I guess curly tusks will be next for the wooly mice.
Newsworthy Science
- Thread starter Birdjaguar
- Start date
Brain protein could be anti-ageing target
A protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease progression has been linked to normal brain ageing, raising the prospect that researchers could target it to stave off age-related mental decline. The breakdown of amyloid-β precursor protein (APP), creates amyloid-β peptides, which are often present in plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that knocking out the gene that produces APP in turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) reduces signs of ageing — hinting that it has an overlooked role in neurodegeneration that isn’t caused by disease.
Plaques (yellow-black) in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease contain amyloid-β, created by the breakdown of a protein called APP.
A protein involved in Alzheimer’s disease progression has been linked to normal brain ageing, raising the prospect that researchers could target it to stave off age-related mental decline. The breakdown of amyloid-β precursor protein (APP), creates amyloid-β peptides, which are often present in plaques in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers found that knocking out the gene that produces APP in turquoise killifish (Nothobranchius furzeri) reduces signs of ageing — hinting that it has an overlooked role in neurodegeneration that isn’t caused by disease.
Plaques (yellow-black) in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease contain amyloid-β, created by the breakdown of a protein called APP.
Man survives with titanium heart for 100 days – a world first
An Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. The device is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.
The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well, according to a statement from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where the operations were conducted.
The Australian is the sixth person globally to receive the device, known as BiVACOR, but the first to live with it for more than a month.
An Australian man in his forties has become the first person in the world to leave hospital with an artificial heart made of titanium. The device is used as a stopgap for people with heart failure who are waiting for a donor heart, and previous recipients of this type of artificial heart had remained in US hospitals while it was in place.
The man lived with the device for more than three months until he underwent surgery to receive a donated human heart. The man is recovering well, according to a statement from St Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Australia, where the operations were conducted.
The Australian is the sixth person globally to receive the device, known as BiVACOR, but the first to live with it for more than a month.
Ordnael
Emperor
Those are some beautiful welds
Jurassic mammals had dark fur
Fossils that preserve the details of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals in spectacular detail have allowed scientists to determine, for the first time, the likely colour of their fur. Researchers analysed tiny structures in the hair of a previously undescribed flying-squirrel-type creature — which they dubbed Arboroharamiya fuscus — and five other mammal fossils from what is now northeastern China. Compared with the hair of modern mammals, the shape and size of the structures suggest that the ancient animals were dark-coloured — a handy adaptation to “living in the shadow of the dinosaurs, quite literally”, says molecular paleobiologist Jasmina Wiemann.
Melanosomes’ shapes are associated with different fur colors in living mammals. Very elongated shapes produce blackish colors, whereas more spherical shapes produce red and yellow hues.
Artists impression. I am not sure where the luminous green eyes come from.
Fossils that preserve the details of Jurassic and Cretaceous mammals in spectacular detail have allowed scientists to determine, for the first time, the likely colour of their fur. Researchers analysed tiny structures in the hair of a previously undescribed flying-squirrel-type creature — which they dubbed Arboroharamiya fuscus — and five other mammal fossils from what is now northeastern China. Compared with the hair of modern mammals, the shape and size of the structures suggest that the ancient animals were dark-coloured — a handy adaptation to “living in the shadow of the dinosaurs, quite literally”, says molecular paleobiologist Jasmina Wiemann.
Melanosomes’ shapes are associated with different fur colors in living mammals. Very elongated shapes produce blackish colors, whereas more spherical shapes produce red and yellow hues.
Artists impression. I am not sure where the luminous green eyes come from.
