Daily Archives: October 17, 2021

Astronomers solve 16-year old mystery of ultraviolet ring in space

Full Story

Data from the GALEX spacecraft suggest that planets around cool dwarf stars may be subjected to intense flares.

Full Story

The galaxyUGC 1382 has been revealed to be far larger and stranger than previously thought.Astronomers relied on a combination of ground-based and space telescopes to uncover the true nature of this "Frankenstein galaxy."

Full Story

Entangled by gravity and destined to merge, two candidate black holes in a distant galaxy appear to be locked in an intricate dance. Researchers using data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) and NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have come up with the most compelling confirmation yet for the existence of these merging black holes and have found new details about their odd, cyclical light signal.

Full Story

A new report identifies top-of-the-line tools for studying the fabric of space.

Full Story

What makes one rose bush blossom with flowers, while another remains barren? Astronomers ask a similar question of galaxies.

Full Story

NASA has turned off its Galaxy Evolution Explorer after a decade of operations in which the venerable space telescope used its ultraviolet vision to study hundreds of millions of galaxies across 10 billion years of cosmic time.

Full Story

A duo of astronomers, Dr. Youichi Ohyama (Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica or ASIAA, Taiwan) and Dr. Ananda Hota (UM-DAE Centre for Excellence in the Basic Sciences or CBS, India), has discovered a Blue Supergiant star located far beyond our Milky Way Galaxy in the constellation Virgo.

Full Story

The light of a red star is warped and magnified by its dead-star companion, as detected by NASA's Kepler space telescope.

Full Story

The spectacular barred spiral galaxy NGC 6872 has ranked among the biggest stellar systems for decades. Now a team of astronomers from the United States, Chile and Brazil have crowned it the largest-known spiral based on archival data from NASA's Galaxy Evolution Explorer mission.

Full Story

What was once a fairly average star, not much different than our sun, can be seen unraveling at the seams in this new image from the Spitzer and GALEX space telescopes.

Full Story

NASA is lending the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX) to the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) in Pasadena, where the spacecraft will continue its exploration of the cosmos.

Full Story

Explorers are among the lowest-cost missions flown by NASA, but they can pack a big scientific punch. Such is the case with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer, or GALEX, a mission designed to map the history of star formation over 80 percent of the age of the universe.

Full Story

Continue reading here:

GALEX - Galaxy Evolution Explorer

Human Evolutionary Biology chair Daniel E. Lieberman 86 offered evolutionary insights into physical activity in his virtual lecture, Did We Evolve to Exercise? Wednesday evening.

The Harvard Museum of Natural History hosted the webinar on Zoom as part of its ongoing Evolution Matters lecture series. The series, which has been running for the past 12 years, discusses a variety of topics related to the history of life.

Liebermans research focuses on human physical activity from an evolutionary and anthropological perspective. In the lecture, Lieberman spoke on exercise and why it is increasingly healthy for humans as they age.

A large portion of the lecture was inspired by key points from Exercised, Liebermans book published in January.

Lieberman began the talk by addressing the exercise paradox the difficulty to exercise consistently despite understanding its benefits.

Everybody knows that exercise is good for us, but only about 20 percent of Americans get whats considered to be the minimum amount of physical activity recommended by basically every major health organization in the world about 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity a week, Lieberman said. The other 80 percent of us dont do it right.

Evolutionary factors may explain why exercise habits are so difficult to build in modern society. While hunter-gatherers were moderately physically active when it was necessary or rewarding, they otherwise conserved energy, according to Lieberman.

He described a longitudinal study on Harvard alumni on the impact of moderate physical activity on death rates in comparison to sedentary lifestyles, highlighting the increasing benefits of physical activity with age.

By the time alumni got into their 50s, the ones who were burning 2,000 calories a week through exercise had 36 percent lower death rates, and by the time they got to be 70 or older, the ones who were regularly exercising had 50 percent lower death rates, Lieberman said.

Lieberman concluded the talk by discussing the applications of his exercise research to life at Harvard. In an interview following the event, he expanded on how the pressures of student life may result in less physical activity.

We think its a tradeoff: Time I spend exercising is time Im going to lose from other important things. But I think the evidence shows that, actually, the time people spend exercising, they get back in increased concentration and better mood and memory, and the short-term benefits are huge, Lieberman said.

