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Mostly Open Ocean
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May 9, 2013
08:17 AM
40 views

Living fossils are evolving.

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Charles Darwin coined the term living fossil in On the Origin of Species. He didn’t use it the same way that it has come to be used. He suggested that living fossils are modern species that can be used to link to groups in the same way that fossils can. One of the examples he gave was the platypus, which lactates and lays eggs, which is evidence that mammals and reptiles share a common ancestor. I don't think he meant it to mean an unchanged relict, as some people interpret his words.Today, a ........ Read more »

Briggs, D., Siveter, D., Siveter, D., Sutton, M., Garwood, R., & Legg, D. (2012) Silurian horseshoe crab illuminates the evolution of arthropod limbs. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(39), 15702-15705. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1205875109

Mathers, T., Hammond, R., Jenner, R., Hänfling, B., & Gómez, A. (2013) Multiple global radiations in tadpole shrimps challenge the concept of ‘living fossils’. PeerJ. DOI: 10.7717/peerj.62

Selden, P., Shih, C., & Ren, D. (2011) A golden orb-weaver spider (Araneae: Nephilidae: Nephila) from the Middle Jurassic of China. Biology Letters, 7(5), 775-778. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2011.0228

April 14, 2013
08:26 PM
62 views

The resilience of coral reefs

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Many people are justifiably concerned with the potential impacts of climate change and ocean acidification on coral reefs. But, coral reefs have been declining for at least the last 25 years and probably much longer, overwhelmingly due to threats that are unrelated to climate change. If we do not address these impacts we will continue to lose coral cover and reefs will be more vulnerable to climate change and ocean acidification.A coral outcrop on the Great Barrier Reef (photo Wikipedia)A new pa........ Read more »

Gilmour, J., Smith, L., Heyward, A., Baird, A., & Pratchett, M. (2013) Recovery of an Isolated Coral Reef System Following Severe Disturbance. Science, 340(6128), 69-71. DOI: 10.1126/science.1232310

April 11, 2013
10:53 PM
91 views

In the cave of the blind, the no-eyed crab is king

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Cave dwelling creatures are often blind. The prevailing view is that, in such species, mutations in the visual system have little or no effect on fitness and vision is lost as these mutations gradually accumulate. There are several other types of characters that we can be reasonably confident are adaptations to life in caves, such as elaboration of structures for touch or smell. However, it is often hard identify which population cave adapted species are descended from and, therefore, how long a........ Read more »

Klaus, S., Mendoza, J., Liew, J., Plath, M., Meier, R., & Yeo, D. (2013) Rapid evolution of troglomorphic characters suggests selection rather than neutral mutation as a driver of eye reduction in cave crabs. Biology Letters, 9(2), 20121098-20121098. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.1098

March 27, 2013
09:25 PM
133 views

Are there really plenty of fish in the sea?

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

We started trying to manage fisheries using science-based principles more than 150 years ago. Today, despite great improvements, we are still struggling to manage fisheries well. Perhaps the greatest missing piece in our understanding is an ability to accurately link the number of spawning adult fish with the number of their offspring that survive to replenish the population. Recognition that individual differences play a role in the dynamics of natural populations promises to greatly improve fi........ Read more »

Beaugrand, G., Brander, K., Alistair Lindley, J., Souissi, S., & Reid, P. (2003) Plankton effect on cod recruitment in the North Sea. Nature, 426(6967), 661-664. DOI: 10.1038/nature02164

Beldade, R., Holbrook, S., Schmitt, R., Planes, S., Malone, D., & Bernardi, G. (2012) Larger female fish contribute disproportionately more to self-replenishment. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 279(1736), 2116-2121. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2011.2433

Cushing, D. (1969) The Regularity of the Spawning Season of Some Fishes. ICES Journal of Marine Science, 33(1), 81-92. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/33.1.81

Cushing, D. H. (1990) Plankton production and year-class strength in fish populations - an update of the match mismatch hypothesis. Advances in Marine Biology, 249-293. DOI: 10.1016/S0065-2881(08)60202-3

Platt, T., Fuentes-Yaco, C., & Frank, K. (2003) Spring algal bloom and larval fish survival. Nature, 423(6938), 398-399. DOI: 10.1038/423398b

