THE AMAZING ANTS - BLACK GARDEN ANTS build en-suite toilets and use waste as fertilizer - FARMER ANTS produce a tranquilizer to subdue aphids they farm for food - LEAFCUTTER ANTS farm fungus which has evolved to produce clusters of food packages for the ants

©http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/. Unauthorized duplication of this blog's material is prohibited.   Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full credit and link is given to Otters and Science News Blogspot.  Link to this post:  http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2015/04/the-amazing-ants-black-garden-ants.html - Thank you for visiting my blog.
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Black garden ants may use their waste for building or as fertiliser 

Farmer ants use tranquilizers produced by their own feet to subdue colonies of aphids they keep as food.

 Leafcutter ants selectively grow their crops, and the fungus they grow has evolved to produce packages of nutrition for the ants

Black Garden Ant

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MICROBE CELLS NOT ONLY OUTNUMBER HUMAN CELLS IN YOUR BODY TEN TO ONE, BUT THEY HELP KEEP YOU HEALTHY

MICROBIOME = the microorganisms in a particular environment (including the body or a part of the body),

Look in the mirror and you won't see your microbiome. But it's there with you from the day you are born. Over time, those bacteria, viruses and fungi multiply until they outnumber your own cells 10 to 1.

 

As babies, the microbes may teach our immune systems how to fight off bad bugs that make us sick and ignore things that aren't a threat.

 

We get our first dose of microbes from our mothers, both in the birth canal and in breast milk. Family members tend to have similar microbiomes.

 

But ultimately each person's microbiome seems to be unique, perhaps as personal as a fingerprint.

 

As the microbes colonize our bodies, they pick specialized real estate. The mouth, with all those moist nooks and crannies, is home to one of the most diverse habitats, like the Amazon jungle.

 

Diverse as these habitats are, the microbes on the various body parts communicate with each other and with our cells.

 

Scientists have started eavesdropping on those conversations, and have started testing them as possible treatments for diseases like Crohn's, multiple sclerosis and asthma.

Read more and listen to audio - http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/09/219381741/from-birth-our-microbes-become-as-personal-as-a-fingerprint

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RELATED


How microbes living in your body are keeping you healthy - Includes video
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/806374



Humans have ten times more microbial cells than human cells
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080603085914.htm



The Human Microbiome Project - https://www.bcm.edu/departments/molecular-virology-and-microbiology/microbiome


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THE AMAZING SCORPION-STING-RESISTANT MOUSE. HIS ABILITY COULD LEAD TO BETTER PAINKILLERS DEVELOPMENT

The southern grasshopper mouse is one tough guy, no doubt about it.  He munches on scorpions and is not bothered at all by their powerful sting.

 

The sting of the Arizona bark scorpion is so fierce that humans say the pain is like being hit by a hammer. But the tiny grasshopper mouse shakes off the sting like it's nothing.

 

Now, researchers have found for the mouse, the sting really is nothing. Instead of causing pain, the scorpion venom blocks it, a fact that could lead to the development of new pain-blocking drugs for people.

 

"The venom actually blocks the pain signal that the venom is trying to send" to the mouse, said study researcher Ashlee Rowe of Michigan State University. "We don't want to try to sound too cute or anything, but it is sort of like an evolutionary martial art, where the grasshopper mice are turning the tables. They're using their opponents' strength against them." 

 

Southern grasshopper mice (Onychomys torridus) are carnivorous desert-dwellers. Among their favorite meals are the Arizona bark scorpions (Centruroides sculpturatus).

 

The scorpions' sting would kill any other rodent the size of the grasshopper mouse, but the little rodent can absorb many stings in the course of attacking a scorpion.

 

In studying this phenomenon, Rowe noticed not only did the mice survive, but they also seemed unconcerned. [See Video of a Mouse Attacking a Bark Scorpion]

 

"I was really intrigued by the fact that the mice, if they get stung, they just groom a little bit and then it's over," Rowe told LiveScience.