Lieberman said even a slight lifestyle change to include more exercise can make a big difference.

Just an hour a week, which is a little bit more than 10 minutes a day, can decrease your risk of mortality by 30, 40 percent. So no matter what level youre at, a little bit of physical activity goes a long way, Lieberman said.

You dont need to run marathons or swim the English Channel or climb Mount Everest. You dont need to do extreme amounts of physical activity, he added. You just need to do it.

Excerpt from:

HEB Prof. Explores Evolution and Exercise in Webinar | News - Harvard Crimson

The workplace is evolving rapidly and the pandemic gets the blame - and the credit.

Although we are still living with the Covid-19 pandemic, thanks to vaccines and masks, people are starting to get back to a normal rhythm of life. Kids are going back to school. People can eat inside restaurants again and many businesses are starting to let workers return to their offices. While some companies continue a level of cautiousness about welcoming their entire staff back to their workplaces, even those companies are signaling that by early next year, their staff will be allowed to work at the office on a flexible basis. Indeed, Amazon stated this week that their corporate staff could work from home indefinitely and come to the office as-needed.

Social scientists are just now starting to evaluate the impact of the pandemic on work, learning, and play. It may take a while to understand the full impact the Covid-19 pandemic had on all of us both personally and professionally. However, the one thing the pandemic has changed is how we work and the future of the workplace.

Had it not been for technologies like Zoom and other video conferencing apps, along with new collaborative software and services, much of our businesses would have struggled to be as productive as they were during the pandemic.

Jacob Morgan, who in 2014 wrote the book, "The Future of Work" and developed a concept he calls "The Evolution of the Employee" seems to have had a crystal ball of our current working world.

He created this chart below to suggest that employees and organizations around the world need to embrace, prepare for and encourage the evolution of the employee.

Jacob Morgan's chart -The Evolution Of The Employee

I don't think Mr. Morgan saw the pandemic coming but he points out that, "Covid has made this evolution a present-day reality."

One part of my job as a technology analyst since 1981 was to cover the evolving world of tech around the globe. Until the pandemic hit, I averaged between 50K and 100K miles traveling each year for 38 years. I have accumulated over four million airline miles during that time and I can tell you from experience that this much world travel takes a toll on one's body.

When the first whole room video conferencing systems debuted in 2000, I had a chance to use a couple of them where we connected with people from a company in other parts of the world. This was an "aha" moment for me as the reality of working with someone via video was now a reality. The only problem was that these conferencing systems cost over $100,000 each and were targeted at large corporations and not the mainstream market yet.

By 2010, we began to see a lot of what I would call small conference room video systems come to market in the $700-$1200 range and ushered in another important bridge to the use of video conferencing for all types of business. However, even though these new low-cost video systems worked, the market demand for them was paltry.

Office workers had engrained into their work-styles a view that face-to-face meetings were preferable to any type of video conferencing, and if traveling was needed to make these meetings happen, so be it.

I have worked with some Taiwanese ODM's in the past and always had to go to Taipei for my meetings with them. I had encouraged some of these companies to install these lower-cost video conferencing systems and on one of my trips, I brought a system with me and installed it in their board room. My goal was to try and reduce my travels to Taiwan as much as possible. But even with this video conference system at both of our sites, they were so used to in-person meetings, they resisted using them to the degree that did not allow me to reduce my travel to their offices.

Then the pandemic hit. All businesses were forced to find new forms of communications and collaboration to stay alive. Many technologies played a role in helping businesses weather the pandemic storm, but none had as great an impact as video conferencing.

If you look at the chart above, video conferencing software like Zoom, Microsoft's Teams, Google Meet, and Cisco's WebEx and others, have enabled work anytime, work anywhere, use any device, share information, collaborate, and democratized learning and teaching. Not bad for a 2014 prognostication.

Tragically, Covid-19 has killed nearly 4.9 million people worldwide to date.

Its impact on families has been devastating. It continues to be a serious health concern that some medical experts say it may never be fully eradicated although they also tell us it can be controlled.The heartbreak of deaths and economic destruction can never be minimized.

