Page 4 - Alecia Carter News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana
Gorilla moms carry dead babies around with them, which could prove they grieve, scientists say
businessinsider.co.za - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from businessinsider.co.za Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Primate mothers may grieve by carrying dead infants, study suggests
usatoday.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from usatoday.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CREDIT, Author provided
Ten years ago, we thought there was a real chance DFTD would drive the Tasmanian devil to extinction. Our concern arose not just because the cancer was almost inevitably lethal, but also because the transmission rate did not appear to slow down, even as devils became very rare.
Our new research has some good news: by pioneering application of genomic analysis typically used for viruses, we have discovered the curve has flattened and the rate of increase of infections has slowed. This means while the disease is probably not going away, neither are Tasmanian devils.
Genomics is a relatively new field of science that uses the vast amounts of data available from modern genetic sequencing techniques to answer some of the most difficult and important questions in biology.
A Tasmanian devil. (Photo by Alecia Carter)
(CN) For the last decade, it appeared a contagious facial cancer would lead to the extinction of the Tasmanian devil, but new research suggests otherwise.
An unprecedented genetic analysis of the fatal devil facial tumor disease published in Science on Wednesday suggests not only that the marsupials are co-evolving with the disease, but that they may very well survive into the next century.
“Collectively, our group has a number of studies that have shown devils are evolving in response to the disease and the disease seems to be transitioning toward an endemic pathogen,” said Andrew Storfer, study author and biology professor at Washington State University. An expert in host-pathogen evolution, Storfer said became interested in the Tasmanian devil disease by chance while on sabbatical in Australia.