 

Clearly, the mice had evolved to handle the pain. To find out how, Rowe and her colleagues analyzed how the toxin acts on the nerve cells called nociceptors that pick up and relay pain to the mouse's brain.

Read more - http://www.livescience.com/40684-scorpion-eating-mice-no-sting.html

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Photo gallery of mice munching on scorpions.
http://www.livescience.com/40681-scorpion-eating-mouse.html

MAPS SHOW HOW NORTH AMERICA LOOKED LIKE 500 MILLION YEARS AGO

If you ever decide to travel back in time 500 million years, make sure you take these maps along with you.  The continent did not look like anything you are familiar with now.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2434633/What-North-America-looked-like-550-million-years-ago.html

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What you'd find 500 million years ago: 

 

500 million years ago was at the end of the period called Cambrian Explosion, when life forms proliferated into countless species, in accelerated evolution.

For most of the nearly 4 billion years that life has existed on Earth, evolution produced little beyond bacteria, plankton, and multi-celled algae.

 

But beginning about 600 million years ago in the Precambrian, the fossil record speaks of more rapid change.

 

First, there was the rise and fall of mysterious creatures of the Ediacaran fauna, named for the fossil site in Australia where they were first discovered.

 

Some of these animals may have belonged to groups that survive today, but others don't seem at all related to animals we know.

Then, between about 570 and 530 million years ago, another burst of diversification occurred, with the eventual appearance of the lineages of almost all animals living today.

 

This stunning and unique evolutionary flowering is termed the "Cambrian explosion," taking the name of the geological age in whose early part it occurred.

 

But it was not as rapid as an explosion: the changes seems to have happened in a range of about 30 million years, and some stages took 5 to 10 million years. 

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/library/03/4/l_034_02.html


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And more: 

Interactive website showing you the history of life on Earth - you move a red marker along billions and millions of years and the page changes accordingly.

http://exploringorigins.org/timeline.html


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IS THAT ALL? CATS AND TIGERS SHARE ONLY 95.6% OF DNA - BUT NOT THE CATS I'VE KNOWN

The cats I've known have been 100% tiger.  They only pretend to be domesticated because they like the easy life.  But secretly they're still wild.  And they often show it. 

 

LIVE SCIENCE - One of the findings from the newly sequenced genomes of tigers, snow leopards and lions show that they share 95.6% of their DNA with our domestic feline companions. 

 

The new research showed that big cats have genetic mutations that enabled them to be carnivores. The team also identified mutations that allow snow leopards to thrive at high altitudes

Read more - http://www.livescience.com/39695-tiger-lion-leopard-genome-sequenced.html 

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EVOLUTION NEWS -

ROCKET FUEL!  YUM!

 

Although rocket fuel is not appealing to you or me, an extremophile microbe living at the bottom of the ocean, loves to eat perchlorate, a major ingredient of rocket fuel. 

 

This is one of many creatures living near submarine volcanic vents that needs neither oxygen nor sunlight to thrive.  Scientists speculate that this particular microbe - its name is Archaeoglobus fulgidus  - may be older than lifeforms that evolved after oxygen became abundant on the planet.

Read more:  http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/2013/04/04/new-extremophile-breathes-rocket-fuel/

Other articles on extremophiles:

Extremophiles, how do they survive?
 http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/evolution-news-extremophiles-how-do.html

Thriving on battery acid and toxic metals
http://ottersandsciencenews.blogspot.ca/2013/03/evolution-news-thriving-on-battery-acid.html

ANIMAL NEWS -

THE FROG THAT WEAPONIZES ITSELF

 

IT BREAKS ITS OWN BONES TO PRODUCE CLAWS THAT BURST THROUGH ITS SKIN

The hairy Cameroon frog breaks its own bones to produce talons that burst out of its toe pads. Its skin soon heals. 

 

There are also salamanders that push their ribs through the skin to produce defensive barbs.