But it has also forced the medical and technical worlds to innovate faster. Weve had a Covid vaccine get to market in record time. Tech companies moved faster to expand their collaboration and video conferencing tools to help large and small companies keep working. And these technologies have upset the proverbial face-to-face meetings mentality and broke the resistance to using video conferencing that now allows people to work from anywhere, with any device, and create a new world where flexible work schedules will be the norm, not the exception.

We will look back on this era as one with heartbreak as well as driving positive changes, especially to the workplace. As Mr. Morgan suggests, "...employees and organizations around the world need to embrace, prepare for and encourage," this evolution of work as I sense the workplace has changed forever.

Originally posted here:

The Evolution Of Work - Forbes

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. From skin pigmentation to food preferences to gender identification, there are no limits to the diversity of individual human expression. And whether they be genetic, cultural, or a mix of both, the root causes of all these extraordinary variations have long fascinated our species.

Tracking Traits, a new podcast launched by Penn States Center for Human Evolution and Diversity (CHED), explores the current work of researchers who are forging new pathways to understanding the evolution of human diversity, via a wide variety of approaches.

"Tracking Traits provides a glimpse into scientific curiosity and the attitude we try to bring to all of CHED's work, explained center co-director Nina Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology. Were trying to tackle important and interesting problems in human evolutionary biology. To do this, we want to engage with people of diverse backgrounds and talents, including some of our highly motivated undergraduate research students.

For the eight episodes of the shows first season, three Penn State undergrads conducted the researcher interviews. Samantha Muller is a forensic science major with a minor in anthropology;Hannah Marchok is a biobehavioral health major with a minor in global health; and Amy Mook graduated from Penn State in spring 2021 with a degree in genetics and developmental biology.

I was so excited to be able to interview such an amazing array of scientists from in and around our department, said Muller. Everyone had a unique view to present on, not to mention a unique topic. However, what struck me most was everyones excitement to create a project that would relate all of these interests back to the broad ideas of human diversity.

In addition to episodes that relate the story of CHEDs founding and the research of Jablonski and the centers other co-director, professor of biological anthropology Mark Shriver, Tracking Traits first season explores the following scientists work:

In addition to discussing their science, Tracking Traits student hosts talked with the researchers about their personal stories, including the reasons they decided to pursue research as a career.

I think that's an important part of our program here, noted Shriver. Hearing from the people as people about their lives and how they developed the curiosity. When did that happen, and then when did they see it was going in a good direction, that they could build a career on? Who did they reach out to as mentors? I don't think there's enough of these science storiesout there from scientists. So I think that's going to be a really interesting part of this and probably useful to students.

Muller agreed, saying, All the researchers, whether anthropologists, biologists, or in-between, were so passionate about what they were doing that it made me so excited for my future as a scientist.

TheCenter for Human Evolution and Diversity (CHED)is a joint venture of Penn States Department of Anthropology and the Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences. The scientists interviewed on the show all received 2021 seed grants from CHED and agreed to participate in the podcast in order to educate and inspire others.

For the 2022 seed grant program, CHED seeks proposalsfor multidisciplinary projects aimed at developing innovative methods for visualizing and/or studying the human phenotype (including human behavior) and human contextual information using common handheld and wearable devices.Recipients of these grants will be featured in the next season of Tracking Traits.

Applications for the 2022 cycle of CHED seed grants will be accepted through Friday, Dec. 10. For more information on the program,visit the CHED RFP page.

To listen to the entire first season of Tracking Traits and subscribe to the series,visit the Tracking Traits website.

Go here to read the rest:

New podcast tracks the evolution of diverse human traits | Penn State University - Penn State News

The FINANCIAL NYUs Center for Ballet and the Arts and the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at The Rockefeller University partner to investigate the genetic origin and evolutionary purpose of dance across different species with an eye to developing new clinical therapie.

A new research fellowship, developed in collaboration with NYUs Center for Ballet and the Arts and the Laboratory for Neurogenetics of Language at The Rockefeller University, is tackling an age-old question: Why do humans dance?And what can dance teach us about the brain?

According to New York University, research suggests there is overlap between the neurological processes for how humans and non-human species learn complex vocalizationsand thus, develop singing and speech skillsand how these same species also learn to move rhythmically. Now, a new fellowship leveraging the unique resources of both an artistic research institution and a biomedical research university will apply researchers expertise in the neural and genetic mechanisms of spoken language to further investigate what is happening in the brain when we move and dance.