Gene-modified pig-to-human liver xenotransplantation
The shortage of donors is a major challenge for transplantation; however, organs from genetically modified pigs can serve as ideal supplements. Until now, porcine hearts and kidneys have been successively transplanted into humans. In this study, heterotopic auxiliary transplantation was used to donate a six-gene-edited pig liver to a brain-dead recipient. The graft function, haemodynamics, and immune and inflammatory responses of the recipient were monitored over the subsequent 10 days. Two hours after portal vein reperfusion of the xenograft, goldish bile was produced, increasing to 66.5 ml by postoperative day 10. Porcine liver-derived albumin also increased after surgery. Alanine aminotransferase levels remained in the normal range, while aspartate aminotransferase levels increased on postoperative day 1 and then rapidly declined. Blood flow velocity in the porcine hepatic artery and portal and hepatic veins remained at an acceptable level. Although platelet numbers decreased early after surgery, they ultimately returned to normal levels. Histological analyses showed that the porcine liver regenerated capably with no signs of rejection. T cell activity was inhibited by anti-thymocyte globulin administration, and B cell activation increased 3 days after surgery and was then inhibited by rituximab. There were no significant peri-operative changes in immunoglobulin G or immunoglobulin M levels. C-reactive protein and procalcitonin levels were initially elevated and then quickly declined. The xenograft remained functional until study completion.
The shortage of donors is a major challenge for transplantation; however, organs from genetically modified pigs can serve as ideal supplements. Until now, porcine hearts and kidneys have been successively transplanted into humans. In this study, heterotopic auxiliary transplantation was used to donate a six-gene-edited pig liver to a brain-dead recipient. The graft function, haemodynamics, and immune and inflammatory responses of the recipient were monitored over the subsequent 10 days. Two hours after portal vein reperfusion of the xenograft, goldish bile was produced, increasing to 66.5 ml by postoperative day 10. Porcine liver-derived albumin also increased after surgery. Alanine aminotransferase levels remained in the normal range, while aspartate aminotransferase levels increased on postoperative day 1 and then rapidly declined. Blood flow velocity in the porcine hepatic artery and portal and hepatic veins remained at an acceptable level. Although platelet numbers decreased early after surgery, they ultimately returned to normal levels. Histological analyses showed that the porcine liver regenerated capably with no signs of rejection. T cell activity was inhibited by anti-thymocyte globulin administration, and B cell activation increased 3 days after surgery and was then inhibited by rituximab. There were no significant peri-operative changes in immunoglobulin G or immunoglobulin M levels. C-reactive protein and procalcitonin levels were initially elevated and then quickly declined. The xenograft remained functional until study completion.
Spoiler Slightly gory pictures :
Nice stitch work but it will leave a terrible scar!
Can trauma from violence be genetically inherited? Scientists debate Syria refugee study
A study of families who have lived through conflict in Syria suggests that genetic imprints of their trauma have been passed to their children and grandchildren.
The research focuses on the controversial idea that trauma can leave ‘epigenetic marks’ on a person’s genes that can be passed onto following generations. Not all scientists agree that trauma can be inherited in this way and the mechanism for such inheritance is not known. But the latest research echoes studies of children of survivors of the genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust that have turned up similar effects.
“This is a really great attempt to look at the biological imprint of intergenerational trauma,” says Rachel Yehuda, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. However, the study “should be seen as a proof of concept”, she adds. It does not explain whether or how such biological marks affect health or behaviour.
In the paper, published in Scientific Reports last month, researchers compared data from 10 families who fled violent events in Syria in the 1980s, and 22 families who fled after the uprising in 2011, with a control group of 16 Syrian families who had not been exposed to war-related violence. The team analysed epigenetic marks — chemical tags on DNA sequences that result from environmental factors including stress — in more than 850,000 DNA regions. Epigenetic marks do not alter DNA sequences but can affect how genes work.
The authors found that adults and children who had been directly exposed to violence in the 1980s and after 2011 had distinctive epigenetic marks in certain DNA regions. In the case of one woman who had witnessed violence in the 1980s, these tags persisted in her daughter and grandchildren. The researchers did not find any of these epigenetic marks among people in the control group. There were 131 participants in total.
The latest findings are “the first to identify epigenetic signatures of trauma across three generations in humans in a controlled research design”, says study co-author Rana Dajani, a molecular biologist at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, Jordan. “Science is about little steps, and this is a little giant step in understanding epigenetic inheritance,” she adds.
Forty years of trauma
Syria’s people have experienced more than 40 years of almost continual trauma. In June 1979, then-president Hafez al-Assad unleashed a crackdown on an attempted rebellion, and in 1982, his troops bombed the city of Hama for days, killing up to 30,000 people.
