Archive for the 'Animals' Category
Blue whale carcass washes up on beach near Ventura
By Steve Chawkins and Kenneth R. Weiss, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers
September 15, 2007
The cause of death is unknown, but scientists are eager to examine it. Ventura County plans to tow it through the water to another beach today.
Beached beside a highway 10 miles up the coast from Ventura, the immense carcass of a blue whale drew hundreds of spectators Friday as biologists began to delve into it for a rare, clinical glimpse of the world’s largest animal.
Nobody yet knows what killed the whale, which is about 78 feet long and estimated to weigh around 100,000 pounds. But scientists are eager to do detailed examinations of the putrefying hulk, which washed ashore Thursday night just yards from Hobson County Park, a seaside campground off Pacific Coast Highway.
Sea Ice Is Getting Thinner
Science Daily — Large areas of the Arctic sea-ice are only one metre thick this year, equating to an approximate 50 percent thinning as compared to the year 2001. These are the initial results from the latest Alfred-Wegener-Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association lead expedition to the North Polar Sea.
Fifty scientists have been on board the Research ship- Polarstern for two and a half months, their main aim; to carry out research on the sea-ice areas in the central Arctic. Amongst other things, they have found out that not only the ocean currents are changing, but community structures in the Arctic are also altering. Autonomous measuring-buoys have been placed out, and they will contribute valuable data, also after the expedition is finished, to the study of the environmental changes occurring in this region.
No commentsOldest Identifiable Footprints Found
By Ker Than, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 12 September 2007 06:12 am ET
Two reptile-like animals living 290 million years ago are the oldest creatures to have their footprints positively identified after a fortuitous discovery allowed scientists to match fossils to preserved trackways.
Fossils of Diadectes absitus and Orobates pabsti were recently found in the Tambach Formation in central Germany. Nearby and in the same sediment layer, scientists found well-preserved footprints made by creatures that plodded through the region’s soft sediments long ago. The footprints turned out to be a match for the fossil animals.
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More Species on Brink of Extinction
By Andrea Thompson, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 12 September 2007 01:06 pm ET
More than 16,300 species of animals and plants are on the verge of disappearing from the planet, with nearly 200 more species approaching extinction within the last year, according to the World Conservation Union’s 2007 Red List of Threatened Species.
The annually produced list classifies species according to their extinction risk. Based on the latest figures, there are now 41,415 species on the Red List, with 16,306 threatened with extinction.
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Coyotes Cower in Wolf Territory
By LiveScience Staff
posted: 11 September 2007 12:28 pm ET
Who’s afraid of the big, bad wolf? Coyotes.
While coyotes are top wildlife predators in many parts of the country, they seem to be wary of their Canis cousin, the wolf, with coyote densities dropping by a third in wolf territory, a new study finds.
The research, detailed online by the Journal of Animal Ecology, examined the effects of wolves on coyote populations in Grand Teton National Park and the southern greater Yellowstone ecosystem.
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Eels Doom Prey with ‘Alien’ Jaws
By Dave Mosher, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 05 September 2007 01:00 pm ET
Enormous monsters scuttle across the screen in the movie “Alien,” devouring humans with a second, saliva-dripping set of jaws thrust from the back of their throats. Although the creatures are contrived, a new study shows that moray eels use such a set of jaws to eat.
The discovery shows that morays use the second, hidden set of jaws to drag unsuspecting meals to their doom—a behavior unique among the eels’ bony fish relatives, who suck in meals like vacuum cleaners.
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Parasites Sneak Entire Genome into Flies
By Dave Mosher, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 30 August 2007 02:07 pm ET
Spineless creatures of the world, watch out: Bacteria can slip their entire genetic codes into yours.
Scientists have discovered the parasitic microbe Wolbachia’s entire genome—the software of life—inside that of its fruit fly host.
The breakthrough suggests that movement of genes between two different species, called lateral gene transfer, happens faster and more frequently than scientists thought possible, leading them to rethink some ideas about evolution.
“This is stunning evidence for increased frequency of gene transfer,” said W. Ford Doolittle, a molecular biologist at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, who was not involved in the study. A few years ago the process would have been considered “science fiction,” Doolittle said.
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T. Rex Could Outrun Humans
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 22 August 2007 08:43 am ET
Virtual races between prehistoric beasts reveal that one of the smallest carnivorous dinosaurs would have zipped past the lumbering Tyrannosaurus rex by a long shot. But even so, the “tyrant lizard king” was no slouch.
Turns out, T. rex could have outrun some of the buffest athletes.
“The figures we have produced are the best estimate to date as to how fast these prehistoric animals could run,” said Phil Manning, a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England.
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Promiscuous Mama Birds Bank on ‘Nannies’
By Jeanna Bryner, LiveScience Staff Writer
posted: 16 August 2007 02:02 pm ET
Childcare can be costly, even in the avian world. Some clever and promiscuous mama birds save their energy and get a boost in health by relying on helper birds for “free” offspring-care, new research shows.
The study reveals how female superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) skimp on allocating energy-costing nutrition to eggs developing inside them. Instead, they rely on helper birds later on to compensate by providing extra food to the offspring once they hatch from less nourished eggs.
The energy savings results in longer life spans for the mother wrens and therefore more opportunities for breeding. And that means the females will have more offspring during a lifetime.
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Taiwan strives to conserve rare turtles
By WALLY SANTANA, Associated Press Writer
PENGHU, Taiwan - People once thought nothing of killing the green turtles on these islands for their meat and eggs, decimating the rare species’ ranks along the way.
But local efforts to save the creatures — through a nesting reserve, a veterinary clinic and even a beach patrol — still aren’t guaranteed to revive the species’ numbers, authorities say.
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