The Akoya pearl oyster (Pinctada fucata (Gould)) is the most important species for pearl cultivation in Japan. Mass mortality of 0-year-old juvenile oysters and anomalies in adults, known as summer atrophy, have been observed in major pearl farming areas during the...
Article Spotlight: Scientists Unlock Mysteries of Orangutan Communication
Scientists have revealed the intricate vocal patterns of Bornean orangutans, shedding new light on the complexities of their communication. Titled "Vocal Complexity in the Long Calls of Bornean Orangutans," the research, led by Dr. Wendy Erb from the K. Lisa Yang...
Article Spotlight: Carnivore coexistence without competition
Nocturnal activity of tropical otters is rarely reported. To date no studies have documented den use by sympatric giant (Pteronura brasiliensis) and neotropical otters (Lontra longicaudis). We used camera-traps to monitor den use by sympatric otters along an...
Article Spotlight: The dinosaurs that weren’t: osteohistology supports giant ichthyosaur affinity of enigmatic large bone segments from the European Rhaetian
Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate to this day. A study could now settle this...
Article Spotlight: The role of temperature on the development of circadian rhythms in honey bee workers
Circadian rhythms in honey bees are involved in various processes that impact colony survival. For example, young nurses take care of the brood constantly throughout the day and lack circadian rhythms. At the same time, foragers use the circadian clock to remember and...
Article Spotlight: Plectronoceratids (Cephalopoda) from the latest Cambrian at Black Mountain
We describe Sinoeremoceras marywadeae sp. nov. from numerous, well-preserved specimens, allowing investigation of ontogenetic trajectories and intraspecific variability, which in turn enables improved interpretations of the three-dimensional siphuncle morphology. The...
Article Spotlight: Downsizing a heavyweight: factors and methods that revise weight estimates of the giant fossil whale Perucetus colossus
Extremes in organismal size have broad interest in ecology and evolution because organismal size dictates many traits of an organism’s biology. There is particular fascination with identifying upper size extremes in the largest vertebrates, given the challenges and...
Article Spotlight: Dark kinase annotation, mining, and visualization using the Protein Kinase Ontology
The Protein Kinase Ontology (ProKinO) is an integrated knowledge graph that conceptualizes the complex relationships among protein kinase sequence, structure, function, and disease in a human and machine-readable format. Read the research "My lab is focused on the...
Article Spotlight: Identification of fungi isolated from commercial bumblebee colonies
We collected samples of various substrates from within 14 bumblebee colonies, including the honey, honey cup wall, egg cup wall, and frass then placed them on agar and recorded any growth. Fungal morphotypes were then subcultured and their ITS region sequenced for...
Article Spotlight: Catcalls: Exotic cats discriminate the voices of familiar caregivers
The ability to differentiate familiar from unfamiliar humans has been considered a product of domestication or early experience. Few studies have focused on voice recognition in Felidae despite the fact that this family presents the rare opportunity to compare...