 

For picture of this frog and its resemblance to X-Men's WOLVERINE, read here:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2300424/The-frog-breaks-bones-produce-claws-burst-skin-like-X-Men-s-Wolverine.html

EVOLUTION NEWS  -

EXTREMOPHILES - HOW DO THEY SURVIVE?

 

 

The northern Alaska red flat bark beetle makes its own anti-freeze proteins and glycerol to prevent their fluids from forming ice crystals.  Even as larvae they can tolerate temperatures of minus 150 degrees Celsius.

 

The desert ants of the Sahara scavenges when the daily temperature is at its highest, thus avoiding their sluggish predators. They use their very long legs to move quickly while barely touching the sand, and stay out for only short periods of time.

 

The Himalayan jumping spider lives at heights of 6700 meters - higher than any other species.  Although there are no resident insects for them to hunt, the wind blows frozen insects up the mountain for them to eat. 

Read more:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/21923937

EVOLUTION NEWS -

TOP SPEED BIRD EVOLUTION

 

CAUSED BY MOTORISTS AND MAN-MADE STRUCTURES

It's a mystery that turns into a fascinating evolution story.  Here are the facts:

 

-  American Cliff Swallows need cliffs to live and reproduce.

-  Nebraska has no respectable-sized cliffs. It's all flat terrain.

-  Cliff swallows then use man-made structures as cliff-substitutes. 

 

-  Plot thickens.

 

-  Although the cliff swallows population is thriving, there are fewer road kills. 

-  Scientists were puzzled but determined to solve this mystery.

-  They noticed that while the road kill had longer wings,  the majority of the survivors had developed shorter wings.
 

-  Mystery solved. 

Long-winged swallows are getting decimated because they have more difficulty evading approaching cars than shorter-winged swallows.

 

-  The problem?

 

-  Short-winged swallows will have a harder time during their long migrations, and they'll tire more easily.

DISCOVER MAGAZINE:  A lot of birds, including most swallows, have long wings for their body size because they spend a lot of time catching flying prey like insects, and longer wings reduce the effort needed to glide and maneuver in the air.   But while short wings are less efficient once in flight, they provide a bigger boost from the ground, allowing birds a near-vertical takeoff.   When you’re trying to jump out of the way of a speeding car, the faster you can get out of range of the vehicle, the better.    Not only roadkill birds had longer wings, but over time the overall wingspan of the cliff swallow population in Nebraska has been declining.

 http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/science-sushi/?p=2658
 

DO HUMANS HAVE A PURPOSE?

SCIENCE QUESTIONS

DO HUMANS HAVE A PURPOSE?

OR ARE WE NATURE'S MISTAKE?

Science shows us how every life form exists to occupy a niche, an opportunity to take in resources, recycle them, and maintain life on Earth - always adapting to the environment, always amazingly resourceful in their efforts to survive and reproduce.

LIFE is a web with each species and each individual having a role to play.  Every creature, no matter how small, has a purpose.

It's as if LIFE took on a myriad of disguises in order to work within a variety of physical environments and thrive. Everything is renewed and eventually recycled.  LIFE uses everything it can - liquids, gases, solids - and specializes to survive in even the most challenging of environments, such as those surrounding submarine volcanic vents with hot magma and sulphur.

All of which raises the question of human's usefulness in LIFE's grand scheme.  Homo Sapiens has populated the earth for just a blip of time, between 100 million to 200 million years during Earth's 4.6 billion.  Maybe we - who regard ourselves the crown of creation - could be nothing more than nature's mistake - to be eventually corrected by natural means or by human self-destruction.

I have deliberately left the religious aspect out of this question. I believe in God but there may be a larger picture in His act of creation. 

Like most people I am closely familiar with the intelligence and goodness of our animal companions - and devastated by the evil and destructiveness so prevalent in my own species. Perhaps God will give it another try.
 

Life in extreme environments:  http://www.astrobiology.com/extreme.html

500 million year old mistake led to humans - http://news.discovery.com/human/evolution/dna-mistake-evolution-120724.htm


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