure. This can happen within 24 hours of antibiotic exposure.”



Professor Boll’s team has been looking at how enzymes can modify the cell envelope, allowing antibiotic resistance to develop. So far the researchers have found that two LD-transpeptidase enzymes change the cell envelope allowing the bacteria to survive long enough to develop true antibiotic resistance.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Research student Hannah Bovermann is using this information to delve into the genetics governing the LD-transpeptidase enzymes and what environmental stressors cause their activation. Looking at different factors, including temperature and pH that cause the change in the cell envelope from the enzymes, allows the scientists to understand how the antibiotic resistance develops.&nbsp;



“Each response brings us closer to an understanding of how cell envelope modifications keep the bacterial cell intact in stress,” said Bovermann.



“It has become a game. Researchers discover a new antimicrobial, then bacteria become resistant to it. We are running out of options," said Professor Boll. "Bacterial resistance is quickly outpacing new antibiotic development.”



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Antibiotic resistance could reach catastrophic levels

Scientists warn that without changing our course, multiple antibiotic resistant...

New research led by the <a href="https://www.cam.ac.uk/">University of Cambridge</a> has resulted in the development of a jelly-like material which, although consists of 80 percent water, can withstand the equivalent of an elephant standing on it, and fully recover to its original shape. The hydrogel looks and feels like a squishy jelly, but behaves like an ultra-hard, shatterproof <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/glass-frogs-wave-their-hands-and-feet-to-attract-mates/">glass</a> when compressed. 



The “super jelly” could be used for a variety of potential applications, including bioelectronics, soft robotics, or even as a cartilage replacement for biomedical use.



How materials behave – whether they are soft or firm – depends upon their molecular structure. Stretchy, rubber-like hydrogels are a popular object of research due to their toughness and self-healing capacities. However, making hydrogels which can withstand being compressed without getting crushed remains a challenge.



“In order to make materials with the mechanical properties we want, we use crosslinkers, where two molecules are joined through a chemical bond,” said study lead author&nbsp;Dr. Zehuan Huang, a postdoctoral fellow in Chemistry at Cambridge. “We use reversible crosslinkers to make soft and stretchy hydrogels, but making a hard and compressible hydrogel is difficult and designing a material with these properties is completely counterintuitive.”



By using barrel-shaped molecules called cucurbiturils – crosslinking molecules, or “molecular handcuffs,” that can hold two guest molecules in their cavities, keeping the polymer networks tightly linked – Dr. Huang and his colleagues managed to design a hydrogel which can withstand a high level of compression.&nbsp;



“The way the hydrogel can withstand compression was surprising, it wasn’t like anything we’ve seen in hydrogels,” said study co-author&nbsp;Dr. Jade McCune, a researcher at University of Cambridge’s <a href="https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/">Department of Chemistry</a>. “We also found that the compressive strength could be easily controlled through simply changing the chemical structure of the guest molecule inside the handcuff.”



In order to make their glass-like hydrogels, the scientists chose specific guest molecules within the handcuff that allowed the dynamics of the material to “slow down” considerably, and the mechanical performance of the final hydrogel to range from rubber-like to glass-like states.



“To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that glass-like hydrogels have been made. We’re not just writing something new into the textbooks, which is really exciting, but we’re opening a new chapter in the area of high-performance soft materials,” said Huang.



The scientists are currently working in collaboration with experts from engineering and materials science to further develop these glass-like materials towards biomedical and biolectronic applications.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41563-021-01124-x">Nature Materials</a>.



Image Credit: Zehuan Huang



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New hydrogel is so strong that an elephant could stand on it

New research led by the University of Cambridge has resulted...

Extreme conditions found in the deepest parts of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/the-arctic-ocean-has-been-warming-for-more-than-100-years/">ocean</a> could help a large variety of microorganisms emerge and thrive on our planet, and perhaps in other, extraterrestrial, places where oceans exist. This is the conclusion of new research led by <a href="https://www.asu.edu/">Arizona State University</a> (ASU)&nbsp; and <a href="https://en.csu.edu.cn/">Central South University</a>&nbsp; in China (CSU).



In the depths of the oceans, underwater fissures known as hydrothermal vents host complex communities of life. By expelling scorching hot fluids into extremely cold saltwater, these deep sea vents create the perfect chemical conditions for a diversity of small organisms to emerge and develop. While terrestrial organisms are dependent upon oxygen to grow and reproduce, the conditions of life in the oceans are starkly different.



“On land, in the oxygen-rich atmosphere of Earth, it is familiar to many people that making the molecules of life requires energy. In stunning contrast, around hydrothermal vents on the seafloor, hot fluids mix with extremely cold seawater to produce conditions where making the molecules of life releases energy,” explained study co-author Everett Shock, a professor of Biogeoscience at ASU.



Since the ultramafic rocks (igneous and meta-igneous rocks with very low silica content) that make up the deep sea vents produce large amounts of hydrogen, they are particularly favorable to the formation of the building blocks of life, such as amino acids, sugars, proteins, and larger biomacromolecules like polymers.&nbsp;



“This finding provides a new perspective on not only biochemistry but also ecology because it suggests that certain groups of organisms are inherently more favored in specific hydrothermal environments,” said study lead author Jeffrey Dick, a Geochemistry researcher at CSU.&nbsp;



“Microbial ecology studies have found that methanogens, of which Methanocaldococcus jannaschii is one representative, are more abundant in ultramafic-hosted vent systems than in basalt-hosted systems. The favorable energetics of protein synthesis in ultramafic-hosted systems are consistent with that distribution.”



These discoveries can be of interest to space agencies like NASA, that could set out to explore the possibility of life on other planets, such as Enceladus, Europa, and Titan – places known to host large oceans. “As we explore, we’re reminded time and again that we should never equate where we live as what is habitable to life,” Dr. Shock concluded.



The study is published in the <a href="https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2021JG006436">Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Deep sea vents are favorable to the formation of life

Extreme conditions found in the deepest parts of the ocean...

When planning the conservation and management of threatened species, it is important to know how the individuals are distributed in their <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/butterflies-habitat-influences-their-flight-behavior/">habitat</a> and how they make use of it spatially. This can be challenging when the species of interest is a far-ranging seabird.&nbsp;



Northern fulmars (Fulmarus glacialis) are related to albatrosses, and are an endangered species in European waters. In pursuit of a meal, they can travel hundreds of kilometers in a matter of days before returning home.&nbsp;



Sampling the behavior and population numbers of fulmars is generally impossible because of the expanse, remoteness and variability of their habitat, not to mention the fact that they are extremely mobile. Instead, conservation biologists have to resort to other methods to assess the management needs of this pelagic species.



An international team, led by scientists at the Marine and Renewable Energy Ireland (MaREI) research center at <a href="https://www.ucc.ie/">University College Cork</a>, has now found that following the routes taken by fishing vessels in the waters off Ireland, can give information about where the birds go to feed. The researchers equipped fulmars with the latest tracking technology and recorded their movements while, at the same time, monitoring the positions of fishing boats in the area.&nbsp;



The experts found that over half of the individual birds associated with fishing vessels while out foraging, and that the favored vessels were mostly trawlers. Fulmars are known to feed on fishing waste that is thrown overboard by vessels after they process fish from their nets. The researchers found that the areas of the sea where fishing vessels spent most of their time were also the areas that fulmars visited in order to forage.&nbsp;



The authors of the study, published in the journal <a href="https://www.int-res.com/journals/meps/">Marine Ecology Progress Series</a>, state that this new understanding of the fulmar feeding grounds is vitally important for protecting them from the hazards they may face at sea at a time when most of the world’s seabird populations are threatened. Fulmars are often accidentally caught by vessels and, because the birds can live to 50 years of age, even occasional bycatch in fishing gear can have big implications for their population.&nbsp;



The study highlights the need for best practice when fishing, including the use of bird scaring lines when setting nets or trailing longlines.



“Information about where seabirds go at sea is vital for making sure that new offshore developments, including windfarms, can be designed to do the least amount of harm. That’s why studies such as this one are so important," said study lead author Jamie Darby.



“Humans have given seabirds a lot to contend with. They are sensitive to oil and plastic pollution; we accidentally catch them in commercial fishing gears; we’ve brought rats and other invasive species onto many of their breeding colonies over the last few centuries.”



Ireland has a huge expanse of marine territory and attracts fishing vessels from overseas because these fishing grounds are so productive. Ireland’s commitment to renewable energy means that windfarms will soon be a common fixture along the coasts. However, given that the islands and cliffs of Ireland are home to 24 species of seabirds, proper planning for these energy generators is essential if these birds are to be protected.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

When hunting for food, fulmars follow the fishing vessels

When planning the conservation and management of threatened species, it...

A new study published in the <a href="https://www.jneurosci.org/content/early/2021/11/11/JNEUROSCI.1483-21.2021">Journal of Neuroscience</a> has found that physical activity in middle and old age dampens inflammation in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/how-a-grandmothers-brain-reacts-to-the-sight-of-her-grandchildren/">brain</a>. This prevents cognitive decline and either decreases the risk of developing medical conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or at least mitigates some of their worst effects.



By studying 167 people with an average age of 90 at their death, a research team from the <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/">University of California, San Francisco</a> (UCFA) found that those who exercised regularly had a lower level of microglia (types of cells that can cause inflammation) activation in the brain.



“Microglia, the brain's resident immune cells, activate to clear debris and foreign invaders from the brain. But too much activation can trigger inflammation, damage neurons and disrupt brain signaling,” explained study lead author Katlin Casaletto, a neuropsychologist at UCFA. “Exercise helps reduce abnormal activation in animals — but that link hadn't been established in humans.”



In order to assess the relation between exercise and cognitive functioning in humans, Dr. Casaletto and her colleagues asked the participants to wear activity monitors 24 hours per day for up to ten days before their annual cognitive exams. 



After the participants died, the researchers measured microglia activation and several markers of Alzheimer’s disease in their brain tissue (nearly 60 percent of them developed Alzheimer’s by the time of their death), and compared the findings to the level of exercise the participants engaged in earlier.



