The safer sex? For a little-known primate, a new understanding of why females outlive males. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. February 28, 2013. After observing an endangered lemur for more than two decades in the wild in Madagascar, Patricia Wright of Stony Brook University had a hunch that females were living longer than males. What could explain the gender gap? By taking a closer look at dispersal behavior across the lifespan, researchers think they have a clue. Picked up by Futurity.
Category Archives: press release
Parasites of Madagascar’s lemurs expanding with climate change
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Parasites of Madagascar’s lemurs expanding with climate change. Duke Lemur Center, January 23, 2013. Rising temperatures and shifting rainfall patterns in Madagascar could fuel the spread of lemur parasites and the diseases they carry. The results will help researchers predict where disease hotspots are likely to occur, and prepare for them before they hit. Picked up by Duke News, Futurity, and RedOrbit.
Ethiopians and Tibetans thrive in thin air using similar physiology, but different genes
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Ethiopians and Tibetans thrive in thin air using similar physiology, but different genes. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, December 6, 2012. Scientists have pinpointed genetic changes that allow some Ethiopians to live more than a mile and a half above sea level without getting altitude sickness. The genes differ from those reported previously for high-altitude Tibetans, even though both groups cope with low-oxygen in similar physiological ways, the researchers say. The study adds to our understanding of how high-altitude populations worldwide have evolved to be different from their low-altitude ancestors. Picked up by Futurity.
Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life
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Model sheds light on the chemistry that sparked the origin of life. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, November 26, 2012. The question of how life began on a molecular level has been a longstanding problem in science. However, recent mathematical research sheds light on a possible mechanism by which life may have gotten a foothold in the chemical soup that existed on the early Earth.
Pinpointing extinction risks for ocean animals
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Pinpointing extinction risks for ocean animals. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, October 23, 2012. What makes some ocean animals more prone to extinction? An analysis of roughly 500 million years of fossil data for marine invertebrates reveals that ocean animals with small geographic ranges have been consistently hard hit — even when populations are large, the authors report. Picked up by LiveScience.
New study examines how ocean energy impacts life in the deep sea
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New study examines how ocean energy impacts life in the deep sea. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, September 5, 2012. A new study of deep-sea species across the globe aims to understand how natural gradients in food and temperature in the dark, frigid waters of the deep sea affect the snails, clams, and other creatures that live there. Similar studies have been conducted for animals in the shallow oceans, but our understanding of the impact of food and temperature on life in the deep sea — the Earth’s largest and most remote ecosystem — has been more limited. The results will help scientists understand what to expect in the deep sea under future climate change, the researchers say
Birds that live with varying weather sing more versatile songs
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Birds that live with varying weather sing more versatile songs. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, August 3, 2012. A new study of North American songbirds reveals that birds that live with fluctuating weather are more flexible singers. Mixing it up helps birds ensure that their songs are heard no matter what the habitat, the researchers say. Picked up by the UK Daily Mail.
Researchers aim to assemble the tree of life for all two million named species
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Researchers aim to assemble the tree of life for all two million named species. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, May 21, 2012. A new initiative aims to build a tree of life that brings together everything scientists know about how living things are related, from the tiniest bacteria to the tallest tree. Picked up by The New York Times.
Why do some island animals become dwarfs and others become giants?
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Why do some island animals become dwarfs and others become giants? National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, March 23, 2012. A new study of huge hamsters and pint-sized porcupines puts an old idea to the test. Also featured in Futurity.
Not just for the birds: Man-made noise has ripple effects on plants, too
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Not just for the birds: Man-made noise has ripple effects on plants, too. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, March 21, 2012. A growing body of research shows that birds and other animals change their behavior in response to man-made noise, such as the din of traffic or the hum of machinery. But human clamor doesn’t just affect animals. Because many animals also pollinate plants or eat or disperse their seeds, human noise can have ripple effects on plants too, finds a new study. Picked up by Scientific American, the Christian Science Monitor, MSNBC, National Public Radio, Audubon Magazine, the Miami Herald, BBC News, Science News, Discovery News, the New York Times and TIME Magazine.
Ice Age coyotes were supersized compared to coyotes today, fossil study reveals
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Ice Age coyotes were supersized compared to coyotes today, fossil study reveals. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, February 27, 2012. Coyotes today are pint-sized compared to their Ice Age counterparts, finds a new fossil study. Between 11,500 and 10,000 years ago — a mere blink of an eye in geologic terms — coyotes shrunk to their present size. The sudden shrinkage was most likely a response to dwindling food supply and changing interactions with competitors, rather than warming climate, researchers say. Picked up by the Huffington Post, Wired, MSNBC, and Science Magazine.
