December 14, 2009 | Posted by admin
Infectious diseases can be transmitted by sneezing, touching, or – for Tasmanian devils – biting each other on the face, a habit that may have driven the dinosaurs to extinction through the transmission of a protozoan parasite.
Categories: Space & Earth | 
Tags: CTS, dinosaurs, doves, extinction, extreme cases, fossil, fossils, infectious diseases, jaw bones, jawbone, jawbones, organism, pigeons, plos one, protozoan parasite, raptors, similarity, tasmanian devils, turkeys, ulceration, upper digestive tract | 
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December 13, 2009 | Posted by admin
What’s black and white and read all over? The giant panda genome. All 2.4 billion DNA base pairs of a 3-year-old female panda named Jingjing have been cataloged, researchers report online December 13 in Nature. The information will help researchers understand panda traits such as finicky diets. A thorough understanding of panda genetics may aid [...]
Categories: Health & Medicine | Tags: 2008 beijing olympic, 2008 beijing olympic games, cells, conservation scientist, dna base pairs, fossil, genes, genetic heritage, genetic makeup, genetic studies, giant panda, giant pandas, giant pandas in china, hou, Human Genome, inbreeding, jun wang, lindburg, living fossil, organism, panda conservation, region, research, scientists, total, university of copenhagen, zoological society of san diego | No Comments »
November 6, 2009 | Posted by admin
Despite their fearsome fangs, male sabertoothed cats may have been less aggressive than many of their feline cousins, says a new study of male-female size differences in extinct big cats.
Categories: Space & Earth | Tags: american lion, big cats, evolutionary synthesis, fangs, felines, fossil, fossils, journal of zoology, loyola marymount university, male competition, prehistoric cat, sabertoothed tiger, samuels, sexual dimorphism, size differences, size patterns, smilodon fatalis, subtle clues, synthesis center, van valkenburgh | No Comments »
November 4, 2009 | Posted by admin
Deep under the sea, a fossil the size of a sand grain is nestled among a billion of its closest dead relatives. Known as foraminifera, these complex little shells of calcium carbonate can tell you the sea level, temperature, and ocean conditions of Earth millions of years ago. That is, if you know what to [...]
Categories: Space & Earth | Tags: calcium carbonate, climate change, foraminifera, fossil, Miriam Katz, ocean conditions, ocean drilling program, repercussions, sea fossils, seafloor sediments, system responses | No Comments »