mammals
laelaps | November 27, 2008
An ebony langur (Trachypithecus auratus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 26, 2008
A pair of black-crested gibbons (Nomascus concolor), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 24, 2008
A pair of giraffes (Giraffa camelopardalis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 23, 2008
A group of female nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 22, 2008
A California sea lion pup (Zalophus californianus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
laelaps | November 20, 2008
A grizzly bear (Ursus arctos horribilis), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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edyong | November 19, 2008About 18,545 years ago, give or take a few decades, a woolly mammoth died. Succumbing to causes unknown, the creature was buried in Siberian snow. Many other mammoths must have met similar fates but this one, which we now know as M4, is special. Almost 20 millennia later, its beautifully preserved remains were unearthed by scientists who have revealed both its body and its genetic code. For the first time, the genome of an extinct species has been sequenced almost to completion.
Webb Miller from Pennsylvania State University together with a large team of American and Russian scientists has…
edyong | November 18, 2008There's a glut of awesome science coming out towards the end of this week and not much at the start, so I'm sticking the Revisited post up early (it's usually on a Saturday) to clear the schedule later.
Imagine you are a man who has just learned, through a genetic test, that your son carried your brother's genes instead of your own. You might well have some stern words to exchange with your partner. But if you were a marmoset, this would all be part and parcel of life.
In a striking new study, scientists from the University of Nebraska have shown that marmosets inherit genes not only…
laelaps | November 18, 2008
A polar bear (Ursus maritimus), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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laelaps | November 17, 2008
A red ruffed lemur (Varecia rubra), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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laelaps | November 16, 2008
An American bison (Bison bison), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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laelaps | November 15, 2008
Buffy
Earlier this fall my wife and I rescued four kittens that had been living in our backyard. There were two orange ones (Owen & Cope), one black one (Vlad), and one grey one (Buffy). Buffy was the last to be caught, and she did not like it one bit. Where the other kittens warmed up quickly, Buffy hissed at us anytime we came near her cage, and this went on for a few weeks.
Eventually, though, she started to purr, even if she became frightened when we tried to pet her. I realized that she had become too territorial about her cage, and I decided to let her have the run of the…
laelaps | November 14, 2008
For over 300 years, our species has recognized the similarities between ourselves and other primates, particularly apes. For most of that time scholars in the West have attempted to keep our species cordoned off from our relatives, either through the static hierarchy of the Great Chain of Being or the possession of particular traits (from a hippocampus minor in the brain to a soul). Evolutionary theory, however, required researchers to look for similarities instead of stark differences. Which apes were our closest relatives?
It has only been recently that the two living species of…
laelaps | November 14, 2008
A male and female nyala (Tragelaphus angasii), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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laelaps | November 13, 2008
George the lion (Panthera leo), photographed at the Bronx Zoo.
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edyong | November 12, 2008
Hair, or fur, is one of the hallmarks of mammals, the group of animals to which we belong. It is an evolutionary innovation that provides us with protection and helps us to maintain our constant body temperature And while hair is a uniquely mammalian feature, its genetic building blocks are anything but. A new study has found that genes responsible for building the locks on your head have counterparts that construct the claws of lizards.
Hair is made of proteins called keratins, which interact with each other to form long, hard filaments. Keratins are widespread in the animal world but…