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Fungal killerResearchers estimate that a chytrid fungus has caused population declines in at least 500 amphibian species...
12/09/2022

Fungal killer
Researchers estimate that a chytrid fungus has caused population declines in at least 500 amphibian species with 90 presumed extinctions, Kathleen O’Neil reported in “Chytrid’s frog-killing toll has been tallied — and it’s bad​​​​​​​” (SN: 4/27/19, p. 5). The pathogen can kill its host within a few weeks.

“Killing your host is not a good strategy,” online reader Jan Steinman wrote. If the fungus can kill so quickly, “why has it not died out as well?” Steinman asked. “Does it have some other reservoir species that can tolerate it without dying?”

Yes, some amphibians that become infected with Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis, or Bd, don’t die. Those animals “are key in maintaining chytrid fungus and preventing it from burning out,” says ecologist Benjamin Scheele of the Australian National University in Canberra. Lab tests show that these lurking infections can remain a risk for a long time.

Early expeditions led to key innovations to manage challenges such as the bitter cold and ever-present nutrient deprivat...
09/09/2022

Early expeditions led to key innovations to manage challenges such as the bitter cold and ever-present nutrient deprivation. And many of those innovations, we learn, came to bear in the 1911–1912 race to the South Pole between Robert Falcon Scott and Norwegian Roald Amundsen. (Amundsen got there first, beating Scott by about one month.) This rich and often intimate history can be riveting stuff. But much of it is also well-trodden ground, and at times, I found myself flipping ahead, wanting to get back to Levick and his penguins.

Other digressions, though, particularly Davis’ discussions of whether there are evolutionary benefits to penguins’ same-s*x mating or nonmonogamous behaviors, are fascinating. Is same-s*x mating a case of mistaken identity, in that male and female penguins are monomorphic, looking much alike? Is promiscuity among penguins related to the female’s inclination to build a stronger nest, one that is shored up by stones earned through offering s*x?

But the driving force of A Polar Affair isn’t really to understand these s*xual behaviors, Davis writes. Instead, what h...
09/09/2022

But the driving force of A Polar Affair isn’t really to understand these s*xual behaviors, Davis writes. Instead, what he really wants to understand is “why Murray Levick would discover the dirty side of penguins and then try to cover it up.”

George Murray Levick
Naval surgeon George Murray Levick was ship zoologist on Robert Falcon Scott’s 1910–1912 expedition to Antarctica. While Scott raced Roald Amundsen to the South Pole, Levick (shown here aboard Scott’s ship Terra Nova in 1910) stayed near the coast to make the first scientific observations of Antarctic penguins.
THE HISTORY COLLECTION/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO
Davis delves into Levick’s personal history, hunting down his field notes and retracing his long, frostbitten months studying Cape Adare’s penguin colony.

Davis’ investigations are interspersed with a sweeping history of polar exploration that is by turns fascinating and frustrating. He also includes stories from his own penguin studies. The narrative meanders through the exploits of a wide-ranging cast of explorers who have since lent their names to bits of Antarctica’s geography, from James Clark Ross to Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen.

07/09/2022

В Україні на 8 вересня синоптики прогнозують заморозки.

07/09/2022

В Україні у державність передали активи кремлівської бізнес-структури, якою управляли “ставленики” “ОПЗЖ”.

In the pinkish muscle of some Pacific salmon lives a distant cousin of jellyfish that thrives without working mitochondr...
07/09/2022

In the pinkish muscle of some Pacific salmon lives a distant cousin of jellyfish that thrives without working mitochondria, the energy-producing part of cells thought to be a cornerstone of animal life, a study suggests.

About 2 billion years ago, the ancestor of all eukaryotes — the large group of organisms with complex cells that includes everything from maple trees to manatees — engulfed a bacterium, striking up a mutually beneficial relationship (SN: 2/14/20). Eventually, this bacterium evolved into mitochondria, the cellular machine that converts food and oxygen into energy, a process called aerobic respiration. Mitochondria retain many of the instructions for aerobic respiration in their own genome, separate from an organism’s DNA housed in a cell’s nucleus.

Although the researchers didn’t test the mechanisms that amphibians use to glow, the animals may rely on fluorescent pro...
07/09/2022

Although the researchers didn’t test the mechanisms that amphibians use to glow, the animals may rely on fluorescent proteins or pigment-containing cells. Multiple mechanisms would hint that the ability evolved independently in different species, rather than being passed down by an ancient ancestor of modern amphibians.

Biofluorescence may help salamanders and frogs find one another in low light: Their eyes contain cells that are especially sensitive to green or blue light (SN: 4/3/17). Scientists could also harness the amphibians’ ability, using special lights to search for the animals during biodiversity surveys — particularly for those creatures that blend into their surroundings or hide in piles of leaves. Lamb already has hints that might work. As she’s prowled her family’s woods at night with blue light in hand, she’s spotted the telltale glow.

And much like a spider weaving a web anew each day, larvaceans are thought to make and remake their mucus houses (SN: 5/...
05/09/2022

And much like a spider weaving a web anew each day, larvaceans are thought to make and remake their mucus houses (SN: 5/4/17). A millimeter-sized gob of mucus beads up on a larvacean’s head. Then the blob can inflate into a finished house in 45 minutes.

When fully inflated, a plump, curved, inner mucus house cradles the larvacean as the animal’s swishing tail pumps seawater through the structure. Encasing all of this plumbing and the animal cuddled against it lies the big floaty envelope of the outer house. A larvacean creates the whole palace, even ribbed walls and intricate chutes, without arms or legs or even a snout that pokes the mucus into shape or nudges parts together.

That’s crucial, Torto says, because it demonstrates that 4VA could function to both bring solitary locusts into the fold...
03/09/2022

That’s crucial, Torto says, because it demonstrates that 4VA could function to both bring solitary locusts into the fold of the swarm, as well as maintain a swarm’s cohesiveness over time.

Solitary locusts start emitting 4VA once they gather in groups as small as four or five individuals, Kang found. As group size grows, 4VA concentration shoots up, potentially broadcasting a larger signal and contributing to the exponential growth of swarms.

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