Ape Treating His Wound Using Medicinal Plant is a World First for a Wild Animal

Facial wound on adult male orangutan – Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior via SWNS

Even though there is evidence of certain self-medication behaviors in animals, so far it has never been known that animals treat their wounds with healing plants. Now, biologists in Indonesia have observed this in a male Sumatran orangutan.

After sustaining a facial wound, he ate and repeatedly applied sap from a climbing plant with anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving properties commonly used in traditional medicine. He also covered the entire wound with the green plant mesh.

The closest relatives to humans, the great apes, are known to ingest specific plants to treat parasite infection and to rub plant material on their skin to treat sore muscles.

A chimpanzee group in Gabon was recently observed applying insects to wounds, although the efficiency of the behavior is still unknown. Wound treatment with a biologically active substance, however, has never been documented before.

Cognitive and evolutionary biologists from the Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior in Konstanz, Germany—Caroline Schuppli and Isabelle Laumer—conducted the study at the Suaq Balimbing research site in Indonesia, which is a protected rainforest area home to around 150 critically endangered Sumatran orangutans.

“During daily observations of the orangutans, we noticed that a male named Rakus had sustained a facial wound, most likely during a fight with a neighboring male,” says Laumer, the first author of the study.

Three days after the injury Rakus selectively ripped off leaves from a vine with the common name Akar Kuning (Fibraurea tinctoria). He chewed on them, and then repeatedly applied the resulting juice precisely onto the facial wound for several minutes. As a last step, he fully covered the wound with the chewed leaves.

“This and related liana species that can be found in tropical forests of Southeast Asia are known for their analgesic and antipyretic effects and are used in traditional medicine to treat various diseases, such as malaria.

“Analyses of plant chemical compounds show the presence of furanoditerpenoids and protoberberine alkaloids, which are known to have antibacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-fungal, antioxidant, and other biological activities of relevance to wound healing.”

Observations over the following days did not show any signs of the wound becoming infected and after five days the wound was already closed.Rakus, 47 days after first treating the wound using the medicinal plant – Max Planck Institute of Animal Behavior via SWNS

“Interestingly, Rakus also rested more than usual when being wounded. Sleep positively affects wound healing as growth hormone release, protein synthesis and cell division are increased during sleep,” she explained.

Like all self-medication behavior in non-human animals, the case reported in this study raises questions about how intentional these behaviors are and how they emerge.

“The behavior of Rakus appeared to be intentional as he selectively treated his facial wound on his right flange, and no other body parts, with the plant juice. The behavior was also repeated several times, not only with the plant juice but also later with more solid plant material until the wound was fully covered. The entire process took a considerable amount of time,” says Laumer.

“It is possible, that wound treatment with Fibraurea tinctoria by the orangutans at Suaq emerges through individual innovation,” said Schuppli, a senior author of the study published in Nature. “Orangutans at the site rarely eat the plant. However, individuals may accidentally touch their wounds while feeding on this plant and thus unintentionally apply the plant’s juice to their wounds. As Fibraurea tinctoria has potent analgesic effects, individuals may feel an immediate pain release, causing them to repeat the behavior several times.”

Since the behavior has not been observed before, it may be that wound treatment with Fibraurea tinctoria has so far been absent in the behavioral repertoire of the Suaq orangutan population. Like all adult males in the area, Rakus was not born in Suaq, and his origin is unknown.

“Orangutan males disperse from their natal area during or after puberty over long distances to either establish a new home range in another area or are moving between other’s home ranges,” explains Schuppli. “Therefore, it is possible that the behavior is shown by more individuals in his natal population outside the Suaq research area.”

This possibly innovative behavior presents the first report of active wound management with a biological active substance in a great ape species and provides new insights into the existence of self-medication in our closest relatives and in the evolutionary origins of wound medication more broadly.

“The treatment of human wounds was most likely first mentioned in a medical manuscript that dates back to 2200 BC, which included cleaning, plastering, and bandaging of wounds with certain wound care substances,” said Schuppli. Source: https://www.goodnewsnetwork.org/ape-treating-his-wound-using-medicinal-plant-is-a-world-first-for-a-wild-animal/

Read More........→May 08, 2024

Chimps shop like humans: Study

Photo Source: Thinkstock

Washington: Chimpanzees use manipulative dexterity to evaluate and select figs, similar to the way humans shop for fruits and vegetables, researchers say. Figs are a vital resource for chimps when preferred foods are scarce. The study demonstrates the foraging advantages of opposable fingers and careful manual prehension, or the act of grasping an object with precision. The findings shed new light on the ecological origins of hands with fine motor control, a trait that enabled our early human ancestors to manufacture and use stone tools. "The supreme dexterity of the human hand is unsurpassed among mammals, a fact that is often linked to early tool use," said Nathaniel J Dominy from Dartmouth College in the US. For the study, researchers observed the foraging behaviours of chimpanzees, black-and-white colobus monkeys, red colobus monkeys and red-tailed monkeys in Uganda. The primates depended on figs, and although ripe figs come in a range of colours, many stay green throughout development and every phase can be present on a single tree, making it difficult to discern solely by colour, which figs are ripe. To determine if the green figs of Ficus sansibarica are edible, chimpanzees ascend trees and make a series of sensory assessments — they may look at the fig's colour, smell the fig, manually palpate or touch each fig (using the volar pad of the thumb and lateral side of the index finger) to assess the fruit's elasticity and/or bite the fig to determine the stiffness of the fruit. Colobus monkeys do not have thumbs and evaluate the ripeness of figs by using their front teeth. Researchers examined the spectral, chemical and mechanical properties of figs, which included boring into individual figs to assess the elasticity of the fruit and extracting fig contents to estimate nutritional rewards such as sugar. They observed the non-selection, rejection and ingestion of individual figs, and collected specimens of figs that were avoided; palpated and rejected; palpated, bitten and rejected; and edible for which less than 50 per cent of the fruit was left. Chimpanzees also use their sense of smell to assess individual figs. Based on the sensory data obtained, researchers estimated the predictive power that sensory information may have on chimpanzees when estimating the ripeness of figs. Palpating figs was about four times faster than detaching and then biting the fruit, suggesting that chimpanzees may have a substantial foraging advantage over birds and monkeys, which rely on visual and oral information. The study provides new insight into how chimpanzees exhibit advanced visuomotor control during the foraging process and more broadly, on the evolution of skilled forelimb movements. The findings were published in the journal Interface Focus. — PTI Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com/

