All posts containing "extinction"
- August 30, 2010
- 09:05 AM
- 34 views
On competition, ecological opportunity, and Sahney et al.
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
There's already been a lot of blogospheric discussion of the BBC's recent declaration that "Darwin may have been wrong" based on a recently-published paleontology paper. I hadn't paid it much attention, because while sloppy science journalism irritates me, it's not quite in my wheelhouse, expertise-wise. Then I actually got around to reading the paper, and it turns out that it's directly related to some of my own work—and the conclusion that led to the sensationalistic sub-headline doesn't mak........ Read more »
Sahney, S., Benton, M., & Ferry, P. (2010) Links between global taxonomic diversity, ecological diversity and the expansion of vertebrates on land. Biology Letters, 6(4), 544-7. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2009.1024
Yoder, J.B., Des Roches, S., Eastman, J.M., Gentry, L., Godsoe, W.K.W., Hagey, T., Jochimsen, D., Oswald, B.P., Robertson, J., Sarver, B.A.J.... (2010) Ecological opportunity and the origin of adaptive radiations. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 23(8), 1581-96. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02029.x
- August 19, 2010
- 06:46 PM
- 64 views
Nemesis meets its, uh, nemesis
by Emma in we are all in the gutter
Interesting fact of the day: examining the fossil record suggests that mass extinctions on Earth occur approximately once every 26 million years (Myr). One possible explanation for this is a companion dwarf star to the Sun on a 26 Myr orbit. Every time is passes by, the theory goes, it messes up the Oort cloud [...]... Read more »
Adrian L. Melott, & Richard K. Bambach. (2010) Nemesis Reconsidered. MNRAS. arXiv: 1007.0437v1
- August 9, 2010
- 08:47 PM
- 66 views
Lack of neutrality in bacteria and where pseudogenes go when they die
by Jonathan Eisen in The Tree of Life
Pseudogenes, which are in essence regions of the genome that used to be genes but no longer able to produce a functional unit, have long been considered to be models of the genetic equivalent of Switzerland's neutrality. With this assumption of neutrality in hand, researchers have used studies of pseudogenes to better understand what happens to DNA when it is not visible to any form of natural selection. That is, pseudogenes have been thought to be neither harmful (as in, they are........ Read more »
Kuo, C., & Ochman, H. (2010) The Extinction Dynamics of Bacterial Pseudogenes. PLoS Genetics, 6(8). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1001050
- August 9, 2010
- 02:59 PM
- 71 views
Shark Conservation: The problem, the goal, and how to get there
by WhySharksMatter in Southern Fried Science
The problem
Sharks consistently rank near the top of lists of American’s greatest fears. In reality, they have much more to fear from us than we do from them. Because of our actions, many species of sharks are on the verge of extinction. A recent International Union for the Conservation of Nature Shark Specialist Group report [...]... Read more »
Baum, J. (2003) Collapse and Conservation of Shark Populations in the Northwest Atlantic. Science, 299(5605), 389-392. DOI: 10.1126/science.1079777
Bonfil, R. (2005) Transoceanic Migration, Spatial Dynamics, and Population Linkages of White Sharks. Science, 310(5745), 100-103. DOI: 10.1126/science.1114898
