Zoology - Science topic

"Fred Hoyle invigorated and championed the idea of panspermia with his colleague Chandra Wickramasinghe as it deemed to be a plausible tweaking knob for the chance genesis of life. In fact, the theory can add several billions of years to allow the time-thirsty process to materialise.

Similar to Darwinism, panspermia was not expected to address the correct details of the origin of life question but rather suggests the possibility of simple life form, such as spore-forming bacteria, being able to jump between a network of suitable planets throughout the vast universe. The occasional visitors then either initiate the evolution of life from scratch in a newly formed and life-friendly planet or intermittently influence the evolution of already existing flora and fauna.

The caveat was that the theory proposes the whole universe, not only a local ecology on Earth, the arena of evolution. It also takes the idea of evolution to the extreme by unintentionally suggesting that unintelligent and blind life has the capability to randomly evolve not only to survive in natural local environment on Earth but also to be top-notch fit to survive in the whole of the universe. It has been made fit enough to survive the completely unpredicted and uncharted hazardous journey consisting of three life endangering stages including departure from mother planet, interstellar and intergalactic journey and arrival in a new suitable planet.

According to this theory, life and its evolution are therefore not exceptional to one single planet. The evolution process in one suitable planet is also not responsible for all different organisms on it. New microorganisms are continuously being evolved in all suitable planets and are being transferred throughout our universe. For example, Hoyle and Wickramasinghe suggested that H1N1 virus which was the cause of 1918 flu pandemic did not evolve in our planet but in a faraway one and then somehow transferred into space and arrived on Earth within a shower of meteorites.

Life has been found to be present very soon after the formation and suitability of the planet earth which apparently is considered not to be adequate enough for chance-time to produce it..."

I have tried to further analyse this theory in the appendix of the following document. I welcome any comment, criticism, correction and addition.

How can I get the DOI for an article by Hakobyan, S. and Jenderedzhyan, K. 2023. “Annotated checklist of cranes (Tipuloidea: Limoniidae, Pediciidae, Tipulidae) of Armenia, which is published in the Journal of Munis Entomology & Zoology? This journal does not have a DOI.

Can someone please share a copy of the article by C. H. G. Arden-Clarke - Population density, home range size and spatial organization of the Cape clawless otter, Aonyx capensis, in a marine habitat. Journal of Zoology 1986

My univeristy does not have access to or copies of this journal.

Many thanks.

Darren

Dear colleagues. The management of the Muséum national d'Histoire naturelle recently decided to relocate the collection to a different place, namely Dijon approx. 250 km away from Paris. While for collection staff a journey of 2 hrs to travel to the proposed site may only be seen as a nuisance by many, the main point is that research teams of the museum will be disconnected from the collection. In their day-to-day work curators and collection staff need immediate access to collections in order to respond to external enquiries in a timely manner. Equally research staff, PhD and master students working with specimens deposited in the collection need unrestricted access to accomplish the tasks of their projects. They all will work in Paris while the collection is in a distant location. Staff of the museum recently started a petition on change.org to nullify the management's decision. They published an open letter in French -courtesy of Alain Dubois (MNHN) an Engish version is attached- detailing their reasoning behind it. Please follow this link and give your support to their plea: https://chng.it/sKR4pLZSdJ Save the Paris Museum collections!

Sauvons les collections du Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle!

Keywords: zoology, botany, paleontology, museum

Our article is: Katiukhin, L. N., Chalabov, S. I., Bekshokov, K. S., Pokhmelnova, M. S., Klichkhanov, N. K., Nikitina, E. R. (2023). Seasonal changes in blood rheology in little ground squirrels. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1002/jez.2693. Unfortunately, my colleague Chalabov S.I. add this article on his page on RG with mistake: he wrote only 3 authors from 6, and mixed up the order of the authors (Chalabov, S. I.,Klichkhanov, N. K., Nikitina, E. R.(2023). Seasonal changes in blood rheology in little ground squirrels. Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological and Integrative Physiology, 1–13.) Thet,s why I can,t put this article in the correct form on my page on RG. Could you help me?

Dr. Elena Nikitina

Cherish your feedback.

