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Researchers ITRA-ULE group specializing in assisted reproduction techniques in the Veterinary Hospital of the University of Leon, currently working on several lines to accommodate the assisted reproduction techniques used in other mammals for the brown bear. The ultimate goal of this research work is to apply these techniques insemination Cantabrian brown bears, to thereby increase the genetic variability of this population at risk and ensure their survival. Scientists are optimistic in achieving the medium term, these methodologies.
The starting point of this research is to create a bank of genetic resources around the Cantabrian brown bear (Ursus arctos cantabricus), Implying an accumulation of samples of these endangered animals. “From this bank, we could generate new animals,” said a DiCYT Mercedes Alvarez, a research group ITRA-ULE, considered excellent by the Junta de Castilla y León. To do this, need to adapt to the reproduction of grizzly existing techniques for other mammals. These are well developed for farm animals (including cows, sheep and even dogs), but its development has been, until recently, nonexistent in ursids.
For eight years, the science team, currently composed of biotechnologists, biologists and veterinarians mainly in Spain is the only one working in this field of activity. The proximity to the Cantabrian Mountains and social awareness about the possible disappearance of the native population of brown bear led these researchers to start a project to develop techniques of assisted reproduction in ursids. “There are few groups in the world working in this area,” detacan Alvarez. In Japan there is another group trying to preserve, by the same method, a species native to the archipelago.
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Touching the 100 decibels, is in the size proprorzione dell’animaletto, by far the most powerful ways of animals
The animal whose voice is more powerful, relative to body size, is a small insect of water, a “boatman” Micronecta Scholtz, Which can reach 99.2 decibels.
The song, used by males to attract females, is produced by rubbing together two parts of the body, which in these animals to an area of 50 micrometers in diameter, about the width of a human hair. “It ‘really amazing how they can develop a sound so loud using such a small space,” said James Windmill from the University of Strathclyde, who presented research at the annual meeting of the Society for Experimental Biology underway in Glasgow.
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Researchers at the University of Murcia has studied how it affects a network of wind projects to two types of eagle. Facilities, 72 wind farms occupied eagle territories 128 and 152 of Bonelli’s eagle in southeastern Spain, they affect the first species to the second.
Analysis of Mediterranean Ecosystems Group at the University of Murcia indicate a low spatial overlap between the projects promoted and territories farms run by both species, suggesting that the eagle may be more affected than the Bonelli’s eagle because most wind farm would be built near the territories of the first kind.
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Researchers from the Department of Analytical Chemistry at the University of Granada (UGR) have developed an optical sensor capable of indicating in situ and in real time the concentration of environmental pollutants in water. The system, which may be used routinely in laboratories for water quality control will reduce the number of samples that need to be analyzed with other more complex and costly.
(MIP synthesis: Simulation of the synthesis of a MIP. Image: UGR.)
The results of the study, published in the journal Biosensors & Bioelectronics , represent an important advance for monitoring the quality of water intended for human consumption, as this system can be used routinely in laboratories, and can reduce the number of samples analyzed by more expensive and sophisticated techniques.
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An international team of scientists, with Spanish participation, sheds light on cannibalism and infanticide perpetrated by the primates in documenting for the first time these acts in the moustached tamarin ( Saguinus mystax ). Mothers who are unable to raise their families without parental support, commit infanticide to prevent the subsequent death of her baby in a context of stress and competition with other females.
(Copy of Saguinus mystax in the Peruvian jungle. Image: Laurence Culot.)
“Infanticide is an extreme behavior, and in most species, is the way for the male to eliminate a competitor and accelerate the sexual receptivity of females,” he explains to SINC Yvan Lledo-Ferrer, one of the authors, and research in the Area of Psychobiology at the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM), and the German Primate Center.
However, in primates callitrichids (the family of primates to which it belongs Saguinus mystax ), is the females who commit infanticide. “Through genetic analysis, we show that it is the very mother who kills her young life,” says Lledo-Ferrer.
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An international study reveals that the brains of early mammals evolved to have some senses of smell and touch more sophisticated. The researchers analyzed the fossils of two species with more than 190 million years and found that brain areas that control these senses grew more advanced than other areas.
