Species - Science topic

Larger brains, which typically contain more neurons, store and transfer more information (Tehovnik and Chen 2015), but the precise relationship between number of neurons and information has yet to be deduced. Although some have argued that a greater storage and transfer of information is related to intelligence/cognitive capacity (Herculano-Houzel 2017; Horschler et al. 2019), we would suggest that a larger number of neurons is required to control a larger number of cells making up a large-bodied animal, which also happens to have a protracted longevity since the mitotic addition of cells for complete development takes time (Finlay 2019b; Hofman 1993; West et al. 1997). In fact, it is common to assess biological time according to the number of cell divisions per lifetime (see Footnote 1, Hackfield and Moorhead 1961). Indeed, the bowhead whale has a large brain to accommodate its large body, and it can live for 200 years, requiring the first 25 years to become sexually mature (George et al. 1999). At the other extreme of information transfer is the mayfly, which has a pinhead of a brain as well as a pinhead of a body. These animals live for up to one day and they become sexually mature within hours (Hoell et al. 1998). As for intelligence, the evolutionary duration of a species should be the ultimate metric of its success (rather than whether it has been able to decode the genome), while the storage and transfer of information by the brain is related to the number of somatic cells under its control, which requires more learning time before reaching sexual maturity. In vertebrates, learning time covaries with the number of telencephalic-cerebellar loops added during development prior to sexual maturity, while factoring in the uniqueness of each vertebrate class, whether fish, amphibian, reptile, bird, or mammal (Tehovnik, Hasanbegović, Chen 2024). Each vertebrate class has a different amount of parental investment with fish, amphibians, and reptiles making a low investment, and with birds and mammals making a high investment, e.g., whales are known to bond with and teach their offspring for years before the offspring become independent (George et al. 1999). And raising children to adulthood is seen by every culture as an important duty, for we all know what happens when this goes wrong.

Footnote 1: Each time a cell undergoes mitosis, the telomeres on the ends of each chromosome shorten slightly (Hackfield and Moorhead 1961) thereby producing a biological stamp of age. Some animals with long lifespans: Greenland shark (272 years/sexual maturity 150 years), Bowhead whale (200 years/sexual maturity 25 years), Tortoise (175 years/sexual maturity 15 years), Giant Tube worm (170 years/sexual maturity 2 years), Giant Salt Water clam (160 years/sexual maturity 15-20 years), and so on. Some animals with short lifespans: Mayfly (24 hours/sexual maturity < 24 hours), Drone ant (3 weeks/sexual maturity ~ 3 days), Housefly (1 month/sexual maturity ~ 24 hours), Dragon fly (4 months/ sexually mature ~ 1 week), mouse (1 year/sexual maturity ~ 5 to 8 weeks), and so on. The average lifespan for humans is about 80 years, becoming sexually mature at 13 years. Typically, the larger the body the longer an animal needs to live to complete development (but there are exceptions in the invertebrate world, e.g., the Giant Tube worm), and a large-bodied animal generally has a larger brain to control the greater number of somatic cells. (Information obtained from Wikipedia)

Could anyone help me in identification of these species growing in China's coastal wetlands? I attach some photos. Thank you.

I'd like to detect the presence of different species in a DNA extract using qPCR. Are there specific targets already listed for each species (animals, yeasts)?

Thanks,

Is it correct to choose the principal components method in order to show the relationship of species with biotopes?

According to Andersson (1990), "The only thing generally agreed upon is that variation in phenetic parameters is not continuous and that character states are not combined randomly". In the same work, he defines species as clusters of individuals in a multidimensional space, where each character marks an axis (and thus a dimension).

However, in practice, when conducting taxonomy at the species level, we frequently encounter intermediate states, hybridizations of characters, etc., which can cause us to question whether the compartmentalization of the total character hyperspace that defines a species is, at least in part, a construct of ours rather than of nature.

So the question I would like to ask is: If biological diversity could be expressed as an n-dimensional mathematical function, what type would it be? Clearly, there are not infinite intermediate states between each species (as a continuous function would seem to require) and there does appear to be empty interstices between the hypervolumes, as Andersson asserts, but do the intermediate characters we find in practice not prevent the function from being entirely discrete?