Read More........→May 31, 2016

Monkeys did sing like humans once

Photo source: Thinkstock

Ancient monkeys used auditory cues similar to humans to distinguish between low and high sound notes, say researchers, adding that pitch perception may have evolved more than 40 million years ago to enable vocal communication and song-like vocalisations. Pitch perception is essential to our ability to communicate and make music. "But until now, we didn't think any animal species, including monkeys, perceived it the way we do. Now we know that marmosets, and likely other primate ancestors, do," said Xiaoqin Wang, professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins University's school of medicine. Marmosets are small monkeys native to South America that are highly vocal and social. Other animal species have been reported to show pitch perception but none have shown the three specialised features of human pitch perception. First, people are better at distinguishing pitch differences at low frequencies than high. Second, humans are able to pick up on subtle changes in the spread between pitches at low frequencies or hertz. And third, at high frequencies, peoples' ability to perceive pitch differences among tones played simultaneously is related to how sensitive they are to the rhythm. Through a series of hearing tests, Wang's team determined that marmosets share all three features with humans, suggesting that human components of pitch perception evolved much earlier than previously thought. The American continent, with its marmosets in place, broke away from the African land mass approximately 40 million years ago, before humans appeared in Africa. So it's possible that this human-like pitch perception evolved before that break and was maintained throughout primate evolution in Africa until it was inherited by modern humans. "Another possibility is that only certain aspects of pitch perception were in place before the split, with the rest of the mechanisms evolving in parallel in Old and New World monkeys," the authors noted. "Now we can explore questions about what goes wrong in people who are tone deaf and whether perfect pitch is an inherited or learned trait," Wang concluded in a paper forthcoming in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. — IANS. Source: http://www.tribuneindia.com

Read More........→January 17, 2016

Cute golden monkeys play in the snow in nature reserve

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Two baby golden monkeys play in the tree at the Dalongtan Golden Monkey Research Center in Shennongjia, in central China's Hubei Province, on Jan. 12, 2016. The Shennongjia Nature Reserve is home to the rare golden monkeys, which have lived for many years on the verge of extinction since they were first spotted in Shennongjia in the 1960s. The amount of golden monkeys in the nature reserve has doubled since the 1980s because of better environmental protection. [Photo/Xinhua]. Source: China.org.cn

Read More........→January 14, 2016

4 Million Year Old Menu: What Our Ancestors Ate

The diet of Australopithecus anamensis, a hominid that lived in the east of the African continent more than 4 million years ago, was very specialized and, according to a scientific study whose principal author is Ferran Estebaranz, from the Department of Animal Biology at the University of Barcelona, it included foods typical of open environments (seeds, sedges, grasses, etc.), as well as fruits and tubers. 

Artist's concept for Australopithecus anamensi, Credit: Universidad de Barcelona

Australopithecus anamensis (or Praeanthropus anamensis) is a stem-human species that lived approximately four million years ago. Nearly one hundred fossil specimens are known from Kenya and Ethiopia, representing over 20 individuals.

Australopithecus anamensis bone fragment, Credit: University of Zurich

The work, published in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences, is directed by lecturer Alejandro Pérez Pérez, from the Anthropology Unit of the Department of Animal Biology at the UB, and its co-authors are professor Daniel Turbón and experts Jordi Galbany and Laura M. Martínez. Australipithecus anamensis is a fossil hominid species described in 1995 by a team led by the researcher Meave Leakey and it is considered to be the direct ancestor of Australopithecus afarensis, known as Lucy, which lived in the same region half a million years later. The paleoecological reconstructions of the sites with Australipithecus anamensis fossil remains are quite similar to those of Australipithecus afarensis, and suggest a scene with different habitats, from open forests to thick plant formations, with herbaceous strata and gallery forests.Traditionally, the reconstruction of the diet of Australipithecus anamensis was carried out by means of indirect evidence (specifically, studies of microstructure and enamel thickness, and the dental size and morphology). In this new study, the team of the UB analyzes the pattern of microstriation of the post-canine dentition, from microscopic traces that some structural components of plants (phytoliths) and other external elements (sand, dust, etc.) leave in the dental enamel during the chewing of food. It is, therefore, a direct analysis of the result of the interaction of the diet with the teeth. SEM images of buccal microstriation pattern of specimens studied: Au. anamensis (a-e) and Au. afarensis (f).

A cercopithecoid model for the study of the diet, Credit: Universidad de Barcelona 

The work published in the Journal of Anthropological Sciences studies the microstriation pattern of all the specimens of Australipithecus anamensis recovered up to the year 2003, of which only five are in a good state of preservation. According to the study of the microstriation pattern, the diet of Anthropological anamensis was similar to other present day species of cercopithecoid primates, such as Papiogenus(baboons) and Chlorocebus (green monkey), which live in shrubby savannah areas with a marked seasonal influence. The work arrived at the conclusion that the diet of Australipithecus anamensis was quite abrasive and rich in seeds, leaves and corms, as it is with the baboons of today. This fossil hominid must also have fed on fruit, but in smaller proportions than Australipithecus afarensis.

Graphical representation of the analysis of the groups studied that shows the differences between striation patterns of Au. anamensis and Au. afarensis, Credit: Universidad de Barcelona

What did Australopithecus afarensis eat? The results of the study on the palaeodiet of Australipithecus anamensis match the characteristics of dental morphology and increased robustness of the dentition and the masticatory apparatus compared with its ancestor, Ardipithecus ramidus. The new questions now focus on the diet of Australipithecus afarensis, direct descendent of Australipithecus anamensis, which has a frugivorous and much softer diet, like present day chimpanzees and gorillas in Cameroon. As explained by the researcher Ferran Estebaranz,“the microstriation pattern of Australipithecus anamensis and Australipithecus afarensis is clearly different. This could indicate that the former consumed much harder foodstuffs, whereas the latter had a basically frugivorous diet, of a seasonal character, more similar to the direct ancestor of the two species, Ardipithecus ramidus”. 

Ardipithecus ramidus, Credit: Wikipedia

Contacts and sources: Universidad de Barcelona, http://www.ub.edu, Citaiton: Buccal dental microwear analyses support greater specialization in consumption of hard foodstuffs for Australopithecus anamensis. Ferran Estebaranz, Jordi Galbany, Laura M Martínez, Daniel Turbón and Alejandro Pérez-Pérez. Journal of Anthropological Sciences. Vol. 90 (2012), pp. 1-244, Source: Article, 

Read More........→November 24, 2015

Planet of the Apes soon a reality?

Washington, August 16: A new study reveals that apes might be closer to speaking than many scientists thought. In a study, Marcus Perlman, who started research work at The Gorilla Foundation, sifted 71 hours of video of Koko, a gorilla best known for American Sign Language, interacting with other researchers, and found repeated examples of Koko performing nine different, voluntary behaviors that required control over her vocalisation and breathing. These were learned behaviors, not part of the typical gorilla repertoire. Perlman watched Koko blow a raspberry when she wanted a treat, blow her nose into a tissue, play wind instruments, huff moisture onto a pair of glasses before wiping them with a cloth and mimic phone conversations by chattering wordlessly into a telephone cradled between her ear and the crook of an elbow. Perlman said that Koko did not produce a pretty, periodic sound when she performed these behaviors, like people do when they speak, adding that she could control her larynx enough to produce a controlled grunting sound. He said that Koko was probably no more gifted than other gorillas: the key was her environment. This suggests that some of the evolutionary groundwork for the human ability to speak was in place at least by the time of our last common ancestor with gorillas, estimated to be around 10 million years ago. Perlman further said that Koko showed the potential under the right environmental conditions for apes to develop quite a bit of flexible control over their vocal tract. The study is published in the journal Animal Cognition. — ANI. Source: Article,