Hare, J., & Cowen, R. (1997) Size, Growth, Development, and Survival of the Planktonic Larvae of Pomatomus saltatrix (Pisces: Pomatomidae). Ecology, 78(8), 2415. DOI: 10.2307/2265903

Hedgecock, D., Launey, S., Pudovkin, A., Naciri, Y., Lapègue, S., & Bonhomme, F. (2006) Small effective number of parents (N b ) inferred for a naturally spawned cohort of juvenile European flat oysters Ostrea edulis. Marine Biology, 150(6), 1173-1182. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-006-0441-y

Hjort, J. (1914) Fluctuations in the great fisheries of northern Europe viewed in the light of biological research. Reun. Cons. Int. Explor. Mer, 1-228. info:/

Marshall, D., Heppell, S., Munch, S., & Warner, R. (2010) The relationship between maternal phenotype and offspring quality: Do older mothers really produce the best offspring?. Ecology, 91(10), 2862-2873. DOI: 10.1890/09-0156.1

Meekan, M., Vigliola, L., Hansen, A., Doherty, P., Halford, A., & Carleton, J. (2006) Bigger is better: size-selective mortality throughout the life history of a fast-growing clupeid, Spratelloides gracilis. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 237-244. DOI: 10.3354/meps317237

March 21, 2013
12:36 AM
84 views

Giant squid have a giant distribution

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

As many as twenty one species of giant squid have been identified, but most of these were controversial. The general consensus was that there could be one with three subspecies or up to eight distinct species. Now, research shows that there is only one species with no subspecies. This is remarkable given that giant squid are found in nearly every part of the deep sea and their populations are probably large.Winkelmann et al. (2013) sequenced the mitochondrial genome of 43 giant squid that covere........ Read more »

Winkelmann, I., Campos, P., Strugnell, J., Cherel, Y., Smith, P., Kubodera, T., Allcock, L., Kampmann, M., Schroeder, H., Guerra, A.... (2013) Mitochondrial genome diversity and population structure of the giant squid Architeuthis: genetics sheds new light on one of the most enigmatic marine species. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1759), 20130273-20130273. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2013.0273

March 8, 2013
08:01 PM
195 views

It's allometric, my dear Watson

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Giant and colossal squid have the largest eyes of any living animals. Eyes are expensive organs to build and maintain, which led some researchers to suggest that there must be a strong evolutionary advantage for large eyes in giant squid. Using a mathematical model they found that giant squid eyes were best suited for detecting large dimly lit objects. They argued that the only stimulus that was both large enough and important enough for giant and colossal squid to detect was the light prod........ Read more »

Schmitz, L., Motani, R., Oufiero, C., Martin, C., McGee, M., Gamarra, A., Lee, J., & Wainwright, P. (2013) Allometry indicates giant eyes of giant squid are not exceptional. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 13(1), 45. DOI: 10.1186/1471-2148-13-45

Nilsson, D., Warrant, E., Johnsen, S., Hanlon, R., & Shashar, N. (2012) A Unique Advantage for Giant Eyes in Giant Squid. Current Biology, 22(8), 683-688. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2012.02.031

February 26, 2013
06:27 AM
194 views

Fish get wasted on wastewater

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

In most cities sewage is treated to remove most of the things that we don't want going into the environment. But, some things get through and out to sea. The Western Treatment Plant in Melbourne, which treats over 50% of Melbourne's wastewater (including my contribution), releases large amounts of nitrogen into Port Phillip Bay. Indeed, a 1996 report from the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation recommended that nitrogen released from the Western Treatment Plant be reduce........ Read more »

Kidd, K., Blanchfield, P., Mills, K., Palace, V., Evans, R., Lazorchak, J., & Flick, R. (2007) Collapse of a fish population after exposure to a synthetic estrogen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 104(21), 8897-8901. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0609568104

Kasprzyk-Hordern, B., Dinsdale, R., & Guwy, A. (2009) The removal of pharmaceuticals, personal care products, endocrine disruptors and illicit drugs during wastewater treatment and its impact on the quality of receiving waters. Water Research, 43(2), 363-380. DOI: 10.1016/j.watres.2008.10.047

Rey, Z., Granek, E., & Buckley, B. (2011) Expression of HSP70 in Mytilus californianus following exposure to caffeine. Ecotoxicology, 20(4), 855-861. DOI: 10.1007/s10646-011-0649-6