REFERENCE:

Andersson, L. 1990. The driving force: Species concepts and Ecology. Taxon 39(3): 375-382.

Looking for species identification, the first Fungia (1) is from Florida, USA while the second Fungia (2) from is Egypte.

What would be the correct way of stating that the particular taxon belongs to a species complex, during identification? For example, a gecko that belongs to the Hemidactylus brookii complex. Thank you for the help.

Is taking multiple factors such as genome sequence, taxonomy levels, behavioural patterns, anatomy and etc into account when comparing 2 specimens more accurate than just comparing its genomes?

Please help me out to find the bontanical name of the plant species.

the sample was isolated from polluted river water and cultured in f/2 media according to the European standard. The images are a little bit confusing, so can you help me to id them?

Dear Botanists and ecologists!

Attached picture represents a submered plant species of freshwater Himalayan lakes occurring at an altitude of 1800-2000 meters. The plant survives under water. The leaves turn yellow and die within a day or two if kept outside water sample.

Please help me identify at least genus of this plant!?

Thanks in advance!?

#botany #submerged #plants #lake

if Homosapiens could interbreed with Neanderthals and produce fertile offspring , why are they considered two different species ?

what definition would make them 2 different species ?

One might argue: Animals increase their survivability by increasing the degrees of freedom available to them in interacting with their environment and other members of their species.

Right, wrong, or in between? Your views?

Are there articles discussing this?

Hi all,

Thanks for your help.

Mehrdad

Black-footed ferret (Mustela nigripes), a North American species presumed extinct in 1979 until it was rediscovered in 1981. Same thing happened to the Bermuda petrel, peccary, venomous Cuban Solenodon etc.

And the list is much bigger.

The main argument is that if there is no concrete reason, why the organisations are putting the term 'extinct' for a species?

Is it not controversial and funny?

Is it not time to rethink about this problem?

Please jot down your opinions here with any updates in this area.

Thanks in advance.

In the case of Phylogeny, we consider all the taxa as OTU. So, how can we interpret the various rank below species level? Or Just morphological data can provide distinction below species rank?

Hi, what is the reasonable cut-off percentage of species contribution for SIMPER analysis? Most papers I've seen are at 90%, but there are those at 60%. Is the value determined by the author or is there a specific rule to this?

Thank you in advance.

The specimen has been found from the rocky coasts of Gulf of Oman, bored in to an sponge tissue. albeit its small size, the animal was mature. can you help me to identify it? Thanks. 

In Europe (in France and Germany at least), there is a new cultural-political position suggesting there were no human races … Not really … only as a delusion… as a constructed deception originating from the early modern times of beginning colonialism. – So not whites, no blacks (in former times: “negros” – sorry, I apologize for this), no yellow or Mongolian race, no Eskimos and so on.

The traditionalists in Europe still oppose this position and complain about a new ideological war with the progressive activists, who try for instance to make jobs dependent on compliance to the no-race-concept.

I would be especially interested in the opinions of coloured people and of non-Westerners. (But this is not meant as an exclusion … So all are invited (independent of any external traits) …).

Does exists a "standard methodology" to define a species like a flagship species?

I know some methodologies are based on surveys, but I would like to know if we have others types of methodologies? (e.g. number of public papers discussing on a species in a country, number of pictures takes in a specific area, etc...)

Actually, I search a methodology based on social data to quantify the interest of species for considering them like flagship/iconic/emblematic species.

Do you think, facebook, instagram, twitter could be sufficient for that?

Does exists a package to search directly keywords in google search?...

Thanks for your help,

PL

In the multi-million year history of life on Earth there have been 5 great extinctions of species of fauna and flora.

In the context of human civilization activity and the rapidly progressing process of global warming, has the 6th species died out?

Please reply

Best wishes

How many new plant species have been discovered in Hoang Lien Son range since 2000?