Read More........→August 17, 2015

Watch: Koko's Tribute to Robin Williams

Koko the gorilla is a resident at the Gorilla Foundation in Woodside, CA and communicates understands spoken English and uses over 1,000 signs to share her feelings and thoughts on daily life. Robin Williams met Koko in 2001. According to Koko's caretaker, it was a very cheerful encounter for both, and Koko has treasured it to this day. "When Koko learned of Robin's passing (on Aug. 11, 2014) she became very sad.
We hope this video will lift her spirits and remind everyone of the profound gift of joy that Robin Williams brought to our world." Source: Article

Read More........→August 14, 2014

Chimpanzees have almost the same personality traits as humans

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Chimpanzees have almost the same personality traits as humans, and they are structured almost identically, according to new work. The research also shows some of those traits have a neurobiological basis, and that those traits vary according to the biological sex of the individual chimpanzee. Source: Bigfoot Evidence

Read More........→May 01, 2014

Chimpanzees Are Rational, Not Conformists

Higher rewards

himpanzees are sensitive to social influences but they maintain their own strategy to solve a problem rather than conform to what the majority of group members are doing. However, chimpanzees do change their strategy when they can obtain greater rewards, MPI researchers found. The study was published in PLOS ONE on November 28, 2013. Chimpanzees are known for their curious nature. They show a rich palette of learning behaviour, both individually and socially. But they are also rather  hesitant  to abandon their personal preferences, even when that familiar behaviour becomes extremely ineffective. Under which circumstances would chimpanzees flexibly adjust their behaviour? Edwin van Leeuwen and colleagues from the MPI's for Psycholinguistics and Evolutionary Anthropology conducted a series of experiments in Germany and Zambia to answer this question. Wooden balls for peanuts The researchers studied 16 captive chimpanzees at the Wolfgang Kohler Primate Research Center in Germany (Leipzig) and 12 semi-wild chimpanzees at the Chimfunshi Wildlife Orphanage Trust, a sanctuary that houses more than a hundred chimpanzees under nearly natural conditions in the north-western part of Zambia. Chimpanzees were trained on two different vending machines. A minority of the group was made familiar with one machine and the majority of group members with the other machine. Wooden balls were thrown into their enclosure; the chimpanzees could insert these balls into the machines to receive one peanut for each ball. Van Leeuwen and his colleagues first aimed to replicate previous research and looked whether the chimpanzees in the minority group would change their behaviour toward using the vending machine that the majority of group members used. However, neither the German nor the Zambian chimpanzees gave up their strategy to join the majority. In the second study, the profitability of the vending machines was changed so that the vending machine that the minority used became more profitable, now spitting out five rewards for every ball inserted. Over time, the majority chimpanzees observed that the minority chimpanzees received more peanuts for the same effort and all but one gradually switched to using this more profitable machine. "Where chimpanzees do not readily change their behaviour under majority influences, they do change their behaviour when they can maximise their payoffs," Van Leeuwen says. "We conclude that chimpanzees may prefer persevering in successful and familiar strategies over adopting the equally effective strategy of the majority, but that chimpanzees find sufficient incentive in changing their behaviour when they can obtain higher rewards somewhere else.” “So, it's peanuts over popularity" he jokingly adds. The researchers emphasise that these results may be dependent upon the specific trade-offs that were created by the experimental design and that chimpanzees could act differently under the pressures of life in the wild. Van Leeuwen: "Conformity could still be a process guiding chimpanzees’ behaviour. Chimpanzee females, for instance, disperse to other groups in the wild. For these females, it is of vital importance to integrate into the new group. Conformity to local (foraging) customs might help them to achieve this integration." Link to the publication. Contacts and sources: Edwin van Leeuwen. Max-Planck-Gesellschaft. Source: Article

Read More........→December 23, 2013

Young Apes Manage Emotions Like Humans

Credit: University of Wisconsin - Madison

Researchers studying young bonobos in an African sanctuary have discovered striking similarities between the emotional development of the bonobos and that of children, suggesting these great apes regulate their emotions in a human-like way. This is important to human evolutionary history because it shows the socio-emotional framework commonly applied to children works equally well for apes. Using this framework, researchers can test predictions of great ape behavior and, as in the case of this study, confirm humans and apes share many aspects of emotional functioning. Zanna Clay, PhD, and Frans de Waal, PhD, of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, conducted the study at a bonobo sanctuary near Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the

Credit: University of Wisconsin - Madison

Congo. The results are published in the current issue of theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Detailed video analysis of daily social life at the sanctuary allowed Clay and de Waal to measure how bonobos handle their own emotions as well as how they react to the emotions of others. They found the two were related in that bonobos that recovered quickly and easily from their own emotional upheavals, such as after losing a fight, showed more empathy for their fellow great apes. Clay notes those bonobos more often gave body comfort (kissing, embracing, touching) to those in distress. The bonobo (Pan paniscus), one of our closest primate relatives, is as genetically similar to humans as is the chimpanzee. The bonobo is widely considered the most empathic great ape, a conclusion brain research supports. "This makes the species an ideal candidate for psychological comparisons," says de Waal. "Any fundamental similarity between humans and bonobos probably traces back to their last common ancestor, which lived around six million years ago," he continues. If the way bonobos handle their own emotions predicts how they react to those of others, this hints at emotion regulation, such as the ability to temper strong emotions and avoid over-arousal. In children, emotion regulation is crucial for healthy social development. Socially competent children keep the ups and downs of their emotions within bounds. A stable parent-child bond is essential for this, which is why human orphans typically have

Credit: University of Wisconsin - Madison

trouble managing their emotions. The bonobo sanctuary in this study includes many victims of bushmeat hunting. Human substitute mothers care for the juvenile bonobos that were forcefully removed at an early age from their bonobo mothers. This care continues for years until the bonobos are transferred to a forested enclosure with bonobos of all ages. "Compared to peers reared by their own mothers, the orphans have difficulty managing emotional arousal," says Clay. She observed how the orphans would take a long time recovering from distress: "They would be very upset, screaming for minutes after a fight compared to mother-reared juveniles, who would snap out of it in seconds.""Animal emotions have long been scientifically taboo," says de Waal, but he stresses how such studies that zoom in on emotions can provide valuable information about humans and our society. "By measuring the expression of distress and arousal in great apes, and how they cope, we were able to confirm that efficient emotion regulation is an essential part of empathy. Empathy allows great apes and humans to absorb the distress of others without getting overly distressed themselves," continues de Waal. He says this also explains why orphan bonobos, which have experienced trauma that hampers emotional development, are less socially competent than their mother-raised peers. Contacts and sources: Lisa Newbern, Emory Health Sciences. Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

Read More........→October 17, 2013

Search for ape man continues against the odds

An imagined recreation of the disputed ape-like creature, Bigfoot, stands in a museum in Shennongjia, Hubei province. [File photo/For China Daily]