One of the study participants, now a grandmother, who was pregnant with her daughter at the time, witnessed the crackdown. The study included nine other women whose mothers experienced the violence. Their children also participated in the research.
Of the study’s participants, 22 mothers and their 20 children witnessed a second period of violence, after the Syrian uprising in 2011. This was when then-president Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country last December, deployed the army and regime-affiliated militias against protesters. The mothers had 19 other children, born after the traumatic events who were also studied.
To understand whether trauma resulting from these violent events had left epigenetic marks, and whether these marks are passed down through the maternal germ line, Dajani and her colleagues focused on patterns of DNA methylation — an epigenetic mechanism in which DNA is tagged with methyl groups. It is one of “the most studied [processes] and we have the technology today to do it”, Dajani says.
Over five years, the researchers searched for study participants from Jordan’s Syrian communities. The team defined a traumatic experience of violence as being severely beaten or persecuted by authorities or militias, seeing a wounded person or fatality, or witnessing someone else being beaten, shot or killed.
They analysed DNA samples from participants’ cheek cells and found that children and women with first-hand traumatic experiences of violence in the 1980s and after 2011 had distinctive methylation tags on 21 DNA regions.
The analysis also revealed tags on 14 DNA regions in the grandmother who witnessed the 1980s violence, as well as in her daughter and grandchild. These tags were also present in the daughters and grandchildren who were the descendants of nine women who witnessed that violence.
“Looking at at least two — if not three or maybe even four — generations is really crucial. That’s not often done in humans,” says epigeneticist Michael Kobor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Memory reset
Researchers disagree on whether methylation marks on DNA can pass between generations. This is because during early stages of mammalian development, the genome undergoes the equivalent of a memory reset — a process known as epigenetic reprogramming — that clears out DNA methylation tags.
“All of these marks, almost all of them, are erased when the eggs hit the sperm,” says Kobor. “The biology just doesn’t support DNA methylation as a vehicle of intergenerational transmission,” he adds.
Three-generation study design. (a) Our research strategy was designed to test contrasting exposures to violence (direct, prenatal, germline) for changes in DNAm in three groups of three-generation Syrian families. The violence exposures of three generations (F1, F2, F3) for each group are indicated—the 1980 group was directly, prenatally, and germline exposed in the F1 generation, the 2011 group was directly and prenatally exposed in the F2 generation, and the Control group was unexposed. Exposure types are color coded: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure. (b) Description of exposure groups and primary analytic exposure comparisons. Top panel: Average year of birth, type and time of violence exposure, and time of sample collection are shown for each generation in all three groups. Line color corresponds to exposure type: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure; dotted line indicates time from oocyte to birth, solid line indicates time from birth to present; vertical orange line indicates year of violence exposure, vertical purple line indicates year of sample collection; righthand labels indicate generation within recruited families: F1 = grandmother, F2 = mother, F3 = child. Bottom panel: participant groups included in each EWAS exposure analysis. Label colors correspond to the color legend in (a) and background colors correspond to the background colors in the top panel of (b).
A study of families who have lived through conflict in Syria suggests that genetic imprints of their trauma have been passed to their children and grandchildren.
The research focuses on the controversial idea that trauma can leave ‘epigenetic marks’ on a person’s genes that can be passed onto following generations. Not all scientists agree that trauma can be inherited in this way and the mechanism for such inheritance is not known. But the latest research echoes studies of children of survivors of the genocide in Rwanda and the Holocaust that have turned up similar effects.
“This is a really great attempt to look at the biological imprint of intergenerational trauma,” says Rachel Yehuda, a neuroscientist at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. However, the study “should be seen as a proof of concept”, she adds. It does not explain whether or how such biological marks affect health or behaviour.
In the paper, published in Scientific Reports last month, researchers compared data from 10 families who fled violent events in Syria in the 1980s, and 22 families who fled after the uprising in 2011, with a control group of 16 Syrian families who had not been exposed to war-related violence. The team analysed epigenetic marks — chemical tags on DNA sequences that result from environmental factors including stress — in more than 850,000 DNA regions. Epigenetic marks do not alter DNA sequences but can affect how genes work.