Aware that managed breeding is still a controversial issue, I believe that one conservation endeavor should not discard the other or worse, antagonize the other based on personal opinion or theoretical discipline gain. In situ and ex situ have both proven to be necessary to avoid extinction of critically endangered species.

I could cite several examples but one should be representative for all: the Arabian Oryx (Oryx leucoryx). Extinct in the wild but some individuals breeding in Zoological Parks. Today the Arabian Oryx is reintroduced successfully in former range areas and numbers in the wild are increasing. Why leave managed breeding as "the last resource"? And when is the time to put in action "the last resource"?

There are conservationists who cannot tolerate the extinction of a species for anthropogenic causes and believe that intervening on specific species is a responsibility. There are others who consider a species better extinct than detached from its habitat, even partially. Discussion can go on forever…but no one can ascertain the future of our Planet with 100% certainty and state which solution is the best.

Hello everyone,

Has anyone please manage to write a code for the methane reduced mechanism mentioned in paczko's paper named "Reduced Reaction Mechanism for Meathne, Methanol and Propane Flames"? Because i don't know how to initialize the domain with zero concentrations of species H, H2O, CO, CO2, H2, M while they are needed in calcualting intermediate species.

Hello everyone: I am reading about alpha and beta diversity, and am becoming interested in rare and tourist species. Anybody can help me with this "simple" question: Which criteria (of any kind) can be used to identify some species in a sample as "tourist" species? I mean, is there any statistical threshold, any occurrence value, or something like that, to consider a given species as tourist in a community? I guess it depends on the spatial and/or temporal scale of the analysis... I want to explore how different sampling sites, with different environmental characteristicas, allow for tourist species to be there, and how this process can change alpha and beta (temporal) diversity.

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Jose.

Biology

What do you think is the best genetic marker to define species?

In our genetic marker's world, what do you think is the best one to describe species, 12S, 16S, 18S, 28S, COI, COII, COIII, ITS1, ITS2 or Cytb?

I have been working on a project to collate species occurrence data inherent from unpublished student theses in an integrated database (currently published in GBIF) and still working on a systematic protocol of data validation. Expert review is really subjective and I got many findings that said "expert" estimation were not always more consistent than amateurs, student, or even public enthusiasts (feel free to message me for the papers I collected regarding this), thus my team was still struggling to find a way. Our current method is just independently evaluate the scientific names through taxonomic checklists and the geographic distribution were validated through available published literature mentioning the geographic distribution of each species. We occasionally ask experts but as we are working on many understudied taxa and geographical area, there was not many around.

"The choice of species rank over form or

subspecies for this taxon reflects a more

nuanced understanding of the role of infraspecific

ordering. We consider forms to reflect a

consistent variant within a wider population. ...

Páll-Gergely et al. (2019) argued that the rank

of subspecies was arbitrarily applied based on

“human factors”. These factors reflect the

choices that the taxonomist has to make with

regard to the differentiating of taxa in terms of

morphology, homology and the pre-existing

taxonomic hypotheses (Páll-Gergely et al. 2019).

However, Páll-Gergely et al. (2019) offer no

practical solution to how subspecies should be

identified; rather they are seeking a rule to

“prohibit taxonomic decisions resulting in

uneven subspecies rates across taxonomic

groups.” This raises the serious question of what

is a “subspecies”, and in particular once you

move away from the biological species concept

how do you demarcate between subspecies and

what is considered a full species. We argue that

subspecies should be restricted to cryptic

species, where the difference between taxa are

grounded on the unobservable genetic distance;

there is no morphological difference and

typically no test for biological isolation between

isolated populations or their clines. That is, we

argue that the rank of subspecies should be

applied to reflect genetic differences within a

species complex, rather than used to distinguish

unique taxonomic entities with observable

differences. These are species. Subspecies

therefore, is a rank that should be restricted to

cryptic species. This approach would provide a

level of taxonomic stability to the species rank

and at the same time address the issues

identified in Páll-Gergely et al. (2019). Where a

taxon can be readily identified based on

observable differences we argue, as the case of

the species herein, that the rank of species is

justified." (Maxwell and Dekkers 2019, Festivus, 51(3), 171- 176).