&nbsp;“Greater physical activity was linked to lower microglial activation,” Dr. Casaletto reported. “This was particularly in the inferior temporal gyrus — a brain region hit hardest by Alzheimer's. Physical activity had a more pronounced effect on inflammation in people with more severe Alzheimer's pathology.”



“These are the first data supporting microglial activation as a physiological pathway by which physical activity relates to brain heath in humans. Though more interventional work is needed, we suggest physical activity may be a modifiable behavior leveraged to reduce pro-inflammatory microglial states in humans.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



In future studies, the researchers plan to investigate in more detail how physical activity relates to better cognitive aging and reduced risk of neurodegenerative diseases.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Physical activity reduces the risk of Alzheimer’s

A new study published in the Journal of Neuroscience has...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/">University of Sorbonne</a> has found that natural selection imposed by different microhabitats across <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/coordinated-efforts-needed-to-slow-deforestation/">forest</a> strata can drive adaptive codivergence in wing shapes, flight behaviors, and aerodynamic efficiency among closely related species of Morpho butterflies. These are brightly colored and iconic butterflies that live in tropical Amazon forests. 



“The diversity of flying animals suggests that countless combinations of flight morphologies and behaviors have evolved with specific lifestyles, thereby exploiting diverse aerodynamic mechanisms,” wrote the study authors. “How morphology, flight behavior, and aerodynamic properties together diversify with contrasting ecology remains to be elucidated.”



Although insect flight has been studied in great detail in a variety of species, the evolution of flight among closely related species adapted to different habitats is not yet well understood.&nbsp;



Using high-speed videography to observe freely flying butterflies, combined with morphometric analyses and aerodynamic modelling, an international team of scientists investigated codivergences in wing shape, flight behavior, and aerodynamic efficiency among 12 Morpho species living in different forest strata.



The researchers discovered that these species have evolved a diverse set of morphological and behavioral characteristics which differ depending on whether they live in the forests’ understories or canopies. While butterflies occupying cluttered understory habitats displayed more powerful wing-flapping phases that resulted in agile and fast flight, those adapted to open canopy habitats evolved improved and more efficient gliding capacities.



“By comparing canopy and understory species, we show that adaptation to an open canopy environment resulted in increased glide efficiency,” the study authors explained. “Moreover, this enhanced glide efficiency was achieved by different canopy species through distinct combinations of flight behavior, wing shape, and aerodynamic mechanisms, highlighting the multiple pathways of adaptive evolution.”



These findings underline the crucial importance of the habitats that different animal species occupy in shaping their morphology, behavior, and lifestyles.&nbsp;&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abh2620">Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Butterflies’ habitat influences their flight behavior

A new study led by the University of Sorbonne has...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41560-021-00937-z">Nature Energy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> has found that electricity could become the cheapest <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/less-than-1-chance-that-earths-energy-imbalance-has-occurred-naturally/">energy</a> source by 2050, fundamentally changing the current shares in energy consumption from climate-damaging fossil fuels to renewable electric sources.



Today, 80 percent of energy demands for industry, heating buildings, and mobility are met by burning fossil fuels, and only 20 percent by electricity.&nbsp;



“Our research finds that relation can be pretty much reversed by 2050, making the easy-to-decarbonize electricity the mainstay of global energy supply,” said study lead author Gunnar Luderer, a researcher at the <a href="https://www.pik-potsdam.de/en/home">Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research</a> (PIK) and a professor of Global Energy Systems Analysis at the<a href="https://www.tu.berlin/en/"> Technical University of Berlin</a>.&nbsp;



While for a long period, fossil fuels were much cheaper and accessible energy sources than electricity, the prices for solar electricity fell by 80 percent in the past decade.&nbsp;



“This development has the potential to fundamentally revolutionize energy systems. Our computer simulations show that together with global carbon pricing, green electricity can become the cheapest form of energy by 2050, and supply up to three quarters of all demand,” explained Luderer.



The reason for this significant drop in pricing lies in the groundbreaking technological progress in solar and wind power generation, as well as in the fact that increasingly more energy demands can be electrified, including cars, heating systems, or steel production. &nbsp;



“All in all, we find that more than half of all energy demand from industry can be electrified by 2050,” said study co-author Silvia Maddedu, a researcher at PIK.&nbsp;



According to scientists, this increased use of electricity as an energy source will be crucial for mitigating climate change and maintaining sustainable temperature values. However, curbing fossil fuel use remains highly important for achieving these goals.



“The era of electricity will come either way. But only sweeping regulation of fossil fuels across sectors and world regions – most importantly some form of carbon pricing – can ensure it happens in due time to reach 1.5 degrees,” said Luderer.



In order to meet the climate goals of the Paris Agreement, decisive and global political coordination in pricing carbon, scrapping levies on electricity, expanding grid infrastructures, and redesigning electricity markets are urgently needed.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



“If these elements come together, the prospects of a renewables-based green energy future look truly electrifying,” concluded Luderer.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Electricity may be the cheapest energy source by 2050

A new study published in the journal Nature Energy&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; has...

An international team of researchers from 16 different institutions published a paper in the journal <a href="https://elifesciences.org/">e-life</a> on a two million year old primate <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossil-linking-snakes-and-lizards-was-wrongly-identified/">fossil</a>. The research combined the discovery of a vertebrae from a human relative, Australopithecus sediba, along with previously discovered vertebrae fossils. The study revealed that not only could A. sediba walk upright like a human, she could also climb like an ape.



The fossils were discovered in 2015 during a mining excavation in South Africa next to the “cradle of humanity” near the site of the first A. sediba fossil that was found in 2008. The fossil vertebrae were discovered in a hard matrix, nearly perfectly articulated. Rather than removing the fossils in dangerous and laborious preparation, they were analyzed with a Micro-CT scanner. 



Once the fossils were imaged, it was clear that these vertebrae articulated well with type specimens of the same fossil - a female nicknamed “Issa” which means “protector” in Swahili. The ancient fossils of human relatives showed that A. sebida had, like modern humans, only five lumbar vertebrae.



“The lumbar region is critical to understanding the nature of bipedalism in our earliest ancestors, and to understanding how well adapted they were to walking on two legs," said study lead author Professor Scott Williams of New York University and <a href="https://www.wits.ac.za/">Wits University</a>.



"Associated series of lumbar vertebrae are extraordinarily rare in the hominin fossil record, with really only three comparable lower spines being known from the whole of the early African record.”



The discovery of Issa makes her one of only two hominin fossils with well preserved backs, especially lower backs. 



“While Issa was already one of the most complete skeletons of an ancient hominin ever discovered, these vertebrae practically complete the lower back and make Issa’s lumbar region a contender for not only the best-preserved hominin lower back ever discovered, but also probably the best preserved," said Professor Lee Berger, original discoverer of A. sebida and leader of the Malapa project.



This relatively complete lower back allowed the scientists to see that Issa had a curved spine similar to modern humans, something seen as an adaptation for bipedalism.&nbsp;



Other adaptations suggest that Issa had strong trunk muscles, an adaptation for climbing. All together this shows Issa to be a transitional fossil, somewhere between an animal that spent all her time walking and one that spent all her time climbing. “Issa walked somewhat like a human but could climb like an ape,” said Berger.



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Ancient relative climbed like an ape, walked like a human

An international team of researchers from 16 different institutions published...

New research published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1126/science.abm8136">Science</a> has found that warmer <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/rising-temperatures-are-harming-bumblebee-diet/">temperatures</a> and artificial lights in cities can alter the timing of urban tree greening in the spring. The study revealed that tree leaves bud earlier in U.S. cities compared to rural areas, and that artificial light accelerates this effect, as the climate warms.



“The effect of light pollution on vegetation phenology is a blind spot,” said study lead author Lin Meng, a postdoctoral fellow at <a href="https://www.lbl.gov/">Lawrence Berkeley National Lab</a> in Berkeley, California. 



“We as ecologists know a lot about the impact of warming and increased carbon dioxide concentration on plants because these are the two most significant aspects of climate change… but light doesn’t change in nature…So, most people just didn’t think of it.”



While global warming has shifted the timing of global seasonal tree events such as leafing, budding, or greening, urban environments pose additional challenges to trees, including warmer temperatures than in rural areas (a phenomenon known as the “<a href="https://www.earth.com/earthpedia-articles/urban-heat-island/">urban heat island effect</a>”), and the presence of artificial light at night from a variety of sources (public streetlights, buildings, advertising lights, vehicles) that has a significant impact on the regular light cycle plants depend on.



By using satellite data from the <a href="https://www.usanpn.org/usa-national-phenology-network">USA National Phenology Network</a> and <a href="https://blackmarble.gsfc.nasa.gov/">NASA’s Black Marble</a>, Dr. Meng compared spring “green-up dates” in urban versus rural areas in the 85 largest U.S. cities for the period 2001 to 2014. She discovered that, due to warmer temperatures, green-up occurred about six days earlier in urban areas compared to rural ones. Furthermore, in locations with intense artificial light, green-up occurred nine days earlier.



“My findings highlight artificial light as an understudied factor on phenology, which may supplement daylength and facilitate earlier spring greening under a warmer climate,” said Meng.



“This research provides important insight into the impacts of the urban environment on natural processes essential to ecosystem function. Understanding how city-induced temperature and light influence vegetation both increases our knowledge of these basic ecological interactions and will help us design more resilient urban landscapes," concluded Sacha Vignieri, Deputy Editor for Research at the journal&nbsp;Science.



This study was the grand winner of the 2021 <a href="https://scienceprize.scilifelab.se/">Science and SciLifeLab Prize for Young Scientists</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Artificial lights cause earlier tree greening in the spring

New research published in the journal Science has found that...

For hundreds of millions of years, large vertebrate herbivores inhabited most of the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/staggering-amount-of-wastewater-impacts-coastal-ecosystems/">ecosystems</a> on our planet. But during the late Quaternary period, particularly between 50,000 and 6,000 years ago, rapid extinctions of these megaherbivores occurred. This has left most continents depauperate in large grazing species today. In addition, other species, such as predators and parasites that were dependent on the ancient grazers, also suffered massive extinctions.



