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Researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated a connection between the expression of the HMGA2 gene and body size in pigs. The work further demonstrates the gene's importance in body size regulation across mammalian species, and provides a target for gene modification.
"Essentially, HMGA2 is a gene that controls the total number of cells that...
Alligators on the beach. Killer whales in rivers. Mountain lions miles from the nearest mountain.
In recent years, sightings of large predators in places where conventional wisdom says they "shouldn't be" have increased, in large part because local populations, once hunted to near-extinction, are rebounding -- thanks to conservation.
Many observers have hypothesized that as these populations...
Using tools developed to monitor earthquakes, an interdisciplinary team of researchers reporting in Current Biology on May 7 have found that it's possible to eavesdrop on elephants by listening in to vibrations through the ground as they move about and vocalize. The findings lend support to theories suggesting that elephants could use ground vibrations for...
Many species have a specific mating season when living in their natural habitat. The young animals are usually born in spring when environmental conditions are optimal for their survival, while births at less favorable times such as the start of winter are thus avoided. Depending on whether seasonal reproduction is a strong characteristic of a...
Common cuckoos and oriental cuckoos in eastern Russia appear to be expanding their breeding range into western Alaska, where songbirds are naive to the cuckoos' wily ways, researchers report. A new study suggests the North American birds could suffer significant losses if cuckoos become established in Alaska.
Like brown-headed cowbirds, cuckoos are "brood parasites," laying their...
In the 1890s, settlers crossed the Rocky Mountains seeking new opportunities -- and bearing frogs. A new study coauthored by a San Francisco State University biology professor draws a link between that introduction of American bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana) to the western half of the United States with the spread of a fungus deadly to amphibians....