Deadly bird parasite evolves at exceptionally fast rate
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Deadly bird parasite evolves at exceptionally fast rate. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, February 9, 2012. A new study of a devastating bird disease that spread from poultry to house finches in the mid-1990s reveals that the bacteria responsible for the disease evolves at an exceptionally fast rate. What’s more, the fast-evolving microbe has lost a key chunk of its genome since jumping to its new host, scientists were surprised to find. Picked up by MSNBC.
Prehistoric predators with supersized teeth had beefier arm bones
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Prehistoric predators with supersized teeth had beefier arm bones. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, January 4, 2012. The toothiest prehistoric predators also had beefier arm bones, finds a new fossil study. Picked up by the History Channel, Discover Magazine, MSNBC, Science Magazine, the Huffington Post, Nature and the UK’s Daily Mail.
Ancient crickets hint at the origins of insect hearing
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Ancient crickets hint at the origins of insect hearing. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, January 3, 2012. How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50 million year-old cricket and katydid fossils — sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date— help trace the evolution of the insect ear. Picked up by MSNBC, Futurity and Scientific American.
How drought-tolerant grasses came to be
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How drought-tolerant grasses came to be. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, November 22, 2011. If you eat stuffing or grain-fed turkey this Thanksgiving, give thanks to the grasses — a family of plants that includes rice, corn and wheat. Now, a new grass family tree may help scientists develop more drought-tolerant grains.
Communal living of the insect kind
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Communal living of the insect kind. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, November 16, 2011. The social lives of ants, wasps and bees have long been a puzzle to scientists. How did complex insect societies — colonies ruled by a queen and many workers — come to be? A new model adds to discontent with old ideas.
Bigger birds are harder hit by human noise
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Bigger birds are harder hit by human noise. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, November 9, 2011. A growing body of evidence shows that man-made noise is bad for birds, but some species are harder hit than others — particularly bigger birds with low-frequency songs, finds a new study. Picked up by Science Magazine, Discovery News, Southern California Public Radio and National Geographic.
Hummingbirds catch flying bugs with the help of fast-closing beaks
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Hummingbirds catch flying bugs with the help of fast-closing beaks. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, July 19, 2011. The shape of a hummingbird’s beak allows it to snatch up flying insects in a mere fraction of a second — with greater speed and power than could be achieved by jaw muscles alone.
Stable temperatures boost montane biodiversity
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Stable temperatures boost biodiversity in tropical mountains. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, June 8, 2011. The diversity of plants and animals in tropical mountain ranges may have something to do with the stable seasonal temperatures found near the equator relative to higher latitudes.
Songbirds tweak their tunes in different ways to cope with clamor
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Songbirds tweak their tunes in different ways to cope with clamor. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, May 26, 2011. Some birds that live near noisy sites can alter their songs to deal with din. But closely related species with similar songs may tweak their tunes in different ways, says a new study. Picked up by US News and World Report and Science Magazine.
Coping with climate change
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Coping with climate change. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, May 11, 2011. Can we predict which species will be able to move far or fast enough to keep up with rising global temperatures? A new study says the secrets to success in the face of a warming world are still elusive.
Marine snails get a metabolism boost
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Marine snails get a metabolism boost. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, May 3, 2011. Most of us wouldn’t consider slow-moving snails to be high-metabolism creatures. But at one point in the distant past, snail metabolism sped up, says a new study in the journal Paleobiology.
Toxic frogs are more physically fit
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Treadmill tests for poison frogs prove toxic species are more physically fit. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, March 29, 2011. The most toxic, brightly colored members of the poison frog family may also be the best athletes. Story picked up by Wired Science, Discovery Channel, and MSNBC News.
New study pinpoints why some microbial genes are more promiscuous than others
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New study pinpoints why some microbial genes are more promiscuous than others. National Evolutionary Synthesis Center, March 16, 2011. A new study of more than three dozen species — including the microbes responsible for pneumonia, ulcers and plague — settles a longstanding debate about why bacteria are more likely to steal some genes than others.
To age is primate
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To age is primate. Duke Today, March 10, 2011. For a long time scientists thought that humans aged more slowly than other animals, especially given our relatively long life spans and access to modern medicine. But now, the first-ever comparison of human aging patterns with those in chimps and other primates suggests the pace of human aging may not be so unique after all. Picked up by Discovery News, US News & World Report, ABC News, MSNBC, Science Magazine, USA Today, CBS News, and NPR’s Science Friday.