Tiny portions of ethanol, the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, can more than double the lifespan of a tiny worm known as C elegans.
The worm, found in soils, where they eat bacteria, is used frequently as a model in aging studies, according to University of California Los Angeles biochemists.
"This finding floored us - it's shocking," said Steven Clarke, a California professor of chemistry and biochemistry.
In humans, alcohol consumption is generally harmful, Clarke said, and if the worms are given much higher concentrations of ethanol, they experience harmful neurological effects and die, other research has shown.
Clarke's research team - Paola Castro, Shilpi Khare and Brian Young - studied thousands of these worms in the first hours of their lives, while they were still in a larval stage.
The worms normally live for about 15 days and can survive with nothing to eat for roughly 10-12 days. "Our finding is that tiny amounts of ethanol can make them survive 20 to 40 days," Clarke said.
The scientists fed the worms cholesterol, and the worms lived longer, apparently due to the cholesterol. They had dissolved the cholesterol in ethanol, often used as a solvent, which they diluted 1,000-fold.
"It's just a solvent, but it turns out the solvent was having the longevity effect," Clarke said.
"The cholesterol did nothing. We found that not only does ethanol work at a 1-to-1,000 dilution, it works at a 1-to-20,000 dilution.
"That tiny bit shouldn't have made any difference, but it turns out it can be so beneficial.
"The concentrations correspond to a tablespoon of ethanol in a bathtub full of water or the alcohol in one beer diluted into a hundred gallons of water," Clarke said.
http://www.phenomenica.com/2012/01/tiny-alcohol-amounts-double-worms-life.html
Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts
Showing posts with label worms. Show all posts
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Saturday, December 3, 2011
Liquid-living worms survive space
Worms have survived their first space mission in liquid form.
The result, published in a Royal Society journal, means worm colonies can be established on space stations without the need for researchers to tend to them.
The animals are helping scientists understand the effects of weightlessness and high radiation levels experienced in space.
Lessons learned could one day assist humans to explore the Solar System.
In 2001, Stephen Hawking is reported to have said: "I don't think the human race will survive the next 1,000 years, unless we spread into space. There are too many accidents that can befall life on a single planet. But I'm an optimist. We will reach out to the stars."
But space is no easy amble. Humans must first learn to cheaply and safely propel themselves into space regularly, and then, once there, must adapt to high levels of radiation and to weightlessness.
In preparation for longer spaceflight, scientists have designed shields to deflect harmful energetic particles, and continue to study the ill-effect of weightlessness on astronauts.
The gravity studies have mostly focused on a group of muscles - broadly known as anti-gravity muscles - that seem to deteriorate without the gravitational pull of the Earth. However, there is some evidence for the weakening in all muscles, including the hearts of astronauts.
Weightlessness not only sees animals use their muscles less, but causes changes in the chemical reactions within the muscle cells, explained Nathaniel Szewczyk from the University of Nottingham, who is the lead author on the new study in the journal of the Royal Society Interface.
Read more here ...
Friday, September 9, 2011
Hunter Lost For 5 Days Ate Worms To Survive
MEMPHIS, Tenn. -- A man who became separated from his friends in dense forest during a squirrel hunting trip in western Tennessee says he ate worms and drank muddy water to survive five days in the wild before he was found.
Bill Lawrence said he gathered rainwater in his hunting vest and tried to stay calm throughout his ordeal. Authorities say they conducted the longest search in decades in the 13,000-acre Meeman Shelby Forest State Park before the man was discovered Sunday.
"This is when I got turned around," said Lawrence, a corrections officer, adding he tried in vain to find his friends or their truck.
At the time he became separated, Lawrence was clad in camouflage pants and jacket, a hat and snake boots.
His friends reporting him as missing. Searchers used trained dogs, horses, all-terrain vehicles, boats, police vehicles and helicopters as they scoured the thick woods.
Meanwhile, Lawrence kept walking, searching for food and water.
"I was drinking muddy water ... eating worms. Yeah, I'd seen that on TV. I ate worms."
Lawrence said he had a shotgun, 15 shells, 2 bottles of water, a flashlight, a can of bug spray, a squirrel call and a can of dipping tobacco. But he did not have a cell phone to summon help.
He shot his gun whenever he thought he heard someone, but his shotgun shells ran out on Saturday.
"Everything was against him from the very beginning," Park Manager Steve Smith said, noting the helicopter spotters had difficulty peering into the dense forest canopy and searchers were hampered by extreme heat.
Messages left by The Associated Press at the park office for Smith were not immediately returned. A telephone listing for Lawrence couldn't be located.
Lawrence eventually reached a road on Sunday. It was about three miles from where he started out, but Lawrence estimated that he had covered about 35 miles by then.
Lawrence said he collapsed and was found by some passers-by.
"Man I was happy," he said. "I laid down in that road and just sat there. ... By then I was just wore out."
Authorities said Lawrence suffered from dehydration and severe insect bites. He was taking antibiotics because of the things he ate in the forest.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/hunter-lost-for-5-days-at_n_954439.html
Bill Lawrence said he gathered rainwater in his hunting vest and tried to stay calm throughout his ordeal. Authorities say they conducted the longest search in decades in the 13,000-acre Meeman Shelby Forest State Park before the man was discovered Sunday.
"This is when I got turned around," said Lawrence, a corrections officer, adding he tried in vain to find his friends or their truck.
At the time he became separated, Lawrence was clad in camouflage pants and jacket, a hat and snake boots.
His friends reporting him as missing. Searchers used trained dogs, horses, all-terrain vehicles, boats, police vehicles and helicopters as they scoured the thick woods.
Meanwhile, Lawrence kept walking, searching for food and water.
"I was drinking muddy water ... eating worms. Yeah, I'd seen that on TV. I ate worms."
Lawrence said he had a shotgun, 15 shells, 2 bottles of water, a flashlight, a can of bug spray, a squirrel call and a can of dipping tobacco. But he did not have a cell phone to summon help.
He shot his gun whenever he thought he heard someone, but his shotgun shells ran out on Saturday.
"Everything was against him from the very beginning," Park Manager Steve Smith said, noting the helicopter spotters had difficulty peering into the dense forest canopy and searchers were hampered by extreme heat.
Messages left by The Associated Press at the park office for Smith were not immediately returned. A telephone listing for Lawrence couldn't be located.
Lawrence eventually reached a road on Sunday. It was about three miles from where he started out, but Lawrence estimated that he had covered about 35 miles by then.
Lawrence said he collapsed and was found by some passers-by.
"Man I was happy," he said. "I laid down in that road and just sat there. ... By then I was just wore out."
Authorities said Lawrence suffered from dehydration and severe insect bites. He was taking antibiotics because of the things he ate in the forest.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/08/hunter-lost-for-5-days-at_n_954439.html
Friday, August 12, 2011
Animal's genetic code redesigned (via Dawn Holloway)
Researchers say they have created the first ever animal with artificial information in its genetic code.
The technique, they say, could give biologists "atom-by-atom control" over the molecules in living organisms.
One expert the BBC spoke to agrees, saying the technique would be seized upon by "the entire biology community".
The work by a Cambridge University team, which used nematode worms, appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The worms - from the species Caenorhabditis elegans - are 1mm long, with just a thousand cells in their transparent bodies.
What makes the newly created animals different is that their genetic code has been extended to create biological molecules not known in the natural world.
Genes are the DNA blueprints that enable living organisms to construct their biological machinery, protein molecules, out of strings of simpler building blocks called amino acids.
Just 20 amino acids are used in natural living organisms, assembled in different combinations to make the tens of thousands of different proteins needed to sustain life.
Expanded palette
But Sebastian Greiss and Jason Chin have re-engineered the nematode worm's gene-reading machinery to include a 21st amino acid, not found in nature.
Dr Chin of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (where Francis Crick and James Watson first cracked the structure of DNA) describes the technique as "potentially transformational": designer proteins could be created that are entirely under the researchers' control.
The development builds on techniques first developed at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, US, where Dr Chin worked 10 years ago.
The genetic code comes in four DNA letters, A,C,G and T; the genetic machinery reads it in words three letters long, called codons, which stand for the individual amino acid blocks to be built into a growing protein.
At Scripps, researchers showed in a paper in PNAS how one of those three letter words could be re-assigned, so that cells would read it as an instruction to incorporate an unnatural amino acid, one not normally found in living organisms. But that was in the bacterium E. coli; until now, no one had succeeded in doing the same in a whole animal.
Jonathan Hodgkin, professor of genetics at Oxford University, welcomes the new development, saying it "creates exciting new opportunities for research on C. elegans".
New tricks
Closer to home, Dr Mario de Bono, an expert on C elegans, who is also at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, predicts "this sort of news travels like wildfire" among research biologists, adding that the method could be applied to a wide range of animals.
So far it is just a proof of principle - the artificial protein that is produced in every cell of the nematode worm's tiny body contains a fluorescent dye that glows cherry red under ultraviolet light. If the genetic trick failed, there would be no glow.
But Dr Chin says any artificial amino acid could be chosen to produce specific new properties. Dr de Bono suggests the approach could now be used to introduce into organisms designer proteins that could be controlled by light.
Indeed, the two are planning to collaborate on a detailed study of neural cells in the nematode brain, aiming to activate or deactivate individual neurons in precise ways with tiny laser flashes.
Dr Chin rather modestly admits he's "incredibly pleased" to have succeeded in a project he had avoided until a year and a half ago, for fear that other well-established competitors would get there quicker.
On the other hand, Dr de Bono compares the invention with the Nobel-prize winning work on green fluorescent protein, which are now part of the standard kit in biology labs across the world.
By Roland Pease
BBC Radio Science
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14492948
The technique, they say, could give biologists "atom-by-atom control" over the molecules in living organisms.
One expert the BBC spoke to agrees, saying the technique would be seized upon by "the entire biology community".
The work by a Cambridge University team, which used nematode worms, appears in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
The worms - from the species Caenorhabditis elegans - are 1mm long, with just a thousand cells in their transparent bodies.