That ever elusive figure known as Bigfoot, or Yeren (wild man) to the Chinese, is bouncing back to life as a group of Chinese scientists and explorers scout around for international help to mount a new search for it - even though the debate over its existence has lingered for decades. Bigfoot, also known elsewhere as the  abominable snowman, in this case refers to a half-man, half-ape creature in the Shennongjia Nature Reserve, in a remote, mountainous part of Hubei province, in Central China. Back in the 1970s and 1980s, authorities organized three high-profile expeditions to search for signs of Bigfoot, but came up empty handed. In view of the large amount of expenditure required for these expeditions, the government decided to put a stop to them. Nonetheless, curiosity about the mysterious man-like creature still lingered among experts and ordinary folk alike. Then, last November, the Wild Man Research Association was founded in Hubei, pulling in more than 100 members interested in the search for Yeren, including a number of scientists and experts. These included the 75-year-old Wang Shancai, of the Hubei Relics and Archaeology Institute, who is vice-president of the association, and happens to be a strong believer in Bigfoot. One of Wang's reasons for his passion: "Over 30 years, I've collected a large amount of data." In spite of the fact that while those expeditions in the 1970s and 1980s yielded little other than some hair, a footprint, and some excrement suspected of belonging to Yeren, there was no conclusive proof, but Wang is undeterred. He said there were more than 400 people who claimed to have seen Bigfoot in the Shennongjia area over the last century. To him, "that's strong proof". And he's gotten support from a local "witness", Zhang Jiahong, a sheep rancher in the town of Muyu in the nature reserve, who says he saw two wild men as recently as September 2005. What did they look like? Zhang told China Daily on Monday that they had "hairy faces, eyes like black holes, prominent noses, faces that resembled both a man and a monkey, disheveled hair, and stood more than 2 meters tall". But that does not hold water with everyone, for example, Hu Hongxing. He is a 75-year-old Wuhan University professor who thinks that the search is nonsense and just a bunch of hype. Hu's field is ornithology and he has been studying animals in the Shennongjia area for a long time. His reasoning goes like this: "That location is not consistent with that of ape man. There's a basic standard for judging whether it exists, for example, the species grouping and area of distribution. There's no area for wild man's activity in Shennongjia." He concludes by pointing to the failure of the 1970s and 1980s expeditions. Wang, pressing ahead, thinks it is normal to have different opinions. "Thirty years ago when we discovered golden monkeys in Shennongjia, some zoologists said it was impossible. It turned out that there were more than 500 of them living there," he concludes. As for the new expedition, he has new ideas and blames the failure of the previous searches on their "unscientific" nature. "It's difficult and expensive getting all the technology to cover a 3,200-square-kilometer range of mountains, a large part of which is primeval forest." So, the association is looking for volunteers from around the world to join this latest high-tech search for Yeren. What kind of people should apply? "We want devoted team members," said Luo Baosheng, vice-president of the group, "since it will involve a lot a hard work." The search area has been broken up into target areas, Luo explained - especially caves that the creature would most likely inhabit. According to Wang, the team's first hurdle is to come up with about 10 million yuan ($1.5 million), so they are talking to companies and other organizations about funding. There's no timetable yet for when they might start out on their trek. Lest you think that China is a stranger to all this crypto-zoology, do not be so sure. After all, tales abound of mysterious, Loch Ness monster-like creatures inhabiting the remote reaches of the country's lakes. And, Tibetans have long talked about the existence of the yeti, up there somewhere in the high snowy mountains of the Tibet Autonomous Region. Source: Image, Source: China.org.cn

Read More........→June 12, 2013

Scientists Announce Top 10 New Species

Credit: Composite: Jacob Sahertian

An amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge and the smallest vertebrate on Earth are just three of the newly discovered top 10 species selected by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. A global committee of taxonomists — scientists responsible for species exploration and classification — announced its list of top 10 species from 2012 today, May 23. The announcement, now in its sixth year, coincides with the anniversary of the birth of Carolus Linnaeus — the 18th century Swedish botanist responsible for the modern system of scientific names and classifications. The top 10 new species list was announced May 23 by the International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University. The 2013 list includes an amazing glow-in-the-dark cockroach, a harp-shaped carnivorous sponge, and the smallest vertebrate on Earth -- a tiny frog. It also includes a snail-eating false coral snake, flowering bushes, a green lacewing, a hangingfly fossil, a monkey with a blue-colored behind and human-like eyes, a tiny violet and a black staining fungus. Also slithering it way onto this year's top 10 is a snail-eating false coral snake, as well as flowering bushes from a disappearing forest in Madagascar, a green lacewing that was discovered through social media and hangingflies that perfectly mimicked ginkgo tree leaves 165 million years ago. Rounding out the list is a new monkey with a blue-colored behind and human-like eyes, a tiny violet and a black staining fungus that threatens rare Paleolithic cave paintings in France. "We have identified only about two million of an estimated 10 to 12 million living species and that does not count most of the microbial world," said Quentin Wheeler, founding director of the International Institute for Species Exploration at ASU and author of "What on Earth? 100 of our Planet's Most Amazing New Species" (NY, Plume, 2013). "For decades, we have averaged 18,000 species discoveries per year which seemed reasonable before the biodiversity crisis. Now, knowing that millions of species may not survive the 21st century, it is time to pick up the pace," Wheeler added. "We are calling for a NASA-like mission to discover 10 million species in the next 50 years. This would lead to discovering countless options for a more sustainable future while securing evidence of the origins of the biosphere," Wheeler said. Taxon experts pick top 10: Members of the international committee made their top 10 selection from more than 140 nominated species. To be considered, species must have been described in compliance with the appropriate code of nomenclature, whether botanical, zoological or microbiological, and have been officially named during 2012.  "Selecting the final list of new species from a wide representation of life forms such as bacteria, fungi, plants and animals, is difficult. It requires finding an equilibrium between certain criteria and the special insights revealed by selection committee members," said Antonio Valdecasas, a biologist and research zoologist with Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales in Madrid, Spain. Valdecasas is the international selection committee chairman for the top 10 new species. "We look for organisms with unexpected features or size and those found in rare or difficult to reach habitats. We also look for organisms that are especially significant to humans — those that play a certain role in human habitat or that are considered a close relative," Valdecasas added. This year's top 10 come from Peru; NE Pacific Ocean, USA: California; Democratic Republic of the Congo; Panama; France; New Guinea; Madagascar; Ecuador; Malaysia; and China. Top 10 New Species, 2013, "I don't know whether to be more astounded by the species discovered each year, or the depths of our ignorance about biodiversity of which we are a part," shared Wheeler. "At the same time we search the heavens for other earthlike planets, we should make it a high priority to explore the biodiversity on the most earthlike planet of them all: Earth," he added. "With more than eight out of every 10 living species awaiting discovery, I am shocked by our ignorance of our very own planet and in awe at the diversity, beauty and complexity of the biosphere and its inhabitants."