While the potential causes of these extensive megafaunal extinctions have been studied and debated, less attention has been given to the consequences for ecological interactions and ecosystem functioning.&nbsp;



In collaboration with the Utah Natural History Museum, Yale scientists have now conducted research into whether the extinctions of large herbivores, such as woolly mammoths, giant bisons, giant deer, rhinoceroses and ancient horses, were associated with a contemporaneous increase in fires in the world’s ecosystems. Their hypothesis was that the loss of these grazers would have resulted in a build-up of grass that could fuel such fires.



The researchers first gathered data on the large mammals that became extinct in the late Quaternary period across four continents, and their approximate dates of extinction. The information revealed that South America lost the most grazers (83% of all its recorded species), followed by North America (68%). These losses were significantly higher than in Australia (44%) and Africa (22%).



They then compared these findings with records of fire activity as revealed by the presence of charcoal deposits in lake sediments. Using sediments from 410 sites globally, which provided a historical record of regional fire activity across continents, they found that fire activity increased after the mega grazer extinctions.&nbsp;



Moreover, continents that lost more grazers (South America, then North America) saw larger increases in the incidence of fires, whereas continents that had lower rates of extinction (Australia and Africa) saw little change in grassland fire activity.



“These extinctions led to a cascade of consequences,” said study co-author Allison Karp, a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Ecology &amp; Evolutionary Biology at <a href="https://www.yale.edu/">Yale University</a>. “Studying these effects helps us understand how herbivores shape global ecology today.”



Interestingly, Karp and senior author Carla Staver, associate professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in Yale’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, found that although many ancient browser species – such as mastodons, diprotodons, and giant sloths, which foraged on shrubs and trees in wooded areas – also went extinct during the same period, their losses had less impact on fires in woodland habitats.



By contrast, grassland ecosystems were altered forever by the loss of the mega grazers. Grasses tolerant of herbivore grazing pressure were wiped out by the more frequent fires, and predator populations collapsed. Certain fruit-bearing trees, that were dependent on the herbivores for seed dispersal, also became extinct. New species of grass became established and new grazers, including domestic livestock, eventually adapted to the transformed ecosystems.



The findings illustrate why scientists should consider the role of grazing livestock and wild grazers in fire mitigation and climate change, the authors said.&nbsp;



“This work really highlights how important grazers may be for shaping fire activity,” said Staver. “We need to pay close attention to these interactions if we want to predict the future [effects] of fires accurately.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.science.org/">Science</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Extinction of ancient grazers changed fire regimes

For hundreds of millions of years, large vertebrate herbivores inhabited...

Although bees are related to <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/wasps-are-undervalued-as-predators-and-pollinators/">wasps</a>, they gave up being predatory long ago. While most species of wasps catch and kill prey, largely other insects, bees have evolved to depend on pollen and nectar from flowers. Some people view bees as vegetarian wasps. However, a group of stingless bee species in the tropics has developed an interest in eating meat in the form of carrion, and some of these "vulture bees" have even become entirely dependent on this source of protein. 



“These are the only bees in the world that have evolved to use food sources not produced by plants, which is a pretty remarkable change in dietary habits,” said <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">UC Riverside</a> entomologist Doug Yanega.



Given this rather extreme dietary shift, a team of scientists from UC Riverside wondered what the gut microbiome of the carrion-eating bees might look like. They traveled to Costa Rica to study closely related species of stingless bees living in the same area, that fed on different diets. Some had a traditional diet of nectar and pollen, some ate exclusively carrion from carcasses, and a third group foraged on both flower products and carrion. The experts compared the microbiomes of bees from the three groups.



Honeybees, bumblebees, and stingless bees have guts that are colonized by the same five core microbes. “Unlike humans, whose guts change with every meal, most bee species have retained these same bacteria over roughly 80 million years of evolution,” said Jessica Maccaro, a UCR entomology doctoral student.



The researchers hypothesized that either the core microbes would persist in the carrion-eating bees and would have evolved to digest meat protein instead of pollen, or that the diet shift would have resulted in the extinction of core microbes and their replacement by different microbe species that can break down carrion.&nbsp;



To test this theory, the researchers set up baits composed of pieces of raw chicken suspended from branches in the tropical forest trees. These attracted carrion-eating species, that they refer to appropriately as vulture bees, as well as related bee species that feed opportunistically but not exclusively on carrion for their protein. For comparison, the team also collected bees from species that feed only on pollen and nectar.



Normally, stingless bees have baskets on their hind legs for collecting pollen. However, the team observed carrion-feeding bees using those same structures to collect the bait. “They had little chicken baskets,” said Quinn McFrederick, a UCR entomologist.



On analyzing the microbiomes of all three bee types, they found the most extreme changes among exclusive meat-eaters.&nbsp;These vulture bees had lost some of the ancestral core microbes, retained others, and made use of new, acid-loving microbes that are usually found in the environment and on carrion. The abundance of acid-loving bacteria suggests that an acidic gut is important for vulture bee nutrition and health, as has been found in other carrion-feeding animals.&nbsp;



“The vulture bee microbiome is enriched in acid-loving bacteria, which are novel bacteria that their relatives don’t have,” McFrederick said. “These bacteria are similar to ones found in actual vultures, as well as hyenas and other carrion-feeders, presumably to help protect them from pathogens that show up on carrion.”



For example, Lactobacillus bacteria were found in vulture bee guts; this is the bacterium used by humans to culture milk into yogurt and make sourdough bread. The researchers also found Carnobacterium present as part of the gut biome; this bacterium is associated with the digestion of flesh. &nbsp;



“It’s crazy to me that a bee can eat dead bodies. We could get sick from that because of all the microbes on meat competing with each other and releasing toxins that are very bad for us,” Maccaro said.&nbsp;



The researchers noted that these bees are unusual in a number of ways. “Even though they can’t sting, they’re not all defenseless, and many species are thoroughly unpleasant,” Yanega said. “They range from species that are genuinely innocuous to many that bite, to a few that produce blister-causing secretions in their jaws, causing the skin to erupt in painful sores.”



In addition, the carrion-eating bees still produce honey that is sweet and edible. “They store the meat in special chambers that are sealed off for two weeks before they access it, and these chambers are separate from where the honey is stored,” Maccaro said.



The research team is now planning to investigate vulture bee microbiomes further, hoping to learn about the genomes of all the bacteria as well as the fungi and viruses in their bodies.&nbsp;They hope to learn more about the larger role that microbes play in overall bee health.&nbsp;



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://journals.asm.org/journal/mbio">mBio</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Vulture bees have acquired a taste for dead bodies

Although bees are related to wasps, they gave up being...

Knowledge of the origin of the coronavirus that caused the ongoing COVID-19 <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-one-third-of-americans-had-covid-19-by-the-end-of-2020/">pandemic</a> is still fragmentary. Recently, a team of scientists discovered coronaviruses that are closely related to SARS-CoV-2 from two bats sampled in Cambodia over a decade ago.&nbsp;



These findings, together with the recent finding of the closest ancestors of SARS-CoV-2 in cave-dwelling bats in Laos, indicate that coronaviruses have a wider geographical distribution than previously thought, and supports the theory that the pandemic originated through spillover from bats.



By using metagenomic sequencing, the researchers identified viruses nearly identical to SARS-CoV-2 in two Shamel’s horseshoe bats (Rhinolophus shameli) that were originally sampled in 2010. These findings suggest that SARS-CoV-2-related coronaviruses likely circulate via a diversity of Rhinolophus species.



According to the study authors, the current knowledge of the geographical distribution of SARS-CoV-1 and SARS-CoV-2 lineages probably reflect a lack of sampling in countries from Southeast Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, as well as several Chinese provinces, such as Yunnan and Guanxi.



Besides bats, pangolins and several species of cats, civets, and weasels found in these areas are highly susceptible to coronavirus infections, and might represent intermediary hosts for transmission to humans. During anti-smuggling operations from China in 2020, SARS-CoV-2-related viruses were discovered in distinct groups of pangolins, further strengthening this hypothesis.



“These findings underscore the importance of increased region-wide investment in bridging capacity for sustainable surveillance of pathogens in wildlife, through initiatives such as&nbsp;<a href="https://oneworldonehealth.wcs.org/Initiatives/WildHealthNet.aspx">WildHealthNet</a>,” said study co-author Lucy Keatts, a health advisor at the <a href="https://www.wcs.org/">Wildlife Conservation Society</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;



“Southeast Asia hosts a high diversity of wildlife and an extensive wildlife trade that puts humans in direct contact with wild hosts of SARS-like coronaviruses. The region is undergoing dramatic land-use changes such as infrastructure development, urban development, and agricultural expansion that can increase contacts between bats, other wildlife, domestic animals, and humans. Continued and expanded surveillance of bats and other key wild animals in Southeast Asia is a crucial component of future <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/investing-in-nature-is-needed-to-avoid-the-next-pandemic/">pandemic preparedness</a> and prevention.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-26809-4">Nature Communications</a>.



---



By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Cambodian bats have coronaviruses related to SARS-COV-2

Knowledge of the origin of the coronavirus that caused the...

Dopamine is used by the human nervous system to send messages between nerve cells. It plays a role in how we perceive pleasure. Dopamine has also been linked to learning and memory.&nbsp;



In a recent study from <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/">McGill University</a>, experts have found that dopamine may also play a key role in shaping what songs bring the most pleasure to female <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/songbirds-and-humans-use-similar-speech-patterns/">songbirds</a>. This means that dopamine may ultimately have a big influence on which males the females choose to be their mates. 



Zebra finches form lasting bonds with their mates. They remain faithful and monogamous throughout their lives. The male performs a song and dance that can lead to sex, depending on the reaction of the female that is being pursued.&nbsp;



“But female songbirds are very selective about which songs they like,” explained lead researcher Professor Sarah Woolley. “And, while different birds prefer different songs, each female remains consistent in her preferences over time.”