What makes the newly created animals different is that their genetic code has been extended to create biological molecules not known in the natural world.
Genes are the DNA blueprints that enable living organisms to construct their biological machinery, protein molecules, out of strings of simpler building blocks called amino acids.
Just 20 amino acids are used in natural living organisms, assembled in different combinations to make the tens of thousands of different proteins needed to sustain life.
Expanded palette
But Sebastian Greiss and Jason Chin have re-engineered the nematode worm's gene-reading machinery to include a 21st amino acid, not found in nature.
Dr Chin of the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (where Francis Crick and James Watson first cracked the structure of DNA) describes the technique as "potentially transformational": designer proteins could be created that are entirely under the researchers' control.
The development builds on techniques first developed at the Scripps Research Institute, in La Jolla, US, where Dr Chin worked 10 years ago.
The genetic code comes in four DNA letters, A,C,G and T; the genetic machinery reads it in words three letters long, called codons, which stand for the individual amino acid blocks to be built into a growing protein.
At Scripps, researchers showed in a paper in PNAS how one of those three letter words could be re-assigned, so that cells would read it as an instruction to incorporate an unnatural amino acid, one not normally found in living organisms. But that was in the bacterium E. coli; until now, no one had succeeded in doing the same in a whole animal.
Jonathan Hodgkin, professor of genetics at Oxford University, welcomes the new development, saying it "creates exciting new opportunities for research on C. elegans".
New tricks
Closer to home, Dr Mario de Bono, an expert on C elegans, who is also at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, predicts "this sort of news travels like wildfire" among research biologists, adding that the method could be applied to a wide range of animals.
So far it is just a proof of principle - the artificial protein that is produced in every cell of the nematode worm's tiny body contains a fluorescent dye that glows cherry red under ultraviolet light. If the genetic trick failed, there would be no glow.
But Dr Chin says any artificial amino acid could be chosen to produce specific new properties. Dr de Bono suggests the approach could now be used to introduce into organisms designer proteins that could be controlled by light.
Indeed, the two are planning to collaborate on a detailed study of neural cells in the nematode brain, aiming to activate or deactivate individual neurons in precise ways with tiny laser flashes.
Dr Chin rather modestly admits he's "incredibly pleased" to have succeeded in a project he had avoided until a year and a half ago, for fear that other well-established competitors would get there quicker.
On the other hand, Dr de Bono compares the invention with the Nobel-prize winning work on green fluorescent protein, which are now part of the standard kit in biology labs across the world.
By Roland Pease
BBC Radio Science
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14492948
Friday, February 25, 2011
Walking cactus discovered in China
By Wynne Parry, LiveScience / February 25, 2011
Fossils of a 10-legged wormy creature that lived 520 million years ago may fill an important gap in the history of the evolution of insects, spiders and crustaceans.
The so-called walking cactus belongs to a group of extinct worm-like creatures called lobopodians that are thought to have given rise to arthropods. Spiders and other arthropods have segmented bodies and jointed limbs covered in a hardened shell.
Before the discovery of the walking cactus, Diania cactiformis, all lobopodian remains had soft bodies and soft limbs, said Jianni Liu, the lead researcher who is affiliated with Northwest University in China and Freie University in Germany.
"Walking cactus is very important because it is sort of a missing link from lobopodians to arthropods," Liu told LiveScience. "Scientists have always suspected that arthropods evolved from somewhere amongst lobopodians, but until now we didn't have a single fossil you could point at and say that is the first one with jointed legs. And this is what walking cactus shows." [Image of walking cactus fossil]
Leggy find
Liu and other researchers described the extinct creature based on three complete fossils and 30 partial ones discovered in Yunnan Province in southern China. The walking cactus had a body divided into nine segments with 10 pairs of hardened, jointed legs, and it measured about 2.4 inches (6 centimeters) long.
It's not clear how the leggy worm made its living. It could have used its tube-like mouth called a proboscis to suck tiny things from the mud, or it may have used its spiny front legs to grab prey, Liu said.
Clues to arthropod evolution are preserved in modern-day velvet worms, which are considered the only living relative to all arthropods. Once mistaken for slugs, these land-dwelling worms are almost entirely soft-bodied except for hardened claws and jaws.
Where spiders, insects and others came from
The discovery of the walking cactus helps fill in the evolutionary history between the velvet worms and modern arthropods, which, in terms of numbers and diversity, are the most dominant group of animals on the planet, according to Graham Budd, a professor of paleobiology at Uppsala University in Sweden, who was not involved in the current study.
The walking cactus is the first and only case of hardened, jointed limbs built for walking appearing in a creature that is not recognizable as an arthropod, Budd said.
But Budd is not convinced that, as the researchers argue, the walking cactus's hardened legs were passed directly down to modern arthropods.
"I am not persuaded that it is a direct ancestor or as closely related to living arthropods as they suggest," he told LiveScience. "I would like to see more evidence; the great thing is a lot more material keeps coming up."
For instance, it is possible that the walking cactus is less closely related to modern arthropods, and that hardened legs evolved multiple times. It is also possible that the bodies of primitive arthropods hardened before their legs did, Budd said.
New fossils, particularly from China, have helped clarify the evolutionary history of arthropods, and in the last decade or so, scientists have come to more consensus regarding that history, he added.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0225/Walking-cactus-discovered-in-China
Monday, October 18, 2010
Kremlin fury over worm salad tweet
A regional governor is in hot water in Russia after posting on Twitter that he had found a worm in a salad served at the Kremlin.
Dmitry Zelenin has been branded "idiotic" for posting the message accompanied by a photograph showing the worm, reports the BBC.
"That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh," he tweeted.
But the Kremlin was not amused, and top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko accused Mr Zelenin of "irresponsibility and stupidity".
"I should probably have advised my lawyer colleagues to add to the list of formulae for assessing governors' performance a provision for 'dismissal on the grounds of imbecility'," he said.
"I would advise anyone who wants to invite Mr Zelenin as a guest to think hard before doing so."
Mr Zelenin's Twitter account no longer carries the message or the photograph of the salad, which was apparently served at a state dinner for German President Christian Wulff.
But Russian bloggers picked up the story and have begun to publish images they say were taken from the original tweet.
Anatoly Galkin, the Kremlin's head chef, told Russian media the worm claims were "nonsense".
All dishes served in the Kremlin "go through a very careful examination" before reaching the table, he said.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Kremlin_fury_over_worm_salad_tweet
Dmitry Zelenin has been branded "idiotic" for posting the message accompanied by a photograph showing the worm, reports the BBC.
"That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh," he tweeted.
But the Kremlin was not amused, and top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko accused Mr Zelenin of "irresponsibility and stupidity".
"I should probably have advised my lawyer colleagues to add to the list of formulae for assessing governors' performance a provision for 'dismissal on the grounds of imbecility'," he said.
"I would advise anyone who wants to invite Mr Zelenin as a guest to think hard before doing so."
Mr Zelenin's Twitter account no longer carries the message or the photograph of the salad, which was apparently served at a state dinner for German President Christian Wulff.
But Russian bloggers picked up the story and have begun to publish images they say were taken from the original tweet.
Anatoly Galkin, the Kremlin's head chef, told Russian media the worm claims were "nonsense".
All dishes served in the Kremlin "go through a very careful examination" before reaching the table, he said.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Kremlin_fury_over_worm_salad_tweet
Kremlin fury over worm salad tweet
A regional governor is in hot water in Russia after posting on Twitter that he had found a worm in a salad served at the Kremlin.
Dmitry Zelenin has been branded "idiotic" for posting the message accompanied by a photograph showing the worm, reports the BBC.
"That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh," he tweeted.
But the Kremlin was not amused, and top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko accused Mr Zelenin of "irresponsibility and stupidity".
"I should probably have advised my lawyer colleagues to add to the list of formulae for assessing governors' performance a provision for 'dismissal on the grounds of imbecility'," he said.
"I would advise anyone who wants to invite Mr Zelenin as a guest to think hard before doing so."
Mr Zelenin's Twitter account no longer carries the message or the photograph of the salad, which was apparently served at a state dinner for German President Christian Wulff.
But Russian bloggers picked up the story and have begun to publish images they say were taken from the original tweet.
Anatoly Galkin, the Kremlin's head chef, told Russian media the worm claims were "nonsense".
All dishes served in the Kremlin "go through a very careful examination" before reaching the table, he said.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Kremlin_fury_over_worm_salad_tweet
Dmitry Zelenin has been branded "idiotic" for posting the message accompanied by a photograph showing the worm, reports the BBC.
"That's an original way to show that the lettuce leaf is fresh," he tweeted.
But the Kremlin was not amused, and top foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko accused Mr Zelenin of "irresponsibility and stupidity".
"I should probably have advised my lawyer colleagues to add to the list of formulae for assessing governors' performance a provision for 'dismissal on the grounds of imbecility'," he said.
"I would advise anyone who wants to invite Mr Zelenin as a guest to think hard before doing so."
Mr Zelenin's Twitter account no longer carries the message or the photograph of the salad, which was apparently served at a state dinner for German President Christian Wulff.
But Russian bloggers picked up the story and have begun to publish images they say were taken from the original tweet.
Anatoly Galkin, the Kremlin's head chef, told Russian media the worm claims were "nonsense".
All dishes served in the Kremlin "go through a very careful examination" before reaching the table, he said.
http://web.orange.co.uk/article/quirkies/Kremlin_fury_over_worm_salad_tweet
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Scientists find rare oasis of life on floor of Yellowstone Lake
Monday, October 4, 2010
Montana State University researchers have discovered a rare oasis of life in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake.
A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.
The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore in the West Thumb region. The worms and shrimp live among approximately two feet of moss that encircles the vent.
"This particular vent seemed unique relative to all other active vents thus far observed in the lake in that it is robustly colonized by plants," the researchers wrote.
The team explored the lake bottom with a Remotely Operated Vehicle built by the same person who built a much larger rover for exploring the Titanic. The MSU team was led by John Varley in the Big Sky Institute and Tim McDermott and Bill Inskeep in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and MSU's Thermal Biology Institute.