Clarke, S., McAllister, M., Milner-Gulland, E., Kirkwood, G., Michielsens, C., Agnew, D., Pikitch, E., Nakano, H., & Shivji, M. (2006) Global estimates of shark catches using trade records from commercial markets. Ecology Letters, 9(10), 1115-1126. DOI: 10.1111/j.1461-0248.2006.00968.x
Conrath, C., & Musick, J. (2007) The Sandbar Shark Summer Nursery within Bays and Lagoons of the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, 136(4), 999-1007. DOI: 10.1577/T06-107.1
Cortés, E. (2000) Life History Patterns and Correlations in Sharks. Reviews in Fisheries Science, 8(4), 299-344. DOI: 10.1080/10408340308951115
Dulvy, N., Baum, J., Clarke, S., Compagno, L., Cortés, E., Domingo, A., Fordham, S., Fowler, S., Francis, M., Gibson, C.... (2008) You can swim but you can't hide: the global status and conservation of oceanic pelagic sharks and rays. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems, 18(5), 459-482. DOI: 10.1002/aqc.975
Musick, JA. (2000) Management of Sharks and their relatives (Elasmobranchii). Fisheries. info:/
Pikitch, E., Chapman, D., Babcock, E., & Shivji, M. (2005) Habitat use and demographic population structure of elasmobranchs at a Caribbean atoll (Glovers Reef, Belize). Marine Ecology Progress Series, 187-197. DOI: 10.3354/meps302187
Topelko, K., & Dearden, P. (2005) The Shark Watching Industry and its Potential Contribution to Shark Conservation. Journal of Ecotourism, 4(2), 108-128. DOI: 10.1080/14724040409480343
Walker, T. (1998) Can shark resources be harvested sustainably? A question revisited with a review of shark fisheries. Marine and Freshwater Research, 49(7), 553. DOI: 10.1071/MF98017
- July 28, 2010
- 09:42 PM
- 88 views
The First New Zealanders and their rats
by David in The Atavism
Crispin Jago has made a very cool thing, a periodic table of irrational nonsense. Rolling my eyes over the groups, wondering how people can believe some of these things, made me think about New Zealand's unique ecosystem of kooky ideas. We don't have to suffer creationists in any organised sense and I don't think anyone is too into ear candelling, but those TV psychics have found themselves a niche to exploit and most people seem think chiropratric and homeopathy are normal parts ........ Read more »
Holdaway, R. (1996) Arrival of rats in New Zealand. Nature, 384(6606), 225-226. DOI: 10.1038/384225b0
- July 27, 2010
- 08:00 AM
- 74 views
North American crayfish diversity threatened
by Zen Faulkes in Marmorkrebs
When I recently attended the International Association of Astacology meeting, it was ground into my face how bad things are for crayfish.
In Europe, crayfish are being beaten up by exotic North American species. If competition doesn’t get them, the crayfish plague that the exotics carry will.
In North America, the home to the greatest diversity of crayfish species in the world, non-indigenous species are playing a role in some regions, but habitat degradation is the bigger concern. At the As........ Read more »
Taylor, C., Schuster, G., Cooper, J., DiStefano, R., Eversole, A., Hamr, P., Hobbs, III, H., Robison, H., Skelton, C., & Thoma, R. (2007) A Reassessment of the Conservation Status of Crayfishes of the United States and Canada after 10 Years of Increased Awareness. Fisheries, 32(8), 372-389. DOI: 10.1577/1548-8446(2007)32[372:AROTCS]2.0.CO;2
- July 14, 2010
- 10:05 AM
- 112 views
When ecological opportunity knocks, does adaptive radiation answer?