Describing the discoveries

Lilliputian Violet 

Viola lilliputana 

Country: Peru

Tiny violet: Not only is the Lilliputian violet among the smallest violets in the world, it is also one of the most diminutive terrestrial dicots. Known only from a single locality in an Intermontane Plateau of the high Andes of Peru, Viola lilliputana lives in the dry puna grassland eco-region. Specimens were first collected in the 1960s, but the species was not described as a new until 2012. The entire above ground portion of the plant is barely 1 centimeter tall. Named, obviously, for the race of little people on the island of Lilliput in Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels.

Lyre Sponge 

Chondrocladia lyra 

Country: NE Pacific Ocean; USA: California

Carnivorous sponge: A spectacular, large, harp- or lyre-shaped carnivorous sponge discovered in deep water (averaging 3,399 meters) from the northeast Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The harp-shaped structures or vanes number from two to six and each has more than 20 parallel vertical branches, often capped by an expanded, balloon-like, terminal ball. This unusual form maximizes the surface area of the sponge for contact and capture of planktonic prey.

Lesula Monkey 

Cercopithecus lomamiensis 

Country: Democratic Republic of the Congo

Old World monkey: Discovered in the Lomami Basin of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the lesula is an Old World monkey well known to locals but newly known to science. This is only the second species of monkey discovered in Africa in the past 28 years. Scientists first saw the monkey as a captive juvenile in 2007. Researchers describe the shy lesula as having human-like eyes. More easily heard than seen, the monkeys perform a booming dawn chorus. Adult males have a large, bare patch of skin on the buttocks, testicles and perineum that is colored a brilliant blue. Although the forests where the monkeys live are remote, the species is hunted for bush meat and its status is vulnerable.

No to the Mine! Snake 

Sibon noalamina 

Country: Panama

Snail-eating snake: A beautiful new species of snail-eating snake has been discovered in the highland rainforests of western Panama. The snake is nocturnal and hunts soft-bodied prey including earthworms and amphibian eggs, in addition to snails and slugs. This harmless snake defends itself by mimicking the alternating dark and light rings of venomous coral snakes. The species is found in the Serranía de Tabasará mountain range where ore mining is degrading and diminishing its habitat. The species name is derived from the Spanish phrase "No a la mina" or "No to the mine."

A Smudge on Paleolithic Art 

Ochroconis anomala 

Country: France

Fungus: In 2001, black stains began to appear on the walls of Lascaux Cave in France. By 2007, the stains were so prevalent they became a major concern for the conservation of precious rock art at the site that dates back to the Upper Paleolithic. An outbreak of a white fungus, Fusarium solani, had been successfully treated when just a few months later, black staining fungi appeared. The genus primarily includes fungi that occur in the soil and are associated with the decomposition of plant matter. As far as scientists know, this fungus, one of two new species of the genus from Lascaux, is harmless. However, at least one species of the group, O. gallopava, causes disease in humans who have compromised immune systems.

World's Smallest Vertebrate 

Paedophryne amanuensis 

Country: New Guinea

Tiny frog: Living vertebrates — animals that have a backbone or spinal column — range in size from this tiny new species of frog, as small as 7 millimeters, to the blue whale, measuring 25.8 meters. The new frog was discovered near Amau village in Papua, New Guinea. It captures the title of 'smallest living vertebrate' from a tiny Southeast Asian cyprinid fish that claimed the record in 2006. The adult frog size, determined by averaging the lengths of both males and females, is only 7.7 millimeters. With few exceptions, this and other ultra-small frogs are associated with moist leaf litter in tropical wet forests — suggesting a unique ecological guild that could not exist under drier circumstances.

Endangered Forest 

Eugenia petrikensis 

Country: Madagascar

Endangered shrub: Eugenia is a large, worldwide genus of woody evergreen trees and shrubs of the myrtle family that is particularly diverse in South America, New Caledonia and Madagascar. The new species E. petrikensis is a shrub growing to two meters with emerald green, slightly glossy foliage and beautiful, dense clusters of small magenta flowers. It is one of seven new species described from the littoral forest of eastern Madagascar and is considered to be an endangered species. It is the latest evidence of the unique and numerous species found in this specialized, humid forest that grows on sandy substrate within kilometers of the shoreline. Once forming a continuous band 1,600 kilometers long, the littoral forest has been reduced to isolated, vestigial fragments under pressure from human populations.

Lightning Roaches? 

Lucihormetica luckae 

Country: Ecuador

Glow-in-the-dark cockroach: Luminescence among terrestrial animals is rather rare and best known among several groups of beetles — fireflies and certain click beetles in particular — as well as cave-inhabiting fungus gnats. Since the first discovery of a luminescent cockroach in 1999, more than a dozen species have (pardon the pun) "come to light." All are rare, and interestingly, so far found only in remote areas far from light pollution. The latest addition to this growing list is L. luckae that may be endangered or possibly already extinct. This cockroach is known from a single specimen collected 70 years ago from an area heavily impacted by the eruption of the Tungurahua volcano. The species may be most remarkable because the size and placement of its lamps suggest that it is using light to mimic toxic luminescent click beetles.

No Social Butterfly 

Semachrysa jade 

Country: Malaysia

Social media lacewing: In a trend-setting collision of science and social media, Hock Ping Guek photographed a beautiful green lacewing with dark markings at the base of its wings in a park near Kuala Lumpur and shared his photo on Flickr. Shaun Winterton, an entomologist with the California Department of Food and Agriculture, serendipitously saw the image and recognized the insect as unusual. When Guek was able to collect a specimen, it was sent to Stephen Brooks at London's Natural History Museum who confirmed its new species status. The three joined forces and prepared a description using Google Docs. In this triumph for citizen science, talents from around the globe collaborated by using new media in making the discovery. The lacewing is not named for its color — rather for Winterton's daughter, Jade.