(Reconstruction of a copy of Hadrocodium. Photo: Mark A. Kingler / Carnegie Museum)
“A sense of smell and touch more accurate would have been crucial for mammals to survive and thrive during the early stage of our evolutionary history,” said Zhe-Xi Luo, one of the authors of the study and researcher at the Museum Carnegie Natural History in Pittsburgh (USA).
The study, published in the journal Science, Analyzes fossils 190 million years ago belonging to two genera of mammals known: Morganucodon and Hadrocodium. Both specimens, found in a Jurassic fossil deposit in China, had a brain much larger than expected for specimens of his time and compared with body mass.
Former fossil tests had shown the authors that the nasal structure of some of the earliest mammals were quite advanced. The results of this investigation determined that a brain area that had grown more Morganucodon and Hadrocodium was responsible for the sense of smell. They also observed an increase in tactile sensitivity and improved neuromuscular coordination.
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An international team of scientists has found hundreds of tools at an archaeological site of the Polar Urals (Russia). Utensils, from 33,000 years ago, could have been carved by Neanderthals or another species later inherited this tradition of craftsmanship.
(Map showing the expansion of the Neanderthal species. Image: Science / AAAS.)
“The tools found suggest that Neanderthals did not disappear due to climate change or cultural inferiority,” says Ludovic SINC Slimak, lead study author and researcher at the University of Toulouse – Le Mirail (France).
Scientists have found 313 human tools Byzovaya region, an archaeological site located in the Polar Urals, northern Russian forests. The study, published in ScienceReveals that these tools are 33,000 years old but are like tools used in primitive cultures.
According to the authors, the vessels would be relics from one of the last refuges in northern Neanderthals. However, the absence of human fossils at the site makes it impossible to attribute this kind tools safely.
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An international team of scientists, in which researchers from the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) has discovered a new evolutionary group of fungi. Called cryptomycota, composition, very small unicellular organisms without a cell wall, suggests that the group occupies an intermediate stage in the evolutionary chain fungal.
“The discovery forced to change radically the structure of the tree of life was a group of evolutionarily defined, as has been studied for 150 years,” says Ramon Massana, one of the authors of the study and researcher at the Consejo Superior Scientific Research (CSIC) at the Institute for Ocean Science (Barcelona).
Researchers from the CSIC and the University of Exeter (England) have discovered a new evolutionary group of fungi, a real missing link in the Fungal Tree of Life which seems to represent an intermediate stage in the evolution that led to today’s fungi.
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A study has analyzed for the first time in Spain traffic accidents involving the transport of animals for human consumption. Despite the “relatively” low mortality rate, the animals are facing high risk situations that cause pain and stress. For scientists, it takes specific action protocols for these claims and the preparation of emergency services.
Most of the 86 identified truck accidents from 2000 to 2009 in Spain involved the transport of pigs (57%), followed by transport of cows (30%), chicken (8%) and sheep (5%) . Despite the magnitude of the incident, animal mortality was 22% for pigs and 12% for cattle, numbers “relatively low.”
“However, 70% of accidents pig, the animals roam the road, which poses a risk to road safety and may cause other accidents,” said lead author SINC Genaro Miranda de la Lama, and Gustavo María, both researchers at the Department of Animal Production and Food Science, University of Zaragoza (UNIZAR).
The study, published in Journal of Applied Animal Welfare ScienceShows that a loss is a major risk for animal welfare. “Animals are not evolutionarily programmed to meet a road accident, so they suffer states of stress, anxiety, fear, pain and uncertainty that may jeopardize the integrity of other animals and people,” Miranda de la Lama ditch.
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A study conducted by researchers at the National Museum of Natural Sciences, CSIC shows that female green lizard ( Lacerta viridis ) to prefer those males whose femoral secretions have more vitamin E.
Communication is a key element in any animal society, which plays an important role in key aspects of the biology of individuals, such as territorial defense, mate choice, and so on. The lizards have a complex behavior, to the extent that the plasticity of the behavior of many species and their ability to learn makes them ideal models for studying the evolution of social behavior is more, the lizards have been key players in the development of general theories of animal communication.
The vast majority of reptiles use multiple types of signals, both visual and chemical, to communicate. Chemical signals in the form of scent marks, are the most prevalent signs among terrestrial vertebrates and can convey complex information. Males of many species of lizards have femoral glands that secrete substances called pheromones that act as sexual signals. These secretions could be used by females to choose their partners because they can convey information about genetic quality and physical condition of males.
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