Striking to see this evolutionary step in comparison to other species.

Below and above the water.

If someone is granted with utility model can he/she claim it to be granted a Patent?

Is it legally acceptable?

Its like I am from Zoology. If I want to work on women empowerment or youth development or something like this, will it be harder for me to do?

Hi frds,

given the outstanding symbolic nature of the shepherd's crook, I would like to learn more how the narrative has made it, contested by shining crowns, necklaces, rings, and the sickle.

How has its original natural function and purpose evolved?

Cherish your ideas.

I have been searching for the internet page on Nomenclator Zoologicus online by uBio but it seems that the link is not working.

Hi frds,

there must be some biodiversity benefits of desert locusts. Which ones?

Do humans have anywhere some sort of symbiosis over indirect paths with desert locusts/ grasshopers or are they strategic competitors for food?

Cherish your feedback.

Hi frds,

If organic insect-aware farming were to be implemented completely, assume bad harvests such as the potato famine would be around the corner at some stage.

What is the tradeoff of organic farming vs short-term stable pesticide farming with potential disruptive biodiversity loss in the insect population in the long term?

Cherish your research and/or qualitative opinion.

Which potential insect extinctions cause irreversible tipping points?

Cherish your insights.

I'm passionate in oncology research. I did bachelor in Zoology and now pursuing MPhil Molecular Biology and Biotechnology and working on cancer genetics. I am greatly interested to do PhD in cancer research from a world renowned institute but I think with this profile I would get a position in top ranked institute for PhD. Should I go for another master from a renowned foreign institute with major in oncology?

Thanks

Recently the entomological societies of America and Canada both updated their guidelines for insect common names. As a result, and the first ‘victim’, the Asian murder hornet Vespa mandarinia got a new (local) common name, where it is now called Northern giant hornet. https://edition.cnn.com/2022/07/26/world/murder-hornet-new-name-scn/index.html

This has nothing in common with the availability and validity of the accepted Latin species epithet of Vespa mandarinia, but in the future could potentially lead to attempts by some particularly concerned individuals to appeal for changes in scientific names as well (we already have several examples in mind - those connected with attempts to rename hitleri taxa or synonymize all kurdistanica /-us taxa).

The most interesting, however, is not the fact that some of our colleagues apparently have enough time to deal with this problem (just the fact! I am abstaining from judging it), but that some powerful organisations like the aforementioned NGOs nowadays run large database engines available worldwide, interconnected / integrated with other databases and webpages. Therefore introducing (read – changing) common names could probably also cause some inconvenience for users of systems or webpages (for instance, citizen science portals) integrated with these authoritative databases.

It is understandable new common and scientific names to be established based on clear, approved and transparent criteria or recommendations (for scientific names like those accepted by the ICZN, https://www.iczn.org). But what about changing 'old' common names?

Please feel free to express your opinion both on the topic itself (changing ‘unethical’ common names in zoology) and its possible consequences (e.g., causing global changes in integrated systems just by decision of one or two NGOs). And should the popular and scientific papers, including books containing ‘inconvenient’ or ‘unethical’ names now be destroyed as nowadays are some of historical but ‘unethical’ monuments being demolished?

Last year I found a text in German in which Salomon Müller describes how he climbs Mount Singgalang in Sumatra, sees a pygmy squirrel on a mossy tree, and shoots it. I shared the text with a friend, who, like me was very excited about the finding. Since then she has lost the email in which I sent her the text, as have I, and I have absolutely no idea where I found the German text. I have searched as much as I could but not a trace of this text. Plenty of Dutch writings by Müller but not the detailed description in German of his ascent of Mt Singgalang. Am I losing my marbles or does that text indeed exist?

Dear RG community members,

I hope you are well and helthy and ready for small discussion. My question is, can we efficiently increase the population of wetfowls in wetland areas by constracting and using artificial nests suitable for specific taxa? If you also have any reference on that issue, I would be grateful.

Thank you.

Zlatko

I don't have a wildlife and avicultural degrees. I have completed my Zoology degree with just one course of wildlife and none for aviculture. I mainly focused on wildlife and have avicultural experiences. Is it ethical to use both specializations?