Hello,

I have always been wondering how does an individual know its own species?

I mean, that a fish knows it is a fish and not a bird is alright, or even that a Swan isn't a Sparrow is also understandable. But how does a Mew Gull know that it is a Mew Gull and not a Yellow-legged Gull for example? On what clues do they rely?

Thanks for your explanations

L.

Also why there are only 3 species have been cultivated.

If we encounter a species in an area, we check all published literature and checklist of that place. What if it doesn't provide any sufficient conclusion of its record? What should be the necessary steps that we must take to establish that the species is a new record or not?

So to summarize my research I have an OTU table of 17 cyathostomin OTUs from equine fecal samples obtained using Illumina sequencing. The data set comprises of about 3 different time courses where a different anthelmintic was used each time. A sample was obtained from each horse biweekly following the treatment. Count data was obtained when sequenced however we decided to convert this data into presence/absence data due to size of fecal material used.

I've had trouble wrapping my head around the best ways to analyze this data as abundance has been eliminated.

I have been mostly using R and Qiime to work with this data in either the form of biom or an excel spreadsheet.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Hi,

I would like to build a species accumulation curve using specaccum function in R vegan package.

The entry table should be a classic community table species by sites. However, instead of sites, I would use subsequent surveys in a given study area (conducted with the same methodology) and incident data (presence/absence). Is this supported? And, more relevant, do you think this has a theoretical support? References welcome.

Trying to answer this question, I came across iNEXT package that allows incident data. I have still the same doubt about sites/surveys.

What is the most flexible and performing of the two functions?

We have discovered what could be a novel planarian in a unique, isolated aquatic environment. Preliminary COI sequencing and a BLAST search reveals only about 81% similarity to anything published. This makes me more optimistic about its possible uniqueness. Am I right? We plan to sequence 18S and 28S plus other segments. However, I am doubly out of my field since I know very little about planarians or using molecular evidence to establish the worm's uniqueness. I have undergraduates working on the project. Any suggestions for where to go from here or how to find someone who might be interested in collaborating?

I have collected a lot of specimens, drown in a small pool at the Pantokrator Peak, at the yard of the monastery (together with many other insects, and some spiders).

For writing binomial names of organisms we usually write a capital first letter for genus while all small letters for species. For example: Staphylococcus aureus. What if we are writing all block letter words along with a binomial name (usually done while writing titles), is it okay to use block letters for binomial names as well along with other block letter words?

Example: EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY OF STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS INFECTIONS.

In above example, would it be okay to use block letters to write binomial name, since all other words are written using block letters?

Mesostenus (Ichneumonidae: Cryptinae: Cryptini: Mesostenina)

Authors sometimes annotate their figures with accurate illustrations of species. Does anyone know of a good online source for these?

The Amazon rain forest produces about 60 percent. global oxygen production necessary for the life of many different life forms on Earth, including humans and animals.

However, for several dozen years, Amazonia has been successively torn from tree stands. There are many known cases of killing indigenous peoples, Native Americans who try to protect the Amazon by devastation.

Fenced areas of the forest are quickly cut down, where the soil after tree felling is quickly eroded and reclamation of the degraded ecosystem is very difficult and in many areas impossible.

The Amazon rainforest is a globally unique ecosystem in which millions of different species of flora and fauna, unknown, not found in other regions of the world, live in natural biological balance.

these ecosystems were created for millions of years, they are unique, one of the greatest biologically treasurers of planet Earth, and man very quickly destroys this unique, species-rich ecosystem.

Progressing fast felling of trees and destruction are basically irreversible. Sometimes to cut a unique specimen of a tree, which grows for 100, 200 and more years, cutting machines, sawmill destroy many other trees only for the purpose of forming an access road for tartar machines to a specific, large, cut tree.

This is the economy of devastation and destruction of unique natural resources, species-rich ecosystems.

Paradoxically, man is responsible for this in the era of the 21st century civilization, it is very sad.

