Mantophasmatodea: a new insect order with extant members in the Afrotropics

A new insect order, Mantophasmatodea, is described on the basis of museum specimens of a new genus with two species: Mantophasma zephyra gen. et sp. nov. (one female from Namibia) and M. subsolana sp. nov. (one male from Tanzania). This is the first time since 1914 that a newly described extant insect taxon has proved unplaceable within a recognized order. Mantophasmatodeans are apterous carnivores. Their closest phylogenetic relationships may be to Grylloblattodea (ice-crawlers) and/or Phasmatodea (stick insects), but the morphological evidence is ambiguous. Raptophasma Zompro from Baltic amber is assigned to the Mantophasmatodea, revealing a wider previous range for the lineage.     

Metasomatic origin of quartz-pyroxene rock,Akilia, Greenland,and implications for Earth's earliest life

A quartz-pyroxene rock interpreted as a banded iron formation (BIF) from the island of Akilia, southwest Greenland, contains (13)C-depleted graphite that has been claimed as evidence for the oldest (>3850 million years ago) life on Earth. Field relationships on Akilia document multiple intense deformation events that have resulted in parallel transposition of Early Archean rocks and significant boudinage, the tails of which commonly form the banding in the quartz-pyroxene rock. Geochemical data possess distinct characteristics consistent with an ultramafic igneous, not BIF, protolith for this lithology and the adjacent schists. Later metasomatic silica and iron introduction have merely resulted in a rock that superficially resembles a BIF. An ultramafic igneous origin invalidates claims that the carbon isotopic composition of graphite inclusions represents evidence for life at the time of crystallization.     

Paleoenvironment of the earliest hominoids: new evidence from the oligocene avifauna of egypt

Analysis of fossil birds from the Oligocene Jebel Qatrani Formation in the Fayum depression of Egypt, site of the oldest known hominoid primates, allows precise paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the climatic and biotic conditions that influenced some of the earliest stages of hominoid evolution. Unlike the fossil mammals of the Fayum, which belong largely to extinct groups, most of the birds are referable to living families, with some being close to modern genera. The avifauna consists mainly of aquatic species, with such forms as jacanas (Jacanidae) and shoebilled storks (Balaenicipitidae) indicating expanses of freshwater with dense floating vegetation. An avifauna closely analogous to that of the Fayum is found today only in a limited area of Uganda, north and west of Lake Victoria, a region of swampland bordered by forest and grasslands that presents marked faunal similarities to the environment inferred for the Egyptian Oligocene.     

The genetic legacy of Paleolithic Homo sapiens sapiens in extant Europeans: a Y chromosome perspective

A genetic perspective of human history in Europe was derived from 22 binary markers of the nonrecombining Y chromosome (NRY). Ten lineages account for >95% of the 1007 European Y chromosomes studied. Geographic distribution and age estimates of alleles are compatible with two Paleolithic and one Neolithic migratory episode that have contributed to the modern European gene pool. A significant correlation between the NRY haplotype data and principal components based on 95 protein markers was observed, indicating the effectiveness of NRY binary polymorphisms in the characterization of human population composition and history.     

Superstition: a matter of bias, not detectability

Pigeons discriminated between stimulus changes dependent on their pecking and stimulus changes occurring independently of their behavior. Their performance was accurate, and when the payoffs for "hits" and "correct rejections" were varied, their response bias varied in a fashion similar to that of human observers detecting signals in a background of noise.     

Mineralocorticoid action: target tissue specificity is enzyme, not receptor, mediated

Mineralocorticoid receptors, both when in tissue extracts and when recombinant-derived, have equal affinity for the physiological mineralocorticoid aldosterone and for the glucocorticoids cortisol and corticosterone, which circulate at much higher concentrations than aldosterone. Such receptors are found in physiological mineralocorticoid target tissues (kidney, parotid, and colon) and in nontarget tissues such as hippocampus and heart. In mineralocorticoid target tissues the receptors are selective for aldosterone in vivo because of the presence of the enzyme 11 beta-hydroxy-steroid dehydrogenase, which converts cortisol and corticosterone, but not aldosterone, to their 11-keto analogs. These analogs cannot bind to mineralocorticoid receptors.     

Ramon and maya ruins: an ecological, not an economic, relation

Economically important trees such as ramón have been shown to have a high density in the civic-ceremonial core zone of ancient Maya ruins. The distribution of such trees is probably the result of their requirements for growth and reproduction, which are optimal on the ruins, and not because they are the descendants of trees planted by the Maya aristocracy.     

Combining sensory information: mandatory fusion within,but not between,senses

Humans use multiple sources of sensory information to estimate environmental properties. For example, the eyes and hands both provide relevant information about an object's shape. The eyes estimate shape using binocular disparity, perspective projection, etc. The hands supply haptic shape information by means of tactile and proprioceptive cues. Combining information across cues can improve estimation of object properties but may come at a cost: loss of single-cue information. We report that single-cue information is indeed lost when cues from within the same sensory modality (disparity and texture gradients in vision) are combined, but not when different modalities (vision and haptics) are combined.     

Genome characterization of the Caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus in China: A retrospective genomic analysis of the earliest Chinese isolates

Caprine arthritis-encephalitis virus (CAEV) is an under-studied virus infecting caprines and ovines worldwide.  Over the last four decades, CAEV has spread in China, obtaining genomic data on CAEV strains circulating in China is of importance for developing diagnostic methods and eradicating associated diseases.  However, there is limited information on the genome, including characterizations, and the probable origin.  This work aimed to characterize Chinese CAEV genomes and population structures.  Five CAEV strains isolated from infected dairy goats between 1989 and 1994 in Gansu, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Shandong and Sichuan provinces were cloned and sequenced.  The Chinese CAEV had a 58–93% genome similarities to strains outside of China, and they belonged to subgenotype B1.  The highest similarity levels (98.3–99.3%) were with two other Chinese strains, and they shared a 91.8–92.3% similarity with the strain Clements (GenBank accession no. NC_001463.1) from outside of China.  The Chinese CAEV strains isolated from different provinces over five years were still highly homologous and contained unique ancestral population components, indicating that these Chinese strains had a common origin that differed from other known strains.  Our results provide genomic data on circulating Chinese CAEV strains and will be useful for future epidemiological investigations and CAEV eradication programs.