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
One of the most basic questions in evolutionary ecology is, "why are there more kinds of this kind of critter than that kind of critter?" As in, why are there more than twenty thousand species of orchids, but only one species of ginkgo? Why are there hundreds of thousands of species of beetles, but only four species of horseshoe crab? In a literature review just released online—and my first publication as lead author!—my coauthors and I assess the support for one hypothesis: that species mul........ Read more »
Alfaro, M., Santini, F., Brock, C., Alamillo, H., Dornburg, A., Rabosky, D., Carnevale, G., & Harmon, L. (2009) Nine exceptional radiations plus high turnover explain species diversity in jawed vertebrates. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 106(32), 13410-4. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0811087106
Bolnick, D. (2001) Intraspecific competition favours niche width expansion in Drosophila melanogaster. Nature, 410(6827), 463-6. DOI: 10.1038/35068555
Blumenthal, D., Mitchell, C., Pysek, P., & Jarosik, V. (2009) Synergy between pathogen release and resource availability in plant invasion. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 106(19), 7899-904. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0812607106
Grant, B., & Grant, P. (1989) Natural selection in a population of Darwin's finches. The American Naturalist, 133(3), 377-93. DOI: 10.1086/284924
Kassen, R. (2009) Toward a general theory of adaptive radiation: Insights from microbial experimental evolution. Annals New York Acad. Sci., 1168(1), 3-22. DOI: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.2009.04574.x
Losos, J. (1990) Ecomorphology, performance capability, and scaling of West Indian Anolis lizards: An evolutionary analysis. Ecological Monographs, 60(3), 369-88. DOI: 10.2307/1943062
Svanbäck, R., & Bolnick, D. (2007) Intraspecific competition drives increased resource use diversity within a natural population. Proc. Royal Soc. B, 274(1611), 839-44. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.0198
Wheat, C., Vogel, H., Wittstock, U., Braby, M., Underwood, D., & Mitchell-Olds, T. (2007) The genetic basis of a plant insect coevolutionary key innovation. Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. USA, 104(51), 20427-31. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706229104
Yoder, J.B., Des Roches, S., Eastman, J.M., Gentry, L., Godsoe, W.K.W., Hagey, T., Jochimsen, D., Oswald, B.P., Robertson, J., Sarver, B.A.J.... (2010) Ecological opportunity and the origin of adaptive radiations. Journal of Evolutionary Biology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02029.x
- July 5, 2010
- 10:45 PM
- 78 views
The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation
by Dr. M in Deep Sea News
An occasional series where we briefly report 3 new studies and tell you why they are cool!
A new report from Lambert et al. reports on a new fossil sperm whale skull, teeth, and mandible from Peru. Dating back to the 12-13 Mya from the Middle Miocene, Leviantha melvillei possessed a 3 meter (~10 feet) long head . . . → Read More: The Tide Pool: Super Sperm Whales, Extinction Debts, and Vent Conservation... Read more »
Lambert, O., Bianucci, G., Post, K., de Muizon, C., Salas-Gismondi, R., Urbina, M., & Reumer, J. (2010) The giant bite of a new raptorial sperm whale from the Miocene epoch of Peru. Nature, 466(7302), 105-108. DOI: 10.1038/nature09067
Triantis, K., Borges, P., Ladle, R., Hortal, J., Cardoso, P., Gaspar, C., Dinis, F., Mendonça, E., Silveira, L., Gabriel, R.... (2010) Extinction debt on oceanic islands. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2010.06203.x
Van Dover, C. (2010) Mining seafloor massive sulphides and biodiversity: what is at risk?. ICES Journal of Marine Science. DOI: 10.1093/icesjms/fsq086
- June 28, 2010
- 07:27 PM
- 130 views
The Extinction of the Hundsheim Rhino - Being a Generalist Isn't All It's Cracked Up to Be
The skeleton of the Hundsheim rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis. From Kahlke and Kaiser, 2010.
In any given environment, it might be expected that a generalized or unspecialized species might be less prone to extinction than one which depends upon a narrow temperature range, a peculiar kind of food, or other aspect of natural history which is key to its survival. An herbivorous mammal which can subsist on a variety of grasses, leaves, and other plant foods, for example, may be more l........ Read more »
Kahlke, R., & Kaiser, T. (2010) Generalism as a subsistence strategy: advantages and limitations of the highly flexible feeding traits of Pleistocene Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis (Rhinocerotidae, Mammalia)☆. Quaternary Science Reviews. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.12.012
- June 24, 2010
- 02:09 PM
- 112 views
Sea Otters, Hunters, and Steller's Sea Cows - Replaying a Recent Extinction
The nearly complete skeleton of a Steller's sea cow (Hydrodamalis gigas) - it is missing bones from the wrist and hand. From Woodward, 1885.