The researchers said that the Fontinalis moss is not known to grow in the conditions they found on the floor of Yellowstone Lake and that a worm found associated with the moss had never been reported in North America. The researchers also noted that this was the first in-depth published study of the biology associated with any geothermal vent in Yellowstone Lake.
"The proliferation of complex higher organisms in close association with a Yellowstone Lake geothermal vent parallels that documented for deep marine vents, although to our knowledge this is the first such documentation for a freshwater habitat," the researchers wrote in Geobiology.
The vent is evidently responsible for the moss being able to live in what humans perceive as total darkness, but these plants obviously have the ability to somehow find and use very low light, Varley said. At times, the scene around the vent looks like it belongs in a snow globe because of a beige-colored silica and aluminum mineral that flies out of the vent and settles on the moss, which further lessens the ability of the moss to acquire light that is essential for it to photosynthesize. Key to the survival, indeed proliferation, of this moss in this unusual environment are the nutrients contained in the vent water. The nutrients feed the moss, which feed the shrimp and worms. The vent water also contains toxins such as arsenic and cadmium. It's super-saturated with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases.
"If there are gases of that type anywhere else in Yellowstone, it follows that there would be life that has been introduced and evolved there that uses those resources," Varley said.
The researchers explored the bottom of Yellowstone Lake from onboard the R/V Cutthroat, a National Park Service boat, Varley said. Using a map created by Lisa Morgan with the U.S. Geological Survey, they noted that the lake contains hundreds of active and dormant vents. Scientists have mapped the lake bottom three times over the last 136 years, but studies of the biology around the vents have been extremely limited.
The vents are mostly on the northern half of the lake, inside the Yellowstone caldera, and span from the West Thumb region to Mary Bay. The lake bottom is probably the third largest geothermal field in the park. It is estimated to contribute 10 percent of the total geothermal output in the park, as well as 15 percent of the water that's in Yellowstone Lake, Varley said.
Despite the geothermal activity, the lake is "still one cold son of a gun," Varley said, noting that the waters' surface rarely gets above 64 F.
Researchers used a Remotely Operated Vehicle specially designed for the task by Dave Lovalvo of Eastern Oceanics Research. About half the size of a household refrigerator, the ROV is much smaller than the ROVs he built for exploring deep ocean environments, but it can do most of the same sampling, Lovalvo said. ROV's for deep ocean exploration can range from 1,000 pounds to almost 10,000. The ships that carry them are typically 225 to 300 feet long. The ROV for Yellowstone Lake weighed about 250 pounds. The R/V Cutthroat is about 28 feet long.
"I'd like to think that this (ROV) has and will continue to assist the National Park Service and the public in not only better understanding this truly amazing place, but also preserving it for future generations," said Lovalvo, who has been involved in Yellowstone research for 25 years.
Although he built rovers to explore the Titanic; the PT-109 boat made famous by former President John F. Kennedy; and features deep in the ocean, Lovalvo said he is committed to Yellowstone.
"Yellowstone is a very unique environment and one of the few places in the world where one can compare an inland, hydrothermally active lake to an active volcanic area of the ocean," he said.
The study produced other results that will be the focus of future scientific papers, Varley said. The researchers are currently writing five papers about their findings.
The Geobiology paper compared each vent to an island with its own chemistry and conditions. Future research may focus on genetic communication between those islands, Varley said.
Other MSU team members on the Yellowstone project were Rich Macur in the Inskeep lab; Scott Clingenpeel, a postdoctoral researcher with McDermott; and Stephanie McGinnis, a conservation biologist with the Big Sky Institute. Team members from elsewhere were Lovalvo; Janice Glime from Michigan Technological University and K. Nealson from the University of Southern California and the JC Venter Institute in California.
Yellowstone National Park is required to document the park's biodiversity, and the broader study being conducted by MSU at least doubles the list of organisms known to live there, Varley said. He added that understanding how the colony lives in such extreme conditions may lead to the development of new products and inventions.
One example of a Yellowstone organism leading to an industrial product is Thermus aquaticus, a heat-resistant micro-organism discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring in the 1960s. Subsequent research on Thermus aquaticus led to today's modern DNA testing -- a multi-billion dollar industry.
The project at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has already benefited public school teachers and National Park Service employees who helped conduct field work that contributed to the study, Varley said. Not only did they learn field techniques, but they will share their experiences and scientific findings with students and park visitors.
Varley, who used to work for the National Park Service and ended his NSP career as director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said he started inventorying the park's biodiversity in 2003. Now a senior scientist at the Big Sky Institute, Varley said the study that led to the current discoveries began in 2004 as a pilot project. Field work continued in 2008 and 2009, with each field season lasting about 10 days during the fall. The ROV was used during the pilot season and both field seasons.
"What we do is impossible without the ROV," Varley said. "There is no other feasible way to do the work."
###
Montana State University: http://www.montana.edu Thanks to Montana State University for this article.
http://www.labspaces.net/106790/Scientists_find_rare_oasis_of_life_on_floor_of_Yellowstone_Lake
Montana State University researchers have discovered a rare oasis of life in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake.
A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.
The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore in the West Thumb region. The worms and shrimp live among approximately two feet of moss that encircles the vent.
"This particular vent seemed unique relative to all other active vents thus far observed in the lake in that it is robustly colonized by plants," the researchers wrote.
The team explored the lake bottom with a Remotely Operated Vehicle built by the same person who built a much larger rover for exploring the Titanic. The MSU team was led by John Varley in the Big Sky Institute and Tim McDermott and Bill Inskeep in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and MSU's Thermal Biology Institute.
The researchers said that the Fontinalis moss is not known to grow in the conditions they found on the floor of Yellowstone Lake and that a worm found associated with the moss had never been reported in North America. The researchers also noted that this was the first in-depth published study of the biology associated with any geothermal vent in Yellowstone Lake.
"The proliferation of complex higher organisms in close association with a Yellowstone Lake geothermal vent parallels that documented for deep marine vents, although to our knowledge this is the first such documentation for a freshwater habitat," the researchers wrote in Geobiology.
The vent is evidently responsible for the moss being able to live in what humans perceive as total darkness, but these plants obviously have the ability to somehow find and use very low light, Varley said. At times, the scene around the vent looks like it belongs in a snow globe because of a beige-colored silica and aluminum mineral that flies out of the vent and settles on the moss, which further lessens the ability of the moss to acquire light that is essential for it to photosynthesize. Key to the survival, indeed proliferation, of this moss in this unusual environment are the nutrients contained in the vent water. The nutrients feed the moss, which feed the shrimp and worms. The vent water also contains toxins such as arsenic and cadmium. It's super-saturated with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases.
"If there are gases of that type anywhere else in Yellowstone, it follows that there would be life that has been introduced and evolved there that uses those resources," Varley said.
The researchers explored the bottom of Yellowstone Lake from onboard the R/V Cutthroat, a National Park Service boat, Varley said. Using a map created by Lisa Morgan with the U.S. Geological Survey, they noted that the lake contains hundreds of active and dormant vents. Scientists have mapped the lake bottom three times over the last 136 years, but studies of the biology around the vents have been extremely limited.
The vents are mostly on the northern half of the lake, inside the Yellowstone caldera, and span from the West Thumb region to Mary Bay. The lake bottom is probably the third largest geothermal field in the park. It is estimated to contribute 10 percent of the total geothermal output in the park, as well as 15 percent of the water that's in Yellowstone Lake, Varley said.
Despite the geothermal activity, the lake is "still one cold son of a gun," Varley said, noting that the waters' surface rarely gets above 64 F.
Researchers used a Remotely Operated Vehicle specially designed for the task by Dave Lovalvo of Eastern Oceanics Research. About half the size of a household refrigerator, the ROV is much smaller than the ROVs he built for exploring deep ocean environments, but it can do most of the same sampling, Lovalvo said. ROV's for deep ocean exploration can range from 1,000 pounds to almost 10,000. The ships that carry them are typically 225 to 300 feet long. The ROV for Yellowstone Lake weighed about 250 pounds. The R/V Cutthroat is about 28 feet long.
"I'd like to think that this (ROV) has and will continue to assist the National Park Service and the public in not only better understanding this truly amazing place, but also preserving it for future generations," said Lovalvo, who has been involved in Yellowstone research for 25 years.
Although he built rovers to explore the Titanic; the PT-109 boat made famous by former President John F. Kennedy; and features deep in the ocean, Lovalvo said he is committed to Yellowstone.
"Yellowstone is a very unique environment and one of the few places in the world where one can compare an inland, hydrothermally active lake to an active volcanic area of the ocean," he said.
The study produced other results that will be the focus of future scientific papers, Varley said. The researchers are currently writing five papers about their findings.
The Geobiology paper compared each vent to an island with its own chemistry and conditions. Future research may focus on genetic communication between those islands, Varley said.
Other MSU team members on the Yellowstone project were Rich Macur in the Inskeep lab; Scott Clingenpeel, a postdoctoral researcher with McDermott; and Stephanie McGinnis, a conservation biologist with the Big Sky Institute. Team members from elsewhere were Lovalvo; Janice Glime from Michigan Technological University and K. Nealson from the University of Southern California and the JC Venter Institute in California.
Yellowstone National Park is required to document the park's biodiversity, and the broader study being conducted by MSU at least doubles the list of organisms known to live there, Varley said. He added that understanding how the colony lives in such extreme conditions may lead to the development of new products and inventions.
One example of a Yellowstone organism leading to an industrial product is Thermus aquaticus, a heat-resistant micro-organism discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring in the 1960s. Subsequent research on Thermus aquaticus led to today's modern DNA testing -- a multi-billion dollar industry.
The project at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has already benefited public school teachers and National Park Service employees who helped conduct field work that contributed to the study, Varley said. Not only did they learn field techniques, but they will share their experiences and scientific findings with students and park visitors.