I wonder what are the best ways to make arthropod collections (Collembola, Euscorpius, Diplopoda, Insects....)? What are your experiences? Do you have your own collection? What are you collecting and why?

Is it possible to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Biological and Medical Sciences to search databases for potential candidate drugs/genes to solve global problems without first performing animal studies?

Good morning /afternoon all depending on what part of the world we are.

I have pleasure in reaching this community of erudite researchers again.

I am Olusola B SOKEFUN, male, Nigerian, lead of the organismal genetic group at the Lagos State University, Ojo in Lagos, Nigeria.

The Cichlids are about the most speciose of fin fishes. The most studied group are the Lake Tangayika group.

In Nigeria, we also find a plethora of types.

There is however a very unique one locally called WESAFUN which we know is a Cichlid by the possession of the morphological Cichlid characters.

However, it differs from all other established types.

Our immediate interest is to be able to work on the WESAFUN and precisely name it after fulfilling all the necessary scientifically set out rules.

We therefore seek working partners in our quest for this set out goal.

A few photographs are attached. Kindly link us with established or upcoming Cichlid specialists all over the world.

Thank you.

--

Olusola B SOKEFUN PhD

Department of Zoology and Environmental Biology

Faculty of Science

Lagos State University, Ojo

Lagos

Nigeria

Telephone: +2349033999999 l +2349038880000

Skype:osokefun68

Is it appropriate to name organisms after people? Names convey messages and reflect attitudes! Is it ethically appropriate to dedicate a plant or animal to a person for whatever reasons? Sandra Knapp, Maria S. Vorontsova, and Nicholas J. Turland refer to this as "symbolic ownership" in "A Comment on Gillman & Wright (2020)" in Taxon https://doi.org/10.1002/tax.12411

BIOPAT e.V., for example, offers to name new species at wish for a donation of at least 2600 Euros (who do these organisms 'belong to'?). One can dedicate a scholarly work, as a book or journal article, to a person – but a living organism? Wouldn't it be preferable to adhere to the common practice of allocating descriptive names and to ban anthropocentric patronymic names and 'graveyard taxonomy' from biological nomenclature via the 'Code'!

I plan to estimate the probability that the Ussuri dhole (Cuon alpinus alpinus) is extant in Russia and test the null hypothesis that extinction has not occurred. Based on several analytical papers and reviews (Solow, 2005; Rivadeneira et al., 2009; Lee et al., 2013; Clements et al., 2013; Boakes et al., 2015) I choose the Bayesian approach (Solow, 1993) and Optimal Linear Estimation (OLE) (Roberts and Solow, 2003).

I decided to use 'sExtinct' R-package (Clements, 2013) for OLE calculation.

Firstly, I tested the package on the sighting record of the Caribbean monk seal (Solow, 2005) and the Dodo (Roberts and Solow, 2003) (I attached a file with my script). Surprisingly, but the output of calculation in the package (lowerCI and upperCI) is discordant with the corresponding estimation in the original papers (Solow, 2005; Roberts and Solow, 2003).

For example, according to Solow's estimation (2005), the upper bound of the 0.95 confidence interval for the Caribbean monk seal is 2028. The 'sExtinction' package estimated the upper bound as 2093.799.

I received a similar result for Dodo: Roberts and Solow estimated the upper bound (95%) as 1797; the 'sExtinction' package gave out 1834.568.

I am at a loss. Where is the bug?

So, there is the question:

Can I use the 'sExtinction' package or I should write my own code by the description in original papers?

I invite @Christopher_Clements, @T_Lee2, @Marcelo_Rivadeneira, @Simon_Blomberg, @Diana_Fisher, and everyone for discussion.

I prefer the recording of one, or a few individuals, not a large chorus.

It is for use in a playback experiment.

Thanks!

Iam interested in both Diversity and Cancer Genetics related Work... could u Please Suggest some research topic...it helps a lot...

Good research is based on good relationship between the mentor or supervisor and the scholar. What are the qualities a supervisor or mentor must have to have a healthy and friendly environment in the laboratory?

HI All,

I'm doing a survey as part of an Audacious program (https://www.startupdunedin.nz/audacious), which essentially is a StartUp initiative at Otago University. I'm curious to understand what level of programming do biologists these days need during their day to day research.

