dr. dolittle
Posts by this author
May 1, 2014
Check out the world's fastest animal (relative to its size):
This research was featured at this year's Experimental Biology conference!
April 27, 2014
Another exciting day at the Experimental Biology meeting for physiologists! Although I am a bit nervous about the session on the negative effects of sleep deprivation, "Sleepless in San Diego: Is Sleep Deprivation the New Silent Killer?" Hmmm, maybe I should have gone to bed a bit earlier last…
April 26, 2014
The meeting is off to a good start.
I attended a session sponsored by the American Physiological Society on Animal Models of hypertension caused by the nervous system, or neurogenic hypertension. While their definition of comparative really only meant rats, dogs and humans, I found it very…
April 25, 2014
I am very excited about the Experimental Biology conference that starts this weekend. I have my bags packed, my poster printed and I am heading to the airport to catch my plane. I can't wait to learn about all of the exciting physiology (especially comparative physiology) research. I will be sure…
April 18, 2014
Image from: bluecrossanimalhospital.ca
The FDA has issued a warning that Easter lilies are toxic to cats. According to veterinarian Dr. Melanie McLean at the US Food and Drug Administration ingestion of even a small portion of the leaves, pollen or flowers of the plant are very poisonous to cats…
April 18, 2014
Sounds kind of like an oxymoron doesn't it? Who knew sponges could be carnivorous? Scientists have described four new species of carnivorous sponges in a newly published article in Zootaxa. Check out this video from the lead author of the study, Lonny Lundsten who is a Senior Research Technician at…
April 18, 2014
I am very excited about the upcoming Experimental Biology conference that starts next weekend. I just looked through the Spring newsletter for the Comparative and Evolutionary Physiology section of the American Physiological Society. Check out the exciting programming in comparative physiology at…
April 11, 2014
Gray's paradox was originated by the zoologist James Gray in 1936 (J. Exp. Biol. 13: 192–199, 1936). The paradox questioned how a dolphin is able to swim fast (~10.1 meters per second according to his calculations) with what he saw as a limited ability to generate that much power. Therefore, he…
April 9, 2014
An river otter was captured on camera taking on an juvenile alligator...and winning. The battle took place at the Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge in Florida in 2011. More images can be seen on their Facebook page where the images were recently posted, impressive! According to National…
April 5, 2014
Image from LiveScience. Credit: Richard Borowsky
Heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) helps keep proteins in the body folded properly and is thought to compensate for variations that occur in proteins over time. In a study published in Science magazine, Dr. Nicolas Rohner and colleagues showed that…
April 3, 2014
Photo Credit: Liew Thor-Seng
Ten new species of snails in the genus Plectostoma have been discovered in the limestone hills of Southeast Asia. Limestone hills are not common in this region, so the individual snail species are often isolated to just one hill. Therefore mining has threatened their…
March 30, 2014
Check out this neat video highlighting how frog-eating bats are using frog mating calls to know where to pick up dinner:
March 27, 2014
I just read a really neat study from researchers at Texas A&M University. While admittedly this is not comparative physiology, it was just too interesting not to share.
In a study published in the Journal of Nutritional Biochemistry, Dr. Luis Cisneros-Zevallos and colleagues found that…
March 21, 2014
Credit: Image courtesy of Stanford University Medical Center, from ScienceDaily
According to a press release from Stanford University, California sea lions develop epilepsy from exposure to a toxin produced by algae called domoic acid. The animals develop seizures which can result in memory loss…
March 18, 2014
Here I thought snails were just cute little creatures that liked to dine in my vegetable garden. You can imagine my surprise to learn there are also carnivorous snails....with venom. New research shows that conotoxin, isolated from cone snail venom, can numb pain. Conotoxin is also reportedly 100…
March 16, 2014
Figure 1 showing RAGE (aka: Ager) expression only in mammals from Sessa et al., PLOS ONE. 9(1): e86903, 2014.
RAGE stands for "receptor for advanced glycation end-products", also known as "AGER", and new research shows that it first appeared in mammals (Sessa et al., 2014). Despite the name, the…
March 14, 2014
This adorable baby gorilla was born through emergency c-section at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, a procedure that is not commonly performed in animals. She weighed in at 4.6 pounds. Her mother went into labor Wednesday morning but showed no progress by evening, necessitating the c-section.
The…
March 12, 2014
Research published last month in PNAS provides evidence that African elephants (Loxodonta africana) can differentiate human voices. This is a very important skill to an animal that is often threatened by humans. Prior research has shown that elephants could tell the difference between African…
March 8, 2014
Image from U Penn.
I came across this really interesting press release from the University of Pennsylvania that I just had to share.
Despite having a close relationship with dogs for thousands of years, we are still making new discoveries about our canine friends. Drs. William Beltran (School of…
March 5, 2014
Dr. Carl Meyer (University of Hawaii) and Dr. Katsufumi Sato (University of Tokyo) have teamed up to gather data about shark behavior in a rather interesting way. They flipped the animals upside down, which makes them relax, and strapped on cameras and instruments that will facilitate the creation…
February 28, 2014
Artist's rendition of dendrite regeneration in a fruit fly during metamorphosis. (Chay Kuo Lab, Duke University)
Researchers at Duke University are interested in understanding the metamorphosis of fruit flies from larvae to adult stage in an effort to understand how the insects grow new nerve…
February 25, 2014
Congratulations to Nicolle Domnik, this year's winner of the new Dr. Dolittle Travel Award to present her research at the annual Experimental Biology conference in San Diego, CA in April. Nicolle is currently a graduate student in the Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences at Queen's…
February 21, 2014
A golden retriever in a fMRI scanner. Image by ENIKO KUBINYI from The Scientist.
A paper published in Current Biology describes research using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to compare the sound processing regions of brains in humans and dogs (border collies and golden retrievers…
February 17, 2014
Image of bonobo from Reuters. Credit: REUTERS/KATRINA MANSON/FILES
Researchers have observed that bonobos are innately able to match a beat that was created by the research team. The bonobos demonstrated their musical skills using a special drum that was created to withstand 500 pounds of…
February 16, 2014
Talk about unique adaptations. Here is a video showing how lungfish and desert frogs are able to survive for years outside of water during periods of drought. The video also shows how thorny devils living in harsh desert environments absorb water through their skin. These adaptations may come in…
February 13, 2014
Crazy ant image by Joe A. MacGown with the Mississippi Entomological Museum
Tawny (or Raspberry) crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva) are an invasive ant species from South America that have been invading the United States. For some reason, the ants are attracted to electronics and have been…
February 8, 2014
This animal is claimed to be the biggest living land-dwelling arthropod. In fact, this crab can reportedly drown in water. To me, its name sounds more like a fantastic dinner.
February 4, 2014
©AMNH/R. Rockwell; Figure 3 from Gormezano and Rockwell, 2013
A recent study published in Ecology and Evolution shows that polar bear diets are more adaptable than previously thought.
Researchers Linda Gormezano and Robert Rockwell analyzed the feces from polar bears (Ursus maritimus) in the…
January 29, 2014
Scientists have identified the origin of a genome for a specific type of transmissible cancer that has spread between dogs beginning 11,000 years ago!
January 29, 2014
I came across this interesting video today from Animal Wire that shows a population of catfish caught hunting pigeons on land:
Who knew that catfish had more in common with cats than just their whiskers.