Varley, who used to work for the National Park Service and ended his NSP career as director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said he started inventorying the park's biodiversity in 2003. Now a senior scientist at the Big Sky Institute, Varley said the study that led to the current discoveries began in 2004 as a pilot project. Field work continued in 2008 and 2009, with each field season lasting about 10 days during the fall. The ROV was used during the pilot season and both field seasons.
"What we do is impossible without the ROV," Varley said. "There is no other feasible way to do the work."
###
Montana State University: http://www.montana.edu Thanks to Montana State University for this article.
http://www.labspaces.net/106790/Scientists_find_rare_oasis_of_life_on_floor_of_Yellowstone_Lake
Scientists find rare oasis of life on floor of Yellowstone Lake
Monday, October 4, 2010
Montana State University researchers have discovered a rare oasis of life in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake.
A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.
The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore in the West Thumb region. The worms and shrimp live among approximately two feet of moss that encircles the vent.
"This particular vent seemed unique relative to all other active vents thus far observed in the lake in that it is robustly colonized by plants," the researchers wrote.
The team explored the lake bottom with a Remotely Operated Vehicle built by the same person who built a much larger rover for exploring the Titanic. The MSU team was led by John Varley in the Big Sky Institute and Tim McDermott and Bill Inskeep in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and MSU's Thermal Biology Institute.
The researchers said that the Fontinalis moss is not known to grow in the conditions they found on the floor of Yellowstone Lake and that a worm found associated with the moss had never been reported in North America. The researchers also noted that this was the first in-depth published study of the biology associated with any geothermal vent in Yellowstone Lake.
"The proliferation of complex higher organisms in close association with a Yellowstone Lake geothermal vent parallels that documented for deep marine vents, although to our knowledge this is the first such documentation for a freshwater habitat," the researchers wrote in Geobiology.
The vent is evidently responsible for the moss being able to live in what humans perceive as total darkness, but these plants obviously have the ability to somehow find and use very low light, Varley said. At times, the scene around the vent looks like it belongs in a snow globe because of a beige-colored silica and aluminum mineral that flies out of the vent and settles on the moss, which further lessens the ability of the moss to acquire light that is essential for it to photosynthesize. Key to the survival, indeed proliferation, of this moss in this unusual environment are the nutrients contained in the vent water. The nutrients feed the moss, which feed the shrimp and worms. The vent water also contains toxins such as arsenic and cadmium. It's super-saturated with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases.
"If there are gases of that type anywhere else in Yellowstone, it follows that there would be life that has been introduced and evolved there that uses those resources," Varley said.
The researchers explored the bottom of Yellowstone Lake from onboard the R/V Cutthroat, a National Park Service boat, Varley said. Using a map created by Lisa Morgan with the U.S. Geological Survey, they noted that the lake contains hundreds of active and dormant vents. Scientists have mapped the lake bottom three times over the last 136 years, but studies of the biology around the vents have been extremely limited.
The vents are mostly on the northern half of the lake, inside the Yellowstone caldera, and span from the West Thumb region to Mary Bay. The lake bottom is probably the third largest geothermal field in the park. It is estimated to contribute 10 percent of the total geothermal output in the park, as well as 15 percent of the water that's in Yellowstone Lake, Varley said.
Despite the geothermal activity, the lake is "still one cold son of a gun," Varley said, noting that the waters' surface rarely gets above 64 F.
Researchers used a Remotely Operated Vehicle specially designed for the task by Dave Lovalvo of Eastern Oceanics Research. About half the size of a household refrigerator, the ROV is much smaller than the ROVs he built for exploring deep ocean environments, but it can do most of the same sampling, Lovalvo said. ROV's for deep ocean exploration can range from 1,000 pounds to almost 10,000. The ships that carry them are typically 225 to 300 feet long. The ROV for Yellowstone Lake weighed about 250 pounds. The R/V Cutthroat is about 28 feet long.
"I'd like to think that this (ROV) has and will continue to assist the National Park Service and the public in not only better understanding this truly amazing place, but also preserving it for future generations," said Lovalvo, who has been involved in Yellowstone research for 25 years.
Although he built rovers to explore the Titanic; the PT-109 boat made famous by former President John F. Kennedy; and features deep in the ocean, Lovalvo said he is committed to Yellowstone.
"Yellowstone is a very unique environment and one of the few places in the world where one can compare an inland, hydrothermally active lake to an active volcanic area of the ocean," he said.
The study produced other results that will be the focus of future scientific papers, Varley said. The researchers are currently writing five papers about their findings.
The Geobiology paper compared each vent to an island with its own chemistry and conditions. Future research may focus on genetic communication between those islands, Varley said.
Other MSU team members on the Yellowstone project were Rich Macur in the Inskeep lab; Scott Clingenpeel, a postdoctoral researcher with McDermott; and Stephanie McGinnis, a conservation biologist with the Big Sky Institute. Team members from elsewhere were Lovalvo; Janice Glime from Michigan Technological University and K. Nealson from the University of Southern California and the JC Venter Institute in California.
Yellowstone National Park is required to document the park's biodiversity, and the broader study being conducted by MSU at least doubles the list of organisms known to live there, Varley said. He added that understanding how the colony lives in such extreme conditions may lead to the development of new products and inventions.
One example of a Yellowstone organism leading to an industrial product is Thermus aquaticus, a heat-resistant micro-organism discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring in the 1960s. Subsequent research on Thermus aquaticus led to today's modern DNA testing -- a multi-billion dollar industry.
The project at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has already benefited public school teachers and National Park Service employees who helped conduct field work that contributed to the study, Varley said. Not only did they learn field techniques, but they will share their experiences and scientific findings with students and park visitors.
Varley, who used to work for the National Park Service and ended his NSP career as director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said he started inventorying the park's biodiversity in 2003. Now a senior scientist at the Big Sky Institute, Varley said the study that led to the current discoveries began in 2004 as a pilot project. Field work continued in 2008 and 2009, with each field season lasting about 10 days during the fall. The ROV was used during the pilot season and both field seasons.
"What we do is impossible without the ROV," Varley said. "There is no other feasible way to do the work."
###
Montana State University: http://www.montana.edu Thanks to Montana State University for this article.
http://www.labspaces.net/106790/Scientists_find_rare_oasis_of_life_on_floor_of_Yellowstone_Lake
Montana State University researchers have discovered a rare oasis of life in the midst of hundreds of geothermal vents at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake.
A colony of moss, worms and various forms of shrimp flourishes in an area where the water is inky black, about 90 degrees Fahrenheit, and a cauldron of nutrients, gases and poisons, the researchers reported in the September issue of Geobiology.
The vent is close to 100 feet below the surface of Yellowstone Lake and a third of a mile offshore in the West Thumb region. The worms and shrimp live among approximately two feet of moss that encircles the vent.
"This particular vent seemed unique relative to all other active vents thus far observed in the lake in that it is robustly colonized by plants," the researchers wrote.
The team explored the lake bottom with a Remotely Operated Vehicle built by the same person who built a much larger rover for exploring the Titanic. The MSU team was led by John Varley in the Big Sky Institute and Tim McDermott and Bill Inskeep in the Department of Land Resources and Environmental Sciences and MSU's Thermal Biology Institute.
The researchers said that the Fontinalis moss is not known to grow in the conditions they found on the floor of Yellowstone Lake and that a worm found associated with the moss had never been reported in North America. The researchers also noted that this was the first in-depth published study of the biology associated with any geothermal vent in Yellowstone Lake.
"The proliferation of complex higher organisms in close association with a Yellowstone Lake geothermal vent parallels that documented for deep marine vents, although to our knowledge this is the first such documentation for a freshwater habitat," the researchers wrote in Geobiology.
The vent is evidently responsible for the moss being able to live in what humans perceive as total darkness, but these plants obviously have the ability to somehow find and use very low light, Varley said. At times, the scene around the vent looks like it belongs in a snow globe because of a beige-colored silica and aluminum mineral that flies out of the vent and settles on the moss, which further lessens the ability of the moss to acquire light that is essential for it to photosynthesize. Key to the survival, indeed proliferation, of this moss in this unusual environment are the nutrients contained in the vent water. The nutrients feed the moss, which feed the shrimp and worms. The vent water also contains toxins such as arsenic and cadmium. It's super-saturated with carbon dioxide, hydrogen and other gases.
"If there are gases of that type anywhere else in Yellowstone, it follows that there would be life that has been introduced and evolved there that uses those resources," Varley said.
The researchers explored the bottom of Yellowstone Lake from onboard the R/V Cutthroat, a National Park Service boat, Varley said. Using a map created by Lisa Morgan with the U.S. Geological Survey, they noted that the lake contains hundreds of active and dormant vents. Scientists have mapped the lake bottom three times over the last 136 years, but studies of the biology around the vents have been extremely limited.
The vents are mostly on the northern half of the lake, inside the Yellowstone caldera, and span from the West Thumb region to Mary Bay. The lake bottom is probably the third largest geothermal field in the park. It is estimated to contribute 10 percent of the total geothermal output in the park, as well as 15 percent of the water that's in Yellowstone Lake, Varley said.
Despite the geothermal activity, the lake is "still one cold son of a gun," Varley said, noting that the waters' surface rarely gets above 64 F.
Researchers used a Remotely Operated Vehicle specially designed for the task by Dave Lovalvo of Eastern Oceanics Research. About half the size of a household refrigerator, the ROV is much smaller than the ROVs he built for exploring deep ocean environments, but it can do most of the same sampling, Lovalvo said. ROV's for deep ocean exploration can range from 1,000 pounds to almost 10,000. The ships that carry them are typically 225 to 300 feet long. The ROV for Yellowstone Lake weighed about 250 pounds. The R/V Cutthroat is about 28 feet long.
"I'd like to think that this (ROV) has and will continue to assist the National Park Service and the public in not only better understanding this truly amazing place, but also preserving it for future generations," said Lovalvo, who has been involved in Yellowstone research for 25 years.
Although he built rovers to explore the Titanic; the PT-109 boat made famous by former President John F. Kennedy; and features deep in the ocean, Lovalvo said he is committed to Yellowstone.