How to solve this problem, to change the economy of devastation into an ecological economy and to protect the unique resources of Amazonian ecosystems?

Time passes, and successively there is less and less time to solve this problem and find a way out of this patency sytauacji, the vicious circle of industrial exploitation, including the devastation of unique forest resources, rich in millions of species of natural Amazonian ecosystems.

If in the 21st century this problem is not effectively solved, subsequent generations of people will have much bigger problems in the matter of existence and life on Earth.

If in the 21st century mankind does not stop the progressing greenhouse effect on Earth and the devastating, predatory economy of forest clearing of the Amazon rainforest, then humanity in the XXII century will no longer have the conditions possible to survive on Earth.

Do you agree with my opinion on this matter?

In view of the above, I am asking you the following question:

Please, answer, comments.

Thank you very much

Best wishes

Why in the age of science and technology development, research on the development of modern ecosystems still neodarwninian concepts of evolution are not fully consistent?

In the history of the development of life on Earth, the emergence of particular types, phylacteries and species of flora and fauna according to the Darwin concept of evolutionary knowledge, global cataclysms repeatedly occurred on Earth, after which the majority of flora and fauna changed to a significant degree or completely. These stages of accelerated evolution leading to the relatively rapid emergence of many new life forms, characterized by completely new forms of life organization of particular types and species and entire ecosystems, are not fully fully understood, researched and explained. These gaps of knowledge are the source of dogmatic undermining of the entire Darwinite theory of evolution. In view of the above, the question still remains: Why in the age of science and technology development, research on the development of modern ecosystems still neodarwninian concepts of evolution are not fully consistent?

Please, answer, comments. I invite you to the discussion.

Dear All

Looking for the scientific name of this zingiber species?

Thanks in advance

Rishad

please help me out to find the botanical name of the species

What do you understand by the phrase "world to word"?

I used it for the title

"World to Word: Nomenclature Systems of Color and Species" https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/60517

to mean the practice of dividing a continuum into chunks with words.

The phrase has other uses, and I would like to know how it is used in your fields.

Hi everybody,

I try to use the EstimateS software in order to calculate ACE and Chao1 estimators of species richness. I'm trying to compute them on a species abundance data set of 22 species of dung beetles collected in 30 pitfall baited traps.

I followed the guidelines of EstimateS. But when I run the analysis, the richness estimated is inferior to the observed richness... whatever the estimator considered.

Does anyone know what happen?

Thank you so much.

Will

PS: for those that want to try, please find my data file attached to this message.

Is it possible to know how many species are described daily?

And is it possibile to know how many within the different living kingdoms? I am mostly interested on Insects...

Further: how many of the species described are from direct collecting of authors, from exchanges with colleagues or from former musuem collections?

thanks

Filippo

Dear Sirs and Madams,

Your contribution to a collection of images depicting systems of organization for color and species will be used in a study. I am gathering images that represent graphically the organization of colors and species. The images may be from folk taxonomy, Linnaean taxonomy, iBOL, cladistics, Munsell, Goethe, and other sources.

If you add an image, please indicate its source. Thank you!

The images will provide the materials for a follow-up research I conducted on nomenclature of color and species (World to Word: Nomenclature Systems of Color and Species https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10355/60517/Dissertation_2017_Kelley_replacement.pdf?sequence=5&isAllowed=y)

Tanya Kelley

I think that morphology provides all the necessary data to define a species. DNA data is useless unless you don't know the exact species name.

Dear Friends,

mayby somebody have experiences with in vitro propagation this species? We can disscus together about the medium and plant growth regulators.

Regards

I am trying to simulate a 2 dimensional flameless combustion case of char in ANSYS FLUENT. It involves surface reaction of char with incoming oxygen

what time step should I take?

and secondly is there any option in fluent where I can visualize char left behind after its consumption via oxidation reaction ?

I want to examinate intraspecific variation in Phellinus sp. and its relationship with other members of the Hymenochaetaceae family.