According to the study, multiple parts of the brain that produce dopamine connect to the auditory cortex. Furthermore, cells in some of these regions showed more activity when female songbirds listened to the songs they preferred.&nbsp;



Through a series of experiments, the researchers discovered that by giving female songbirds dopamine, they could manipulate their song preferences.



“I find it fascinating that the way that each of us perceive communication signals, like speech, or other sounds, like music, is not static,” said Woolley. 



“Rather, our perceptions of these sounds depend on experiences that we have throughout our lives. Studying how experiences can gain access to and shape the neural circuits for perception can not only expand our general understanding of how we process and perceive sounds, it can also help us to understand why we like or enjoy particular sounds.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Dopamine plays a central role in songbird mating

Dopamine is used by the human nervous system to send...

Ants are well known for their communal <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/carnivores-modify-their-behavior-to-avoid-each-other/">behaviors</a>, such as building complex nest tunnels and gathering food for their colony. A surprising new study from the University of Fribourg has discovered yet another way that ants work together – passing fluids from mouth to mouth to create a colony-wide metabolism.



While passing fluids from mouth to mouth was already recognized as common behavior among ants, the purpose of it was unclear. The results of the new study suggest that ants are behaving similarly to how organisms thrive on communal metabolisms.



“Individual ants have two stomachs – one for digesting their own food and another one that comes first, a ‘social stomach’ for storing fluids that they share with other ants in their colony. These fluid exchanges allow ants to share food and other important proteins that the ants themselves produce,” explained senior author Adria LeBoeuf.



“To help us understand why ants share these fluids, we explored whether the proteins they exchange are linked to an individual’s role in the colony or the colony’s life-cycle," added study lead author Sanja Hakala.



The researchers analyzed the proteins found within the ‘social stomachs’ of individual ants, comparing the contents between forager ants and nurse ants that care for the youth of the colony. The age of each colony was also investigated.



Nurse ants were discovered to have more anti-aging proteins in their social stomachs, suggesting that these proteins are passed on through mouth-to-mouth transfer to ensure the survival of offspring.&nbsp;



“These findings show that some colony members can do metabolic labour for the benefit of others,” said Hakala.



Furthermore, it was also discovered that ants found in mature colonies had the most sufficient nutrient storage proteins for survival and growth, as opposed to the insufficiencies of newly founded colonies. 



However, more studies will be necessary if scientists are going to understand the purpose of each shared protein within a colony.&nbsp;



“It is hard to measure how metabolic work is shared between cells," explained LeBoeuf. "Here, the ants pass things around in a way that we can easily access what they are sharing. Having a better understanding of how ants share metabolic labor may help us learn more about the ways that other creatures, like humans, distribute metabolic tasks between different tissues or different cells in their bodies.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://elifesciences.org/">eLife</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;

Ants swap spit to share food and special fluids

Ants are well known for their communal behaviors, such as...

Monarch <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/blue-butterflies-are-set-to-become-widespread-across-canada/">butterflies</a> and some of their close relatives thrive on poisonous milkweed, due to genetic mutations that block the effects of the toxins on their organisms while allowing them to accumulate in the caterpillar or adult insects as deterrents to some of their predators. A new study led by the <a href="https://www.berkeley.edu/">University of California, Berkeley</a> and <a href="https://www.ucr.edu/">UC Riverside</a> has found that some of these predators have evolved similar mutations in order to be able to feast on the butterflies.



The research team discovered monarch-like mutations in the genomes of four organisms that are known to feed upon monarchs: the black-headed grosbeak, a migratory bird that eats monarch butterflies while spending the winter season in Mexico; the eastern deer mouse, which feeds on butterflies that fall on the ground; a tiny wasp that parasitizes monarch eggs; and a nematode which parasitizes larvae that eat poisonous milkweed.



According to the scientists, these predators evolved mutations in one or several copies of a gene for the sodium-potassium pump, which has a role in regulating heartbeats and nerve firings. These seem to be the same mutations that make monarch butterflies capable of eating milkweed without succumbing to its cardiac glycosides - toxins that interfere with the sodium-potassium pump and can provoke cardiac arrest in organisms that are not adapted to tolerate them.



"The toxins move up the food chain from plants - what biologists call the first trophic level - to insect herbivores, the second, and then to predators and parasitoids - a third trophic level," said study lead author Noah Whiteman, a professor of Integrative Biology and Molecular and Cell Biology at UC Berkeley.&nbsp;



"In response, the predators and parasitoids have evolved resistance to the toxins at the same sites that we discovered were changing in the monarch, and sometimes to the same amino acids. This might be the first time that the same resistance mutations have been found in the third and second trophic levels that evolved in response to the latter feeding on toxic plants."



"It’s remarkable that convergent evolution occurred at the molecular level in all these animals,” added study co-author Simon “Niels” Groen, an assistant professor of Evolutionary Systems Biology at UC Riverside. “Plant toxins caused evolutionary changes across at least three levels of the food chain.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/home">Current Biology</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

How predators have outsmarted monarch butterflies

Monarch butterflies and some of their close relatives thrive on...

A team of experts at <a href="https://english.tau.ac.il/">Tel Aviv University</a> set out to investigate whether the boldness of city bats is a trait that is genetically inherited or if it is a behavior that is learned. During a project in which urban fruit bats were adopted by rural mothers and vice versa, the researchers found that the pups behave like their adoptive mothers rather than their biological moms.&nbsp;



The experiment revealed that pups born in the country and adopted by urban mothers were bolder, taking more risks than those adopted by rural mothers.



"We wanted to find out whether boldness is transferred genetically or learned somehow from the mother," said study co-author Professor Yossi Yovel. "Our findings suggest that this trait is passed on to pups by the mothers that nurse and raise them, even when they are not their biological mothers."



Study lead author Dr. Lee Harten explained that while most animals do not live in an urban environment, some species thrive in it. "We are trying to understand how they do this."



"Fruit bats are an excellent example of a species that has adapted well to the human environment of the city. Bat colonies thrive in Tel Aviv and other cities, while other colonies still live in rural areas."



"Research has shown that city-adapted fruit-bats tend to be bolder and take more risks than those living in the wild. We wanted to examine, under laboratory conditions, whether this trait is genetic or acquired."



The research involved 86 mother-pup pairs of fruit bats: 61 pairs from four urban colonies and three rural colonies. The experts conducted experiments that were designed to investigate the behavioral differences between the two groups, with a central focus on their boldness, or willingness to take risks.&nbsp;



Prior to the experiments, the team demonstrated that urban bats could immediately complete a task that involved entering an unknown box to find food. The urban bats, on the other hand, were much more intimidated by the scenario and took several hours to enter the box. 



"Similar results were observed in past experiments with birds: birds living in the city take more risks than birds of the same species residing in rural areas. Our study was the first to test this issue in bats," said Professor Yovel.



Next, the researchers wanted to determine whether pups inherit or learn to take risks. They presented the same box experiment to the young pups who had never searched for food on their own. The study revealed that the urban pups, just like their parents, were bolder and learn faster than rural pups.



"These findings first led us to think that boldness is hereditary - passed on genetically from the urban parents to their pups. However, we know that young pups are still exposed to their mothers after birth. We decided to check whether pups learn from their mothers or are influenced by them in some other way."



The researchers introduced a cross-adoption method where pups born to urban mothers were raised by rural mothers, and vice versa. The team noted that this is the first "nature vs. nurture" study for boldness in urban animals.



"We found that the pups behaved like their adoptive mothers, not like their biological mothers. This means that boldness is an acquired rather than hereditary trait, passed on in some way from mother to young pup. We hypothesize that the agent may be some substance in the mother's milk," explained Dr. Harten.&nbsp;



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://bmcbiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12915-021-01131-z">BMC Biology</a>.



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By <a href="http://csexton@earth.com">Chrissy Sexton</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Fruit bat pups take after their adoptive mothers

A team of experts at Tel Aviv University set out...

It is usually challenging to identify the exact proportions of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/fossils-reveal-a-previously-unknown-mass-extinction-event/">fossil</a> animals that are excavated out of the rock. Seldom is a fossilized skeleton discovered in its entirety. Instead, the component bones tend to be disarticulated, jumbled up, and commonly dispersed by factors such as weather, water movement and scavenger activity.



This was the case when the first specimen of a Supersaurus&nbsp;was uncovered in 1972 in a bonebed at Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in Colorado. Brian Curtice, currently a paleontologist at the Arizona Museum of Natural History, describes the accumulation of tightly-packed fossils originally found in the bonebed as a "bone salad" that made it very difficult to know which bones to allocate to the newly discovered Supersaurus.&nbsp;



Field worker Jim Jensen, who collected and prepared fossils for Brigham Young University in Utah, excavated that bone salad and published his findings some years later. Among the bones that he discovered was an 8-foot-long scapulocoracoid – two fused bones that make up the shoulder girdle in adult dinosaurs and other reptiles. The size of this bone identified Supersaurus as being potentially one of the longest dinosaurs ever discovered. The public was intrigued at the time that a dinosaur larger than&nbsp;<a href="https://www.livescience.com/25024-brachiosaurus.html">Brachiosaurus</a>, then considered the longest dinosaur, could have existed.



Jensen also excavated other large bones that he thought belonged to two other species of sauropod dinosaurs. When he published his findings, in 1985, &nbsp;in the journal <a href="https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/gbn/vol45/iss4/7/">Great Basin Naturalist</a>, he announced the discovery of three new sauropod dinosaurs from the quarry – apart from Supersaurus (that had been named by a journalist in the initial post-discovery media frenzy), he named Ultrasaurus and Dystylosaurus from the bone evidence found in the bonebed.&nbsp;



However, Jensen wasn't a trained paleontologist, and he made some mistakes with his analysis. This has led to much debate between paleontologists over the years, who have questioned the validity of the two other new genera. Some, such as Curtice, believe that the bones were misidentified and actually all belong to a single Supersaurus skeleton.&nbsp;



Curtice said Jensen's theory that the bones belonged to three different dinosaurs never checked out. "He was caught up in the moment," Curtice said. "He wasn't classically trained."&nbsp;



Now, some 50 years after the initial discovery, Curtice has re-evaluated some of the original bones, as well as looking at bones that have been excavated subsequently from the large blocks of rocks and fossils that were transferred at the time from the quarry to the laboratory. He has also compared all the bones with those of two other fossilized skeletons of Supersaurus (nicknamed Jimbo and Goliath) that have subsequently been discovered in Wyoming.



