http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. A new study in Science suggests that thrill-seeking is not limited to humans and other vertebrates. Some honey bees, too, are more likely than others to seek adventure. The brains of these novelty-seeking bees exhibit distinct patterns of gene activity in molecular pathways known to be associated with thrill-seeking in humans, researchers report. http://phys.org/news250436877.html Biology Thu, 08 Mar 2012 14:00:15 EST news250436877 Paleontologists from Chinese Academy of Sciences reported two Jurassic salamanders with stomach contents from Daohugou, Ningcheng County, Inner Mongolia, China, as reported in Chinese Science Bulletin online January 2012 (Vol.57, No.1). This is the first report of well-established fossil caudates with food in their stomachs, and these specimens provide important evidence supporting hypotheses about ecological interactions in the Jurassic ecosystem of Daohugou. http://phys.org/news247745244.html Other Sciences Mon, 06 Feb 2012 10:07:46 EST news247745244 (Medical Xpress) -- Fruit flies don't have noses, but a huge part of their brains is dedicated to processing smells. Flies probably rely on the sense of smell more than any other sense for essential activities such as finding mates and avoiding danger. http://phys.org/news246216712.html Biology Thu, 19 Jan 2012 17:32:04 EST news246216712 Almost all gnathostomes or jawed vertebrates (including osteichthyans, chondrichthyans, ‘acanthodians’ and most placoderms) possess paired pectoral and pelvic fins. To date, it has generally been believed that antiarch placoderms (extinct armoured jawed fishes from the Silurian–Devonian periods) lacked pelvic fins. As Parayunnanolepis xitunensis with extensive post-thoracic preservation represents the only example of a primitive antiarch, and its original description has been cited as confirming the primitive lack of pelvic fins in early antiarchs. http://phys.org/news245402116.html Other Sciences Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:15:26 EST news245402116 Biologists have long assumed that all jawed vertebrates possess a full complement of nearly identical genes for critical aspects of their development. But a paper in the December 16 issue of Science with Benjamin King of the Mount Desert Island Biological Laboratory (MDIBL) as lead author shows that elasmobranchs, a subclass of cartilaginous fishes, lack a cluster of genes, HoxC, formerly thought to be essential for proper development. http://phys.org/news243179333.html Biology Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:00:20 EST news243179333 An international team of researchers studying sound production in perch-like fishes has discovered a link between two unrelated lineages of fishes, taking researchers a step closer to understanding the evolution of one of the fastest muscles in vertebrates. http://phys.org/news243175930.html Biology Thu, 15 Dec 2011 12:52:59 EST news243175930 Field work by researcher Fred Kraus from Bishop Museum, Honolulu has found the world's smallest frogs in southeastern New Guinea. This also makes them the world's smallest tetrapods (non-fish vertebrates). The frogs belong to the genus Paedophryne, all of whose species are extremely small, with adults of the two new species - named Paedophryne dekot and Paedophryne verrucosa - only 8-9 mm in length. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. http://phys.org/news242907000.html Biology Mon, 12 Dec 2011 10:10:13 EST news242907000 It's well known that Earth's most severe mass extinction occurred about 250 million years ago. What's not well known is the specific time when the extinctions occurred. A team of researchers from North America and China have published a paper in Science this week which explicitly provides the date and rate of extinction. http://phys.org/news240760490.html Space & Earth Thu, 17 Nov 2011 14:00:10 EST news240760490 LI Yan, associate curator of Gansu Museum, collected 9 specimens of Gansus for further study during his fieldwork from 2002 to 2004. He and his collaborators from Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Key Laboratory of Evolutionary Systematics of Vertebrates, Chinese Academy of Sciences, described some new anatomical features, as reported in the latest issue of Vertebrata PalAsiatic 2011(4), adding to our understanding of the skeletal anatomy of this basal ornithurine. http://phys.org/news239882381.html Other Sciences Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:59:53 EST news239882381 (PhysOrg.com) -- People experience the world through five senses but sharks, paddlefishes and certain other aquatic vertebrates have a sixth sense: They can detect weak electrical fields in the water and use this information to detect prey, communicate and orient themselves. http://phys.org/news237568285.html Biology Tue, 11 Oct 2011 16:11:35 EST