I'm not sure how to categorize this species

Is it possible to describe a new centric diatom species, if it is differ form the existed one only in the number of satellite pores around rimo- and fultoportulae? All other characters are identical.

In a recent critique of our paper on the third orangutan species, the author of a blog wrote that: "a “species” is not an arbitrary segment of nature’s continuum, but real entities that maintain their “realness” because they don’t exchange any (or many) genes with other such entities where they cohabit in nature." I am struggling with how such a static concept of evolutionary units that remain distinct through time and space, can be reconciled with the fundamental dynamism of evolution. According to the strict description above, species somehow pop into existence when they achieve that magical status of being "reproductively isolated". But how could we know when that has happened, how is that determined, especially in allopatric species for which natural reproductive isolation can never be reliably tested? Species are not real in an evolutionary sense. They are man-made concepts that help us categorize nature's diversity. Some species are very distinct, others less so. Deciding on a scientifically objective, robust and replicable way to determine that distinctness is the only way to make taxonomy scientific. I fear for the 18 species of wild suids under the management of the Wild Pig Specialist Group. If absence of gene flow was the guide, we would be left with 2 or maybe only one species, grouping together all the current babirusas, wart hogs, warty pigs, giant forest hogs, and others under one Sus scrofa species name, just because there has been some introgression from the highly competitive, abundant and expanding Sus scrofa into other species. This might satisfy the strict adherents to the biological species concept, but to me that would neither be particularly helpful for describing evolutionary diversity in wild pigs, nor would it help me much in protecting them. As to reproductive isolation, it seems that pigs had better things to do than invest evolutionary energy in developing it, and instead focused more on seeking out others' genes for improving their sense of smell -- key to their survival. Sex ,or lack of it, is not all in evolution.

See here for article:

and here for critique: https://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2017/11/03/a-new-species-of-orangutan-i-doubt-it/

I wonder what an average time-span of genera may be for evolutionary lineages of various supergeneric taxonomical level across the tree of life (e.g. fish, mammals, vertebrates, beetles, insects, ecdysozoans, metazoans, flowering plants, embryophytes, fungi etc.). In other words, how long on average may genera live in certain lineages? I am aware of the subjectivity of higher taxonomic categories, but there must be some time-span in which the genus is being found in the paleontological record. Similarly, using molecular clocks calibrated with fossils, we may assume the age of extant genera. Does anyone have some tips for relevant literature?

Invasive species are foreign or non-native organisms that infiltrate an ecosystem. I mostly here of these species causing more harm than help. I was wondering if there some cases that these invasive species would help the ecosystem that they are in. 

I am working on some cyanobacteria from fresh water in Zimbabwe's upper Mhanyame catchment. I am requesting for assistance in identifying the attached species. Could it be Tolyprhrix?

Can anybody suggest the name of an institution having a maximum number of living plant species in Asia?

they are grow mainly on rocks of different places 

how did i prepare sample

I am new  silva user website, I am hope to get information about fungal IST2 gene for example, what is the size long or short sequence of this in fungal species, however, I am struggle to find these information in silva web site, I hope to find some one to help me to know how can I get these information

many thanks

Hey, could anybody recognize/identify this specie in the picture attached?

Terrestrial specie obtained from Souss Masa National Park in Morocco.

PS: Knowing just the family of this specie is enough for me !

Thanks for any help!

Hey,

I collect this species. and i need you to help me in identification and suggest me it's possible classification.

Regards.

I need a publications showing Dikerogammarus villosus as a part of native species diet.

Entamoebae histolytica, parasites, camels

Can anyone provide me with the list of Curcuma species occurring in India (including new species)?. I could only find around 44 species.

The forest layers of the canopy towards the ground are surfaces of exchange which condition an intraforestal environment different from the general climate.

Fresh water microalgae

I want to know the species which is resistant against it. It may b useful against to overcome this disease 

The ask is related to the possible species which are formed when tungstate metal is dissolved in solution

Hi,

I asked me if it is possible that Cdc6 of a bacterial species reconize an Ori fragment of another bacterial species. Do you know if there are litterature on this subject ?

Best regards,

Rémi