"Yellowstone is a very unique environment and one of the few places in the world where one can compare an inland, hydrothermally active lake to an active volcanic area of the ocean," he said.
The study produced other results that will be the focus of future scientific papers, Varley said. The researchers are currently writing five papers about their findings.
The Geobiology paper compared each vent to an island with its own chemistry and conditions. Future research may focus on genetic communication between those islands, Varley said.
Other MSU team members on the Yellowstone project were Rich Macur in the Inskeep lab; Scott Clingenpeel, a postdoctoral researcher with McDermott; and Stephanie McGinnis, a conservation biologist with the Big Sky Institute. Team members from elsewhere were Lovalvo; Janice Glime from Michigan Technological University and K. Nealson from the University of Southern California and the JC Venter Institute in California.
Yellowstone National Park is required to document the park's biodiversity, and the broader study being conducted by MSU at least doubles the list of organisms known to live there, Varley said. He added that understanding how the colony lives in such extreme conditions may lead to the development of new products and inventions.
One example of a Yellowstone organism leading to an industrial product is Thermus aquaticus, a heat-resistant micro-organism discovered in a Yellowstone hot spring in the 1960s. Subsequent research on Thermus aquaticus led to today's modern DNA testing -- a multi-billion dollar industry.
The project at the bottom of Yellowstone Lake has already benefited public school teachers and National Park Service employees who helped conduct field work that contributed to the study, Varley said. Not only did they learn field techniques, but they will share their experiences and scientific findings with students and park visitors.
Varley, who used to work for the National Park Service and ended his NSP career as director of the Yellowstone Center for Resources, said he started inventorying the park's biodiversity in 2003. Now a senior scientist at the Big Sky Institute, Varley said the study that led to the current discoveries began in 2004 as a pilot project. Field work continued in 2008 and 2009, with each field season lasting about 10 days during the fall. The ROV was used during the pilot season and both field seasons.
"What we do is impossible without the ROV," Varley said. "There is no other feasible way to do the work."
###
Montana State University: http://www.montana.edu Thanks to Montana State University for this article.
http://www.labspaces.net/106790/Scientists_find_rare_oasis_of_life_on_floor_of_Yellowstone_Lake
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Girl vomited two-metre parasitic worm, archives reveal
Medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy journals made accessible to the public from today
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010
A 12-year-old girl required medical treatment after vomiting a 220cm-long worm as she sailed to a new life in Canada in the 19th century, documents revealed today.
Ellen McCarthy was a passenger on board the Elizabeth ship taking emigrants from Cork in Ireland to Quebec when she fell ill, expelling three worms in total.
Her unusual case was described by the ship's surgeon, P Power, in June 1825. The medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy medical officer journals made accessible to the public after a two-year cataloguing project at the National Archives in Kew.
Power's notes state: "Complained yesterday evening of pain in the bottom of the belly increased on pressure, abdomen hard and swollen, picks her nose, starts in her sleep, bowels constipated, pyrexia, tongue foul, pulse quick, skin hot, great thirst. Her mother brought me a lumbricus [worm] this morning 87in long which the patient vomited."
The naval surgeon treated the girl with a range of syrups and injections including barley water and brandy punch. But he singled out oil of "terebouth" (thought to refer to the turpentine tree) for having the greatest effect. Two days later, on 15 June, she was "very ill and feverish" and Power gave her a laxative which he said prompted the patient to pass a "great quantity of slimey matter".
Her condition gradually improved in a "pleasing" manner and on 29 June, Power stated she was "convalescent".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/30/girl-vomited-two-metre-parasitic-worm
(Submitted by Tim Chapman)
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010
A 12-year-old girl required medical treatment after vomiting a 220cm-long worm as she sailed to a new life in Canada in the 19th century, documents revealed today.
Ellen McCarthy was a passenger on board the Elizabeth ship taking emigrants from Cork in Ireland to Quebec when she fell ill, expelling three worms in total.
Her unusual case was described by the ship's surgeon, P Power, in June 1825. The medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy medical officer journals made accessible to the public after a two-year cataloguing project at the National Archives in Kew.
Power's notes state: "Complained yesterday evening of pain in the bottom of the belly increased on pressure, abdomen hard and swollen, picks her nose, starts in her sleep, bowels constipated, pyrexia, tongue foul, pulse quick, skin hot, great thirst. Her mother brought me a lumbricus [worm] this morning 87in long which the patient vomited."
The naval surgeon treated the girl with a range of syrups and injections including barley water and brandy punch. But he singled out oil of "terebouth" (thought to refer to the turpentine tree) for having the greatest effect. Two days later, on 15 June, she was "very ill and feverish" and Power gave her a laxative which he said prompted the patient to pass a "great quantity of slimey matter".
Her condition gradually improved in a "pleasing" manner and on 29 June, Power stated she was "convalescent".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/30/girl-vomited-two-metre-parasitic-worm
(Submitted by Tim Chapman)
Girl vomited two-metre parasitic worm, archives reveal
Medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy journals made accessible to the public from today
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010
A 12-year-old girl required medical treatment after vomiting a 220cm-long worm as she sailed to a new life in Canada in the 19th century, documents revealed today.
Ellen McCarthy was a passenger on board the Elizabeth ship taking emigrants from Cork in Ireland to Quebec when she fell ill, expelling three worms in total.
Her unusual case was described by the ship's surgeon, P Power, in June 1825. The medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy medical officer journals made accessible to the public after a two-year cataloguing project at the National Archives in Kew.
Power's notes state: "Complained yesterday evening of pain in the bottom of the belly increased on pressure, abdomen hard and swollen, picks her nose, starts in her sleep, bowels constipated, pyrexia, tongue foul, pulse quick, skin hot, great thirst. Her mother brought me a lumbricus [worm] this morning 87in long which the patient vomited."
The naval surgeon treated the girl with a range of syrups and injections including barley water and brandy punch. But he singled out oil of "terebouth" (thought to refer to the turpentine tree) for having the greatest effect. Two days later, on 15 June, she was "very ill and feverish" and Power gave her a laxative which he said prompted the patient to pass a "great quantity of slimey matter".
Her condition gradually improved in a "pleasing" manner and on 29 June, Power stated she was "convalescent".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/30/girl-vomited-two-metre-parasitic-worm
(Submitted by Tim Chapman)
The Guardian, Thursday 30 September 2010
A 12-year-old girl required medical treatment after vomiting a 220cm-long worm as she sailed to a new life in Canada in the 19th century, documents revealed today.
Ellen McCarthy was a passenger on board the Elizabeth ship taking emigrants from Cork in Ireland to Quebec when she fell ill, expelling three worms in total.
Her unusual case was described by the ship's surgeon, P Power, in June 1825. The medic's account is one of more than 1,000 Royal Navy medical officer journals made accessible to the public after a two-year cataloguing project at the National Archives in Kew.
Power's notes state: "Complained yesterday evening of pain in the bottom of the belly increased on pressure, abdomen hard and swollen, picks her nose, starts in her sleep, bowels constipated, pyrexia, tongue foul, pulse quick, skin hot, great thirst. Her mother brought me a lumbricus [worm] this morning 87in long which the patient vomited."
The naval surgeon treated the girl with a range of syrups and injections including barley water and brandy punch. But he singled out oil of "terebouth" (thought to refer to the turpentine tree) for having the greatest effect. Two days later, on 15 June, she was "very ill and feverish" and Power gave her a laxative which he said prompted the patient to pass a "great quantity of slimey matter".
Her condition gradually improved in a "pleasing" manner and on 29 June, Power stated she was "convalescent".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/sep/30/girl-vomited-two-metre-parasitic-worm
(Submitted by Tim Chapman)
Saturday, August 7, 2010
Worm charming festival fails to catch a single specimen
Crowds who attended a worm charming festival were left disappointed after contestants failed to tempt a single creature out of the ground.
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 8:30AM BST 07 Aug 2010
Dozens of competitors converged on a field in Lincolnshire for the sport which involves trying to lure as many worms as possible out of the earth within a 30-minute period.
But while the world record stands at 567, not one of the entrants at the Woodhall Worm Charming Festival managed to persuade a single invertebrate to vacate its underground lair.
The dismal performance was not matched by the enthusiasm of those taking part. While many traditionalists used the tried and tested method of “twanging” – whereby a four-pronged garden fork is inserted into the ground and vibrated by hand – others played instruments and experimented with homemade contraptions.
One contestant repeatedly honked his patch of grass with a vuvuzela, while another wheeled a spiked roller called “the worminator” across the ground. One team even used an electric back massager to coax out their prey.
At the close of the contest, one entrant said: “I feel wormthless.” Another added: “No worms, but we think they were just under the surface.”
With no clear winner, organisers were forced to modify the judging criteria and awarded the trophy to Team Green for being the Most Enthusiastic Charmers of the event.
The dire result follows the World Worm Charming Championships in Nantwich, Cheshire, earlier this summer which regularly sees entrants luring hundreds of creatures to the surface.
Event organiser Toni Franck said: “I can’t believe it because in Cheshire, even in their worst year, the winner took 40 worms – the best was more than 500. But we didn’t see a single worm here.”
Rules stipulate that contestants are not allowed to use water or dig worms out of the ground.
The event raised more than £200 for the Woodhall Spa Twinning Association.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7931029/PLEASE-PIC-AND-PUBLISH-Worm-charming-festival-fails-to-catch-a-single-specimen.html
By Murray Wardrop
Published: 8:30AM BST 07 Aug 2010
Dozens of competitors converged on a field in Lincolnshire for the sport which involves trying to lure as many worms as possible out of the earth within a 30-minute period.
But while the world record stands at 567, not one of the entrants at the Woodhall Worm Charming Festival managed to persuade a single invertebrate to vacate its underground lair.
The dismal performance was not matched by the enthusiasm of those taking part. While many traditionalists used the tried and tested method of “twanging” – whereby a four-pronged garden fork is inserted into the ground and vibrated by hand – others played instruments and experimented with homemade contraptions.
One contestant repeatedly honked his patch of grass with a vuvuzela, while another wheeled a spiked roller called “the worminator” across the ground. One team even used an electric back massager to coax out their prey.