He feels there is a good case for reclassifying Jensen’s three species as a single one, namely Supersaurus.



Among the as yet unstudied bones from the rock blocks, Curtice identified five new neck vertebrae, one new back vertebra, two new tail vertebrae and a left pubis bone. This gave him a more complete picture of the skeleton of Supersaurus and helped him estimate the overall length of the beast more accurately.&nbsp;



However, many of the bones have still not been excavated, or are missing from the deposit, so determining the overall length is still a challenge.&nbsp;



"It should have 15 or 16 neck bones and we have six of them," Curtice said. "So the big challenge is 'Wait, which six do we have?' They don't come with numbers on them."



Curtice found that the vertebrae became smaller by a certain percentage the further they were from the body, and this allowed him to estimate the lengths of the missing bones.&nbsp;He calculated that, depending on the placement of one nearly 4.5-foot-long (1.3 m) neck vertebra,&nbsp;Supersaurus&nbsp;measured either 128 feet or 137 feet in overall length.&nbsp;



"That is a crazy length – longer than three yellow school buses, nose to tail," Curtice said. "And considering we never find the largest individual in the fossil record, how much longer could these animals have gotten?"



The other, more recent fossil Supersaurus discoveries, Jimbo and Goliath, supported Curtice’s estimates of length. "What's shocking to me is how close in length Goliath and Jimbo are," said Curtice. "If you get three animals that are within a few feet of one another, now we know, 'OK, that's the average.'"



Unfortunately, researchers have yet to formally identify Goliath as a&nbsp;Supersaurus&nbsp;in a peer-reviewed journal and, until that time, including its measurements for comparison can only be tentative.&nbsp;



The conclusions drawn from the new research "seem reasonable," said Matt Lamanna, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who was not involved with the research. "I can't really weigh in on the exact length estimate, but it's clear that there is a very, very large diplodocid sauropod in that quarry."



The research would be strengthened if the dinosaur nicknamed Goliath were to be formally identified as a&nbsp;Supersaurus, especially because Curtice is using it to inform his analysis, Lamanna said. "I think the final verdict will come when this Goliath specimen is published, when this additional material from Dry Mesa is published. I want to see it go through formal peer review."



"I think it will be pretty exciting when he does [publish]," Lamanna added. "I think he's very probably correct."



While he awaits the publication of the identity of Goliath, and the peer review of his own research, Curtice presented his findings at the annual meeting of the <a href="https://vertpaleo.org/">Society of Vertebrate Paleontology</a> earlier this month. Even the "shorter" size estimate of Supersaurus is record-breaking; at 128 feet (39 m), the dinosaur would have been longer&nbsp;than other contenders for this record. And with a neck of at least 50 feet long (15 m), Supersaurus already holds the record for the dinosaur with the longest neck. One thing is for sure though, when Supersaurus wandered the plains of Colorado and Wyoming, some 150 million years ago, it was an exceptionally large animal.



In conclusion, Curtice states that Supersaurus&nbsp;may be the longest dinosaur on record, but it's not the heaviest. That honor likely goes to the superheavy titanosaur&nbsp;Argentinosaurus, which weighed upward of 90 tons (82 metric tons) and came close to being twice as heavy as&nbsp;Supersaurus&nbsp;was.



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Supersaurus may be the longest dinosaur ever discovered

It is usually challenging to identify the exact proportions of...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0451-21.2021">eNeuro</a> has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dogs-process-speech-in-the-same-way-as-humans/">speech</a> sounds elicit similar neural responses and stimulate the same brain areas in humans, macaques, and guinea pigs. These findings may help better understand and diagnose auditory processing deficits.



The brain’s responses to sounds (“frequency following responses,” or FFRs) can be recorded by small electrodes placed on the scalp, and are generally used by clinicians to quickly asses infants’ hearing capacities in order to find out whether they may develop disorders such as dyslexia or autism.&nbsp;



If the infants’ brains produce electrical responses to sounds played through tiny headphones, their neural pathways connecting the ears to the high-level information processing areas of the brain are functional. However, until recently, this method lacked specificity.



“These tests can only tell us that something is off – but we don’t know what that ‘off’ is,” said study co-author Bharath Chandrasekaran, a professor of Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pittsburg’s <a href="https://www.shrs.pitt.edu/">School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences</a>.&nbsp;



“Understanding the source and mechanism of FFR generation would allow for the development of specific markers of speech impairments, which would be instrumental in improving clinical diagnostics of auditory processing deficits.”



Until recently, scientists thought that FFRs arise deep inside the brain stem. However, by combining electroencephalographic recordings from the scalp with recordings from electrodes placed inside the skull, the researchers found that FFRs are generated also in the auditory cortex of the brain, only a few centimeters away from the skull surface. Moreover, they appeared to be similar across mammals such as humans, monkeys, and guinea pigs.



“Recognizing the similarities between animal and human FFRs will allow us to study neural circuitry of sound processing in much greater detail,” said study lead author Nike Gnanateja Gurindapalli, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pittsburgh. “These explorations will further pave the way for new models of auditory processing in both typical and impaired auditory systems, which can eventually be used to infer auditory deficits using simple and effective non-invasive tools in the clinic.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



Since FFRs were traditionally thought to be passively generated outside the cortex, scientists did not typically account for a person’s attention and alertness during FFR recordings. This new discovery will change the way FFRs are collected and interpreted and will open pathways for the development of better biomarkers of auditory processing deficits, leading to faster, more accurate, and non-invasive diagnostics.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Speech sounds elicit similar brain responses in humans and guinea pigs

A new study published in the journal eNeuro has found...

Prior to the massive 2019-20 wildfires in Australia, a species of assassin <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/spiders-can-track-the-scent-of-killer-ants-to-avoid-them/">spider</a> known as the “pelican spider” was found only in the Western River Wilderness Protection Area on Kangaroo Island (KI). Unfortunately the area burned severely, leaving scientists to suspect that pelican spiders had been completely wiped out by the fires.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;



Recently, two pelican spiders were discovered alive in northern Kangaroo Island. The discovery of the surviving spiders was the result of research carried out under a grant acquired by the <a href="https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/">Southern Australia Museum</a> (SAM) to survey the bushfire damage.&nbsp;



“This is the first time the species has been found since high severity fires burnt their only known collecting locality. We have been surveying for the spiders since the fires, so it was an amazing feeling to finally find one,” said Dr. Jessica Marsh, an honorary research associate at SAM.



Pelican spiders are especially vulnerable to fire as they inhabit highly flammable environments.



“The spider lives in leaf litter that is suspended at around knee height in low lying vegetation – a habitat which is highly flammable, even in low severity fire. It is found near creeklines in open eucalypt vegetation communities,” explained Dr. Marsh.



Assassin spider populations were previously impacted by prescribed burns on Kangaroo Island, which highlights the vulnerability of the spiders to fire. The pelican spider was always rare and limited in range, so any threat is likely to be severe.



“A section of the Western River Wilderness Protection Area was burnt in a prescribed burn in 2015 and was not impacted by the 2019/20 bushfires. Post-fire surveys of the area have revealed that the elevated litter layer has still not yet formed in the vegetation and no habitat for assassin spiders was found, illustrating how even lower severity and planned burns can be a threat to this species. This also highlights its vulnerability, due to the length of time taken for suitable habitat to re-establish post-fire," said Dr. Marsh.



“Like other species of assassin spiders, the Kangaroo Island species has a very small distributional range and restricted dispersal abilities making it particularly susceptible to major threats, such as prescribed and wild bushfires, feral pigs and increased fragmentation of native vegetation.”



As of now though, there’s still some hope that pelican spiders will survive for a while longer.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

Spiders found on Kangaroo Island were thought to be extinct

Prior to the massive 2019-20 wildfires in Australia, a species...

A new study of the small but charismatic White Crowned Manakin indicates that it may actually be more than one species of tropical bird. The research also suggests this unexpected <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/enormous-loss-of-crop-diversity-found-in-recent-decades/">diversity</a> is inherent in the landscape of South America itself.&nbsp;



Study lead author Dr. Jacob Berv conducted the research while a Ph.D. student in the <a href="https://www.birds.cornell.edu/home/">Cornell Lab of Ornithology</a>, and is currently a Life Sciences Fellow at the University of Michigan.



“We found that the White-crowned Manakin probably originated in the highland forests of the Andes Mountains in northern Peru," explained Dr. Berv.



"Today, this bird is also found across the Amazon Basin, in the lowland rainforests of Brazil, Peru, and many other countries, including parts of Central America.”



The wide and varied landscape of South and Central America, ranging from mountains to lowland forest, is the driver behind speciation.&nbsp;



"This study shows that there is a lot of evolutionary history embedded in what is commonly referred to as a 'single widespread' species in Amazonia," said study co-author Camila Ribas of Brazil’s National Institute of Amazonian Research.



"The White-crowned Manakin is an example of a phenomenon that is probably more the rule than the exception in Amazonia—diversity is vastly underestimated by the current taxonomy."



At roughly 2.5 million years, manakins spread into the Andes, where many remain today. The remaining populations became isolated from the other tropical birds in insulated pockets of habitat created by mountains and rivers.&nbsp;



Over time, these separate populations drifted apart from each other in terms of evolution, becoming different species with different mating rituals, songs and plumage. The differences in mating behavior are especially important for their definitions as different species.&nbsp;



"In order to understand evolutionary processes in Amazonia we need many more studies like this one, with dense geographical sampling," said Ribas. "For this we need to support biological collections that are able to accumulate samples through time."



