Researchers find the first vertebrate eye to use mirror instead of lens

sea-maid submitted, created time 2 weeks 1 day (www.newscientist.com)

The deep sea is full of surprises, and the four-eyed spookfish is up there with the best of them. It is the first vertebrate found with eyes that use mirrors, rather than a lens, to focus light.

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: evolutionary biology spookfish deep sea fish ichthyology marine biology ophthalmology vision lens eye vertebrates

Worlds within worlds: evolution of the vertebrate gut microbiota

sea-maid submitted, created time 3 months 2 weeks (www.nature.com)

This article is a writeup of an analysis of published 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequences to compare the bacterial assemblages that are associated with humans and other mammals, metazoa and free-living microbial communities that span a range of environments. The composition of the vertebrate gut microbiota is influenced by diet, host morphology and phylogeny, and in this respect the human gut bacterial community is typical of an omnivorous primate. However, the vertebrate gut microbiota is different from free-living communities that are not associated with animal body habitats

Submit comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: Human Microbiome Project vertebrates evolutionary biology microbes symbiotic bacteria microbiota vertebrate gut microbiota

Global biodiversity slumps 27% in 35 years

sea-maid submitted, created time 7 months 3 weeks (www.newscientist.com)

From this study, the latest data on the global biodiversity of vertebrates shows that it has fallen by almost one-third in the last 35 years. But experts say it may still underestimate the effect humans have had on global species counts.

4 comments | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: zoology ecology vertebrates speciation wilflife biodiversity

"Junk" RNA may play a role in vertebrate evolution

sumsung submitted, created time 10 months 3 weeks (www.sciam.com)

Genetic material once dismissed as mere "junk" may in fact be responsible to the evolution of simple invertebrates into more complex organisms sporting backbones, according to a new study.

1 comment | Blog It | Email It | Keywords: vertebrates junk DNA introns evolutionary biology microRNA gene genome evolution RNA

Modern brains have an ancient core

BIOBOSS submitted, created time 1 year 6 months (www.embl.org)

Researchers from the European Molecular Biology Laboratory now reveal that the hypothalamus and its hormones are not purely vertebrate inventions, but have their evolutionary roots in marine, worm-like ancestors. In this week's issue of the journal Cell they report that hormone-secreting brain centres are much older than expected and likely evolved from multifunctional cells of the last common ancestor of vertebrates, flies and worms.

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