(Press-News.org) An analysis of fossils of non-avialan theropod dinosaurs – a dinosaur clade that includes an array of body sizes – has provided findings that run contrary to expectations regarding the factors that inform the evolution of body size diversity. “Once quantified and analyzed in a phylogenetic framework [like this], we predict that diverse growth strategies will be recognized in other clades,” say the study’s authors. Over evolutionary history, many taxa have evolved very large and very small body sizes, and even closely related species can exhibit widely disparate sizes. The predominant mechanisms underlying the evolution of gigantism and miniaturization is widely considered to be changes to growth rate rather than duration of growth during development. However, despite this assumption, very few studies have explored the evolution of developmental rate and duration across many species within a comparative phylogenetic framework. This is partly because there are few abundantly sampled, long-lived clades containing a diversity of body sizes with which to evaluate these questions. Michael D’Emic and colleagues performed a large-scale phylogenetic comparative analysis examining the developmental strategies underlying the evolution of body size in non-avialan theropod dinosaurs, which can range from tiny (<.5 meters in length) to gigantic (>12 meters in length) in size. Using fossil measurements from 42 non-avialan species, including annually deposited cortical growth marks, D’Emic et al. compiled a comprehensive histological dataset of body size and growth rate. The findings show that, contrary to expectations, changes in growth rate and duration played nearly equal roles in the evolution of body size diversity in non-avialan theropods.
END
How the close dinosaurian relatives of birds evolved gigantic and miniature sizes
2023-02-23
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
How does a person’s ethnicity impact their risk of death?
2023-02-23
In the UK, disparities in mortality risk factors exist between ethnic groups, with differences in overall mortality, top causes of mortality and individual mortality risk factors, according to a new study published this week in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public Health by I. King Jordan of Georgia Institute of Technology, US, and colleagues.
Despite the progress made in improving mortality rate, life expectancy, and disease survival outcomes in the last century, health disparities between various population ...
Plastic upcycling to close the carbon cycle
2023-02-23
RICHLAND, Wash.—There’s a lot of potentially useful raw materials bound up in used face masks, grocery bags and food wrap. But it has been much cheaper to keep making more of these single-use plastics than to recover and recycle them.
Now, an international research team led by the Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory has cracked the code that stymied previous attempts to break down these persistent plastics. They reported their discovery in today’s issue of Science.
Low temperature and reaction control
Typically, recycling plastics requires ‘cracking’ or ...
Evolution of dinosaur body size through different developmental mechanisms
2023-02-23
The meat-eating dinosaurs known as theropods that roamed the ancient Earth ranged in size from the bus-sized T. rex to the smaller, dog-sized Velociraptor. Scientists puzzling over how such wildly different dinosaur sizes evolved recently found – to their surprise– that smaller and larger theropod dinosaurs like these didn’t necessarily get that way merely by growing slower or faster.
In a new paper published in Science, “Developmental strategies underlying gigantism and miniaturization ...
MoBIE enables modern microscopy with massive data sets
2023-02-23
High-resolution microscopy techniques, for example electron microscopy or super-resolution microscopy, produce huge amounts of data. The visualization, analysis and dissemination of such large imaging data sets poses significant challenges. Now, these tasks can be carried out using MoBIE, which stands for Multimodal Big Image Data Exploration, a new user-friendly, freely available tool developed by researchers from the University of Göttingen and EMBL Heidelberg. This means that researchers such as biologists, who rely ...
$3M NIH grant will fund next steps of research on dance and brain health
2023-02-23
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Feb. 23, 2023 – Wake Forest University and Wake Forest University School of Medicine will receive $3 million over five years from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to help researchers take the next steps in nearly a decade of research that indicates dance can promote cognitive health.
The grant funds a new study called IGROOVE that will help researchers determine what kinds of dance, the frequency of the dance classes and what aspects of the dance class – music, social interaction, cognitive challenge – affect fitness, memory and brain health.
The research will be co-led by Christina ...
UC Irvine researchers create E. coli-based water monitoring technology
2023-02-23
Irvine, Calif., Feb. 23, 2023 – People often associate Escherichia coli with contaminated food, but E. coli has long been a workhorse in biotechnology. Scientists at the University of California, Irvine have demonstrated that the bacterium has further value as part of a system to detect heavy metal contamination in water.
E. coli exhibit a biochemical response in the presence of metal ions, a slight change that researchers were able to observe with chemically assembled gold nanoparticle optical sensors. Through a machine-learning ...
New $2.9 million grant helps researchers address food insecurity for Hoosiers
2023-02-23
INDIANAPOLIS—With a $2.9 million grant from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities, researchers from Indiana University School of Medicine are working to improve food insecurity in Indiana and ultimately improve the health of people in Indiana.
Individuals who experience food insecurity–inconsistent access to affordable and nutritious food–are more susceptible to a variety of health conditions, including hypertension and Type 2 Diabetes. The FoRKS: Food Resources ...
On the road to better solid-state batteries
2023-02-23
A team from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and Florida State University has designed a new blueprint for solid-state batteries that are less dependent on specific chemical elements, particularly critical metals that are challenging to source due to supply chain issues. Their work, reported recently in the journal Science, could advance solid-state batteries that are efficient and affordable.
Touted for their high energy density and superior safety, solid-state batteries could be a game-changer for the electric car industry. ...
National Center to Reframe Aging welcomes 16 to new advisory board
2023-02-23
The National Center to Reframe Aging — the nation’s leading organization dedicated to reshaping the conversation about older people — has established a new advisory board with 16 members from such diverse professional backgrounds as communications and public relations, research, policy, and law.
These board members were tapped to bring knowledge, strategic thinking, and interpersonal attributes to their role; to identify key organizations and decision-makers who can help advance the initiative; and support activities aligning with National Center project goals.
“We look forward to working with this talented group of advisors to grow ...
Heterostructures developed at Purdue support predictions of counterpropagating charged edge modes at the v=2/3 fractional quantum Hall state
2023-02-23
In 2018, a team of physicists at Purdue University invented a device which experimentally showed quasiparticles interfering for the first time in the fractional quantum Hall effect at filling factor v=1/3. Further development of these heterostructures has allowed the Manfra Group to expand their research to experiments that explore counterflowing charged edge modes at the 2/3 fractional quantum Hall state.
They have recently published their findings, “Half-Integer Conductance Plateau at the ν = 2/3 Fractional Quantum Hall State in a Quantum Point Contact,” in Physical Review Letters on February 17, 2023. This ...