The authors found that adults and children who had been directly exposed to violence in the 1980s and after 2011 had distinctive epigenetic marks in certain DNA regions. In the case of one woman who had witnessed violence in the 1980s, these tags persisted in her daughter and grandchildren. The researchers did not find any of these epigenetic marks among people in the control group. There were 131 participants in total.
The latest findings are “the first to identify epigenetic signatures of trauma across three generations in humans in a controlled research design”, says study co-author Rana Dajani, a molecular biologist at the Hashemite University in Zarqa, Jordan. “Science is about little steps, and this is a little giant step in understanding epigenetic inheritance,” she adds.
Forty years of trauma
Syria’s people have experienced more than 40 years of almost continual trauma. In June 1979, then-president Hafez al-Assad unleashed a crackdown on an attempted rebellion, and in 1982, his troops bombed the city of Hama for days, killing up to 30,000 people.
One of the study participants, now a grandmother, who was pregnant with her daughter at the time, witnessed the crackdown. The study included nine other women whose mothers experienced the violence. Their children also participated in the research.
Of the study’s participants, 22 mothers and their 20 children witnessed a second period of violence, after the Syrian uprising in 2011. This was when then-president Bashar al-Assad, who fled the country last December, deployed the army and regime-affiliated militias against protesters. The mothers had 19 other children, born after the traumatic events who were also studied.
To understand whether trauma resulting from these violent events had left epigenetic marks, and whether these marks are passed down through the maternal germ line, Dajani and her colleagues focused on patterns of DNA methylation — an epigenetic mechanism in which DNA is tagged with methyl groups. It is one of “the most studied [processes] and we have the technology today to do it”, Dajani says.
Over five years, the researchers searched for study participants from Jordan’s Syrian communities. The team defined a traumatic experience of violence as being severely beaten or persecuted by authorities or militias, seeing a wounded person or fatality, or witnessing someone else being beaten, shot or killed.
They analysed DNA samples from participants’ cheek cells and found that children and women with first-hand traumatic experiences of violence in the 1980s and after 2011 had distinctive methylation tags on 21 DNA regions.
The analysis also revealed tags on 14 DNA regions in the grandmother who witnessed the 1980s violence, as well as in her daughter and grandchild. These tags were also present in the daughters and grandchildren who were the descendants of nine women who witnessed that violence.
“Looking at at least two — if not three or maybe even four — generations is really crucial. That’s not often done in humans,” says epigeneticist Michael Kobor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada.
Memory reset
Researchers disagree on whether methylation marks on DNA can pass between generations. This is because during early stages of mammalian development, the genome undergoes the equivalent of a memory reset — a process known as epigenetic reprogramming — that clears out DNA methylation tags.
“All of these marks, almost all of them, are erased when the eggs hit the sperm,” says Kobor. “The biology just doesn’t support DNA methylation as a vehicle of intergenerational transmission,” he adds.
Three-generation study design. (a) Our research strategy was designed to test contrasting exposures to violence (direct, prenatal, germline) for changes in DNAm in three groups of three-generation Syrian families. The violence exposures of three generations (F1, F2, F3) for each group are indicated—the 1980 group was directly, prenatally, and germline exposed in the F1 generation, the 2011 group was directly and prenatally exposed in the F2 generation, and the Control group was unexposed. Exposure types are color coded: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure. (b) Description of exposure groups and primary analytic exposure comparisons. Top panel: Average year of birth, type and time of violence exposure, and time of sample collection are shown for each generation in all three groups. Line color corresponds to exposure type: red = direct exposure, green = prenatal exposure, blue = germline exposure, and yellow = no exposure; dotted line indicates time from oocyte to birth, solid line indicates time from birth to present; vertical orange line indicates year of violence exposure, vertical purple line indicates year of sample collection; righthand labels indicate generation within recruited families: F1 = grandmother, F2 = mother, F3 = child. Bottom panel: participant groups included in each EWAS exposure analysis. Label colors correspond to the color legend in (a) and background colors correspond to the background colors in the top panel of (b).
I am not convinced of the claim that they really are "dire wolves", but they look cute.