Hanging Around in the Jurassic 

Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia 

Country: China

Hangingfly fossil: Living species of hangingflies can be found, as the name suggests, hanging beneath foliage where they capture other insects as food. They are a lineage of scorpionflies characterized by their skinny bodies, two pairs of narrow wings, and long threadlike legs. A new fossil species, Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia, has been found along with preserved leaves of a gingko-like tree, Yimaia capituliformis, in Middle Jurassic deposits in the Jiulongshan Formation in China's Inner Mongolia. The two look so similar that they are easily confused in the field and represent a rare example of an insect mimicking a gymnosperm 165 million years ago, before an explosive radiation of flowering plants. Why create a top 10 new species list? Arizona State University's International Institute for Species Exploration announces the top 10 new species list each year as part of its public awareness campaign to bring attention to biodiversity and the field of taxonomy. "Sustainable biodiversity means assuring the survival of as many and as diverse species as possible so that ecosystems are resilient to whatever stresses they face in the future. Scientists will need access to as much evidence of evolutionary history as possible," said the institute's Wheeler, who is also a professor in ASU's School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and in the School of Sustainability, as well as a senior sustainability scientist with the Global Institute of Sustainability. "All of our hopes and dreams for conservation hinge upon saving millions of species that we cannot recognize and know nothing about," Wheeler added. "No investment makes more sense than completing a simple inventory to the establish baseline data that tells us what kinds of plants and animals exist and where. Until we know what species already exist, it is folly to expect we will make the right decisions to assure the best possible outcome for the pending biodiversity crisis." Additionally, the announcement is made on or near May 23 to honor Linnaeus. Since he initiated the modern system for naming plants and animals, nearly two million species have been named, described and classified. Excluding unknown millions of microbes, scientists estimate there are between 10 and 12 million living species. IISE International Selection Committee: Antonio G. Valdecasas, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, CSIC, Spain, Committee Chair; Andrew Polaszek, Natural History Museum, England; Ellinor Michel, Natural History Museum, England; Marcelo Rodrigues de Carvalho, Universidade de São Paulo; Aharon Oren, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem; Mary Liz Jameson, Wichita State University, USA; Alan Paton, Kew Royal Botanical Gardens, England; James A. Macklin, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Canada; John S. Noyes, Natural History Museum, England; Zhi-Qiang Zhang, Landcare Research, New Zealand; and Gideon Smith, South African National Biodiversity Institute, South Africa.  Nominations for the 2014 list — for species described in 2013 — may be made online at http://species.asu.edu/species-nomination. Previous top 10 lists are available at: http://species.asu.edu. Contacts and sources: Sandra Leander Arizona State University, Source: Nano Patents And Innovations

Read More........→May 26, 2013

Chimps show greater genetic diversity than humans

London,Groups of chimpanzees within central Africa are more different genetically than humans living on different continents, a study has found. The Oxford University-led study published in the journal PLoS Genetics suggests that greenomics can provide a valuable new tool for use in chimpanzee conservation. It has the potential to identify the population of origin of an individual chimpanzee or the provenance of a sample of bush meat, a release from Oxford University said. Common chimpanzees in equatorial Africa have long been recognised as falling into three distinct populations or sub-species: western, central and eastern chimpanzees. A fourth group, the Cameroonian chimpanzee, has been proposed to live in southern Nigeria and western Cameroon but there has been considerable controversy as to whether it constitutes a distinct group. Oxford University researchers, along with scientists from the University of Cambridge, the Broad Institute, the Centre Pasteur du Cameroun and the Biomedical Primate Research Centre, examined DNA from 54 chimpanzees. They compared the DNA at 818 positions across the genome that varied between individuals. Their analysis showed that Cameroonian chimpanzees are distinct from the other, well-established groups. And previous conclusions that Cameroonian and western chimpanzees are most closely related were shown to be untrue. Instead, the closest relationships to Cameroonian chimpanzees are with nearby central chimpanzees, the release added. Dr Rory Bowden from the Department of Statistics at Oxford University, who led the study, said, “These findings have important consequences for conservation. All great ape populations face unparalleled challenges from habitat loss, hunting and emerging infections, and conservation strategies need to be based on sound understanding of the underlying population structure,” he said. Bowden further said, “The fact that all four recognised populations of chimpanzees are genetically distinct emphasises the value of conserving them independently. The researchers also contrasted the levels of genetic variation between the chimpanzee groups with that seen in humans from different populations. Surprisingly, even though all the chimpanzees live in relatively close proximity, chimpanzees from different populations were substantially more different genetically than humans living on different continents. That is despite the fact that the habitats of two of the groups are separated only by a river. Professor Peter Donnelly, director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Human Genetics at Oxford University and a senior author on the study, noted, “Relatively small numbers of humans left Africa 50, 000-100, 000 years ago. All non-African populations descended from them, and are reasonably similar genetically.” The conservation implications of the study extend to other species. New techniques such as next-generation sequencing will allow a catalogue of genetic variation to be obtained cheaply and easily for any species.  Source: Indian Express, Image

Read More........→March 14, 2013

American geneticist claims Bigfoot is real after sequencing his genomes in a DNA study

Last November team of American scientists led Dr Melba Ketchum of DNA diagnostics in Nacogdoches, Texas, announced that they have found proof that the legendary ‘Sasquatch’ or ‘Bigfoot’ actually exists. After sequencing three Bigfoot genomes the team concluded that Sasquatch is extant in North America and is a human relative that arose approximately 13 thousand years ago as a hybrid cross of modern Homo Sapiens with some unknown primate species. The Voice of Russia contacted Dr Ketchum to ask her for the details of one of the most controversial projects of the decade.

Voice of Russia: Before we get into details, I would like to ask you how you came up with the idea to study bigfoot. At the very least, this is a very unusual choice of study for a serious geneticist. Dr Melba Ketchum: Well, I must say that it came to me, I did not choose it. What we do in our laboratory is we perform species identification mostly for forensic use. However, over the years we have also been receiving samples that supposedly contained DNA of a Bigfoot or a Sasquatch. Five years ago one of the TV show production companies asked us to identify some samples one of which was allegedly a yeti sample. At the same time I also received the samples from North America Bigfoot Search Organization. We did not have enough DNA to go far with neither of the samples but we still got marginally interesting results. When the TV show aired we got a huge amount of calls from people who wanted to submit DNA samples to us, and, out of curiosity, we agreed. When we started testing them we realized that something might come out from this research. To tell you the truth, I did not believe in the existence of Sasquatch before we began our tests. Voice of Russia: In your previous interviews you said that when you submitted your project for peer-review you encountered the worst scientific bias which you called the ‘Galileo Effect’. Some journals would not even read your manuscript when you sent them a pre-submission enquiry. In your opinion, why were you rejected by the mainstream scientific journals? Is it because the modern science is not yet ready for such ground-breaking research? Dr Melba Ketchum: Yes, the modern science is not yet ready for it. There is so much hype surrounding it that the scientific community feels that the research cannot be credible. For most of the scientific world, the results of our study cannot be valid because they know that yeti does not exist and thus the project is merely a hoax, an ad campaign. As a result, the scientists did not even want to look through it. Their unwillingness to even consider the possibility that a mythical creature might actually be real might leads them to invent the reasons why our research was invalid. Another reason why most of the scientific world turned their backs on our research is that the existence of hybrid DNA is a very unpopular theory, even though it is a proven scientific fact that most Caucasian individuals have at least two to three percent Neanderthal genes as well as a lot of South-East Asian people have up to five percent of Denisova genes. Those reviewers who finally agreed to read the paper then came back to me asking for the information that was already in the manuscript, so I knew they did not even read it. Moreover, when the reviewers failed to find any errors in our research they simply asserted that it was ‘contaminated’. Given that most of our project team consisted of forensic scientists we are sure that there is no contamination in our research. In this sense, it seems to me that contamination is the only excuse that the reviewers can come up with to prevent the publication of our study. More generally, one might recall that nearly all major breakthroughs in science have been met with great skepticism or immediately rejected as invalid. This why I call the situation in which we know find ourselves a ‘Galilio Effect’. Every-so-often innovative research projects are not accepted by the scientific community up until the scientist passes away. Voice of Russia: Oh, I am sure this will not be the case with your research! So, your 5-year long DNA study confirms the existence of a novel hominin hybrid species that reside in North America. Is there a possibility that these hybrids can be found somewhere else? In Russia, for example? Dr Melba Ketchum: We actually have some Russian samples which we are currently studying. We are just at the beginning of the sequencing process but we believe that these DNA samples will have the same makeup as North American ones. In this sense, we think that Russian hybrids and North American Sasquatch are all related individuals. More generally, we believe that Bigfoot species can be found all over the world. Only in the United States there are over 30 thousand documented sightings of Sasquatch and probably three times more undocumented eyewitness testimonies. According to my Russian colleague Dr Igor Burtsev there are also numerous documented yeti sightings in Siberia. Voice of Russia: Tell us a bit more about your methods of research. I heard that you used mitochondrial DNA that you obtained from leftover blueberry bagels eaten by a family of 10 bigfoot’s who live in Michigan. Dr Melba Ketchum: Oh, this is not true! Admittedly, one can obtain a DNA sample from anything that an individual ate or chewed because saliva is a very good source of DNA, but we did not use any bagels. We made plastic containers where we placed a piece of food, such as chocolate. This way, we could ensure that only a creature that had ‘hands’ could gain access to the food. We then used food remnants as our DNA samples. This is one of the very few methods that we can use to study Sasquatch. It is almost impossible, for example to get any photographic record or a body. Although, I must say that there is now a photographic record that will soon be released. Voice of Russia: In your statement published last November you suggested that the government at all levels must recognize Sasquatch as an indigenous people and immediately protect their human and Constitutional rights against those who would see in their physical and cultural differences a ‘license’ to hunt, trap, or kill them. Can you elaborate on this? Dr Melba Ketchum: Basically, Bigfoot are a particular type of people, so we do not want them hunted, harassed, or being chased through the woods. The wood is their home. They have a right to privacy. People should leave them alone. We are not asking the government to give them large areas of land or anything like that. Sasquatch do not need them – they live right under our noses and we do not see them. Also, people should be aware that an encounter with a Sasquatch might not be as pleasant as they think. People should not be afraid of them but, at the same time, they should realize that if harassed, a Sasquatch can fight back. So, you might need to think twice before you argue with someone who is twice your size. Voice of Russia: Taking into consideration all the obstacles that stand on your way in publishing your research, do you intend to continue your project? Dr Melba Ketchum: First of all, the DNA sequencing is a very complicated technique and it might take years to go through it in full. So, yes, we do continue our research. Second of all, we intend to do a cultural assessment of Sasquatch. We aim to learn how Sasquatch behave and whether they have any specific rituals. Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........→March 03, 2013

