PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Bones of long-dead animals conjure ghosts at Yellowstone

Skeletons strewn across landscapes tell story of how animal populations have changed

Bones of long-dead animals conjure ghosts at Yellowstone
2011-03-30
(Press-News.org) They tell a story, these bleached bones that gleam in the sun in Yellowstone National Park.

Bones on landscapes like Yellowstone may provide detailed accounts of how animal populations have changed over the last few decades or even century, scientists have found.

"The skeletons of long-dead animals lying on landscapes provide critical insights into our understanding of ecosystem history, especially how populations have changed," says biologist Joshua Miller of Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio.

His results, published today in the journal PLoS ONE, provide a deeper context for the many disturbances altering ecosystems around the world, including global warming, overharvesting and habitat destruction.

Miller performed much of the research while doing his Ph.D. work at the University of Chicago.

"These changes result in population reductions and extinctions of some species, while others expand and invade new habitats and regions," Miller says.

"Most ecosystems have not been studied over long time spans--many decades at least--which hampers the ability of wildlife managers and other scientists to properly document or mediate these dramatic ecological changes."

In his research, Miller surveyed bones from the skeletons of hoofed mammals, or ungulates, in Yellowstone National Park.

Then he compared the numbers of each species documented in bones, to surveys of the living populations.

He found that all native species in the living community were recovered, and that the order of species from most abundant to least abundant was similar for the bones and for the living community.

"While the fossil record yields valuable insights into ancient ecological communities, understanding community change over the time scale of centuries has been difficult," says Saran Twombly, program director in the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research.

"Here, clever use of vertebrate death assemblages in Yellowstone provides clear evidence of species shifts over the past century or more.

"This technique extends our ability to document long-term changes in ecological communities--an ability of growing importance as global change, habitat destruction and anthropogenic disturbance alter ecosystems at increasing rates."

The bones of Yellowstone correlate well with the area's historical ecosystem, and provide more detailed information about the historical community than can be acquired from just studying the ecosystem today.

Species whose populations significantly diminished or expanded over the last 20 to 80 years were over- or under-represented in the bones relative to the living community.

"Elk, for example, were much more abundant in the 1990s than they are today," Miller says. "The bones of Yellowstone feature far more elk than one would predict based on the current Yellowstone community."

Horses, which were replaced by cars as the dominant mode of transportation in Yellowstone in the early 1900s, also were readily found as skeletal remains.

Radiocarbon dating confirmed that horse bones were remnants from when the cavalry controlled Yellowstone in the late 1800s to early 1900s.

In contrast to these ghosts of larger past populations, species that have recently increased in abundance--bison and the newly arrived mountain goat--are less common in the skeletal record than current living populations would predict.

"Bones provide a great tool for uncovering historical ecological data, which allows us to put modern biodiversity in a broader temporal context," he says.

"The living populations of Yellowstone have been studied for a long time, and provide a great opportunity to test how well bones record their histories.

"Now we can go the next step and use bone accumulations in regions we have only recently begun studying to obtain critical historical data, and establish how ecosystems have changed over the last decades, century or even longer."

Miller's research also suggests that the information contained in the fossil record may provide more details on extinct ecosystems than previously thought.

For those who would listen, dead animals have important tales to relate.



INFORMATION:


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
Bones of long-dead animals conjure ghosts at Yellowstone

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Hartsfield Hotel Near Downtown Atlanta Provides Nearby Lodging to the 2011 Big South National Qualifier Attendees

2011-03-30
The Hilton Garden Inn Atlanta Airport Hotel (North, I-85) provides nearby lodging to guests and participants attending the Big South National Qualifier, the nation's largest indoor volleyball tournament. The event will take place on April 1-3, 2011 at Georgia World Congress Center. The Big South National Qualifier is 1 of 9 national volleyball tournaments that serves to qualify teams for the USA Junior Olympic Girls' Volleyball Championship. Over 8,000 girls, age 10-18, from all over the country compete each year at this exciting tournament. "Celebrating its 21th year, ...

Horse blind date could lead to loss of foal

2011-03-30
Foetal loss is a common phenomenon in domestic horses after away-mating, according to Luděk Bartoš and colleagues, from the Institute of Animal Science in the Czech Republic. When mares return home after mating with a foreign stallion, they either engage in promiscuous mating with the home males to confuse paternity, or, failing that, the mares abort the foal to avoid the likely future infanticide by the dominant home male. The study is published online in the Springer journal Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology. In the Czech Republic, it is common practice for domestic ...

Debenhams Reveals Mums Trying to Outdo Each Other at the School Gate

2011-03-30
Debenhams has revealed that a new breed of fashion conscious mums in Ireland is fast turning the school run into a catwalk competition as they vie to outdo each other at the school gates. Usually obsessing about how well the apple of their eye is performing at school, many mums are now turning their attention to themselves to ensure that they get top marks in the fashion class. The trend was revealed when Debenhams research team asked Irish female customers what they wore on the school run. Over 60% of women admitted to feeling pressurised to compete in the fashion ...

Manure runoff depends on soil texture

2011-03-30
MADISON, WI MARCH 18, 2011 – Research has documented the rise of nutrient runoff from flat agricultural fields with high rates of precipitation that adds nitrates and phosphates to waterways. These nutrients increase the amount of phytoplankton in the water, which depletes oxygen and kills fish and other aquatic creatures. While injecting animal manure slurry into the soil has been proven to be an effective way of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, there has been no research on the possibility of nutrients leaching from the soil and reaching waterways. A collaborative ...