Scientists announce dire wolf species has been brought back from extinction after 10,000 years
The dire wolf has been brought back from extinction after more than 10,000 years, a U.S. biotech start-up has announced.
The company achieved this feat using cloning and gene-editing techniques based on two ancient dire wolf DNA samples.
New Scientist is also sceptical. A 2021 study of ancient DNA revealed that they last shared a common ancestor around 6 million years ago. Jackals, African wild dogs and dholes are all more closely related to grey wolves (Canis lupus) than dire wolves are, and they only made 20 gene edits, five are based on mutations known to produce light coats in grey wolves, Shapiro told New Scientist. Only 15 are based on the dire wolf genome directly and are intended to alter the animals’ size, musculature and ear shape. They describe them as "gene-edited grey wolves that look a bit like dire wolves".
Scientists announce dire wolf species has been brought back from extinction after 10,000 years
The dire wolf has been brought back from extinction after more than 10,000 years, a U.S. biotech start-up has announced.
The company achieved this feat using cloning and gene-editing techniques based on two ancient dire wolf DNA samples.
New Scientist is also sceptical. A 2021 study of ancient DNA revealed that they last shared a common ancestor around 6 million years ago. Jackals, African wild dogs and dholes are all more closely related to grey wolves (Canis lupus) than dire wolves are, and they only made 20 gene edits, five are based on mutations known to produce light coats in grey wolves, Shapiro told New Scientist. Only 15 are based on the dire wolf genome directly and are intended to alter the animals’ size, musculature and ear shape. They describe them as "gene-edited grey wolves that look a bit like dire wolves".
Spoiler Wolf family tree :
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A vaccination against dementia?
A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia
Neurotropic herpesviruses may be implicated in the development of dementia. Moreover, vaccines may have important off-target immunological effects. Here we aim to determine the effect of live-attenuated herpes zoster vaccination on the occurrence of dementia diagnoses.
To provide causal as opposed to correlational evidence, we take advantage of the fact that, in Wales, eligibility for the zoster vaccine was determined on the basis of an individual’s exact date of birth. Those born before 2 September 1933 were ineligible and remained ineligible for life, whereas those born on or after 2 September 1933 were eligible for at least 1 year to receive the vaccine.
Using large-scale electronic health record data, we first show that the percentage of adults who received the vaccine increased from 0.01% among patients who were merely 1 week too old to be eligible, to 47.2% among those who were just 1 week younger. Apart from this large difference in the probability of ever receiving the zoster vaccine, individuals born just 1 week before 2 September 1933 are unlikely to differ systematically from those born 1 week later.
Using these comparison groups in a regression discontinuity design, we show that receiving the zoster vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis over a follow-up period of 7 years by 3.5 percentage points (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.6–7.1, P = 0.019), corresponding to a 20.0% (95% CI = 6.5–33.4) relative reduction. This protective effect was stronger among women than men. We successfully confirm our findings in a different population (England and Wales’s combined population), with a different type of data (death certificates) and using an outcome (deaths with dementia as primary cause) that is closely related to dementia, but less reliant on a timely diagnosis of dementia by the healthcare system.
Through the use of a unique natural experiment, this study provides evidence of a dementia-preventing or dementia-delaying effect from zoster vaccination that is less vulnerable to confounding and bias than the existing associational evidence.
A natural experiment on the effect of herpes zoster vaccination on dementia
Neurotropic herpesviruses may be implicated in the development of dementia. Moreover, vaccines may have important off-target immunological effects. Here we aim to determine the effect of live-attenuated herpes zoster vaccination on the occurrence of dementia diagnoses.
To provide causal as opposed to correlational evidence, we take advantage of the fact that, in Wales, eligibility for the zoster vaccine was determined on the basis of an individual’s exact date of birth. Those born before 2 September 1933 were ineligible and remained ineligible for life, whereas those born on or after 2 September 1933 were eligible for at least 1 year to receive the vaccine.
Using large-scale electronic health record data, we first show that the percentage of adults who received the vaccine increased from 0.01% among patients who were merely 1 week too old to be eligible, to 47.2% among those who were just 1 week younger. Apart from this large difference in the probability of ever receiving the zoster vaccine, individuals born just 1 week before 2 September 1933 are unlikely to differ systematically from those born 1 week later.
