Updated: 2010-11-23 13:58:08
Biologists have long thought that interactions between plants and pollinating insects hasten evolutionary changes and promote biological diversity. However, new findings show that some interactions between plants and pollinators are less likely to increase diversity than previously thought, and in some instances, reduce it........
Updated: 2010-11-18 15:17:24
As frogs around the world continue to disappear-a number of killed by a rapidly spreading disease called chytridiomycosis, which attacks the skin cells of amphibians-one critically endangered species has received an encouraging boost. Eventhough the La Loma tree frog, Hyloscirtus colymba, is notoriously difficult to care for in captivity, the Panama Amphibian Rescue and Conservation Project is the first to successfully breed this species........
Updated: 2010-11-11 23:25:17
There appears to be a number of similarities between the importance of large predators in marine and terrestrial environments, scientists concluded in a recent study, which examined the interactions between wolves and elk in the United States, as well as sharks and dugongs in Australia. In each case, the major predators help control the populations of their prey, researchers said. But through what's been called the "ecology of fear" they also affect the behavior of the prey, with ripple impacts on other aspects of the ecosystem and an ecological significance that goes far beyond these species........
Updated: 2010-11-10 15:28:24
Charles Darwin's theory of gradual evolution is not supported by geological history, New York University Geologist Michael Rampino concludes in an essay in the journal Historical Biology In fact, Rampino notes that a more accurate theory of gradual evolution, positing that long periods of evolutionary stability are disrupted by catastrophic mass extinctions of life, was put forth by Scottish horticulturalist Patrick Matthew previous to Darwin's published work on the topic........
Updated: 2010-11-04 02:24:46
A study by the team headed by Lluís Ribas de Pouplana, ICREA professor at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona), has been chosen as "Paper of the week" in the recent issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry, which is already available online. The article describes the discovery of a new protein in the fly Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) that is crucial for mitochondria. The removal of SLIMP in these flies leads to aberrant mitochondria and loss of metabolic capacity, thus causing death........