At the close of the contest, one entrant said: “I feel wormthless.” Another added: “No worms, but we think they were just under the surface.”
With no clear winner, organisers were forced to modify the judging criteria and awarded the trophy to Team Green for being the Most Enthusiastic Charmers of the event.
The dire result follows the World Worm Charming Championships in Nantwich, Cheshire, earlier this summer which regularly sees entrants luring hundreds of creatures to the surface.
Event organiser Toni Franck said: “I can’t believe it because in Cheshire, even in their worst year, the winner took 40 worms – the best was more than 500. But we didn’t see a single worm here.”
Rules stipulate that contestants are not allowed to use water or dig worms out of the ground.
The event raised more than £200 for the Woodhall Spa Twinning Association.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7931029/PLEASE-PIC-AND-PUBLISH-Worm-charming-festival-fails-to-catch-a-single-specimen.html
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Found Alive: The Loch Ness Monster of the Northwest Prairie. Alas, It Disappoints (Idaho scientists find fabled "giant" worm)
By JIM ROBBINSPublished: April 27, 2010
HELENA, Mont.— Once feared extinct, the giant Palouse earthworm, reputed to grow up to three feet long and smell like lilies, has been found alive.
It turns out though, experts say, the worm is not a giant, nor does it have a lilylike scent.
Researchers thought the worm, translucent with the pink head and last seen in the 1980s, might be extinct because its habitat, the Palouse prairie region of Idaho and Washington, is almost gone. On March 27, however, Karl Umiker, a University of Idaho research support scientist, working with Shan Xu, a graduate student from Chengdu, China, discovered two giant Palouse earthworms, a juvenile and an adult, on a small patch of native prairie near Moscow, Idaho.
As it turns out, the worms are bigger than night crawlers but not giant. The two specimens, the adult of which had to be killed and dissected to determine whether it was indeed a giant Palouse earthworm, were about seven inches long when they came from the ground.
“But when we stretched it out and relaxed it, the adult earthworm got bigger,” said Jodi Johnson-Maynard an associate professor of soil and water management and Mr. Umiker’s supervisor. “It’s between 9 and 10 inches.”
That is a far cry from earlier claims of three-foot worms. “We tried to track that story down,” Dr. Johnson-Maynard said, and discovered that many years ago there was one giant specimen. “Apparently some boy was swinging it in the air like a rope, and it stretched.”
Giant earthworms do exist in Africa and Australia, she said, and so it was thought that a North American version was possible.
And the fragrance of lilies? “That I have never noted,” Dr. Johnson-Maynard said. She did not know the origin of that claim.
Still, Dr. Johnson-Maynard said that finding the worms was a scientific coup. “Most people thought it was extinct, or that it never even existed,” she said, “like the Loch Ness monster.”
The worms are transparent, and their organs and food can be discerned through their skin. The species was first described in 1897.
The last live worms were found in the 1980s. Worms were found by researchers in 2005 and 2007, but they were killed during recovery. There were numerous sightings in the 19th century before most of the native prairie was plowed up for wheat. Environmentalists have petitioned the federal government to list the worm as endangered.
Dr. Johnson-Maynard was disappointed that the adult had to be killed to be identified, but inspecting digestive organs is the only way to tell for sure. Now, however, she said, DNA from the sacrificial worm should enable less drastic measures.
Dr. Johnson-Maynard suspects that there are more giant Palouse earthworms, and that they are considered rare in part because they are so hard to find. While most worms live in the top foot of soil, she said, “the giant Palouse can burrow much deeper, about 15 feet.” They can also sense disturbance and flee to deeper ground when researchers are digging.
The researchers used an electroshock device to find the worms. The location technique, called the octet method, involves sticking eight electrodes into the ground in a one-foot-circle and sending electricity through them. It is believed to be what brought the worms to the surface.
The scientific name for the worm is Driloleirus americanus, a separate genus and species than other worms. The creature is different from other worms in a couple of ways. It has more nephidia, a kidney-like organ that allows it to live in dryer conditions than other worms. And their clitellum, a smooth band that all worms have, is in a different location.
The captured juvenile is resting comfortably, Dr. Johnson-Maynard said, adding, “We have it in a cooler in soil with ice packs.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/28/science/earth/28earthworm.html?ref=us
(Submitted by Brian Chapman)
See also: http://www.idahostatesman.com/2010/04/27/1169673/apnewsbreak-idaho-scientists-find.html#ixzz0mUBrfYXv
And: http://news.ca.msn.com/world/cbc-article.aspx?cp-documentid=24061208
(Submitted by G. A. Christian Bilou)
Friday, April 16, 2010
After the girl's nostril leech: More nasty animals found in the body
RIGHT: A hookworm: They infect 600 million people worldwideTed Thornhill - 16th April, 2010
You've seen the horror that is the leech named T Rex who gets into girls' nostrils. Now prepare to see even more nasty things that live inside humans...
Hookworm
An infestation of hookworm can cause nasty blisters and lesions on the skin. You might also get a fever and vomit a lot. It's really not pleasant - and they infect over 500 million people a year.
Candiru
The candiru – or toothpick fish – is a native to the Amazon River in Brazil and has a vicious way of feeding. Attracted by chemicals emitted from the gills of fish it preys upon, the candiru – which can grow to 15cm – sneaks into the gills and uses two spikes in its head to hook itself in place. Then it sucks the blood of its victim. It poses little danger to humans – unless you pee in the river. The candiru is thought to be attracted to our urine and there was a case in 1997 when someone got one of these spiky beasts lodged somewhere rather sensitive...
Human Botfly
These nasty little critters capture mosquitoes, drop their eggs on them, then let the mozzies go to work. When they bite, the eggs go in through the hole and grow under the skin – for eight weeks. Then the 2cm long larva fall out and hatch into botflies.
See the video of a larva being removed from someone's back. If you can stomach it!
Whipworm
These can grow to 31cm in length – in your stomach! And sometimes they try to get out through your nose or mouth. Infection is often caused by eating beans or rice containing eggs, or through soil contaminated with human feces.
The fish tapeworm
Like something out of a horror film – and a particularly horrific horror film at that – the fish tapeworm can grow to 30 feet. Inside you. You can be infected by eating raw or undercooked fish – and the tapeworm can be found wherever bears or other fish-eating mammals, including humans, defecate. You'll know you've got one because you'll be constantly hungry, as the tapeworm is eating all the food!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/822082-after-the-girls-nostril-leech-more-nasty-animals-found-in-the-body
Sunday, April 4, 2010
700-year-old cave carvings with links to Knights Templar at risk as worms eat walls
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/apr/04/historical-caves-endangered-insect-infestation
700-year-old cave carvings with links to Knights Templar at risk as worms eat walls
The mystery of the religious decorations that lie underneath the high street of a medieval market town may never be solved if insect infestation cannot be halted
• Vanessa Thorpe
• The Observer, Sunday 4 April 2010
Mysterious carvings inside a hidden cavern linked to the Knights Templar are in danger of disappearing before their riddle is solved. Having survived more than 700 years, the religious decorations in the ancient cave at Royston, Hertfordshire, are under attack from an infestation of worms eating the chalk walls behind them.
The beehive-shaped chamber was hewn out of a 180ft-thick seam of chalk and extends 30ft beneath the centre of the market town, underneath a betting shop. It was uncovered by chance during building work in 1742 and the depictions of biblical scenes and portraits of Christian martyrs inside it have puzzled historians ever since.
"Some scholars believe many of the carvings depict characters revered by the Knights Templar – warrior monks who protected pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land in the 12th and 13th centuries," James Robinson, the custodian of the cave, told Cornerstone magazine this month.
The shape of the cave is believed to be modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and its strange carvings include depictions of Christian martyrs worshipped by the templars, such as St Katherine. The knights had a special reverence for this saint as it was on 25 November, St Katherine's Day, that they won a victory over the Saracen leader, Saladin, in 1177. Other engravings on the walls of the cavern show St Christopher and St George.
Other images in the cave, such as the Sheela Na Gig fertility symbol, suggest that its origins may stretch further back to the days when Royston was a staging point on the the Icknield Way – a track that was ancient when the Romans arrived in Britain.
The site is regarded as one of Britain's least-known medieval treasures, remaining obscure because it is one of the few British locations with a templar connection that does not appear in Dan Brown's thriller The Da Vinci Code.
"It is hugely important that we find ways of halting the threat to this extraordinary ancient structure," said Philip Venning, secretary of the Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings. "Having survived for so long, it would be tragic if these fragile carvings were lost to future generations."
The porous nature of the chalk walls makes them prone to damp and flooding, while old sewage leaks have leeched into the walls and softened the chalk. This provides nourishment for the worms which feed on decayed matter and then excrete the chalk. Over the past five years some of the detail has been destroyed, leaving a honeycomb appearance on parts of the wall.
"People are astounded that such a fascinating and mysterious site can exist in such an ordinary setting as the high street of a small town," says Robinson. "Beneath the modern facade of Ladbrokes betting shop and the main road lies a unique document of this country's history."
The only other example of a similar cave is at Sloup, in the Czech Republic.
700-year-old cave carvings with links to Knights Templar at risk as worms eat walls
The mystery of the religious decorations that lie underneath the high street of a medieval market town may never be solved if insect infestation cannot be halted
• Vanessa Thorpe
• The Observer, Sunday 4 April 2010
Mysterious carvings inside a hidden cavern linked to the Knights Templar are in danger of disappearing before their riddle is solved. Having survived more than 700 years, the religious decorations in the ancient cave at Royston, Hertfordshire, are under attack from an infestation of worms eating the chalk walls behind them.
The beehive-shaped chamber was hewn out of a 180ft-thick seam of chalk and extends 30ft beneath the centre of the market town, underneath a betting shop. It was uncovered by chance during building work in 1742 and the depictions of biblical scenes and portraits of Christian martyrs inside it have puzzled historians ever since.