Dr. Constantina Theofanopoulou, a postdoctoral researcher at The Rockefeller University, and Dr. Sadye Paez, a senior research associate in the Neurogenetics of Language Laboratory, will join NYUs Center for Ballet and the Arts for a semester-long fellowship to gather and synthesize evidence on the neurological links between dance and vocal learning; examine how species developed the capacity to coordinate rhythmic sound with movement to unlock theories about the purpose of dance in human evolution; and design experiments and methodologies that will have a range of clinical and research applications and create a better shared understanding of how the neuroscience of language and dance intersect.Theofanopoulou and Paez say their research into the neurological underpinnings of danceand how this links up with what they already know about the neuroscience of vocal learningcan help inform the creation of better clinical therapies for people with a range of neurological movement and spoken language disorders.Research into how certain species synchronize motor movements to particular rhythms (like how a parrot might bop its head to a song) could enhance understanding of how different regions of the brain are linked, allowing health practitioners to employ different therapies to repair certain neural circuits impacted by injury or disease. For example, the way that dance exercises specific motor circuits could have indirect or complementary benefits for patients undergoing existing speech therapies.

Species such as humans, parrots and seals learn to produce complex vocalizations over time. We dont think its a coincidence that these same species are able to train themselves to synchronize their movements with rhythm. It might be that the motor circuit responsible for rhythmic movement in these species evolved as a prerequisite for vocal learning, said Theofanopoulou.The impulse to move is innate, and the continuum of movement is as vast and infinite as the numbers and types of species. Many species crawl, climb, slither, swim, walk, leap, and more. But the ability to move rhythmically, what we call dance or movement to sound, is unique. This distinct ability to purposefully control and coordinate our bodies in response to cadence or tempo has exciting applications, said Paez.

For example, clinically, we know that walking among patients with Parkinsons disease improves dramatically by adding a metronome. Patients are able to better sync their movements when they could match a regular beat. Their strides lengthened and their gait improved. We want to better understand why this happens and what this could mean for people living with a range of neurological disorders, she continued.The research will also tackle a larger, more existential question: Why exactly did humans evolve to dance?Why is it that the non-human apes studied thus far find it so difficult to hear a sound and tap out a rhythm like humans do? What purpose does dance serve? Evolution is a fascinating component of this research, said Theofanopoulou.Many cultures do not distinguish between music and dance, often using the same word for both. Vocal learning and dance overlap in how these behaviors are culturally transmitted from one generation to another, such as in dialects or repertoires of sounds or movements. Thus, it is plausible that vocal learning and dance co-evolved both culturally and genetically, said Paez.

The researchers also plan to sequence the genomes of highly specialized dancers to understand if these dancers have specific DNA variants or genetic commonalities, compared to non-dancers. Both Paez and Theofanopoulou are involved in the Vertebrate Genomes Project, which aims to generate reference genome assemblies of all ~70,000 living vertebrate species to enable the study of how genes have contributed to the evolution and survival of these species.

Using the same technology, they will be able to sequence the dancers genomes and uncover specific characteristics at the full length of their DNA. It remains to be found, for example, whether the genetic similarities between specialized dancers overlap with genetic locations involved in speech learning or speech deficits.

This collaboration is the outgrowth of CBAs The Brain is the Dancer, a half-day symposium co-presented with the Lincoln Center that brought together leading neuroscientists and dancers in a series of conversations and demonstrations. The collaboration will allow the Rockefeller researchers to leverage the full artistic and institutional resources of New York University, including CBAs choreographers and dancers, faculty in the creative arts therapies, and practitioners and researchers in the health sciences.

The research fellowship will incorporate perspectives from movement science, physical therapy, disability studies, neuroscience and neurogenetics. The research will, in part, investigate hypotheses that are based on the original findings of two independent studies, led by Ani Patel and Adena Schachner, showing that only vocal learning species can learn to dance, moving their bodies rhythmically to the beat of sound in music. Debate exists on the hypothesis, but most can agree that there is a distinction among vocal learners for dancing.

Both Theofanopoulou and Paez are in the laboratory of Dr. Erich D. Jarvis, head of the Laboratory of Neurogenetics of Language at The Rockefeller University, an investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and long known for his studies on the neurobiology and evolution of vocal learning.Future developments in the partnership will be announced at a later date.

