Scientists have identified the earliest primates from tiny fossilized teeth, revealing that our ancient ancestors likely lived alongside the dinosaurs in North America. Source: https://www.livescience.com/earliest-primate-fossil-discovered.html
Tag: primates
Is this the world’s tiniest reptile?
Meet the nano-chameleon, a new contender for the title of world’s smallest reptile Source: https://earthsky.org/earth/nano-chamelion-smallest-reptile…
Adorable monkeys caught commiting grisly act of cannibalism
Cannibalism is rarely observed among primates, but it’s not unheard of. Source: https://www.livescience.com/first-white-faced-capuchin-cannibalism.html
Capuchin monkeys spotted eating infant in rare act of cannibalism
Cannibalism is extremely rare among the primates living in the Americas – but some capuchin monkeys have now been spotted eating a dead infant Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2260219-capuchin-monkeys-spotted-eating-infant-in-rare-act-of-cannibalism/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Some fish fins are as sensitive to touch as human fingertips
The round goby fish, which lives on the bottom of lakes and seas, has fins that are as sensitive to tactile information as the fingertips of humans and other primates Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2258760-some-fish-fins-are-as-sensitive-to-touch-as-human-fingertips/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
No Implants Needed For Precise Control Deep Into the Brain
An anonymous reader quotes a report from IEEE Spectrum: In April, Guoping Feng and colleagues at MIT, along with [Karl Deisseroth, a neuroscientist and bioengineer at Stanford University] demonstrated a minimally invasive optogenetic system that required drilling a small hole in the skull, then being able to control opsin-expressing neurons six millimeters deep into the brain using blue light. This approach…
Artificial rope bridges help stop rare primates jumping to extinction
A landslide created a perilously wide gap in the forest canopy on China’s Hainan Island, so researchers made rope bridges to help the endangered Hainan gibbons get across Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2257483-artificial-rope-bridges-help-stop-rare-primates-jumping-to-extinction/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
America Is Facing a Monkey Shortage
Thud457 shares a report from USA Today: The race for a coronavirus vaccine to help end the pandemic has consumed the scientific community and created an escalating demand for an essential resource: monkeys. Before drug companies call on human volunteers, monkeys are used in preclinical trials to test a vaccine’s safety and effectiveness. But with more than 100 vaccines in development…
AI Distinguishes Birds That Even Experts Can’t
Slashdot reader sciencehabit quote Science magazine:
It’s a fact of life for birders that some species are fiendishly difficult to tell apart — in particular, the sparrows and drab songbirds dubbed “little brown jobs.” Distinguishing individuals is nearly impossible. Now, a computer program analyzing photos and videos has accomplished that feat. The advance promises to reveal new information on bird behaviors… The…
Pre-Clinical Test of Johnson & Johnson Vaccine Shows It Protected Monkeys from Covid-19
“Johnson & Johnson’s experimental coronavirus vaccine protected macaque monkeys with a single shot in a pre-clinical study, potentially gaining on other vaccines that are further along in testing but require two doses over time,” reports Bloomberg:
Five of six primates exposed to the pandemic-causing pathogen were immune after a single injection. The exception showed low levels of the virus, according to a…