For all the biologists out there here are some questions to start the discussion on this topic:

1) Have you done any programming till date? If so which language did you use and for what purpose?

2) How have to overcome programming limitations? For example, did you get the work done through bioinformaticians, or sought help from your programming friend, etc?

3) Have you used online biological databases for your research? If so, which one?

4) How much of artificial intelligence have you used in your research? Do you see AI potential in your current work?

If you have anything else to add, please feel free.

Dear all,

I'm currently writing a concept for the future of our own natural history collection and I'm thinking a lot about the question, what material future scientists might need and what should thus be collected now. When you read through the strategic collection plans of other museums, you'll notice that most of them just continue to collect what they've always collected: who collected butterflies in the past, continues to collect butterflies, who collected birds, continues to collect those and so on. As most of you will know, this results in biased collections: some taxonomic groups are only represented by a small number of specimens while other groups (e.g. coleoptera, lepidoptera) are overrepresented. Wouldn't it be good to open up completely new collection sections in one's own Institution (e.g. unattractive, hard to preserve animals, parasites), rather than only sticking to what has always been collected? I'm really interested in your opinions and literature recommendations!

Best regards, Stefan

So many journals claim they are indexed in WoS (ISI in old parlance; now called Clarivate Analytics). However, most of the journal end up listed in the Zoological Record (ZR). Reading about that index (i.e., the ZR) leaves me with the impression that it is merely a listing of literature on zoology. Curiously, so many of the journals on the ZR index do not have the slightest affinity with the discipline of zoology, or so I understand. I'm really confused.

Can someone recommend me a Q1 Journal; Open Access and free of charge in Zoology or Ecology?

With my current application of DS1921G-F5 thermochrons (measuring the temperature underneath artificial cover objects), there is a risk that they may be immersed in water for short periods of time due to localised flooding. I know they have a rubber grommet which seals them and they're advertised as 'water-resistant', but I'm not entirely sure what this means.

I was wondering if anyone had any experience with the tolerance of iButtons to these kind of conditions? If the site does unfortunately flood, will I need to retrieve my iButtons and redeploy them once the flood waters have receded? Thanks in advance.

Fish specimens fixed in formalin are stored in 70% Isopropyl alcohol and 1% Glycerin solution. After some time, a fat layer was observed on the surface of the container. But when they were stored in formalin this never occurred. What might cause this effect?

Dear all taxonomists

Do you think that the problem which we had with Zootaxa in this year is an accidental or we should expect similar problems in the future? Not only for Zootaxa but also with other taxonomic journals. Do you think that we can do something with it? Any strategy or ideas? Do we have this problem only in zoology or also in botany?

I am looking for a journal in Q1 in the area of Paleontology, Zoology or evolution for making a short communication about systematic and taxonomy in fossil carnivorans. I preffer a journal with a quickly and free publication: Am I asking too much? Could anyone provide me some suggestions? Thanks so much in advanced!

All the best,

Alberto

Dear RG friends,

I am providing a complete H. armigera diet for larvae and maintaining the eggs in the growth chamber as well as in-room conditions. But since three months, eggs laid from the moths are not at all hatching. Could anyone tell the reason?

Thanking you.

For my Masters I am looking into elephant space-use and its effect on vegetation change. I have elephant GPS collar data and was going to use Google Earth Engine to obtain NDVI values. I would like to establish elephant space-use across a fenced area in the form of either areas most frequently occupied (at the pixel level) or pixels the most time was spent in. I would then like to use that data to determine whether any vegetation changes (recent NDVI as a percentage of long term average NDVI) are linked to the elephant space-use (i.e. to determine whether vegetation change is elephant-mediated). I have looked at methods such as UD and BBMM but was wondering if there were more suggestions out there? Ultimately the method I use for space-use needs to have an output I can use to compare it to the NDVI values. Thanks in advance!

The coronavirus pandemic has brought the world to a grinding halt and no doubt has altered the lives of each one of us. I think COVID-19 also has an impact on our normal research (i.e. related to our relevant field) and diverted us to work on various aspects of coronavirus to help combat the virus.