Originally posted here:

Why Do Humans Dance? New Research Fellowship Explores the Evolution and Neuroscience of Dance FINCHANNEL - The FINANCIAL

Critics of evolution often argue that life, rather than gradually changing over the years through natural selection, was actually created by a so-called "intelligent designer."Their position is that the biological machinery which makes up living bodies is so complex, and so perfectly calibrated to supportour numerous needs, that it had to have been planned out by a deliberate andthoughtful force of some kind.

Yet if God actually did design human bodies according to a plan, they forgot to make sure that we can breathe while we sleep a remarkably crucialdetail to overlook. Whilenot everyone suffers from the aforementioned anatomical glitch,known to doctors asobstructive sleep apnea,it affects 22 million Americansand has become an even more hazardousconditionamid the spreadof a deadly virus that attacks the lungs.

To understand this fault in the human blueprint, imagine your upper airway as a tube that must remain open to do its job. (This is a simplistic reduction for the purpose of analogy.) When you're awake and upright, the tube stays open easily. Yet once you recline say, to sleep one'smuscles around that tube start to relax. The apparatusesaround the tube including one's tongue and soft palate can press down and constrict it, interferingwith the smooth passage of air, akin to a kink in a hose. When one's breathing is reduced, this condition isknown as a hypopnea; if one's breathing stops altogether, it is called an apnea.

To the people in proximity tothe sufferer, the result issnoring, choking and other highly unpleasant sounds during sleep. The sufferers themselves are usually deprived of restful sleep and adequate blood oxygen levels, and their consequent lot in life can beone of abject misery: Constant daytime fatigue, headaches andliving in a mental fog are just three of the most common symptoms. Over the long term, sufferers are at a high risk of heart disease, Alzheimer's disease, strokes, high blood pressure,diabetes and a number of mental health ailments. For a large percentage of the patient's day, their body endures the stress of repeatedly coming close to suffocating, as well as the weariness of never being allowed recuperative sleep.

Why does this happen? In children, the culprit is frequently obstructions from the adenoids or tonsils, and the solution can be as simple as an operation. Obese people may beat a higher risk for sleep apnea, since excess fat deposits around one's throat and chest can further restrict nighttime breathing. Aging is a factor, too, asaging causes one's throat muscles to weaken. Those who makelifestyle choices that weaken therespiratory system, such as smokers, are at higher risk. Finally, some merely havegenetic or anatomical predispositions that, for one reason or another, mess with the proper working of thestructures in the upper airway.

COVID-19 has made being an apnea sufferer a more dire condition. In January, a studyin the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research found that obstructive sleep apnea is an independent risk factor for severe COVID-19. Patients with obstructive sleep apnea were at a 2.93 times higher risk of requiring hospitalization for COVID-19 independent of other risk factors for either the disease or the sleep disorder. While this could simply mean that having obstructive sleep apnea givesa patientother risk factors that coincidentally make them more vulnerable to COVID-19 (such as a high BMI), it could also be that the sleep disorder exacerbates COVID-19 on its own, "especially during the night, when decreased oxygen saturation levels occur in" obstructive sleep apnea, the researchers say.

There are treatments for sleep apnea, the most notable of which is the CPAP, or continuous positive airway pressure, machine.CPAP machines work by keeping the upper respiratory tract open with a constant level of air pressure greater than atmospheric pressure. A patient attaches a nasal mask, a face mask or nasal prongs to their airway, and a machine uses water to lubricate a regular pressure stream that persists throughout the patient's sleep.While the apparatus can be difficult to adjust to, those able to make the transition often report significant relief.Many patients say that using a CPAP completely changed their lives, restoring their physical and mental vitality literally overnight. (CPAPs have been in the news lately becausea manufacturing issue in the CPAP machines made by Phillips Respironics has put certain customers at risk of cancer; the company hasissued a recall.)

Want more health and science stories in your inbox? Subscribe to Salon's weekly newsletter The Vulgar Scientist.

So how did naturebring us to a point where, for millions of people, the only effective way to breath while sleeping (aside from major surgery) is to literally force air down their throats? How did evolution let this happen?