Bonobos comfort friends in distress

The consolation behavior of young bonobos are a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Photo courtesy of Zanna Clay.

By Lisa Newbern, Woodruff Health Sciences Center, Comforting a friend or relative in distress may be a more hard-wired behavior than previously thought, according to a new study of bonobos, which are great apes known for their empathy and close relation to humans and chimpanzees. The study provides key evolutionary insight into how critical social skills may develop in humans. The results were published by the journal PLOS , One. Researchers from Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center observed juvenile bonobos at the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of Congo engaging in consolation behavior more than their adult counterparts. Juvenile bonobos (three-to-seven years old) are equivalent in age to preschool or elementary school-aged children. Emory psychologists Zanna Clay and Frans de Waal, director of the Living Links Center at Yerkes, led the study. "Our findings suggest that for bonobos, sensitivity to the emotions of others emerges early and does not require advanced thought processes that develop only in adults," Clay says. Starting at around age two, human children usually display consolation behavior, a sign of sensitivity to the emotions of others and the ability to take the perspective of another. Consolation has been observed in humans, bonobos, chimpanzees and other animals, including dogs, elephants and some types of birds, but has not been seen in monkeys. At the Lola ya Bonobo sanctuary, most bonobos come as juvenile or infant orphans because their parents are killed for meat or captured as pets. A minority of bonobos in the sanctuary is second generation and raised by their biological mothers. The researchers found bonobos raised by their own mothers were more likely to comfort others compared to orphaned bonobos. This may indicate early life stress interferes with development of consolation behavior, while a stable parental relationship encourages it, Clay says. Clay observed more than 350 conflicts between bonobos at the sanctuary during several months. Some conflicts involved violence, such as hitting, pushing or grabbing, while others only involved threats or chasing. Consolation occurred when a third bonobo — usually one that was close to the scene of conflict — comforted one of the parties in the conflict. Consolation behavior includes hugs, grooming and sometimes sexual behavior. Consolation appears to lower stress in the recipient, based on a reduction in the recipient’s rates of self-scratching and self-grooming, the authors write. "We found strong effects of friendship and kinship, with bonobos being more likely to comfort those they are emotionally close to," Clay says. "This is consistent with the idea that empathy and emotional sensitivity contribute to consolation behavior." In future research, Clay plans to take a closer look at the emergence of consolation behavior in bonobos at early ages. A process that may facilitate development of consolation behavior is when older bonobos use younger ones as teddy bears; their passive participation may get the younger bonobos used to the idea, she says. Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→February 06, 2013

Chimps can sense fair play - scientists

Photo: EPA

Chimpanzees, like people, can appreciate fairness and can learn to play fair. The conclusions to this effect were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of  Sciences. During the experiment, chimps were given unequal portions of food which they could either share with others or keep for themselves. Even though nearly all the chimps went for the “unfair” option at first, they eventually opted in favor of sharing what they had with a neighbor. Scientists say chimpanzees living in the wild have to cooperate in order to protect their territory or search for food and this could explain why they developed an ability to evaluate their behavior in the course of evolution. Source: Voice of Russia

Read More........→January 19, 2013

Chimps play fair in the Ultimatum Game

Chimpanzees have a sense of fairness that was previously seen as uniquely human, finds a study by Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Georgia State University. The researchers played the Ultimate Game with the chimpanzees to determine how sensitive the animals are to the reward distribution between two individuals if both need to agree on the outcome. The findings, published by theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest a long evolutionary history of the human aversion to inequity, as well as a shared preference for fair outcomes by the common ancestor of humans and apes. “We used the Ultimatum Game because it is the gold standard to determine the human sense of fairness," says lead author Darby Proctor, a post-doctoral fellow at Yerkes. "In the game, one individual needs to propose a reward division to another individual and then have that individual accept the proposition before both can obtain the rewards. Humans typically offer generous portions, such as 50 percent of the reward, to their partners, and that’s exactly what we recorded in our study with chimpanzees.” "Until our study," adds co-author Frans de Waal, "the behavioral economics community assumed the Ultimatum Game could not be played with animals, or that animals would choose only the most selfish option while playing. We've concluded that chimpanzees not only get very close to the human sense of fairness, but the animals may actually have exactly the same preferences as our own species." For purposes of direct comparison, the study was also conducted separately with human children. You can read more about the study here.Chimpanzees have a sense of fairness that was previously seen as uniquely human, finds a study by Emory's Yerkes National Primate Research Center and Georgia State University. The researchers played the Ultimate Game with the chimpanzees to determine how sensitive the animals are to the reward distribution between two individuals if both need to agree on the outcome. XThe findings, published by theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), suggest a long evolutionary history of the human aversion to inequity, as well as a shared preference for fair outcomes by the common ancestor of humans and apes. “We used the Ultimatum Game because it is the gold standard to determine the human sense of fairness," says lead author Darby Proctor, a post-doctoral fellow at Yerkes. "In the game, one individual needs to propose a reward division to another individual and then have that individual accept the proposition before both can obtain the rewards. Humans typically offer generous portions, such as 50 percent of the reward, to their partners, and that’s exactly what we recorded in our study with chimpanzees.” "Until our study," adds co-author Frans de Waal, "the behavioral economics community assumed the Ultimatum Game could not be played with animals, or that animals would choose only the most selfish option while playing. We've concluded that chimpanzees not only get very close to the human sense of fairness, but the animals may actually have exactly the same preferences as our own species." For purposes of direct comparison, the study was also conducted separately with human children.You can read more about the study here. Source: eScienceCommons

