Prehistoric mammal likely suffered from hair disease
Bonn, Germany (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
An international team of researchers, together with participation from the University of Bonn, has investigated a stunning fossil finding from the Cretaceous period. The 125-million-year-old mouse- to rat-sized mammal is preserved so well that even detailed analyses of its fur are possible. An astounding finding: The animal may have suffered from a fungal infection of the hair which also strikes ...
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Shift in weaning age supports hunting-induced extinction of Siberian woolly mammoths
Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Chemical clues about weaning age embedded in the tusks of juvenile Siberian woolly mammoths suggest that hunting, rather than climate change, was the primary cause of the elephant-like animal's extinction.
Woolly mammoths disappeared from Siberia and North America about 10,000 years ago, along with other giant mammals that went extinct at the end of the last glacial period. Current competi ...
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Researchers learn how to keep pathogens, pests from traveling with grain
Gainesville FL (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
University of Florida researchers say new research can help grain handlers and grain inspectors find key locations for pathogens and pests along rail routes in the United States and Australia. The new knowledge could help make the food supply safer and address stored grain problems that cost hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
In a new analysis in the journal BioScience, researchers ...
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New concept to help set priorities in water management
Magdeburg, Germany (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
The basic principle behind most strategies aimed at renaturalising ecosystems is to increase biodiversity by restoring natural habitat structure, which should lead to improved ecosystem services in the process. These projects often do not result in the success researchers had hoped for because the complexity of ecological relationships is so vast that it is difficult to detect the precise ecolog ...
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Rising seas will drown mangrove forests
Brisbane, Australia (SPX) Oct 15, 2015 -
Mangrove forests around the Indo-Pacific region could be submerged by 2070, international research published this week says. Even with relatively low sea-level rises, many mangrove forests had a poor outlook said Professor Catherine Lovelock, a University of Queensland ecologist.
"Mangrove forests are particularly vulnerable," she said. "Mangroves are predicted to be submerged in parts of ...
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Rise and fall of agrarian states influenced by climate volatility
University Park PA (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
Climate variability is one of the major forces in the rise and fall of agrarian states in Mexico and Peru, according to a team of researchers looking at both climate and archaeological records.
"We are arguing that the climate information in both areas is good enough to establish that climate is playing some role in the rise and fall of these city states," said Douglas Kennett, professor o ...
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Study shows new potential indirect effects of humans on water quality
Minneapolis MN (SPX) Oct 16, 2015 -
A study published this week shows that a newly studied class of water contaminants that is known to be toxic and hormone disrupting to marine animals is present likely due in part to indirect effects of human activity. The contaminants are more prevalent in populated areas in the San Francisco Bay, suggesting that human impacts on nutrient input or other changes in water quality may enhance natu ...
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