The answer, as it turns out, has to do with evolutionary trade-offs. Humans evolved to be highly intelligent, walk upright and communicate through complex vocalizations. Those giftscame with a price.

As Allen J. Moses, Elizabeth T. Kalliath and Gloria Pacini wrote in the dental journal Dental Sleep Practice, lower animals are fortunate to have "evolved structures of nearly perfect design" for tasks like breathing, swallowing, smelling and chewing.Humans, by contrast, need to balance a large cranium (housing a large brain) on a spinal column that remains vertical to the ground to allow them to walk on two legs. They also need equipment in their necks that permit them to produce sounds for talking, and those organstake up more of the already-limitedamount of real estate in the neck. The tongue, for instance, descends deeper into a human'sneck than it does for any other mammal. Even pioneering biologist CharlesDarwin was aware of the absurdity of evolution in allowing food to potentially go down the wrong pipe in your throat;"every particle of food and drink we swallow has to pass over the orifice of the trachea with some risk of falling into the lungs," he wrote.

If the human body were a building, our neck would arguably be the most poorly conceived room in the house, overflowing with functionally mismatched organs stuffed there to accommodate other design priorities. "Significant evolutionary changes to the human head are flat face, smaller chin, shorter oral cavity, changes in jaw function, repositioning of ears behind jaws, ascent of the uvula and descent of the epiglottis, right angle bend in tongue, creation of compliant, combined, flexible airway-footway, and speech," the researchers write in the aforementioned journal.

Perhaps in part because scientists assumed humans could not possibly have such an absurd inherent design flaw, the symptoms of these structural deficiencies most conspicuously snoring were for centuries perceived as innocuous or, at worst, merely annoying. It wasn't until the mid-20th century that scientists began to figure out that those periods when sleeping people struggle to breathe actually pose a serious health problem. Even then, a common approach was to perform a tracheotomy, a drastic measure in which a hole is punched into the throat to facilitate breathing. The CPAP was invented after one patient refused to undergo the procedure but was willing to try his doctor's new air-pressure machine. Chronically unable to sleep before using the world's first CPAP, he reported feeling utterly refreshed the following morning. Humanity's architectural flaw had been exposed.

Before long, Japanese scientists were learning how even minor alterations in the size and position of the pharynx drastically altered the likelihood of developing a sleep disorder. Scientists were even figuring out the precise role of obesity in contributing to the disorder. (Obesity enlarges tissues in the already cramped throat.) Within decades, obstructive sleep apnea has become a common diagnosis and a main condition that sleep health professionals look for in their patients.

These problems existed before the COVID-19 era and, despite being worsened by the pandemic, will almost certainly persist after it is over. After all, obstructive sleep apnea has been a literal and figurativepain in the neckfor as long as humans have hadnecks as we currently know them. Aside from the immediate knowledge humans have acquired about our own anatomical deficiencies, the existence of obstructive sleep apnea is a reminder to embrace humility. Millennia after the ancient Greeks created modern medicine, we are still learning surprising new things about the bodies we inhabitevery day.

See the article here:

The human neck is a mistake of evolution - Salon

Bels, V. L. et al. Biomechanics Of Feeding In Vertebrates (Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, 1994).

Ungar, P. S. Mammal Teeth: Origin, Evolution, and Diversity (JHU Press, 2010).

Machado, J. P. et al. Positive selection linked with generation of novel mammalian dentition patterns. Genome Biol. Evol. 8, 27482759 (2016).

CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Reisz, R. R. Origin of dental occlusion in tetrapods: signal for terrestrial vertebrate evolution? J. Exp. Zool. B Mol. Dev. Evol. 306, 261277 (2006).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Evans, A. R., Wilson, G. P., Fortelius, M. & Jernvall, J. High-level similarity of dentitions in carnivorans and rodents. Nature 445, 7881 (2007).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Melstrom, K. M. & Irmis, R. B. Repeated evolution of herbivorous crocodyliforms during the age of dinosaurs. Curr. Biol. 29, 23892395 (2019).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

si, A., Prondvai, E., Mallon, J. & Bodor, E. R. Diversity and convergences in the evolution of feeding adaptations in ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia). Hist. Biol. 29, 539570 (2016).

