The shape of water. Can it tell us about what drives romance? Among fish, it might. Eva Kanso, a professor of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering studies fluid flows and almost like a forensic expert, Kanso, along with her team, is studying how aquatic signals are transported through the...
Tracking Aedes mosquito invasions in Panama
According to new research in the journal PLOS ONE by scientists at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and Panama's government research institute, INDICASAT, mosquitoes in the genus Aedes, which carry a group of dangerous viruses causing yellow fever, chikungunya and Zika, invaded the crossroads of the Americas multiple times, by land and by sea.
"With...
Freezing breakthrough offers hope for African wild dogs
James Cook University researchers in Australia have helped develop a new way to save endangered African wild dogs.
Dr Damien Paris and PhD student Dr Femke Van den Berghe from the Gamete and Embryology (GAME) Lab at James Cook University, have successfully developed a sperm freezing technique for the species (Lycaon pictus).
The highly efficient pack hunters...
The ban of the cave bear
At 3.5 meters long and with a shoulder height of 1.7 meters, the cave bear was one of the giants of the Ice Age. Yet few appear to have survived until the last glacial maximum 24,000 to 19,000 years ago. Researchers from Germany, Italy and Canada have conducted analyses to find out what likely caused...
Diving deep into the blue whale genome reveals the animals’ extraordinary evolutionary history
For the first time, scientists of the German Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Center, Goethe University and the University of Lund in Sweden have deciphered the complete genome of the blue whale and three other rorquals. These insights now allow tracking the evolutionary history of the worlds' largest animal and its relatives in unprecedented detail....
Potential explanation for declines in brown bear populations
Animals may fall into what are called evolutionary and ecological traps when they make poor decisions using seemingly reliable environmental cues. For example, animals may select habitats to occupy based on food availability, but mortality may be highest in habitats with the highest food availability. A new Mammal Review article examines how the brown (grizzly)...