Read More........→January 15, 2013

Emperor Tamarin Endangered Habitat Populations.

The “Emperors Tamarin” are mainly gray on their bodies, with a mixture of fine yellow hair on their backs and a rusty-red scattering of color on their breast. They also have a silvery brown crown, black hands and feet, and a reddish white moustache that hangs down to its chest in two strands. Like most tamarins, this species has claws on all of its fingers and toes except the great toe, which has a nail. Emperor tamarins are active by day and are very graceful, friendly, and playful monkeys. They are “leapers” in their motor behavior and move through trees with rather quick, jerky movements. The estrus cycle of the Emperor Tamarin is about 15 days, and the female mates with all the males of the group. The gestation period lasts from 140-145 days, after which 1-2 young are born. The father usually helps with the baby’s birth, receiving it at the end of partruition and washing it. A newborn Emperor is completely helpless, weighs approximately 1.2 oz, and has a coat of short hair. A mother feeds her baby every 2-3 hours. The babies ride on the backs of their parents for 6-7 weeks, and at around 2-3 months of age they go through a weaning period. Most of these tamarins become sexually mature around 16-20 months of age. The life

span of this species is 10-20 years. The estrus cycle of the Emperor Tamarin is about 15 days, and the female mates with all the males of the group. The gestation period lasts from 140-145 days, after which 1-2 young are born. The father usually helps with the baby’s birth, receiving it at the end of partruition and washing it. A newborn Emperor is completely helpless, weighs approximately 1.2 oz, and has a coat of short hair. A mother feeds her baby every 2-3 hours. The babies ride on the backs of their parents for 6-7 weeks, and at around 2-3 months of age they go through a weaning period. Most of these tamarins become sexually mature around 16-20 months of age. The life span of this species is 10-20 years. DIET Their diet consists mainly of fruits, insects, and tree sap. It feeds on fruit, flowers, and nectar of different species of trees, usually those with small crowns. Emperor tamarins get most of the protein in their diet through eating invertebrates such as locusts, beetles, butterflies, spiders, and ants. The tree sap is an additional source of valuable carbohydrates and minerals. Emperor tamarins have also been known to eat

smaller vertebrates such as lizards, tree frogs, and bird eggs. STATUS: Special concern. Saguinas imperator is considered endangered or threatened in Brazil and Peru, but in other areas of their terrestrial biome, the IUCN classifies their status as indeterminate. The clearing of forest habitat by humans is the main reason they are in danger. FACTOIDS: This species also displays a need for tenderness, as in captivity they love to be stroked by hand and will actually lay on their backs in hopes of extra petting attention. Emperor tamarins were named after the Emperor of Germany, Emperor Wilhelm II. Taxidermists liked to play with these monkeys and twist up their moustaches to look like the Emperor. Swiss Zoologist Goeldi gave the species the name of “emperor” as a joke, but the name stuck and was soon given the Latin name of “Saguinas imperator”.Source: Animal-Discovery

Read More........→January 06, 2013

Are 'Yetis' migrating North?

As it seems, a very hot Siberian summer has made the Kuzbass Yetis, which are often referred to as Abominable Snowmen, to migrate to Mountain Shoria (Gornaya Shoriya) in Southern Siberia. The Yetis have appeared more than once in the upper reaches of the Mras-Su River that runs in the Mountain Shoria in the southern part of the Kemerovo Region, north of the Azas Cave, which journalists call the “home of the Yetis”. To believe this or not people decide for themselves. The fishermen of the taiga Village of Toz said that they had seen 2 Yetis drinking water on the bank of the Mras-Su River. They did not answer our greeting, one of the eye-witnesses, Vitaly Vershinin, said. Hominologists believe that the heat might have served as a reson for the migration of the Yetis north of the Azas Cave that was considered to be their home. The Director of the International Centre of Hominology in Moscow Igor Burtsev has been studying the Yetis for nearly half a century now. He has been cooperating with thousands of volunteer researchers all over the world: as you know, there is an opinion that there is no such science as hominologyin the world today. The Yetis live everywhere but most of them live in Mountain Shoria, Igor Burtsev says. "We have come to the conclusion that a Yeti is actually a human being since it can talk and communicate with people. And this is the main criteria for making such a statement. But the fact that they do not resemble people is quite another matter. They are well adapted to nature, and they lead the life of an animal. They use neither instruments of labour nor clothes or fire, but they are sufficiently intellectual. Besides, they are well known for their paranormal capabilities. And another thing of importance here. They live in almost inaccessible areas." Last October an international expedition led by Igor Burtsev that included scientists from the USA, Canada, Sweden, Estonia, and Russia, visited the Azas Cave in the Kuzbass Region. Although they met no Yetis, they discovered a 45-centimetre-long trace of an unknown creature on the clay floor. The examination of the found wool with the help of the scanning electron microscope that was carried out at the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg confirmed that the Kuzbass Yeti was not a myth. His wool was identical to the wool of the Snowmen that were discovered in many parts of the world. The famous geneticist Professor Bryan Sikes from the Wolfson College, at Oxford University plans to put a full stop in the many-year dispute over the existence of the Yeti. Using advanced technologies, he has already started to study the remains of the inhabitants of the inaccessible areas. Bryan Sikes plans to make his results public this December. Source: Voice of Russia, Image

Read More........→November 16, 2012

The Truth Behind Bigfoot On National-Geographic

If Bigfoot exists, where are the bodies and the bones? On NatGeo's, "The Truth Behind Bigfoot", Dr. Jeff Meldrum of Idaho State University will attempt to answer this question. For those who missed the original airing, it's coming back on again on November 16th at 4 A.M. Here's the preview clip. Sasquatch. The Wild Man. Bigfoot. Believers in the massive creature claim he's half man, half primate and roams the Pacific Northwest. Join a team of experts as they use advanced scientific analysis to investigate the phenomenon to reveal what's science, and what's science fiction. Follow along as we break down one of the most controversial pieces of evidence... a 40-year-old film that many believe is actual video of the apelike being. Source: Bigfoot Evidence

Read More........→October 26, 2012