What's your opinion in this regard?

Hi there, I have two bar chart figures I want to annotate to show significance, however, I’m unsure how to this correctly.

Figure 1 displays the visits counts (y-axis) of different species (x-axis) at different food types (legend). A chi-square test of association was used to determine the food preferences (food type) and different species.

Figure 2 displays the mean proportion of time vigilant (y-axis) of different species (x-axis). An independent samples kruskal wallis test was used, followed by a pairwise comparison, to determine significance differences in proportion of time vigilance between species.

I’m guessing ’*’ above columns show that they are significant. So would this be more appropriate in figure 1? Using letters, I’m guessing, would be more appropriate for figure 2. as it shows what groups are significantly different from one another. However, should I also use ‘*‘ in figure 2? Additionally, is it appropriate to use different forms of annotation between figures or does the format need to be consistent across figures?

Did you study the retinae of the mudskippers ? These fishes in general, but more species ie Periophtalmodon schlosseri and Periophthalmodon septemradiatus are obligate air-breathers.So your molecular and phylogenetic studies may shed light on a more detailed information on the vision process in these fishes

Cheers Giacomo

PS

I enclose my last paper in Zoology describing the presence of the NECs in the gill and skin of P.schlosseri.NECs are putative oxygen receptors in these epithelia

I have gathered data on bird species visiting 4 hanging feeders in different locations and have calculated the proportion of time they have spent displaying vigilant behaviour while at the feeder. The four different feeders have a different type of food each (niger, sunflower hearts, peanuts or mealworms) and over the course of the data collection 11 different bird species visited the feeders.

The proportion of time spent vigilant was determined to be non-normal via a Kolmogorov-Smirnov and a Shapiro-Wilk Test.

I would like advice on which non-parametric test (and possibly post hoc test) to use to see if there is a different in vigilance each species displays at the different feeders and where those differences are (e.g. do Goldfinches spend a significantly different proportion of time being vigilant at the peanut feeder than the sunflower hearts/other feeder/s?).

In case it makes a difference to the test used, not all bird species went to all feeders and vigilance could not be calculated for all birds.

I have attached a short sample of the data I am working with, in case this helps.

I'm desperately looking for an old planarian paper which is cited here. Does anyone have an idea how to get hold of it ?

Thank you in advance !!

I want to know if there is a possibility for sensation of sounds by some kind of non-mechanoreceptors. any evidence in any organism can be useful.

We found a Long-eared Owl breeding in a rock face in eastern Switzerland. I never heard about such a nest site from Central Europe. But there are observations of such a behaviour from Kazakhstan (Karyakin et al. 2007), Mallorca (König, pers. comm.) and Canary islands (Scott 1997). Does anybody know further cases of Long-eared Owls breeding in rock faces?

Only supplier i've been able to find (bioMérieux) apparently only stock the tubed version (100) meaning an eight week wait to get much cheaper softpack swabs. Does anyone know of alternate suppliers in Australia or can suggest comparable product (MWE 100 or 113 appear most popular in the literature). 

In the 1920s, Karl von Frisch pointed out that bees use special dancing patterns. What scientist or people think about bees communication before its discovery.

I am calculating Protein content in Zebra Finch plasma in order to dilute it to reach 1 mg/ml before doing a protein carbonyl assay. I am hoping to use a Qubit Fluorometer Protein Assay to quantify the protein and am getting values like 32 mg/ml to 48.8 mg/ml. Does this sound right to anyone? I may be making a mistake in calculations so I am hoping to hear what a typical value for protein concentration in zebra finch plasma may be.

I'm am traveling to Laos to work with rescued animals and would like to help enhance the enrichment program for the animals to keep them stimulated while they recover in captivity. 

suggest best image analysis for humpback whales where sentinel 2A and worldview3 satellites are employed?

Can we define "Phoresy" of Broad mites?

For a project we want to research pyrrhosoma elisabethae in Greece (Peloponnesus) and Albania. So we are searching in locations like rivers and brooks.

Is there any specific antidote?

