SCIENCE BOND

Posts

Showing posts with the label face

Meat eating accelerated face evolution

Meat and tools, not the advent of cooking, was the trigger that freed early humans to develop a smaller chewing apparatus, a study suggests. This in turn may have allowed other changes, such as improved speech and even shifts in the size of the brain. The authors conclude that cooking became commonplace much later. Prof Daniel Lieberman and Dr Katherine Zink from Harvard University have published their work in the journal Nature. The earliest members of our genus, Homo, are only sparsely represented in the fossil record. By the time the species Homo erectus appeared about two million years ago, humans had evolved bigger brains and bodies that had increased our daily energy requirements. But paradoxically, they had also evolved smaller teeth, as well as weaker chewing muscles and bite force. They also had a smaller gut than earlier human ancestors. One of the possible reasons for these changes, cooking, did not become commonplace until 500,000 yea...

More than half of all tree species in the Amazon face extinction, warn international scientists

According to new data, up to 57% of all Amazonian trees may already fit the criteria of being globally threatened. If confirmed, the estimates would raise the number of threatened plant species on Earth by almost a quarter. Forest cover in the Amazon has been shrinking for decades, but little is known about the impact on individual plant species. The trees at risk include iconic species like the Brazil nut tree, food crops such as cacao, the source of chocolate, as well as rare trees that are almost unknown to science. The research, published in the journal, Science Advances, compared data from almost 1,500 forest plots with maps of current and predicted forest loss to estimate how many tree species have been lost and how many are likely to disappear by the middle of the century. It found that the Amazon - the world's most diverse forest - could be home to more than 15,000 tree species. Of these, between 36% and 57% are likely to qualify as being g...

UK's dung beetle species face extinction, according to scientists

The Dung Beetle UK Mapping Project (Dump) is still in the early stages of its research work, which has included examining beetle sites in Scotland. However, the team said it had already noted an "alarming trend" of decline of some species. Dung beetles play key roles in improving soils and controlling pests. Reasons for the decline in some beetle species include coming into contact with anthelmintics, a type of drug given to livestock to control intestinal worms that prevent the farm animals from thriving.Dump involves Darren Mann, who is head of life collections at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, Steve Lane, Ceri Watkins and Sally-Ann Spence. The project is not funded and the team members have been doing their research in their spare time, while on family holidays and fitting it around their other work. The scientists have been examining well-documented dung beetle sites, including locations in the Cairngorms, and have also been looki...

Snow leopards face climate change threat

Conservation charity WWF says more than a third of the animal's mountain living areas could become uninhabitable because of climate change. It says plants and trees there are not able to survive in warmer temperatures. The report describes snow leopards as one of the most beautiful and enigmatic big cats. "But it is also one of the most elusive and endangered," it says.WWF says that the animal is threatened not just because of climate change but also because of a combination of other factors including: Habitat fragmentation: the snow leopard's habitat especially in the eastern Himalayas - is being increasingly encroached upon by humans A decline in natural prey, resulting in snow leopards sometimes attacking livestock, which can result in local people killing them Illegal wildlife trade: Snow leopards are being increasingly poached for their body parts.Climate change will exacerbate most of these threats, the report says, further increasing the pre...