Dr. Bev echoed this sentiment and emphasized the need for more research. "We’ve basically just scratched the surface."



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.journals.elsevier.com/molecular-phylogenetics-and-evolution">Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution</a>. 



Image Credit: White-crowned Manakin by Phillip Edwards, Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Isolated tropical birds may represent new species

A new study of the small but charismatic White Crowned...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0258712">PLoS ONE</a> has found an innovative, animal-friendly manner to study venom genes. This technique makes it possible to determine the specific venom production of a variety of animals that have scarcely been studied before.



&nbsp;“Every venom contains tens to more than hundreds of different venomous substances, also called toxins, which are produced by the venom gland,” explained study co-author Freek Vonk, a professor of Biology at the <a href="https://vu.nl/en">Free University of Amsterdam</a> (VU) and researcher at the <a href="https://www.naturalis.nl/">Naturalis Biodiversity Center</a>. “After a bite or sting, these can have a toxic effect on various systems, such as the nerve endings or blood circulation.”&nbsp;



The scientists used a method called transcriptomics, through which patterns of gene expression can be examined. This method is easier, purer, and more specific than previously used techniques, allowing researchers to study the actual venom instead of venom gland tissue. Due to this, animals no longer need to be sacrificed in order to investigate the gene expression of their venom glands.



“Thanks to this technique, we can very precisely see which genes are active at various moments during the venom production,” said Vonk. “This snapshot offers the very first possibility to study how various influences, such as nutrition, season, and age, influence the venom production in a single individual.”



Venom is produced by animals in different ways. While some animals such as snakes or centipedes have venom-producing cells that issue the venom to the storage space in the venom gland in small vesicles, producing a relatively clean venom, other animals, like scorpions, allow their venom gland cells to be cut in small pieces, thus producing a venom that contains many cell remains.



“Those cell remains contain the substances on which we can perform transcriptomics: mapping which genes are activated to produce which proteins,” said study co-author Mátyás Bittenbinder, a doctoral student at Naturalis and the VU.



“The manner of venom production probably explains why the new technique does not work on snakes,” added Arie van der Meijden, a researcher at the <a href="https://www.up.pt/">University of Porto</a> and inventor of this innovative technique. “Conversely, the technique now makes it possible to study the venom variations in a large number of venomous animals that have scarcely ever, if at all, been studied, such as scorpions, fish, and even the platypus.”



Since the toxins in the venom are important sources for manufacturing new drugs, this study can have a significant impact in medicine.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Scientists find a new way to study venom production

A new study published in the journal PLoS ONE has...

New research suggests that what appeared to be a four-legged <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/snakes-had-an-evolutionary-explosion-after-dinosaur-extinction/">snake</a>, a missing evolutionary link connecting lizards and snakes, is nothing of the sort. The study has revealed that the specimen is simply a long-bodied marine lizard.



The study, which is published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tjsp20/current">Journal of Systematic Paleontology</a>, was led by Michael Caldwell of the University of Alberta.&nbsp;



“It has long been understood that snakes are members of a lineage of four-legged vertebrates that, as a result of evolutionary specializations, lost their limbs," said Caldwell.&nbsp;



"Somewhere in the fossil record of ancient snakes is an ancestral form that still had four legs. It has thus long been predicted that a snake with four legs would be found as a fossil.”



An earlier study published in the journal Science in 2015, suggested that paleontologists had found the first of these snakes with legs, naming it Tetrapodophis amplectus.&nbsp;



“If correctly interpreted based on the preserved anatomy, this would be a very important discovery,” said Caldwell. However, he disputes the veracity of the study, claiming that T. amplectus was mischaracterized as a snake.&nbsp;



“There are many evolutionary questions that could be answered by finding a four-legged snake fossil, but only if it is the real deal. The major conclusion of our team is that Tetrapodophis amplectus is not in fact a snake and was misclassified."



"Rather, all aspects of its anatomy are consistent with the anatomy observed in a group of extinct marine lizards from the Cretaceous period known as dolichosaurs.”



Caldwell explained how evidence from the surrounding rock matrix was overlooked in the description of the fossil.



“When the rock containing the specimen was split and it was discovered, the skeleton and skull ended up on opposite sides of the slab, with a natural mould preserving the shape of each on the opposite side."



"The original study only described the skull and overlooked the natural mould, which preserved several features that make it clear that Tetrapodophis did not have the skull of a snake - not even of a primitive one.”



Despite T. amplectus not being a “missing link” between lizards and snakes, it’s still an interesting fossil to scientists.



“One of the greatest challenges of studying Tetrapodophis is that it is one of the smallest fossil squamates ever found," said study co-author and Brazilian paleontologist Dr. Tiago Simões. "It is comparable to the smallest squamates alive today that also have reduced limbs.”



Dr. Simões pointed out that the fossil was removed from Brazil without appropriate permits and has since been housed in a private collection, limiting access by researchers. He asks that international treaties be honored and the fossil repatriated to Brazil.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Fossil linking snakes and lizards was falsely identified

New research suggests that what appeared to be a four-legged...

A new study led by the <a href="https://www5.usp.br/english/institutional/">University of São Paulo</a> (USP) in Brazil has found that <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/common-household-sounds-trigger-anxiety-in-dogs/">dogs</a> communicate with humans in ways that are dependent upon their particular life experiences. Thus, dogs living inside homes tend to exchange more gazes with their caregivers than dogs living outside or in shelters.



“Dogs are particularly skillful in communicating with humans, and growing evidence points towards the importance of both species intertwined evolutionary history and intense daily partnership,” wrote the study authors.



One of the communication behaviors used by dogs is gaze alternation, which can be defined as first staring at humans to get their attention, then flicking the eyes to where an unattainable and desired object is located, and then gazing back at the humans.



The scientists compared 60 pet dogs of various ages and breeds and found that 95.7 percent of those living inside homes used gaze alternation at least once, while only 80 percent of those living outside homes used it. In the case of shelter dogs, only 58.8 percent used this communication strategy.



“The findings point to strong influence of life experience on development and use of communicative behavior. Dogs that spent longer time near people were more disposed to use communication as a strategy to obtain a desired objective,” said study lead author&nbsp;Juliana Wallner Werneck Mendes, who conducted the experiment at the Canine Laboratory at USP during her master’s research.&nbsp;



“Another important aspect we observed was that all groups communicated,” she added. “Shelter dogs used to be considered unable to communicate with humans. In fact, they do, but less so. This shows that the experiences of a lifetime result in different kinds of behavior.”&nbsp;&nbsp;



According to Mendes and her colleagues, the low level of interaction characterizing shelter dogs should not be interpreted as incapacity. On the contrary, they seem quite capable of communicating, even with little exposure to humans, but they don’t need to do it for much of their lives.



These findings shed more light on the relationship between nature and nurture in canine development and behavior. “Canine behavior is largely inherited, of course, and they were domesticated a very long time ago, but this aspect should never be abstracted from the context in which they live. Nurture and the environment are also very important,” Mendes concluded.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0376635721001716?via%3Dihub">Behavioural Processes</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Life experience shapes the way dogs communicate with humans

A new study led by the University of São Paulo...

A new study published in the journal <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/15231739">Conservation Biology</a> suggests that conservation efforts in Central Africa might be more successful with a focus on smaller land areas.



The research counted populations of several species in seven savana national parks in central Africa. The study showed that broader geographic boundaries often end with smaller wildlife populations. This is possibly because larger lands are harder to manage effectively.&nbsp;



“In a lot of Africa, there has been a lot of space set aside for wildlife," said study co-author Professor Mark Mortiz of Ohio State University. "And what we’ve found is setting aside so much land is not sufficient in and of itself, and a lot of these protected areas are protected on paper only.”



The research shows that, in order to sufficiently protect wildlife, much more funding is necessary. The study was carried out across four countries in Central Africa, where 25 percent of the land was set aside for conservation.&nbsp;



Study lead author Paul Scholte is a visiting professor at ERAIFT-UNESCO in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.



“The governments in these countries are overstretched, trying to do more than they are able to do," said Professor Scholte. "And the reality is that increasing the areas under conservation, in central Africa, is pushing countries to take on more than they can take on, when the international community has not given them the resources necessary to align with the realities on the ground.”



Tourism has traditionally brought in a lot of renewable funding for land conservation in Africa but with the COVID-19 pandemic, this funding has largely dried up. Unfortunately, the international community hasn’t stepped up to supplement this loss.&nbsp;



The research showed that in six of the seven national parks surveyed, elephants, giraffes, buffalo and ten species of antelope have declined in population. Even as large amounts of land were set for conservation, cattle numbers increased as herders used the land for grazing. Unfortunately, remedying the situation would be extremely costly.&nbsp;



“We are not talking twice or triple the funding to be effective; it would require 10, 15 or even 20 times more funding annually to these parks’ budgets," said Professor Scholte.



"It’s enormous, and we all know it’s not realistic. So, we are saying that we should realize that, acknowledge it, and concentrate these scarce resources on areas that are viable and could have a greater effect.”



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By <a href="mailto:zachfitzner@yahoo.com">Zach Fitzner</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Conservation efforts are not protecting Central Africa’s wildlife

A new study published in the journal Conservation Biology suggests...

Some <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/animals-in-the-mediterranean-are-moving-to-deeper-water-to-survive/">animals</a>, such as red deer, can fake their calls in order to seem bigger than they actually are. Thus, the calls are usually lower than what would be expected based on body size. According to biologists, such a strategy may be used to impress the other sex. Moreover, previous <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0081">studies</a> argued that animals that can fake their body size by changing their calls also tend to be good vocal learners. 



However, new research led by the <a href="https://www.mpi.nl/">Max Plank Institute for Psycholinguistics</a> (MPI) and the <a href="https://www.uzh.ch/en.html">University of Zurich</a> has found that, contrary to expectations, vocal production learning in species such as dolphins, whales, or seals is correlated with the ability of producing higher sounds than those expected based on the animals’ body size. Thus, it appears that the good vocal learners are the animals capable of hitting high notes, and thus of "pretending" that they are smaller than they actually are.