"Some scholars believe many of the carvings depict characters revered by the Knights Templar – warrior monks who protected pilgrims on their journeys to the Holy Land in the 12th and 13th centuries," James Robinson, the custodian of the cave, told Cornerstone magazine this month.
The shape of the cave is believed to be modelled on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and its strange carvings include depictions of Christian martyrs worshipped by the templars, such as St Katherine. The knights had a special reverence for this saint as it was on 25 November, St Katherine's Day, that they won a victory over the Saracen leader, Saladin, in 1177. Other engravings on the walls of the cavern show St Christopher and St George.
Other images in the cave, such as the Sheela Na Gig fertility symbol, suggest that its origins may stretch further back to the days when Royston was a staging point on the the Icknield Way – a track that was ancient when the Romans arrived in Britain.
The site is regarded as one of Britain's least-known medieval treasures, remaining obscure because it is one of the few British locations with a templar connection that does not appear in Dan Brown's thriller The Da Vinci Code.
"It is hugely important that we find ways of halting the threat to this extraordinary ancient structure," said Philip Venning, secretary of the Society for Protection of Ancient Buildings. "Having survived for so long, it would be tragic if these fragile carvings were lost to future generations."
The porous nature of the chalk walls makes them prone to damp and flooding, while old sewage leaks have leeched into the walls and softened the chalk. This provides nourishment for the worms which feed on decayed matter and then excrete the chalk. Over the past five years some of the detail has been destroyed, leaving a honeycomb appearance on parts of the wall.
"People are astounded that such a fascinating and mysterious site can exist in such an ordinary setting as the high street of a small town," says Robinson. "Beneath the modern facade of Ladbrokes betting shop and the main road lies a unique document of this country's history."
The only other example of a similar cave is at Sloup, in the Czech Republic.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
New Species of Worm Found in Great Barrier Reef
Andrea Thompson
LiveScience Senior Writer
livescience.com – Tue Mar 9, 5:32 pm ET
Four newly identified worm species, including one that sports an unusual green color, have been found wriggling in the sands of the Great Barrier Reef.
The layer of sand that covers the floors of the Earth's oceans is actually home to a large diversity of marine organisms. Enterprising animals can take advantage of the water-filled spaces between sand grains.
The newfound creepy crawlies are members of the genus Grania, a group of worms found in marine sands throughout the world, from the tidal shore down to the deep ocean. Worms that belong to Grania, part of the class of annelid worms Clitellata, are typically about 0.8 inches long (2 centimeters) and mostly white in color.
Zoologist Pierre De Wit, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, found the four worm species while sieving samples of sand collected from Australia's Great Barrier Reef. One of the four, dubbed Grania colorata, is green, instead of the usual white.
"These worms are usually colorless or white, and we have not been able to work out why this particular species is green," De Wit said.
De Wit also found a previously unknown member of the Grania family in Scandinavia. The species, Grania occulta, was thought to be part of a known Grania species, but DNA analyses suggested otherwise.
"Species that were previously regarded as the same may prove to have a completely different function in the ecosystem, and have different tolerance of environmental toxins, for example. It is obviously important to know this in order to be able to take the right action to protect our fauna," De Wit said.
There are currently 71 species that have been described in the Grania genus. The new species are described in De Wit's Ph.D. thesis.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100309/sc_livescience/newspeciesofwormfoundingreatbarrierreef
LiveScience Senior Writer
livescience.com – Tue Mar 9, 5:32 pm ET
Four newly identified worm species, including one that sports an unusual green color, have been found wriggling in the sands of the Great Barrier Reef.
The layer of sand that covers the floors of the Earth's oceans is actually home to a large diversity of marine organisms. Enterprising animals can take advantage of the water-filled spaces between sand grains.
The newfound creepy crawlies are members of the genus Grania, a group of worms found in marine sands throughout the world, from the tidal shore down to the deep ocean. Worms that belong to Grania, part of the class of annelid worms Clitellata, are typically about 0.8 inches long (2 centimeters) and mostly white in color.
Zoologist Pierre De Wit, of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, found the four worm species while sieving samples of sand collected from Australia's Great Barrier Reef. One of the four, dubbed Grania colorata, is green, instead of the usual white.
"These worms are usually colorless or white, and we have not been able to work out why this particular species is green," De Wit said.
De Wit also found a previously unknown member of the Grania family in Scandinavia. The species, Grania occulta, was thought to be part of a known Grania species, but DNA analyses suggested otherwise.
"Species that were previously regarded as the same may prove to have a completely different function in the ecosystem, and have different tolerance of environmental toxins, for example. It is obviously important to know this in order to be able to take the right action to protect our fauna," De Wit said.
There are currently 71 species that have been described in the Grania genus. The new species are described in De Wit's Ph.D. thesis.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20100309/sc_livescience/newspeciesofwormfoundingreatbarrierreef
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Hong Kong dieters warned over swallowing parasitic worms
Dieters in Hong Kong have been warned by government doctors that they may be risking their lives by swallowing parasitic worms that can grow up to 15 inches long.
Published: 11:41AM GMT 09 Feb 2010
The city's department of health said that Chinese-language websites have been offering products containing potentially fatal parasites as a means of losing weight quickly without eating less.
The weight loss remedies use the eggs of Ascaris worms – giant intestinal roundworms which grow up to 15in in length in a host's intestine and lay up to 200,000 more eggs a day inside the body.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's department of health said swallowing the parasites could cause abdominal pain and distension, vomiting, diarrhoea and malnutrition.
"Parasite infestation may also be fatal if serious complications such as intestinal, biliary tract or pancreatic duct obstruction arise," the spokesman said. "The worms may even invade such organs as the lungs.
"The infestation can be treated with medication that kills the parasite. The worms may require surgical removal if there are obstructions."
He urged people to consult doctors before dieting and said the only healthy and effective means of weight loss was to eat less and take regular exercise.
Dieting is big business in Hong Kong where obesity levels have soared because of sedentary lifestyles, fast food diets and long office hours in the workaholic city of 7 million.
Clinics and websites in the former British colony offer a bizarre variety of questionable weight loss methods including sweat-inducing body suits, fat-dissolving injections and even flammable paraffin wraps to literally burn off belly fat.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7195990/Hong-Kong-dieters-warned-over-swallowing-parasitic-worms.html
Published: 11:41AM GMT 09 Feb 2010
The city's department of health said that Chinese-language websites have been offering products containing potentially fatal parasites as a means of losing weight quickly without eating less.
The weight loss remedies use the eggs of Ascaris worms – giant intestinal roundworms which grow up to 15in in length in a host's intestine and lay up to 200,000 more eggs a day inside the body.
A spokesman for Hong Kong's department of health said swallowing the parasites could cause abdominal pain and distension, vomiting, diarrhoea and malnutrition.
"Parasite infestation may also be fatal if serious complications such as intestinal, biliary tract or pancreatic duct obstruction arise," the spokesman said. "The worms may even invade such organs as the lungs.
"The infestation can be treated with medication that kills the parasite. The worms may require surgical removal if there are obstructions."
He urged people to consult doctors before dieting and said the only healthy and effective means of weight loss was to eat less and take regular exercise.
Dieting is big business in Hong Kong where obesity levels have soared because of sedentary lifestyles, fast food diets and long office hours in the workaholic city of 7 million.
Clinics and websites in the former British colony offer a bizarre variety of questionable weight loss methods including sweat-inducing body suits, fat-dissolving injections and even flammable paraffin wraps to literally burn off belly fat.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/7195990/Hong-Kong-dieters-warned-over-swallowing-parasitic-worms.html
Thursday, January 14, 2010
Shipworm threatens archaeological treasures
News: Dec 22, 2009
The dreaded shipworm is moving into the Baltic Sea, threatening artefacts of the area's cultural heritage. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg suspect that the unfortunate spread is due to climate change, and are currently involved in an EU project to determine which archaeological remains are at risk.
The shipworm is capable of completely destroying large maritime archaeological finds in only 10 years, and while it has avoided the Baltic Sea in the past, since it does not do well in low salinity water, it can now be spotted along both the Danish and German Baltic Sea coasts.
Malmö landmark infested
'The shipworm has for example attacked shipwrecks from the 1300s off the coast of Germany, and we are also starting to see its presence along the Swedish coast, for example at the Ribersborg cold bath house in Malmö,' says Christin Appelqvist, doctoral student at the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg.
Effect of climate change
Appelqvist and her colleagues believe that the development may be due to climate change. In short, the increased water temperature may help the shipworms to become adapted to lower salinity. The group is part of the EU project WreckProtect, a cooperative effort to assess which archaeological treasures are at risk. The project includes researchers from Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as experts from France and Germany.
Covering the shipwrecks
One of the objectives is to develop methods to protect the shipwrecks, for example by covering them with geotextile and bottom sediment, and another is to try to predict to which areas the shipworm is likely to spread in the future. The researchers say there are some 100 000 well-preserved shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea.
'Around 100 wrecks are already infested in the Southern Baltic, but yet it hasn't even spread past Falsterbo. We know it can survive the salinity of the Stockholm archipelago, although it needs water with higher salinity than that to be able to reproduce,' says Appelqvist.
Contact:
Christin Appelqvist, Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg
+46 (0)706 68 44 05
Christin.appelqvist@gu.se
Jon Havenhand, Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg
+46 (0)761 15 52 29
jon.havenhand@marecol.gu.se
The Wreck Protect project is coordinated by Charlotte Björdal at the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.
About the shipworm:
There are 65 species of the shipworm. The species currently finding its way to the Baltic Sea via the Great Belt is called Teredo navalis. The shipworm forms up to 30 cm deep tunnels in all kinds of wood, for example in boats and piers. It has a life expectancy of 3-4 years and is difficult to discover since it hides inside the infested wood.
The shipworm can survive a salinity of 4-6 practical salinity unit (PSU) for short periods of time (the salinity of the Stockholm archipelago is around 5 PSU), but needs at least 8 PSU to be able to reproduce.
Photos: Left - the shipworm Teredo navalis; top - an infested pier pole in the Swedish province of Bohuslän.