news237568285 While the cause of the mass extinction that occurred between the Permian and Triassic periods is still uncertain, two University of Rhode Island researchers collected data that show that terrestrial biodiversity recovered much faster than previously thought, potentially contradicting several theories for the cause of the extinction. http://phys.org/news237436169.html Space & Earth Mon, 10 Oct 2011 03:30:09 EST news237436169 Evolution adds and subtracts, and nowhere is this math more evident than in vertebrates, which are programmed to have five digits on each limb. But many species do not. Snakes, of course, have no digits, and birds have three. http://phys.org/news234359284.html Biology Sun, 04 Sep 2011 13:01:13 EST news234359284 (PhysOrg.com) -- Reorganisation of the brain and sense organs could be the key to the evolutionary success of vertebrates, one of the great puzzles in evolutionary biology, according to a paper by an international team of researchers, published today in Nature. http://phys.org/news232805090.html Other Sciences Wed, 17 Aug 2011 13:05:16 EST news232805090 Jena (Germany) Modern scientists would have loved the sight of early reptiles running across the Bromacker near Tambach-Dietharz (Germany) 300 million years ago. Unfortunately this journey through time is impossible. But due to Dr. Thomas Martens and his team from the Foundation Schloss Friedenstein Gotha numerous skeletons and footprints of early dinosaurs have been found and conserved there during the last forty years. http://phys.org/news230984347.html Other Sciences Wed, 27 Jul 2011 11:30:05 EST news230984347 Polydactyly is a hereditary anomaly that is relatively common in both humans and animals. Moles also have additional fingers. In their case, however, the irregularity compared to the five-finger formula of land vertebrates is the norm. An international team of researchers head-ed by paleontologists from the University of Zurich has now uncovered the background to the development of the mole's extra "thumb": A bone develops in the wrist that stretches along the real thumb, giving the paw a bigger surface area for digging. http://phys.org/news229859227.html Biology Thu, 14 Jul 2011 10:47:25 EST news229859227 More than 99 per cent of modern vertebrates (animals with a backbone, including humans) have jaws, yet 420 million years ago, jawless, toothless armour-plated fishes dominated the seas, lakes, and rivers. There were no vertebrates yet on land and the recently evolved jawed fishes were minor players in this alien world, some sporting unusual jaw shapes and structures that bear little physical resemblance to modern animals. http://phys.org/news229175994.html Biology Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:00:45 EST news229175994 (PhysOrg.com) -- Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) researchers have filled an important gap in the study of tunicate evolution by genetically sequencing 40 new specimens of thaliaceans, gelatinous, free-swimming types of tunicates. Their study was featured on the cover of the June issue of the Journal of Plankton Research. http://phys.org/news228738923.html Biology Fri, 01 Jul 2011 12:10:02 EST news228738923 (PhysOrg.com) -- The brains of all vertebrates display gender-related differences. In songbirds, for example, the size of the brain areas that control their singing behaviour could be linked to the size of their song repertoires. In many songbird species, only the males sing and indeed, they do have larger song control areas in the brain than females. However, even species where both sexes sing identically, display the same sex differences in their brain structure. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Ornithology in Seewiesen have now demonstrated for the first time in the white-browed sparrow weaver, an African songbird, that the extent of these sex differences in the brain varies according to social status, and cannot be explained by singing behaviour as previously thought (PLoS One, 8 June 2011). http://phys.org/news227175717.html Biology Mon, 13 Jun 2011 09:22:20 EST news227175717 In a recent journal published in Entomological Science, Dr. Shin-ya Ohba shares the unusual behavior and role reversal of a giant water bug becoming the predator and eating a juvenile turtle in a ditch in central Japan. While this Kirkaldyia deyrolli, or giant water bug, from the Lethocerinae family has been seen preying on small vertebrates such as frogs and fish, Ohba has captured images of the bug eating small turtles and snakes. http://phys.org/news225692318.html Biology Fri, 27 May 2011 06:00:01 EST news225692318 A fang-like tooth on double upper lips, spiny teeth on the tongue and a pulley-like mechanism to move the tongue backwards and forwards -- this bizarre bite belongs to a conodont and, thanks to fresh fossil finds, has now been analyzed and