It did not take long for the last remaining population of Steller's sea cow to be driven into extinction. Discovered by the German naturalist Georg Steller around the Bering Sea's Commander Islands in 1741, this enormous and peculiar sirenian became an easy target for Russian hunters. By 1768, it was gone. (The marine mammal would not be scientifically ........ Read more »
Turvey, S., & Risley, C. (2006) Modelling the extinction of Steller's sea cow. Biology Letters, 2(1), 94-97. DOI: 10.1098/rsbl.2005.0415
- June 20, 2010
- 08:32 PM
- 36 views
Marine Rewilding?
by Chuck in Ya Like Dags?
It's amazing what you'll catch in the letters to the editor sometimes. In the latest issue of Fisheries Magazine is a classic back-and-forth editorial origination from an article by researcher John. C. Briggs. At first my interest was piqued simply by the fact that there was something ocean-related (since the start of my subscription Fisheries has been utterly dominated by freshwater articles), but reading the debate motivated me to go back and track down the original article. ........ Read more »
Briggs, J. (2008) The North Atlantic Ocean: Need for Proactive Management. Fisheries, 33(4), 180-185. DOI: 10.1577/1548-8446-33.4.180
Josh Donlan C, Berger J, Bock CE, Bock JH, Burney DA, Estes JA, Foreman D, Martin PS, Roemer GW, Smith FA.... (2006) Pleistocene rewilding: an optimistic agenda for twenty-first century conservation. The American naturalist, 168(5), 660-81. PMID: 17080364
- June 16, 2010
- 06:28 PM
- 150 views
Small Fossil Mammals Reveal Wounds Left by the Last Great Extinction
A golden-mantled ground squirrel (Spermophilus lateralis), photographed in Bryce Canyon National Park, Utah. Though abundant at the Samwell Cave Popcorn Dome, California site during the Late Pleistocene, its numbers in the area decline at the beginning of the present Holocene epoch.
"One of the penalties of an ecological education", the naturalist Aldo Leopold once wrote, "is that one lives alone in a world of wounds." Few knew this better than he did. Despite becoming a celebrated advocate ........ Read more »
Blois, J., McGuire, J., & Hadly, E. (2010) Small mammal diversity loss in response to late-Pleistocene climatic change. Nature, 465(7299), 771-774. DOI: 10.1038/nature09077
- June 15, 2010
- 10:45 PM
- 112 views
Biodiversity SNAFU in Australia’s Jewel
by CJA Bradshaw in ConservationBytes
I’ve covered this sad state of affairs and one of Australia’s more notable biodiversity embarrassments over the last year (see Shocking continued loss of Australian mammals and Can we solve Australia’s mammal extinction crisis?), and now the most empirical demonstration of this is now published. The biodiversity guru of Australia’s tropical north, John Woinarksi, has [...]... Read more »
Woinarski, J., Armstrong, M., Brennan, K., Fisher, A., Griffiths, A., Hill, B., Milne, D., Palmer, C., Ward, S., Watson, M.... (2010) Monitoring indicates rapid and severe decline of native small mammals in Kakadu National Park, northern Australia. Wildlife Research, 37(2), 116. DOI: 10.1071/WR09125
- June 15, 2010
- 06:50 PM
- 105 views
Will Climate Change Alter Sea Turtle Populations to the Point of Extinction?
by Scott A. in Thriving Oceans
Our planet is an intriguing concoction of variables that meld together for successes spanning the organization of life (species, populations, communities, and ecosystems). It is literally an evolutionary process that is ecologically driven. And as a genotypic sex determined species, we seem to have an inherent fascination with the mysterious adaptive significance of environmental sex [...]... Read more »
HAYS, G., FOSSETTE, S., KATSELIDIS, K., SCHOFIELD, G., & GRAVENOR, M. (2010) Breeding Periodicity for Male Sea Turtles, Operational Sex Ratios, and Implications in the Face of Climate Change. Conservation Biology. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2010.01531.x
- June 7, 2010
- 10:12 PM
- 347 views
If some of us have Neanderthal genes, are Neanderthals us?