Using these comparison groups in a regression discontinuity design, we show that receiving the zoster vaccine reduced the probability of a new dementia diagnosis over a follow-up period of 7 years by 3.5 percentage points (95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.6–7.1, P = 0.019), corresponding to a 20.0% (95% CI = 6.5–33.4) relative reduction. This protective effect was stronger among women than men. We successfully confirm our findings in a different population (England and Wales’s combined population), with a different type of data (death certificates) and using an outcome (deaths with dementia as primary cause) that is closely related to dementia, but less reliant on a timely diagnosis of dementia by the healthcare system.
Through the use of a unique natural experiment, this study provides evidence of a dementia-preventing or dementia-delaying effect from zoster vaccination that is less vulnerable to confounding and bias than the existing associational evidence.
Spoiler Legend :
Biggest piece of lab grown meat yet
Researchers have created what they think is the largest chunk of meat grown in the laboratory yet, thanks to a designer ‘circulatory system’ that delivers nutrients and oxygen into the growing tissue.
Shoji Takeuchi, a biohybrid system engineer at the University of Tokyo, and colleagues report growing a single piece of chicken that measures 7 centimetres long, 4 centimetres wide and 2.25 centimetres thick. Weighing in at 11 grams, it is about the size of a chicken nugget. The work was reported today in Trends in Biotechnology1.
The meat hasn’t yet been made with food-grade materials, so it isn’t ready for consumers’ plates and the team hasn’t tasted it. But the researchers are talking to several companies about developing the technology further.
The meat
The scafold
Researchers have created what they think is the largest chunk of meat grown in the laboratory yet, thanks to a designer ‘circulatory system’ that delivers nutrients and oxygen into the growing tissue.
Shoji Takeuchi, a biohybrid system engineer at the University of Tokyo, and colleagues report growing a single piece of chicken that measures 7 centimetres long, 4 centimetres wide and 2.25 centimetres thick. Weighing in at 11 grams, it is about the size of a chicken nugget. The work was reported today in Trends in Biotechnology1.
The meat hasn’t yet been made with food-grade materials, so it isn’t ready for consumers’ plates and the team hasn’t tasted it. But the researchers are talking to several companies about developing the technology further.
The meat
The scafold
Scientists have invented a new colour by firing laser beams into your eyes.
It looks a bit like this, but without the lasers it does not really work.
It looks a bit like this, but without the lasers it does not really work.
tjs282
Stone \ Cold / Fish
Not quite purple-y enough to be Octarine (the pigment of our imagination)
Scientists have invented a new colour by firing laser beams into your eyes.
It looks a bit like this, but without the lasers it does not really work.
At first I was like: "How is this any different from reflecting a laser of a white surface", but as it turns out, I was thrown off by this line:
Which is correct, but as it turns out, there is no unnatural light that excites these alone, either. If their laser would reach the L cones, they would be excited as well, so they make sure, it does not.
So: Cool stuff
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Ordnael
Emperor
That looks like Windows 95 background colour.
Snowygerry
Deity
KU Leuven researchers develop method to permanently disable HIV virus
Researchers at KU Leuven have developed a method to render HIV viruses permanently harmless. The research was published on Thursday in the...
www.belganewsagency.eu
The humans that made it to South America had the longest jorney and suffered the most genetic divesity loss. This reduction in diversity, particularly in the Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) alleles, could be responsible for their susseptability to european diseases.
Spoiler Legend :
New poison dart frog discovered and it is a beauty!
Fig 3. In life holotype of Ranitomeya aetherea sp. nov. (INPA-H 47581, APL 24826): (A) lateral and (B) dorsal view, (C) lateral view showing the spots in lateroventral and inguinal region.
Fig 4. Dorsal and ventral color pattern variation of the Ranitomeya aetherea sp. nov. in life: Males (A) Holotype - INPA-H 47581, (B) INPA-H 47575, (C) INPA-H 47584, (D) INPA-H 47588; females (E) INPA-H 47580, (F) INPA-H 47583, (G) INPA-H 47584.
Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) are known for their aposematic coloration and toxic skin, making them a frequent subject of interest and research. However, descriptions of new species of Ranitomeya were interrupted for more than a decade. The implementation of a RAPELD (Rapid Assessment surveys of Long-Term Ecological Research) module in the Juruá River basin, a highly biodiverse and underexplored region, led to the record of a Ranitomeya species with blue dorsal stripes and coppery limbs. Herein we use morphological, morphometric, advertisement call, natural history, tadpole data and genetic data to describe the new species. Our phylogenetic analysis places the species within the Ranitomeya vanzolinii clade, and all delimitation methods confirmed its status as a new species. The species is characterized by its (i) small size (snout-vent length: males 15.2–17.0 mm, females 14.4–16.9 mm), (ii) dorsum with light sky-blue stripes on a reddish-brown ground, and metallic copper limbs with reddish-brown spots, (iii) ring-shaped granular region on the belly, (iv) toes with poorly developed lateral fringes, (v) later tadpole stages with tooth rows P1 = P2 > P3, P3 of 83–87% of P1, and conspicuous light sky-blue dorsal stripes, and (vi) cricket-like advertisement call consisting of 16–35 notes, call duration of 490–1,005 ms, note duration of 8.2–16.9 ms and dominant frequency of 5,168–6,029 Hz. The discovery of the new species emphasizes the significance of researching under-sampled regions like the Juruá River basin, and the usefulness of using a multidisciplinary approach to reveal new dendrobatid species.
Source:
journals.plos.org
Fig 3. In life holotype of Ranitomeya aetherea sp. nov. (INPA-H 47581, APL 24826): (A) lateral and (B) dorsal view, (C) lateral view showing the spots in lateroventral and inguinal region.
Fig 4. Dorsal and ventral color pattern variation of the Ranitomeya aetherea sp. nov. in life: Males (A) Holotype - INPA-H 47581, (B) INPA-H 47575, (C) INPA-H 47584, (D) INPA-H 47588; females (E) INPA-H 47580, (F) INPA-H 47583, (G) INPA-H 47584.
Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) are known for their aposematic coloration and toxic skin, making them a frequent subject of interest and research. However, descriptions of new species of Ranitomeya were interrupted for more than a decade. The implementation of a RAPELD (Rapid Assessment surveys of Long-Term Ecological Research) module in the Juruá River basin, a highly biodiverse and underexplored region, led to the record of a Ranitomeya species with blue dorsal stripes and coppery limbs. Herein we use morphological, morphometric, advertisement call, natural history, tadpole data and genetic data to describe the new species. Our phylogenetic analysis places the species within the Ranitomeya vanzolinii clade, and all delimitation methods confirmed its status as a new species. The species is characterized by its (i) small size (snout-vent length: males 15.2–17.0 mm, females 14.4–16.9 mm), (ii) dorsum with light sky-blue stripes on a reddish-brown ground, and metallic copper limbs with reddish-brown spots, (iii) ring-shaped granular region on the belly, (iv) toes with poorly developed lateral fringes, (v) later tadpole stages with tooth rows P1 = P2 > P3, P3 of 83–87% of P1, and conspicuous light sky-blue dorsal stripes, and (vi) cricket-like advertisement call consisting of 16–35 notes, call duration of 490–1,005 ms, note duration of 8.2–16.9 ms and dominant frequency of 5,168–6,029 Hz. The discovery of the new species emphasizes the significance of researching under-sampled regions like the Juruá River basin, and the usefulness of using a multidisciplinary approach to reveal new dendrobatid species.
Source:
A remarkable new blue Ranitomeya species (Anura: Dendrobatidae) with copper metallic legs from open forests of Juruá River Basin, Amazonia
Poison dart frogs (Dendrobatidae) are known for their aposematic coloration and toxic skin, making them a frequent subject of interest and research. However, descriptions of new species of Ranitomeya were interrupted for more than a decade. The implementation of a RAPELD (Rapid Assessment...
journals.plos.org
Angst
Rambling and inconsistent
i love these
Poison dart frogs get their poison from specific foods they eat in their natural habitat; If you raise them elsewhere, they are not poisonous to touch.i love these