“There might be an&nbsp;alternative&nbsp;evolutionary&nbsp;scenario in vocal learners, where selective pressures favor&nbsp;individuals&nbsp;that&nbsp;can&nbsp;change their tone of voice from low to&nbsp;high,” said study first author Andrea Ravignani, the leader of the <a href="https://www.mpi.nl/department/comparative-bioacoustics/20">Comparative Bioacoustics</a> research group at MPI.



“Of course there are exceptions, and we do not claim that all vocal learner species sound higher than expected for their body size.&nbsp;But there is a general trend, and this may help us to better characterize vocal communication in mammals,” explained study co-author Maxime Garcia, an expert in animal behavior at the University of Zurich.



According to Ravignani and Garcia, these findings could help predict which animal species are vocal learners. For example, the manatee, or sea cow, is an animal that has not yet shown capacities for vocal learning. However, since its calls are usually higher than expected from an animal of its size, researchers think that it may hide as yet undiscovered vocal talents.&nbsp;



On the other hand, non-vocal animals who sound lower than expected, such as the Juan Fernandez fur seal, could have evolved special anatomical adaptations that need further scientific explanation.



“Our results may help better understand the cross-species diversity, variability, and aetiology of VPL [vocal production learning], which among other things is a key underpinning of speech in our species,” concluded the study authors.



The research is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2020.0394#d1e1054">Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Animals good at vocal learning can fake their size

Some animals, such as red deer, can fake their calls...

It may be easy to assume that we already know all there is to know about <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dinosaurs-engaged-in-herd-living-much-earlier-than-expected/">dinosaurs</a> – after all, they existed hundreds of millions of years ago. However, this is not the case, with new research regularly coming out about new dinosaur discoveries,&nbsp; including a recent example from the <a href="https://www.port.ac.uk/">University of Portsmouth</a>.



In collaboration with the Natural History Museum, the university’s research team have discovered a new species and genus of dinosaur originating on the Isle of Wight. The team has named it the Brighstoneus simmondsi, after the nearby town of Brighstone and the original specimen discoverer Mr. Keith Simmonds.



The Isle of Wight has long since been associated with the discovery of dinosaurs, even yielding important specimens that resulted in Sir Richard Owen coining the term Dinosauria.



The newly named dinosaur falls into the group of iguanodontian, a group that includes the famous Iguanodon and Manellisaurus. Until recently, dinosaur material found on the Isle of Wight has been assumed to originate from one of these two dinosaurs. But, upon examining the specimen, researcher Jeremy Lockwood found features that distinguished it from existing discoveries.



"For me, the number of teeth was a sign," Dr. Lockwood explained. "Mantellisaurus has 23 or 24, but this has 28. It also had a bulbous nose, whereas the other species have very straight noses. Altogether, these and other small differences made it very obviously a new species."



The dinosaur was discovered to be a herbivore, weighing around 900kg and sizing up to eight meters in length. Its discovery suggests that there were significantly more iguanodontian dinosaurs in the UK throughout the Early Cretaceous period than were initially estimated and that other specimen discovered in the area must be reassessed.



"We're looking at six, maybe seven million years of deposits, and I think the genus lengths have been overestimated in the past," states Dr. Lockwood. "If that's the case on the island, we could be seeing many more new species. It seems so unlikely to just have two animals being exactly the same for millions of years without change."



Dr. Susannah Maidment, a scientist from the Natural History Museum and co-author of the paper, added to Lockwood’s thoughts:&nbsp;



"The describing of this new species shows that there is clearly a greater diversity of iguanodontian dinosaurs in the Early Cretaceous of the UK than previously realized. It’s also showing that the century-old paradigm that gracile iguanodontian bones found on the island belong to Mantellisaurus and large elements belong to Iguanodon can no longer be substantiated."



The research has been published in the <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/tjsp20/current">Journal of Systematic Palaeontology</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New dinosaur species identified on the Isle of Wight

It may be easy to assume that we already know...

The excavation of the massive cranium of an early elephant species that roamed the grasslands on the northeastern side of Lake Turkana, Kenya, has helped scientists to understand why this species became the dominant elephant in eastern Africa. Loxodonta adaurora existed around the late Miocene to mid-Pliocene Epochs, and this particular <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/birds-got-their-diverse-skulls-in-the-time-of-dinosaurs/">skull</a> is dated to around 4.5 million years ago. 



Known by its reference number, KNM-ER 63642, the specimen is from a large, adult male individual and is the most complete elephant cranium ever found from that time period. &nbsp;It is&nbsp;about 85 percent intact and reveals a wealth of previously unknown anatomical detail, according to <a href="https://umich.edu/">University of Michigan</a> paleontologist William Sanders, who is also the study's first author.



Loxodonta adaurora was one of seven or eight species of early elephants known from East Africa at that time and, although it was not a direct ancestor of modern African elephants, it was a closely related "cousin."



At the time that L. adaurora roamed the landscape, the climate was cooler and drier; these conditions favored the spread of grasslands in this region. Many different animals, including horses, antelope, rhinos, pigs and hippos, were evolving simultaneously to graze grasses and were competing for the available forage. Loxodonta adaurora was among these grazers, and its impressive cranium shows several adaptations that would have made it successful at utilizing the grasses available at that time.&nbsp;



Its cranium is unusual in being compressed from front to back, making the alignment of its chewing muscles well-suited for the efficient shearing of grasses. In addition, the elephant’s molars were higher-crowned and had thicker coatings of enamel and cementum than those of other early elephants. This would have made the teeth more resistant to the wear inherent in feeding on grasses close to the ground.



The study authors explained that the cranial morphology of KNM-ER 63642 is unexpectedly advanced for an elephant of its antiquity, and indicates that this species had already evolved craniodental adaptations to feeding on grasses by the early Pliocene Epoch. They hypothesize that these early adaptations helped make L. adaurora the dominant elephant species in the greater Turkana Basin at that time.&nbsp;



"The adaptations of L. adaurora put it at a great advantage over more primitive elephants, in that it could probably use less energy to chew more food and live longer to have more offspring," said Sanders, associate research scientist at the U-M Museum of Paleontology and in the Department of Anthropology.



The specimen was discovered in 2013 by a member of the Koobi Fora Research Project from a single molar that was visible at the surface. When it was excavated, it was found that the tooth was attached to an almost complete cranium lying upside-down under the surface of the substratum. It is estimated, from a previous excavation of another L. adaurora skeleton, that this individual was around 30 years old when it died, weighed about nine tons and probably stood about 12 feet at the shoulder, which is taller than average male elephants today.



"In my opinion, this elephant skull is by far the most impressive specimen that we have in the Kenyan paleontological collection from Lake Turkana, both in its completeness and in its size," said paleontologist and study co-author Louise Leakey of the Koobi Fora Research Project. "When the teeth were seen on the surface, we had no idea that a complete cranium would be uncovered, and the excavation and recovery operation were both challenging and exciting."&nbsp;



Once the excavation was complete, the fossilized cranium, together with the plaster envelope that protected it on its journey, weighed about 2 tons.&nbsp;KNM-ER 63642 is now permanently housed at the Turkana Basin Institute's facility in Ileret, Kenya. It is the only well-preserved elephant cranium from the interval beginning with the origin of elephants 8 million years ago and ending 3.5 million years ago, according to Sanders.



Elephants of this species most certainly coexisted with early hominins on the eastern African grasslands. In particular, fossil evidence of two australopithecine species has also been found from the region: Australopithecus&nbsp;anamensis fossils were recovered by Meave Leakey in and nearby the Lake Turkana Basin, Kenya, and fossil remains of A. afarensis were found at sites in Hadar, Ethiopia, and Laetoli, Tanzania.



Australopithecines would have benefitted from the presence of elephants in the early grassy woodlands and grasslands. Grazing by elephants would have helped keep the vegetation low and enabled our bipedal ancestors to look out for danger around them. Elephants also open access in the woodlands by knocking down trees and wearing pathways through the vegetation.&nbsp;&nbsp;



"The origins and early successes of our own biological family are tied to elephants," Sanders said. "Their presence on the landscape created more open conditions that favored the activities and adaptations of our first bipedal hominin ancestors.



"From this perspective, it is ironically tragic that current human activities of encroaching land use, poaching and human-driven climate change are now threatening the extinction of the mammal lineage that helped us to begin our own evolutionary journey," he said.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://palaeovertebrata.com/">Palaeovertebrata</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:bosman@truewan.co.za">Alison Bosman</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Elephants thrived on early African grasslands

The excavation of the massive cranium of an early elephant...

One of the many negative consequences that global warming is having on Earth is the heating of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/major-climate-shift-a-million-years-ago-linked-to-ocean-currents/">oceans</a>, resulting in unsuitable habitats for aquatic life. However, new research from <a href="https://english.tau.ac.il/">Tel Aviv University</a> has found that some species of marine creatures across the Mediterranean Sea are adapting to global warming by moving to cooler waters tens of meters deeper than their natural habitat.



The research team, led by Shahar Chaikin and Jonathan Belmaker, ultimately found that fish, crustaceans, and mollusks across the Mediterranean Sea were all seeking refuge in deeper waters. The average depth of change was 55 meters, resulting in a maximum temperature change of six degrees Celsius.



“It should be remembered that the Mediterranean was hot in the first place, and now we are reaching the limit of many species’ capacity,” explained Belmaker. “Moreover, the temperature range in the Mediterranean is extreme – cold in the northwest and very hot in the southeast. Both of these factors make the Mediterranean an ideal test case for species’ adaptation to global warming.”



The Mediterranean Sea is particularly affected by global warming, rising in temperatures of one degree Celsius every thirty years. Whilst adaptation is good news, it is important that researchers learn if and how other species will adapt in order to present mitigation and conservation solutions.



“Our research clearly shows that species do respond to climate change by changing their depth distribution, and when we think about the future, decision-makers will have to prepare in advance for the deepening of species," said Chaikin.