Rodriguez del Rey, Z., Granek, E., & Sylvester, S. (2012) Occurrence and concentration of caffeine in Oregon coastal waters. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 64(7), 1417-1424. DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2012.04.015

Brodin, T., Fick, J., Jonsson, M., & Klaminder, J. (2013) Dilute Concentrations of a Psychiatric Drug Alter Behavior of Fish from Natural Populations. Science, 339(6121), 814-815. DOI: 10.1126/science.1226850

February 16, 2013
10:38 PM
267 views

Flying squid really fly

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Many pelagic squid are able to launch themselves into the air using jets of water expelled through a funnel beneath their head. There are a number of photos online that show squid out of the water and holding their fins and tentacles in a gliding position. But it has been unclear whether the squid where using simple gliding, like a paper plane, or actively controlling the flight.The neon flying squid, Ommastrephes bartramii, holding its fins and tentacles for flight (photo Geoff Jones).Now resea........ Read more »

Muramatsu, K., Yamamoto, J., Abe, T., Sekiguchi, K., Hoshi, N., & Sakurai, Y. (2013) Oceanic squid do fly. Marine Biology. DOI: 10.1007/s00227-013-2169-9

February 16, 2013
03:00 AM
236 views

A stepping stone of rotting wood

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Many of the animals living at hydrothermal vents and cold seeps carry chemosynthetic bacterial symbionts in their body, which convert methane or hydrogen sulfide into food. Some have lost the ability to feed on anything other than what the bacteria living inside their tissues provide them. Almost all cannot survive without a sufficient supply of methane or hydrogen sulfide. One hypothesis is that decomposing organic matter that has sunk from the surface, like whale carcasses, seaweed, and wood c........ Read more »

SMITH, C., KUKERT, H., WHEATCROFT, R., JUMARS, P., & DEMING, J. (1989) Vent fauna on whale remains. Nature, 341(6237), 27-28. DOI: 10.1038/341027a0

Bienhold, C., Pop Ristova, P., Wenzhöfer, F., Dittmar, T., & Boetius, A. (2013) How Deep-Sea Wood Falls Sustain Chemosynthetic Life. PLoS ONE, 8(1). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053590

February 2, 2013
07:34 AM
205 views

Attack of the jellyfish swarm

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Jellyfish are not as charismatic as some marine species and consequently they have not received much research attention. Recently though, there has been increasing interest in them because their numbers appear to be on the rise worldwide. There are a few hypotheses about why this might be the case floating around in the literature.The beautiful and under appreciated jellyfish, Cyanea capillata. Perhaps the World's biggest (photo Wikipedia).Corals, which are in the same phylum (Cnidaria) as........ Read more »

Condon, R., Duarte, C., Pitt, K., Robinson, K., Lucas, C., Sutherland, K., Mianzan, H., Bogeberg, M., Purcell, J., Decker, M.... (2013) Recurrent jellyfish blooms are a consequence of global oscillations. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(3), 1000-1005. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1210920110

January 30, 2013
10:54 PM
172 views

Evolution, climate change and coral

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Increased carbon dioxide in the atmosphere poses several problems for organisms living in the marine environment. Increases in temperature and ocean acidification are the two best known and most worrying. In order to predict how climate change and ocean acidification will affect marine species, we need to know how they respond to these conditions. The effect of climate change on corals has attracted a lot of attention because of their importance for biodiversity.We can't just expose corals to pr........ Read more »

Hoegh-Guldberg, O., Mumby, P., Hooten, A., Steneck, R., Greenfield, P., Gomez, E., Harvell, C., Sale, P., Edwards, A., Caldeira, K.... (2007) Coral Reefs Under Rapid Climate Change and Ocean Acidification. Science, 318(5857), 1737-1742. DOI: 10.1126/science.1152509

Bradshaw, W., & Holzapfel, C. (2001) Genetic shift in photoperiodic response correlated with global warming. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 98(25), 14509-14511. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.241391498

Umina, P., Weeks, A. R., Kearney, M. R., McKechnie, S. W., & Hoffmann, A. A. (2005) A Rapid Shift in a Classic Clinal Pattern in Drosophila Reflecting Climate Change. Science, 308(5722), 691-693. DOI: 10.1126/science.1109523