Article Google Scholar

Strickson, E., Prieto-Mrquez, A., Benton, M. J. & Stubbs, T. L. Dynamics of dental evolution in ornithopod dinosaurs. Sci. Rep. 6, 28904 (2016).

ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Button, D. J. & Zanno, L. E. Repeated evolution of divergent modes of herbivory in non-avian dinosaurs. Curr. Biol. 30, 158168 (2020).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Butler, P. M. Molarization of the premolars in the Perissodactyla. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 121, 819843 (1952).

Article Google Scholar

Hunter, J. P. & Jernvall, J. The hypocone as a key innovation in mammalian evolution. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 92, 1071810722 (1995).

ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Luo, Z.-X. Transformation and diversification in early mammal evolution. Nature 450, 10111019 (2007).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Wilson, G. P. et al. Adaptive radiation of multituberculate mammals before the extinction of dinosaurs. Nature 483, 457460 (2012).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Carroll, S. B. Chance and necessity: the evolution of morphological complexity and diversity. Nature 409, 11021109 (2001).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Fraser, G. J. et al. An ancient gene network is co-opted for teeth on old and new jaws. PLoS Biol. 7, e1000031 (2009).

PubMed Central Article CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Richman, J. M. & Handrigan, G. R. Reptilian tooth development. Genesis 49, 247260 (2011).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Melstrom, K. M. The relationship between diet and tooth complexity in living dentigerous saurians. J. Morphol. 278, 500522 (2017).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Zahradnicek, O., Buchtova, M., Dosedelova, H. & Tucker, A. S. The development of complex tooth shape in reptiles. Front. Physiol. 5, 74 (2014).

PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Landova Sulcova, M. et al. Developmental mechanisms driving complex tooth shape in reptiles. Dev. Dyn. 249, 441464 (2020).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Jernvall, J. Linking development with generation of novelty in mammalian teeth. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 97, 26412645 (2000).

ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Jernvall, J., Kettunen, P., Karavanova, I., Martin, L. B. & Thesleff, I. Evidence for the role of the enamel knot as a control center in mammalian tooth cusp formation: non-dividing cells express growth-stimulating Fgf-4 gene. Int. J. Dev. Biol. 38, 463469 (1994).

CAS PubMed Google Scholar

Harjunmaa, E. et al. On the difficulty of increasing dental complexity. Nature 483, 324327 (2012).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Simes, T. R. et al. The origin of squamates revealed by a Middle Triassic lizard from the Italian Alps. Nature 557, 706709 (2018).

ADS PubMed Article CAS Google Scholar

Luo, Z.-X., Cifelli, R. L. & Kielan-Jaworowska, Z. Dual origin of tribosphenic mammals. Nature 409, 5357 (2001).

ADS CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Butler, P. M. The ontogeny of molar pattern. Biol. Rev. 31, 3069 (1956).

Article Google Scholar

Van Valen, L. M. Homology and causes. J. Morphol. 173, 305312 (1982).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Gould, S. J. Dollo on Dollos law: irreversibility and the status of evolutionary laws. J. Hist. Biol. 3, 189212 (1970).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Jernvall, J. & Jung, H. S. Genotype, phenotype, and developmental biology of molar tooth characters. Am. J. Phys. Anthropol. 31, 171190 (2000).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

DavitBal, T., Tucker, A. S. & Sire, J. Y. Loss of teeth and enamel in tetrapods: fossil record, genetic data and morphological adaptations. J. Anat. 214, 477501 (2009).

PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Charles, C., Sol, F., Rodrigues, H. G. & Viriot, L. Under pressure? Dental adaptations to termitophagy and vermivory among mammals. Evolution 67, 17921804 (2013).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Kurtn, B. Return of a lost structure in the evolution of the felid dentition. Soc. Sci. Fenn. Comm. Biol. 26, 112 (1963).

Google Scholar

Nydam, R. L., Gauthier, J. A. & Chiment, J. J. The mammal-like teeth of the Late Cretaceous lizard Peneteius aquilonius Estes 1969 (Squamata, Teiidae). J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 20, 628631 (2000).

Article Google Scholar

Brizuela, S. & Albino, A. M. The dentition of the neotropical lizard genus Teius Merrem 1820 (Squamata Teiidae). Trop. Zool. 22, 183193 (2009).