by David in The Atavism
I got a little bit starry eyed writing about the Neanderthal genome the other day. I chose to retrace the arc of scientific progress that links the initial description of Neanderthal man as something different than modern humans to the point reached last month, where we are able to tag some of those differences to a single gene. Most of the news stories about the Neanderthal genome focused not on the genes that made us different from them, but a small percentage of the genome that reinforced th........ Read more »
Green RE, Krause J, Briggs AW, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Kircher M, Patterson N, Li H, Zhai W, Fritz MH.... (2010) A draft sequence of the Neandertal genome. Science (New York, N.Y.), 328(5979), 710-22. PMID: 20448178
- June 6, 2010
- 05:48 PM
- 120 views
Of Bears, Berries, and Hoofed Invaders
by Anne-Marie Hodge in Endless Forms
There are few images more fearsome than that of an angry bear, with teeth bared and claws flashing. It is intriguing, then, to consider a community in which a population of mighty ursids was driven to extinction by a diminutive...... Read more »
COTE, S. (2005) Extirpation of a Large Black Bear Population by Introduced White-Tailed Deer. Conservation Biology, 19(5), 1668-1671. DOI: 10.1111/j.1523-1739.2005.00252.x
- May 27, 2010
- 12:10 PM
- 152 views
Extinction of the Old, Evolution of the New: What really happened to the dinosaurs?
by Greg Laden in Greg Laden's Blog
Many years ago, a sudden event occurred that changed everything. Or at least, that is what we think now. But in truth, the event took longer than many today believe, and many of the specific details, the exact order of events, the actual meaning of each detail, are not fully understood. Indeed, in the process of describing this event today, we find considerable disagreement, or at least, it is clear that one person's version is different than another's. I'd be happy to give you my version of ........ Read more »
Keller, G. (2004) From The Cover: Chicxulub impact predates the K-T boundary mass extinction. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 101(11), 3753-3758. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0400396101
- May 26, 2010
- 03:40 PM
- 200 views
Tahitian Tree Snail Avoid Extinction by Heading for the Mountains
by Kevin Zelnio in The Online Laboratory of Kevin Zelnio
Partula spp. from Society Islands. Photo Credit: Marc Agren
In a short, but sweet, paper by Lee et al. published in the Current Biology, there is a “glimmer of hope” for montane tahitian tree snails (Mollusca, Gastropoda, Partulidae, Partula spp.). They examined the mitochondrial haplotype diversity of tree snail specimens locked away [...]... Read more »
LEE, T., BURCH, J., JUNG, Y., COOTE, T., PEARCEKELLY, P., & OFOIGHIL, D. (2007) Tahitian tree snail mitochondrial clades survived recent mass extirpation. Current Biology, 17(13). DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2007.05.006
- May 18, 2010
- 07:40 PM
- 135 views
Bycatch Claims Sea Turtles By the Millions
by Scott A. in Thriving Oceans
It’s an article packed full of potential contention as it speaks to a variety of issues involving fisheries management. So thank God we are dealing with a charismatic marine species or we just may be contemplating their extinction. But then again, perhaps we are doing just that since all 7 species of marine turtles are [...]... Read more »
Wallace, B., Lewison, R., McDonald, S., McDonald, R., Kot, C., Kelez, S., Bjorkland, R., Finkbeiner, E., Helmbrecht, S., & Crowder, L. (2010) Global patterns of marine turtle bycatch. Conservation Letters. DOI: 10.1111/j.1755-263X.2010.00105.x
- May 18, 2010
- 07:17 PM
- 124 views
Up (and Down) the Creek
by Journal Watch Online in Journal Watch Online
Yangtze River dolphin maintained large range before extinction
... Read more »
Turvey, S.T. et al. (2010) Spatial and temporal extinction dynamics in a freshwater cetacean. Proceedings of the Royal Society B. info:/10.1098/rspb.2010.0584
topics
join us!
Do you write about peer-reviewed research in your blog? Use ResearchBlogging.org to make it easy for your readers — and others from around the world — to find your serious posts about academic research.
If you don't have a blog, you can still use our site to learn about fascinating developments in cutting-edge research from around the world.