Donelson, J., Munday, P., McCormick, M., & Nilsson, G. (2011) Acclimation to predicted ocean warming through developmental plasticity in a tropical reef fish. Global Change Biology, 17(4), 1712-1719. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2486.2010.02339.x

Pandolfi, J., Connolly, S., Marshall, D., & Cohen, A. (2011) Projecting Coral Reef Futures Under Global Warming and Ocean Acidification. Science, 333(6041), 418-422. DOI: 10.1126/science.1204794

Kiessling, W., Simpson, C., Beck, B., Mewis, H., & Pandolfi, J. (2012) Equatorial decline of reef corals during the last Pleistocene interglacial. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(52), 21378-21383. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1214037110

January 14, 2013
05:58 AM
137 views

A wrinkly hypothesis

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

The aquatic ape hypothesis was first proposed 70 years ago by German pathologist Max Westenhöfer. The hypothesis has more recently championed by Elaine Morgan, most notably in her book The Aquatic Ape. But the hypothesis has not drawn a lot of attention in the literature and has been dismantled in various places (here's one that's pretty good). Essentially the hypothesis interprets certain features, such as human hairlessness, as adaptations to an aquatic environment.In 2011 Changizi et al. pub........ Read more »

Kareklas, K., Nettle, D., & Smulders, T. (2013) Water-induced finger wrinkles improve handling of wet objects. Biology Letters, 9(2), 20120999-20120999. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2012.0999

Changizi, M., Weber, R., Kotecha, R., & Palazzo, J. (2011) Are Wet-Induced Wrinkled Fingers Primate Rain Treads?. Brain, Behavior and Evolution, 77(4), 286-290. DOI: 10.1159/000328223

Wilder-Smith, E. (2004) Water immersion wrinkling. Clinical Autonomic Research, 14(2), 125-131. DOI: 10.1007/s10286-004-0172-4

January 7, 2013
01:26 AM
150 views

Waterfall climbing fish

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Diadromous fish are those that live part of their lives at sea and part of their lives if freshwater. Some of these fish reproduce in the upper parts of rivers above barriers like waterfalls, which they must scale in order to make it to the breeding sites. A newly published paper looks at how the Nopili goby, Sicyopterus stimpsoni, manages to climb waterfalls. The researchers found that the way the goby feeds and the way it climbs are very similar.The Nopili goby, Sicyopterus stimpsoni (photo Ta........ Read more »

Cullen J. A., Maie T., Schoenfuss H. L., & Blob R. W. (2013) Evolutionary Novelty versus Exaptation: Oral Kinematics in Feeding versus Climbing in the Waterfall-Climbing Hawaiian Goby Sicyopterus stimpsoni. PLOS One, 8(1). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0053274

December 17, 2012
04:44 AM
186 views

Shifting baselines in coral cover

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

A great problem for conserving marine ecosystems is that we rarely have a good data on what things were like before human impacts started. In my last post, I wrote about a study that showed that coral cover had declined on the Great Barrier Reef by 50.7% since 1985. At the start of the study coral cover was at 28%, but pristine coral reefs can have over 70% coral cover. This suggests that impacts on the Great Barrier Reef predate the time monitoring started by many years.A coral outcrop on........ Read more »

Roff, G., Clark, T., Reymond, C., Zhao, J., Feng, Y., McCook, L., Done, T., & Pandolfi, J. (2012) Palaeoecological evidence of a historical collapse of corals at Pelorus Island, inshore Great Barrier Reef, following European settlement. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 280(1750), 20122100-20122100. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2100

December 2, 2012
07:55 PM
203 views

Conservation priorities on the Great Barrier Reef

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

A recently published paper on the decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef serves to illustrate an important point; even without climate change we are doing a great deal of damage to some ecosystems. The study by De'ath et al. and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, finds that coral cover has declined by 50.7% since 1985. They partitioned the losses into 48% tropical cyclones, 42% predation by crown of thorns starfish and 10% to coral bleaching.The crown of t........ Read more »

De'ath, G., Fabricius, K., Sweatman, H., & Puotinen, M. (2012) The 27-year decline of coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef and its causes. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 109(44), 17995-17999. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1208909109