Google Scholar

Throckmorton, G. S. Oral food processing in two herbivorous lizards, Iguana iguana (Iguanidae) and Uromastix aegyptius (Agamidae). J. Morphol. 148, 363390 (1976).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

Haridy, Y. Histological analysis of post-eruption tooth wear adaptations, and ontogenetic changes in tooth implantation in the acrodontan squamate Pogona vitticeps. PeerJ. 6, e5923 (2018).

PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Presch, W. A survey of the dentition of the macroteiid lizards (Teiidae: Lacertilia). Herpetologica 30, 344349 (1974).

Google Scholar

Condamine, F. L., Rolland, J. & Morlon, H. Assessing the causes of diversification slowdowns: temperaturedependent and diversitydependent models receive equivalent support. Ecol. Lett. 22, 19001912 (2019).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Garcia-Porta, J. et al. Environmental temperatures shape thermal physiology as well as diversification and genome-wide substitution rates in lizards. Nat. Commun. 10, 4077 (2019).

ADS PubMed PubMed Central Article CAS Google Scholar

Pyron, R. A. Temperate extinction in squamate reptiles and the roots of latitudinal diversity gradients. Glob. Ecol. Biogeogr. 23, 11261134 (2014).

Article Google Scholar

Ricklefs, R. E., Losos, J. B. & Townsend, T. M. Evolutionary diversification of clades of squamate reptiles. J. Evol. Biol. 20, 17511762 (2007).

CAS PubMed Article Google Scholar

BarsClosel, M., Kohlsdorf, T., Moen, D. S. & Wiens, J. J. Diversification rates are more strongly related to microhabitat than climate in squamate reptiles (lizards and snakes). Evolution 71, 22432261 (2017).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Cleary, T. J., Benson, R. B., Evans, S. E. & Barrett, P. M. Lepidosaurian diversity in the MesozoicPalaeogene: the potential roles of sampling biases and environmental drivers. R. Soc. Open Sci. 5, 171830 (2018).

ADS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Close, R. A. et al. Diversity dynamics of Phanerozoic terrestrial tetrapods at the local-community scale. Nat. Ecol. Evol. 3, 590597 (2019).

PubMed Article Google Scholar

Close, R. A. et al. The apparent exponential radiation of Phanerozoic land vertebrates is an artefact of spatial sampling biases. Proc. R. Soc. B 287, 20200372 (2020).

PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Herrera-Flores, J. A., Stubbs, T. L. & Benton, M. J. Ecomorphological diversification of squamates in the Cretaceous. R. Soc. Open Sci. 8, 201961 (2021).

ADS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Lloyd, G. T. et al. Dinosaurs and the Cretaceous terrestrial revolution. Proc. R. Soc. B 275, 24832490 (2008).

PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

BarbaMontoya, J., dos Reis, M., Schneider, H., Donoghue, P. C. & Yang, Z. Constraining uncertainty in the timescale of angiosperm evolution and the veracity of a Cretaceous Terrestrial Revolution. N. Phytol. 218, 819834 (2018).

Article Google Scholar

Collinson, M. E. In Biotic Responses To Global Change: The Last 145 Million Years (eds Culver, S. J. & Rawson, P. F.) 223243 (Cambridge University Press, 2000).

Wing, S. L. et al. Late Paleocene fossils from the Cerrejn Formation, Colombia, are the earliest record of neotropical rainforest. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 106, 1862718632 (2009).

ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Espinoza, R. E., Wiens, J. J. & Tracy, C. R. Recurrent evolution of herbivory in small, cold-climate lizards: breaking the ecophysiological rules of reptilian herbivory. Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA 101, 1681916824 (2004).

ADS CAS PubMed PubMed Central Article Google Scholar

Mallon, J. C. & Brinkman, D. B. Basilemys morrinensis, a new species of nanhsiungchelyid turtle from the Horseshoe Canyon formation (Upper Cretaceous) of Alberta, Canada. J. Vertebr. Paleontol. 38, e1431922 (2018).

Article Google Scholar

Condamine, F. L., Guinot, G., Benton, M. J. & Currie, P. J. Dinosaur biodiversity declined well before the asteroid impact, influenced by ecological and environmental pressures. Nat. Commun. 12, 3833 (2021).

Read the rest here:

Multiple evolutionary origins and losses of tooth complexity in squamates - Nature.com