reconstructed by a research team headed by paleontologists from the University of Zurich. Their analysis sheds light on the origin of jaws. Their reconstruction shows for the first time how the first vertebrates fed. http://phys.org/news225017669.html Other Sciences Thu, 19 May 2011 09:55:02 EST news225017669 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international team of researchers studied the parareptiles, a diverse group of bizarre-looking terrestrial vertebrates which varied in shape and size. Some were small, slender, agile and lizard-like creatures, while others attained the size of rhinos; many had knobbly ornaments, fringes, and bony spikes on their skulls. http://phys.org/news223812029.html Other Sciences Thu, 05 May 2011 11:01:22 EST news223812029 During embryonic development, cells migrate to their eventual location in the adult body plan and begin to differentiate into specific cell types. Thanks to new research at the University of Pennsylvania, there is new insight into how these processes regulate tissues formation in the heart. http://phys.org/news222693017.html Medicine & Health Fri, 22 Apr 2011 12:40:04 EST news222693017 When it comes to picking a face out of a police lineup, would you guess that you would use some of the same processes a pigeon might use? http://phys.org/news221760282.html Biology Mon, 11 Apr 2011 17:04:55 EST news221760282 Primates, particularly humans, are set apart from other vertebrates by more than a huge expansion of the cerebral cortex, the region of the brain used for thinking. The connection and coordination of the cerebral cortex with other, older parts of the brain also play a significant role, according to findings published recently in Science by a research team from the RIKEN Brain Science Institute (BSI) in Wako, Japan. http://phys.org/news221156780.html Medicine & Health Mon, 04 Apr 2011 17:26:40 EST news221156780 Researchers from Osaka University and the National Institute for Basic Biology, Japan, have found a highly significant connection between the molecular mechanisms underlying genetic and environmental sex determination. The scientists report in the open-access journal PLoS Genetics the identification of a gene responsible for the production of males during environmental sex determination in the crustacean Daphnia. http://phys.org/news220208599.html Biology Thu, 24 Mar 2011 18:04:03 EST news220208599 Researchers from China, Leicester and Oxford have discovered a remarkable fossil which sheds new light on an important group of primitive sea creatures. http://phys.org/news220188782.html Other Sciences Thu, 24 Mar 2011 12:33:22 EST news220188782 A new study is providing fascinating insight into how projections conveying sensory information in the brain are guided to their appropriate targets in different species. The research, published by Cell Press in the March 24 issue of the journal Neuron, reveals a surprising new evolutionary scenario that may help to explain how subtle changes in the migration of "guidepost" neurons underlie major differences in brain connectivity between mammals and nonmammalian vertebrates. http://phys.org/news220107533.html Medicine & Health Wed, 23 Mar 2011 14:50:03 EST news220107533 Bisphenol A, whose impact on reproduction and development is the subject of numerous studies, induces anomalies in the inner ear of embryos of certain vertebrates. This new, completely unsuspected effect has been demonstrated on zebrafish and Xenopus, a type of frog, by a French team headed by Vincent Laudet of the Institut de Genomique Fonctionnelle in collaboration with researchers from Inserm, the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle and INRA. Published in the journal BMC Developmental Biology, these results illustrate, for the first time, the sensitivity of the inner ear in vertebrates to bisphenol A. The study demonstrates that the effects of this chemical compound on the embryonic development of animals, including mammals, now needs to be explored in greater depth. http://phys.org/news219488922.html Biology Wed, 16 Mar 2011 10:09:26 EST news219488922 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at Harvard University are moving closer to answering some age-old questions. How did the leopard get its spots? How did the zebra get its stripes? http://phys.org/news217778692.html Biology Thu, 24 Feb 2011 14:05:15 EST news217778692 Scientists have identified a pheromone produced by female squid that triggers immediate and dramatic fighting in male squid that come into contact with it. The aggression-producing pheromone, believed to be the first of its kind discovered in any marine animal, belongs to a family of proteins found in vertebrates, including humans. Results of the study appear in the February 10th issue of Current Biology. http://phys.org/news216563722.html Biology Thu, 10 Feb 2011 12:35:43 EST news216563722