Hi everybody! Have question about sexual maturity of female Maine coon cats. In general, a kitten is considered an adult cat when it reaches 1 year of age. Kittens typically reach a length and weight close to their full-grown size by 9 to 12 months of age. I know that cat like Maine coon, typically take even longer to grow to their full size. They will be fully grown when reach 2 to 4 years of age. So does it mean that 2 years of age is the earliest year to breed a female Maine coon cat? Thanks, Nataša

This is similar to a previous question I asked. I'm looking for some kind of chemical marker to use for an antibody test to determine where on a fish an unrecognizable sample of tissue came from. All the AMPs, etc. that my research has turned up so far are either pretty species-specific or are also present in the GI tract. Any help would be extremely appreciated.

Methane production in ruminant had been reported to vary according to diet type and quality, its intake etc.

I've measured stable C and N isotopes in sequential segments of dingo vibrissae, and hope to determine whether there are any seasonal patterns in their diet. To really do this analysis justice I need to know the growth rates of vibrissae (preferably mystacial). Data from a Canis sp. would be best but another genus will do if they're not available. Thanks for your time.

Hello, during their feeding activity, zebra mussels sort their food.

As the particles destined for rejection are carried superficially in a string of mucus, I would like to know if particles which are naturally coated with mucus, will be more rejected than those which aren't.

Thank you in advance for your answer!

For sex determination in nutria embryos I used SRY primers, which give a band for the males, as they should, but the primer I used for control, rps12 (S12) doesn't give a band. Are there any useful primers for nutria?

Seeking a general protocol for component separation.

Dear biologists,

my request may sound a bit strange, but I will try anyway.

After some unsuccessful samplings in the ponds of the Uckermark, I ask to the ones of you working with freshwater jellyfish Hydra to ship a 15mL falcon tube with some living specimens. Is there anyone out there willing to help me?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Best regards.

Hi

I am calculating intraparticle diffusion for adsorption studies . For calculating diffusion co efficient we need to know the radius of the adsorbent material .My material after activating i sieved and found its below 500 micrometre . I need to know if this is the radius or we have to calculate with any other methods.

Tetrao urogallus, telemetry, reliable and long-lasting (=2 years) tags

Please provide me with any information about the fish [Nebbash (Barbus schejeh)]. This specie is of the family Cyprinidae, 

With my best regards

Dr M. H. Matllob

I'm using COI sequences for genetic populations and historical demography studies of the hard tick Rhipicephalus appendiculatus. I would like to estimate the time of demographic expansions and divergence time between two lineages of this tick described in Africa, but I need the mutation rate of the COI marker.

Greetings

I am Sachin Kumar, pursuing my Ph.D. in Ornithology, from PAU, Ludhiana. I am working on avian diversity along the River Beas. I had submitted a manuscript to a journal having keywords "

riparian zone, river, species richness, species evenness, and Ornithofauna". The journal has asked me to provide a list of reviewers from outside India. I need consent from some reviewers that they will review my manuscripts if it came to them for review. I don't know anyone outside India from the field of ornithology or Biodiversity.

If anyone can review my manuscript. I will be thankful to the person.

I will need details regarding the position, affiliation, email address, postal address, and phone number.

I hope someone accepts my request

With Regards

Sachin Kumar

Ph.D. Zoology

Department of Zoology

Punjab Agricultural University

Ludhiana, Punjab, India

We are looking to stain zebrafish cells with BrdU. What are the Pros and Cons of the Intraperitoneal method vs adding the stain to the environment? 

Dear colleagues, I work for a French agricultural cooperative and I do field trials for which I need to monitor a pest: corn borer. I am looking for light traps and can not find it. Would someone have a contact or a manufacturing model? Thank you for your help. Best regards

Sophie

Hello,

I had a severely neglected Paraplecta parva (Blattodea species) culture here lying around and decided to put the soil with the Blattodea species in a formicarium of mine and this was when I recognized these small, orange-brownish mites. In worry they could be parasitic I instantly put a menthol impregnated paper on the soil to to possibly kill all mites. Oh and the mites currently don‘t sit on the roaches, they sit in and on top of the soil, but I need to be sure they aren’t opportunistic parasites.

I would be very grateful if anyone at least could identify the genus of the mite.

Bet regards,

André