BY: Krister Svahn
http://www.science.gu.se/english/News/News_detail/Shipworm_threatens_archaeological_treasures.cid911209
The dreaded shipworm is moving into the Baltic Sea, threatening artefacts of the area's cultural heritage. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg suspect that the unfortunate spread is due to climate change, and are currently involved in an EU project to determine which archaeological remains are at risk.
The shipworm is capable of completely destroying large maritime archaeological finds in only 10 years, and while it has avoided the Baltic Sea in the past, since it does not do well in low salinity water, it can now be spotted along both the Danish and German Baltic Sea coasts.Malmö landmark infested
'The shipworm has for example attacked shipwrecks from the 1300s off the coast of Germany, and we are also starting to see its presence along the Swedish coast, for example at the Ribersborg cold bath house in Malmö,' says Christin Appelqvist, doctoral student at the Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg.
Effect of climate change
Appelqvist and her colleagues believe that the development may be due to climate change. In short, the increased water temperature may help the shipworms to become adapted to lower salinity. The group is part of the EU project WreckProtect, a cooperative effort to assess which archaeological treasures are at risk. The project includes researchers from Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as experts from France and Germany.
Covering the shipwrecks
One of the objectives is to develop methods to protect the shipwrecks, for example by covering them with geotextile and bottom sediment, and another is to try to predict to which areas the shipworm is likely to spread in the future. The researchers say there are some 100 000 well-preserved shipwrecks in the Baltic Sea.
'Around 100 wrecks are already infested in the Southern Baltic, but yet it hasn't even spread past Falsterbo. We know it can survive the salinity of the Stockholm archipelago, although it needs water with higher salinity than that to be able to reproduce,' says Appelqvist.
Contact:
Christin Appelqvist, Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg
+46 (0)706 68 44 05
Christin.appelqvist@gu.se
Jon Havenhand, Department of Marine Ecology, University of Gothenburg
+46 (0)761 15 52 29
jon.havenhand@marecol.gu.se
The Wreck Protect project is coordinated by Charlotte Björdal at the SP Technical Research Institute of Sweden.
About the shipworm:
There are 65 species of the shipworm. The species currently finding its way to the Baltic Sea via the Great Belt is called Teredo navalis. The shipworm forms up to 30 cm deep tunnels in all kinds of wood, for example in boats and piers. It has a life expectancy of 3-4 years and is difficult to discover since it hides inside the infested wood.The shipworm can survive a salinity of 4-6 practical salinity unit (PSU) for short periods of time (the salinity of the Stockholm archipelago is around 5 PSU), but needs at least 8 PSU to be able to reproduce.
Photos: Left - the shipworm Teredo navalis; top - an infested pier pole in the Swedish province of Bohuslän.
BY: Krister Svahn
http://www.science.gu.se/english/News/News_detail/Shipworm_threatens_archaeological_treasures.cid911209
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Zoological Survey stall a huge draw
Staff Reporter
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Tarantula spider, kept in a sand-filled glass case, was centre of attention at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) stall at the Pride of India Exhibition organised on the sidelines of the ongoing 97th Indian Science Congress.
Most visitors tapped and stroked the glass case trying to evoke some response while the exhibitors requested them to leave the creature in peace.
Tarantulas are found in tropical and desert regions and are mostly harmless to humans.
The spider was the only live specimen on display at the stall. Preserved exhibits of rare moths, dragonflies, butterflies, fish varieties and small reptiles endemic to the Western Ghats were drawing crowds. Preserved specimens of ‘atlas moth,’ the largest moth species in the country; the rare ‘pig nosed frog, also called ‘living fossil,’ etc were on display.
“It is called living fossil because molecular studies show that this species has not had any morphological changes since two million years. Which means that it has lived with the dinosaurs,” said K.P. Dinesh, zoological assistant at ZSI, Kozhikode.
The Giant Earth Worm, another species endemic to Nilambur in Kerala, is another interesting display. This worm can grow up to a metre in length.
Taxidermy of a large size anteater was another interesting sight at the stall which also had on display lively pictures of the flora and fauna from the Western Ghats.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/05/stories/2010010550530200.htm
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Tarantula spider, kept in a sand-filled glass case, was centre of attention at the Zoological Survey of India (ZSI) stall at the Pride of India Exhibition organised on the sidelines of the ongoing 97th Indian Science Congress.
Most visitors tapped and stroked the glass case trying to evoke some response while the exhibitors requested them to leave the creature in peace.
Tarantulas are found in tropical and desert regions and are mostly harmless to humans.
The spider was the only live specimen on display at the stall. Preserved exhibits of rare moths, dragonflies, butterflies, fish varieties and small reptiles endemic to the Western Ghats were drawing crowds. Preserved specimens of ‘atlas moth,’ the largest moth species in the country; the rare ‘pig nosed frog, also called ‘living fossil,’ etc were on display.
“It is called living fossil because molecular studies show that this species has not had any morphological changes since two million years. Which means that it has lived with the dinosaurs,” said K.P. Dinesh, zoological assistant at ZSI, Kozhikode.
The Giant Earth Worm, another species endemic to Nilambur in Kerala, is another interesting display. This worm can grow up to a metre in length.
Taxidermy of a large size anteater was another interesting sight at the stall which also had on display lively pictures of the flora and fauna from the Western Ghats.
http://www.hindu.com/2010/01/05/stories/2010010550530200.htm
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
The bizarre lives of bone-eating worms
9 November 2009
The females of the recently discovered Osedax marine worms feast on submerged bones via a complex relationship with symbiotic bacteria, and they are turning out to be far more diverse and widespread than scientists expected. Californian researchers investigating the genetic history of Osedax worms have found that up to twelve further distinct evolutionary lineages exist beyond the five species already described. The new findings about these beautiful sea creatures with unusual sexual and digestive habits are published today in the online open access journal BMC Biology.
Geneticists placed the new Osedax genus in the polychaete annelid family Siboglinidae when it was first discovered on whalebones in Monterey Bay, California in 2004. Siboglinidae or 'beard worms' are among the few known animals that, as adults, completely lack a mouth, gut and anus, and rely entirely on endosymbiotic bacteria for their nutrition. Found to date in the eastern and western Pacific and the north Atlantic, Osedax are unique because they penetrate and digest bones using bacteria housed in a complex branching "root" system. Sexual inequality is also part of daily life for Osedax: harems of dwarf males live inside the tubes of the much larger female.
Robert Vrijenhoek and Shannon Johnson from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, together with Greg Rouse from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, both in California, US looked at two mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes from Monterey Bay Osedax worms. Their study revealed 17 distinct evolutionary lineages, clustered into five clades (groups including a single common ancestor and all its descendants). The researchers could tell these clades apart based on the anatomy of the worms as well as their genetics.
Precisely when these Osedax boneworms split from their other beard worm relatives depends whether researchers pick a 'molecular clock' calibrated for shallow or deep-sea invertebrates (Osedax have been found at depths ranging from 30 to 3000 metres). Based on the shallow invertebrate scenario Osedax probably branched off about 45 million years ago when archeocete cetaceans first appeared and then diversified during the late Oligocene and early Miocene when toothed and baleen whales arrived. Using the slower, deep-sea invertebrate clock model Osedax evolved during the Cretaceous and began to diversify during the Early Paleocene, at least 20 million years before the origin of large marine mammals.
Research to settle the evolutionary age of Osedax might examine fossil bones from Cretaceous marine reptiles and late Oligocene cetaceans to find possible trace fossils left by Osedax roots, suggest the authors. "Regardless, the present molecular evidence suggests that the undescribed Osedax lineages comprise evolutionarily significant units that have been separate from one another for many millions of years, and provide a solid foundation for their future descriptions as new species," concludes Vrijenhoek.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/bc-tbl110609.php
The females of the recently discovered Osedax marine worms feast on submerged bones via a complex relationship with symbiotic bacteria, and they are turning out to be far more diverse and widespread than scientists expected. Californian researchers investigating the genetic history of Osedax worms have found that up to twelve further distinct evolutionary lineages exist beyond the five species already described. The new findings about these beautiful sea creatures with unusual sexual and digestive habits are published today in the online open access journal BMC Biology.
Geneticists placed the new Osedax genus in the polychaete annelid family Siboglinidae when it was first discovered on whalebones in Monterey Bay, California in 2004. Siboglinidae or 'beard worms' are among the few known animals that, as adults, completely lack a mouth, gut and anus, and rely entirely on endosymbiotic bacteria for their nutrition. Found to date in the eastern and western Pacific and the north Atlantic, Osedax are unique because they penetrate and digest bones using bacteria housed in a complex branching "root" system. Sexual inequality is also part of daily life for Osedax: harems of dwarf males live inside the tubes of the much larger female.
Robert Vrijenhoek and Shannon Johnson from Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, together with Greg Rouse from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, both in California, US looked at two mitochondrial genes and three nuclear genes from Monterey Bay Osedax worms. Their study revealed 17 distinct evolutionary lineages, clustered into five clades (groups including a single common ancestor and all its descendants). The researchers could tell these clades apart based on the anatomy of the worms as well as their genetics.
Precisely when these Osedax boneworms split from their other beard worm relatives depends whether researchers pick a 'molecular clock' calibrated for shallow or deep-sea invertebrates (Osedax have been found at depths ranging from 30 to 3000 metres). Based on the shallow invertebrate scenario Osedax probably branched off about 45 million years ago when archeocete cetaceans first appeared and then diversified during the late Oligocene and early Miocene when toothed and baleen whales arrived. Using the slower, deep-sea invertebrate clock model Osedax evolved during the Cretaceous and began to diversify during the Early Paleocene, at least 20 million years before the origin of large marine mammals.
Research to settle the evolutionary age of Osedax might examine fossil bones from Cretaceous marine reptiles and late Oligocene cetaceans to find possible trace fossils left by Osedax roots, suggest the authors. "Regardless, the present molecular evidence suggests that the undescribed Osedax lineages comprise evolutionarily significant units that have been separate from one another for many millions of years, and provide a solid foundation for their future descriptions as new species," concludes Vrijenhoek.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-11/bc-tbl110609.php
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