Why can’t we be friends?

Turn on the discovery or science channel and you might see a cheetah stalking a gazelle, moose locking antlers over mating rights or a territorial hippo challenging intruders.  However, that image of aggression is being challenged with more and more news stories and papers like this one about peacemaking orangutans.

In this study, Japanese scientists saw repeated displays of intervention by orangutans in a group in captivity when an older female attacked a younger female orangutan that had recently been introduced to the group.  Gorillas and Chimpanzees have also been seen to exhibit such behavior.  This episode also fits in what is a rapidly growing understanding of the animal kingdom’s propensity to engage in reconciliation and empathy as well as displays of altruism.   The Bonobo, another one of the great apes, have shown the ability to share food and also engage in reconciliation.  Social grooming has long been known to be a form of conflict resolution amongst primates and chimpanzees even kiss and hug after fights.

Such displays might not be limited to only primates either.  In one study, scientists found that mice that were housed with each other were more sensitive to pain due to the fact that they were able to see other mice in pain.  That display of empathy was believed to be an example of emotional contagion, whereby some of the mice were influenced by the emotions they saw in others.  In another example that probably won’t shock dog owners, scientists found that a human’s yawns may be contagious to dogs.  Empathy and altruism isn’t necessarily restricted to land based creatures, as scientists have repeatedly seen dolphins coming to the rescue of their own and even other species.  If you’re interested in more stories about the animal kingdom’s softer side look for The Age of Empathy by Professor Fans de Waal in your local library.

Maybe it is easy being green.

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….For the longest time, the debate over the color green in the animal kingdom has been dominated by a singular character.  While Kermit sang the first shot across the bow in the debate over green, a team of scientists led by Professor Sidney K. Pierce may have finally found a worthy adversary.  Meet Elysia chlorotica, the green sea slug which may change the way we think about the line between plants and animals and the merits of being green.

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….What makes Elysia choloritica organisms special is that scientists have discovered that not only do they contain chloroplasts which they can then use for photosynthesis but that their acquisition of those chloroplasts may also have given them their own photosynthesis supporting genes.  Elysia choloritica first obtains the chloroplasts (and turns itself from brown to green) by sucking them out from the interior of Vaucheria litorea, a specific type of algae that they feed on. Scientists had already known that they then retain the chloroplasts and use them to produce sugars while sunbathing!    However using radioactive tracing scientists were finally able to discover how they were able to maintain the chloroplasts for extended periods of time (up to 8 months) without ingesting any new material from algae.  It turns out that Elysia choloritica actually had its own photosynthesis supporting genes and even more amazingly that those genes were even in its egg and sex cells!

….The mechanism of acquisition of those genes by Elysia choloritica from the algae is believed to be Horizontal Gene Transfer.   Horizontal Gene Transfer is a mechanism whereby an organism acquires new genetic material from other organisms by means other than descent.  In this case the slug borrowed algal genes needed in the photosynthesis process just by consumption of the algae.  Besides highlighting a new selling point in the perpetual marketing campaign waged to get kids to eat their vegetables, such a discovery also may mean that evolution was more complicated than ever imagined.  Hybrid plant-animals or links between the two may suddenly be viable evolutionary pathways.  In any event, Elysia choloritica’s decision to go green clearly has been a great boon to its ability to feed itself and presents a very convincing rebuttal to Kermit’s salvo against the color.

Meeting the QHST Family: The Newt

This Red-Spotted Newt (Notophthalmus viridescens) has the distinction of being one of the only (and probably THE only) QHST residents that can regenerate its body parts and that has the ability to use an internal compass as a homing device.

The resident QHST newt.

Both of those features are a characteristic shared by all members of this particular subspecies of the Eastern Newt.  The ability to regenerate lost limbs is a hallmark of salamanders, which is a group to which newts belong.  The homing ability of the newts is believed to be due to a combination of an innate magnetic compass and a sun dependent compass.  The interesting details are provided in several different papers, some of which even suggest that the newts may have ferromagnetic material in them which give them their magnetic compass ability.

Red Spotted Newts typically have a lifespan of 12-15 years and can grow up to anywhere between 2.5 inches to 5 inches long.  They typically undergo three different stages of life.  The first is the aquatic larvae stage (where they look like tadpoles) after they are born from the eggs laid in a pond or lake.  They then move onto land during the red eft stage, during which they become a bright red-orange color.  Finally, they mature into an aquatic adult stage where they can live both on land and in water and by which time they will have changed to their olive-green skin color with red spots.

Red Spotted Newts typically eat insects, leeches, worms, tiny mollusks and crustaceans, young amphibians, and frogs’ eggs.  Our newt has been feasting on a diet that consists mainly of earthworms (one small earthworm every three days).  However, it has shown evidence of a sophisticated palate based on the occasional different species of worm that it demands.

The map here shows that the sub species our newt belongs to is quite common in our local area and generally in the northeast.  For more information on the characteristics of the species our local newt belongs to check out this link. Otherwise enjoy a couple more action shots of our newt:

The newt loves to be the center of attention.

Relaxing on the table.