October 15, 2012
04:03 AM
262 views

It's Yoda, but not as you know him

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

A new species of acorn worm has been named after Jedi Master Yoda, the best character in the Star Wars trilogy*. Acorn worms are not true worms. They are more closely related to echinoderms (starfish, sea urchins, sea cucumbers, etc.) than they are to worms. They were once placed as a subphylum of the chordata (i.e. our own phylum), but are now placed within their own phylum, the hemichordata.Yoda purpurata, the newly described species of acorn wormThe paper described three new species of deep-s........ Read more »

Priede, I G, Osborn, K J, Gebruk, A V, Jones, D, Shale, D, Rogacheva, A, & Holland, N D. (2012) Observations on torquaratorid acorn worms (Hemichordata, Enteropneusta) from the North Atlantic with descriptions of a new genus and three new species. Invertebrate Biology, 131(3), 244-257. DOI: 10.1111/j.1744-7410.2012.00266.x

October 13, 2012
09:14 AM
590 views

Human-induced evolution

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Human activities have influenced that evolution of many species and not just through artificial selection. Our impacts on ecosystems, use of drugs and pesticides and our harvesting of wild populations is all having an effect on the rate and direction of evolution in many organisms. In fact, many of the frequently cited examples of 'evolution in action' are also examples of evolution human-induced evolution, such as mosquito resistance to DDT and drug resistant bacteria.The detailed studies on&nb........ Read more »

Biro PA. (2012) Are most samples of animals systematically biased? Consistent individual trait differences bias samples despite random sampling. Oecologia. PMID: 22885993

Ciuti, S, Muhly, T B, Paton, D G, McDevitt, A D, Musiani, M, & Boyce, M S. (2012) Human selection of elk behavioural traits in a landscape of fear. Proceedings of the Royal Society: B, 279(1746), 4407-4416. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.1483

Palumbi, S R. (2001) Humans as the World's greatest evolutionary force. Science, 293(5536), 1786-1790. DOI: 10.1126/science.293.5536.1786

Wilson, A D M, Binder, T R, McGrath, K P, Cooke, S J, & Godin, J J. (2011) Capture technique and fish personality: angling targets timid bluegill sunfish, Lepomis macrochirus. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, 68(5), 749-757. DOI: 10.1139/f2011-019

September 18, 2012
08:49 AM
441 views

Unflappable albatrosses

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Wandering albatrosses, Diomedea exulans, are among the largest flying birds in the world and are renowned for soaring flights of thousands of kilometers to feed. Several adaptations allow their flight to be extremely energy-efficient. For instance, their extremely long wings allow them to glide remarkably long distances and a modified tendon allows them to hold their wings open without the use of their muscles.A wandering albatross showing its fight position (photo Wikipedia)For a long time, it........ Read more »

Sachs G, Traugott J, Nesterova AP, Dell'omo G, Kümmeth F, Heidrich W, Vyssotski AL, & Bonadonna F. (2012) Flying at no mechanical energy cost: disclosing the secret of wandering albatrosses. PloS one, 7(9). PMID: 22957014

Richardson P. L. (2011) How do albatrosses fly around the world without flapping their wings?. Progress in Oceanography, 88(1 - 4), 46-58. DOI: 10.1016/j.pocean.2010.08.001

Pennycuick CJ. (2002) Gust soaring as a basis for the flight of petrels and albatrosses (Procellariiformes). Avian Science, 2(1), 1-12. info:/

September 6, 2012
08:28 AM
361 views

Rapid speciation in starfish

by Mostly Open Ocean in Mostly Open Ocean

Australian waters are extremely rich in starfish species. Indeed, a little over 15% of all known species of starfish occur in Australia. For at least two of these starfish, speciation occurred extraordinarily fast. At most, they became separated about 22 thousand years ago, but the best estimate for the timing of the split is about 6 thousand years ago.We know that evolution can be very rapid (e.g. sticklebacks) and that sometimes this leads to speciation (e.g. cichlids). But, in these cases sel........ Read more »

Puritz JB, Keever CC, Addison JA, Byrne M, Hart MW, Grosberg RK, & Toonen RJ. (2012) Extraordinarily rapid life-history divergence between Cryptasterina sea star species. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 279(1744), 3914-3922. PMID: 22810427

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