Developmental shifts in stage-specific gene expression can provide a ready mechanism of phenotypic change by altering the rate or timing of ontogenetic events. We found that the high-altitude Tibetan antelope (Panthelops hodgsonii) has evolved an adaptive increase in blood-O2 affinity by truncating the ancestral ontogeny of globin gene expression such …
Far from being a safe heaven, Bhubaneshwar's Nandankanan Zoological Park has become a graveyard for the tigers. In the past one year, more than 15 tigers have died in the park. On July 5, 2001, Bisakha, a 20-year-old Royal Bengal tigress died of pneumonia after a prolonged illness. "Heavy rainfall …
DID CHARLES Darwin see evolution as "progressive", as being singlemindedly directed toward producing ever more advanced forms of life? Most contemporary scholars say no. But in this daring challenge to prevailing views, Robert J Richards of the University of Chicago argues that current perspectives on Darwin and his theory are …
DOES A hare flee when it spots a fox? Interestingly, no. Instead, it stands upright and signals its presence by flashing its ventral fur. As a brown hare can run much faster, once the fox knows it has been spotted, it desists from chasing the hare, thereby saving a lot …
SLOW AND steady wins the race, goes the moral of one of the most popular of Aesop's fables in which an arrogant hare loses a race to a persevering tortoise. But, two US brain researchers say if the race had taken place at twilight instead of during the day, as …
PARASITIC flies that lay eggs in bumble-bees would not be so smug if they knew that the bees have a way of hitting back. Entomologists say parasitised bumble-bees render their abdomens inhospitable to fly larvae development by staying outdoors in the cold all night. Swiss researchers C B Muller and …
BRITISH scientist William Bateson, who is responsible for coining the word "genetics", had an unusual scientific career. He started out as a student of animal morphology -- a branch of zoology that emphasises such obvious aspects of an organism as its form and the way it looks to us. Later, …
NOT ALL scientists go along with Darwin's view that male birds evolved long tails for purposes of sexual selection. A group of British zoologists suggests the long tails may have evolved as a result of natural selection, making them a fitter species. They say the long tails are not mere …
HUMANS are not the only animal species to possess a sense of beauty. Recent research bears out the controversial view of 19th century British naturalist Charles Darwin that animals have an eye for beauty. He offered this as an explanation for the preference of females for the gaudiest males. The …
THE TWO years covered in this volume, the latest in the series, were the most momentous in the life of Charles Robert Darwin (1809-1882). After studies in Edinburgh and Cambridge, Darwin was heading for an ecclesiastical career in the Church of England when he was invited to participate in a …
EVERY living thing was born at some time and must die, sooner or later. True, but the traditional assumption is that animals in the wild never live long enough to grow old. And, while old age is a "natural" cause of death for human beings, animals die earlier of "unnatural" …
ZOOLOGISTS have always wondered why the females of two African antelope species repeatedly mated with only certain males. A further clue was provided by James Deutsch and Rory Nefdt of Cambridge University who discovered female antelopes always chose mates who occupied certain territories in the mating grounds. The researchers then …
Gods, it is said, can assume any shape or many shapes at one time. Our mythological Hanuman, monkey god of the epic Ramayan, conforms to this omniscience. A combination of the rhesus monkey, the langur and man, it cannot be said to belong to any single species. I find this …
The International Conference on Recent Trends in Agriculture, Veterinary & Life Sciences - 2015 (ICAVLS) is one of the largest conference in the Life Sciences community held in conjunction with the Life Sciences International Research Journal in Collabration with School of Studies in Zoology and Biotechnology, Vikram University and International …