"For example, future marine nature reserves will need to be defined so that they can also provide shelter to species that have migrated to greater depths. And on the other hand, fishing in the future will involve fishing the same fish at greater depths, which means sailing further into the sea and burning more fuel.”



The researchers arrived at their conclusions through a process called trawling, where boats drag a net at different depths in order to identify population sizes. Through the measuring of the depth distribution of 236 marine species, they concluded that the pattern of deeping was not uniform, with cold-water species deeping significantly more than warm-water species.



“The minimum depths for species in the Mediterranean are getting deeper, while the maximum depths remain stable," explained Chaikin. “The deepening effect was found to be more significant among cold-water species. In contrast, there are species that function within a narrow temperature range and at a certain depth that deepen much less, probably because they cannot survive in deeper water.”



The results of the study have many implications for the future, with the benefits of adaptation still having their limits. “Even if species deepen to escape the warm waters and this rapid adaptation helps them, there is still a limit – and that limit is the seabed,” explained Belmaker. “We are already seeing deep-sea fish like cod whose numbers are declining, probably because they had nowhere deeper to go.”



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/14668238">Global Ecology and Biogeography</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:calumvaughan05@gmail.com">Calum Vaughan</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Mediterranean animals are moving to deeper water to survive

One of the many negative consequences that global warming is...

An international team of scientists led by the <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/">University of Adelaide</a> and the <a href="https://www.ku.dk/english/">University of Copenhagen</a> have found that humans had a significant role in the <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/over-half-of-indian-crop-varieties-are-close-to-extinction/">extinction</a> of woolly mammoths in Eurasia. Moreover, the study also shows that the extinction of mammoths occurred thousands of years later than previously thought.



“Our analyses strengthen and better resolves the case for human impacts as a driver of population declines and range collapses of megafauna in Eurasia during the late Pleistocene,” said study co-author David Nogues-Bravo, a professor of Macroecology, Evolution, and Climate Sciences at the University of Copenhagen.



“It also refutes a prevalent theory that climate change alone decimated woolly mammoth populations and that the role of humans was limited to hunters delivering the&nbsp;coup de grâce. And shows that species extinctions are usually the result of complex interactions between threatening processes.”



By using computer models, fossils, and ancient DNA, the scientists identified signatures of past changes in the distribution and demography of woolly mammoths, which provided clear evidence that humans hastened the extinction of mammoths by up to 4,000 years in some regions in Eurasia.&nbsp;



“We know that humans exploited woolly mammoths for meat, skins, bones, and ivory. However, until now it has been difficult to disentangle the exact roles that climate warming and human hunting had on its extinction,” said study lead author Damien Fordham, an associate professor of Global Ecology at the University of Adelaide.



“Our research shows that humans were a crucial and chronic driver of population declines of woolly mammoths, having an essential role in the timing and location of their extinction.”



Furthermore, the researchers discovered that mammoths are likely to have survived in Arctic regions with suitable climates and low densities of humans for thousands of years longer than initially thought.&nbsp;



“Our finding of long-term persistence in Eurasia independently confirms recently published environmental DNA evidence that shows that woolly mammoths were roaming around Siberia 5,000 years ago,” said study co-author Jeremy Austin, an associate professor at the University of Adelaide’s <a href="https://www.adelaide.edu.au/acad/">Australian Centre for Ancient DNA</a>.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ele.13911">Ecology Letters</a>.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Humans drove woolly mammoths to extinction

An international team of scientists led by the University of...

Scientists have discovered a new species of beaked whale that is 17 feet long, weighs over 2,000 pounds, and lives 6,000 feet below the sea surface. Ramari’s beaked whale - named after Māori whale specialist Ramari Stewart, who helped discover the first member of the species in November 2011 in New Zealand - appears to have a distinctly different bodily and genetic structure than other beaked whales.



“Beaked whales (ziphiids) are among the most visible inhabitants of the deep sea, due to their large size and worldwide distribution, and their taxonomic diversity and much about their natural history remain poorly understood,” explained the study authors.&nbsp;



Until now, only a few species of beaked whales have been discovered. Some of these species are only known by a handful of incomplete skeletons, and, since they tend to spend very brief periods of time at the sea surface, they are difficult to distinguish.&nbsp;



In this new study though, the scientists used genomic tools to analyze genetic information from museum and archival specimens of various ages in order to distinguish between different whale species. These investigations revealed that Ramari’s beaked whale was genetically different from other beaked whales and should be thus classified as a new species.&nbsp;



According to the scientists, discovering a new animal species requires important decisions around the naming of the new taxon. In order to honor the significant role indigenous Māori population has in studying the local ecosystems, the researchers decided to name this beaked whale after one of the indigenous whale experts who participated in the discovery of the first specimen. 



“We sought to recognize Indigenous peoples’ deep connection with, and knowledge of, the natural environment by consulting with them on potential species and common names,” explained the study authors. 



"This is part of a critical shift in the global science community, which strives to collaborate with Indigenous knowledge holders in ecology and conservation biology. Here, this has resulted in one of the first cetaceans named after an Indigenous woman.”



“It is not only rare to discover new whale species but even more rare to name them after women and honor the indigenous peoples whose coastlines are visited by these amazing creatures,” added Regina Asmutis-Silvia, the Executive Director of the <a href="https://uk.whales.org/">Whale and Dolphin Conservation</a> initiative.



The study is published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2021.1213#d1e1428">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a>.&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

New beaked whale discovered in New Zealand

Scientists have discovered a new species of beaked whale that...

Over 90 percent of <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/dopamine-plays-a-central-role-in-songbird-mating/">bird</a> species are monogamous, often mating for life, and albatrosses are some of the most loyal. Albatrosses have a rather awkward growing-up phase. They try out relationships with several partners, but they generally stick together for life.&nbsp;



However, a new study published in the journal <a href="https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/full/10.1098/rspb.2021.2112">Proceedings of the Royal Society B</a> has found that, due to climate change, albatrosses start “divorcing” more. “In many socially monogamous species, divorce is a strategy used to correct for sub-optimal partnerships and is informed by measures of previous breeding performance,” wrote the study authors.



“The environment affects the productivity and survival of populations, thus indirectly affecting divorce via changes in demographic rates. However, whether environmental fluctuations directly modulate the prevalence of divorce in a population remains poorly understood.”



By using a longitudinal dataset on the long-lived black-browed albatross (Thalassarche melanophris), a team of researchers led by the <a href="https://www.ulisboa.pt/en">University of Lisbon</a> investigated how environmental variability affected divorce rates among albatrosses. They found that in recent years, in which water temperatures gradually rose, up to eight percent of albatross couples split up.



Normally, albatross divorce is triggered by a failure to breed. However, the new findings showed that albatross pairs were even divorcing after a successful breeding season. According to the researchers, this might be caused by the problems long-distance relationships entail. Since warming waters force the birds to hunt for longer and fly further away, often failing to return for the next breeding season, their partners may move on with another bird.



Furthermore, albatross stress hormones increase in harsher environments, such as when sea waters are warmer. With tougher breeding conditions and food scarcity, albatrosses can start “blaming” each other for their difficulties in proper sustenance and breeding, ultimately leading to divorce.



“For the first time, to our knowledge, we document the disruptive effects of challenging environmental conditions on the breeding processes of a monogamous population, potentially mediated by higher reproductive costs, changes in phenology and physiological stress. Environmentally driven divorce may therefore represent an overlooked consequence of global change,” concluded the researchers.



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Albatrosses are divorcing more due to climate change

Over 90 percent of bird species are monogamous, often mating...

An international team of researchers from <a href="https://english.jiangnan.edu.cn/">Jiangnan University</a>, China, <a href="https://www.qmul.ac.uk/">Queen Mary University of London</a>, and the <a href="https://www.oulu.fi/en">University of Oulu</a>, Finland, have recently discovered that a specific type of gut bacteria (Lactobacillus apis) is linked to enhanced memory in <a href="https://www.earth.com/news/bumblebees-are-attracted-to-the-humidity-of-flowers/">bumblebees</a>. This study adds to the growing scientific evidence that the gut microbiome, consisting of trillions of microbes living in our intestines, can affect animal cognition and behavior.



Since bees have a relatively small community of gut microbes compared to mammals, they are ideal models to explore the role of specific gut bacteria on differences in cognition and behavior between individuals.



In order to test bees’ memory and learning abilities, the researchers created different colored artificial flowers, some of them associated with a sweet sucrose solution, and others with a bitter tasting solution containing quinine, which is a repellent for bees. Afterwards, they assessed how quickly the bees managed to learn which colors are associated with a sugar reward, and whether they were able to remember this information three days later.



By sequencing gut samples from the bees, the scientists compared individual differences in learning and memory abilities with the levels of different gut microorganisms. They found that bumblebees with more Lactobacillus apis in their microbiome had a better memory and stronger learning abilities than those with fewer bacteria.&nbsp;



Furthermore, to confirm that the numbers of Lactobacillus apis were directly responsible for the differences in learning and memory, the researchers added these bacteria to the bumblebees’ diet and measured their responses to the same task.&nbsp;



“Our results suggest not only that the natural variation in the amount of a specific gut bacterium effects memory, but also show a causal link – that by adding the same bacterial species to a bee’s diet can enhance their memories,” said study lead author Dr. Li Li, a postdoctoral fellow at Jiangnan University.



“This is a fascinating finding that could apply to humans as well as to bees. Our findings add to growing evidence of the importance of gut-brain interactions in animals and provide insights into the cause of cognitive differences in natural bumblebee populations,” added study co-author Lars Chittka, a professor of Zoology at Queen Mary University.



This study, published in the journal <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-26833-4">Nature Communications</a>, shows that we can improve our cognitive abilities by regulating gut microbiota.&nbsp;&nbsp;



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By <a href="mailto:andrei.ionescu5891@gmail.com">Andrei Ionescu</a>, <a href="https://www.earth.com/staff/">Earth.com</a> Staff Writer

Gut bacteria enhances memory in bees

An international team of researchers from Jiangnan University, China, Queen...

species in Oligoneuriidae