Like products, plants wait for optimal configuration before market success

Like products, plants wait for optimal configuration before market success
2011-03-30
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just as a company creates new, better versions of a product to increase market share and pad its bottom line, an international team of researchers led by Brown University has found that plants tinker with their design and performance before flooding the environment with new, improved versions of themselves. The issue: When does a grouping of plants with the same ancestor, called a clade, begin to spin off new species? Biologists have long assumed that rapid speciation occurred when a clade first developed a new physical trait or mechanism ...

Door2Tour.com Breaks Records with Dancing On Ice 2011 Packages

2011-03-30
Door2Tour.com has reported that while the overall viewing figures for the 2011 series of Dancing on Ice may not have reached the heights of the show's first airing in 2006, the coach holidays and short breaks website latest revenue figures show an unprecedented year-on-year increase of over 1000% in packages for the live tour. The 5th live tour, hosted by Andi Peters and featuring skating legends Jane Torvill and Christopher Dean, is showing at 7 major venues across the UK over 28 dates. Celebrity skaters lining up to appear include Radio 1's 'Comedy Dave', Vanilla Ice ...

Debenhams Sees Bra in a Jar Sales Soar

2011-03-30
Debenhams Beauty Hall has revealed that women are worrying about the appearance of their necks and busts as much as their faces, causing a boom in 'bra in a jar' products. Products designed to minimise turkey necks and smooth crepey cleavage are up 265% on last year, so that the sector is now one of the fastest growing in the beauty industry. Women, conscious of the 'Madonna effect' - age-defying face yet age-indicating neck and decolletage - are turning to dedicated creams to turn back the years and achieve the full, glowing cleavage making a comeback on red carpets ...

New cancer drug discovered at U-M heads to clinical trials

2011-03-30
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center have developed a new drug called AT-406 with potential to treat multiple types of cancer. A study, published this week in the Journal of Medicinal Chemistry, showed that AT-406 effectively targets proteins that block normal cell death from occurring. Blocking these proteins caused tumor cells to die, while not harming normal cells. The researchers believe the drug could potentially be used alone or in combination with other treatments. The normal cell death process, called apoptosis, ...

K-State chemists' biosensor may improve food, water safety and cancer detection

2011-03-30
MANHATTAN, KAN. -- A nanotechnology-based biosensor being developed by Kansas State University researchers may allow early detection of both cancer cells and pathogens, leading to increased food safety and reduced health risks. Lateef Syed, doctoral student in chemistry, Hyderabad, India, is developing the biosensor with Jun Li, associate professor of chemistry. Their research focuses on E. coli, but Syed said the same technology could also detect other kinds of pathogens, such as salmonella and viruses. "Kansas is a leading state in meat production and the poultry ...

Business Monitor International Launches Special Report on MENA Crisis

2011-03-30
Business Monitor International has revealed a special report recently launched on its website that looks at the key risks to global recovery and stability following the crisis in the Middle East and North Africa. The report states that the wave of popular protests that have swept across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) since January 2011 constitutes the biggest shake-up to the region for at least a generation, and its impact will be felt for many years to come. The unrest also poses the biggest risk to the global economic recovery this year, not least because ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New strategies to enhance chiral optical signals unveiled

Cambridge research uncovers powerful virtual reality treatment for speech anxiety

2025 Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit to spotlight groundbreaking research

International survey finds that support for climate interventions is tied to being hopeful and worried about climate change

Cambridge scientist launches free VR platform that eliminates the fear of public speaking

Open-Source AI matches top proprietary model in solving tough medical cases

Good fences make good neighbors (with carnivores)

NRG Oncology trial supports radiotherapy alone following radical hysterectomy should remain the standard of care for early-stage, intermediate-risk cervical cancer

Introducing our new cohort of AGA Future Leaders

Sharks are dying at alarming rates, mostly due to fishing. Retention bans may help

Engineering excellence: Engineers with ONR ties elected to renowned scientific academy

New CRISPR-based diagnostic test detects pathogens in blood without amplification

Immunotherapy may boost KRAS-targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer

Growing solar: Optimizing agrivoltaic systems for crops and clean energy

Scientists discover how to reactivate cancer’s molecular “kill switch”

YouTube influencers: gaming’s best friend or worst enemy?

uOttawa scientists use light to unlock secret of atoms

NJIT mathematician to help map Earth's last frontier with Navy grant

NASA atmospheric wave-studying mission releases data from first 3,000 orbits

‘Microlightning’ in water droplets may have sparked life on Earth

Smoke from wildland-urban interface fires more deadly than remote wildfires

What’s your body really worth? New AI model reveals your true biological age from 5 drops of blood

Protein accidentally lassos itself, helping explain unusual refolding behavior

With bird flu in raw milk, many in U.S. still do not know risks of consuming it

University of Minnesota research team awarded $3.8 million grant to develop cell therapy to combat Alzheimer’s disease

UConn uncovers new clue on what is leading to neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s and ALS

Resuscitation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest – it’s how quickly it is done, rather than who does it

A closer look at biomolecular ‘silly putty’

Oxytocin system of breastfeeding affected in mothers with postnatal depression

Liquid metal-enabled synergetic cooling and charging: a leap forward for electric vehicles

[Press-News.org] Bones of long-dead animals conjure ghosts at Yellowstone
Skeletons strewn across landscapes tell story of how animal populations have changed