Archive for July, 2009

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Extinct rodent species discovered

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

Extinct rodent speciesAn international team of scientists has discovered an extinct rodent species, based on fossil tooth remains found in Alborache, Valencia. Eomyops noeliae, from the Eomyidae family, represents the oldest find within this genus in the world

The small number of fossils found has prevented the scientists from the University of Valencia (UV), who have led this research study, from being able to gain a full picture of this “new” rodent. However, they have been able to prove – on the basis of just the teeth, the only fossil remains discovered – that Eomyops noeliae was morphologically and biometrically different from other rodents of the Eomyops genus. The new species provides valuable evolutionary, biostratigraphic and paleoenvironmental information related to this rodent, which was of average size within the group.

“Until now, the Eomyops genus was made up of a group of small species and one large one, but no intermediately-sized kinds such as Eomyops noeliae had been found”, Francisco Javier Ruiz-Sánchez, lead author of the study published in the French journal Comptes Rendus Palevol and a researcher in the UV’s Department of Geology, tells SINC.

The palaeontologists have also confirmed the age of the find. “The fossils found in the Morteral 20A deposit in Valencia show that this is the oldest species within the genus known in the world with absolute certainty”, points out Ruiz-Sánchez. According to this data, Eomyops noeliae would have lived during the Aragonese period “perhaps between the Lower and Middle Miocene (around 16 million years ago)”, underscores the researcher.

The rodent’s wet environment

The varied fauna of micro-mammals and the new species found in the Valencian deposit provide information about the environmental conditions in which these animals would have lived at the time. “The rodent taxa found show evidence that the environment was very wet”, says Ruiz-Sánchez, even though the full study on all the fossil rodent remains, begun with this new eomyid, has still not been completed.

According to the study, the environment was “relatively thickly wooded, and the climate was wet”, although other factors such as temperature have not yet been defined.

The biogeographical data also show that Eomyops noeliae lived throughout the east of the Iberian Peninsula during the Lower-Middle Miocene. This has been confirmed from the Eomyops species remains excavated from the “most recent” Morteral 22 deposit, which is very close to Morteral 20A.

Ruiz-Sánchez says the finds of this species’ teeth in deposit strata separated by just a few metres show that “how this species survived in the east of the peninsula over a specific time period that is currently hard to define, but which must have gone on for several tens of thousands of years”.

Source: Plataforma SINC

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5-Step Process To Optimize The Adsense Ads On Your Sites

Monday, July 27th, 2009

Google AdsenseMel Ann and Tim are two AdSense Optimization Specialists from the Google office in Sydney, who work with publishers to help them improve the performance of their ads. Today, they’ll walk you through a 5-step process to optimize the AdSense ads on your sites, and will also share tips that many publishers have found successful.

Step 1: Analyze your webpages

The first step to a successful optimization is to analyze your
webpages. Ask yourself the following questions as you think about where
to place ads on your site:

- What type of content do you have? People interact differently on
articles, forum, and video sites, for example, so think about how
people will be interacting on your site.

- Where is visitor attention likely to be focused? You should place ads
where your users are most likely to look, but as Ricardo Prada
mentioned in week two of this series, make sure that they won’t get in
the way of users trying to complete tasks on your site.

- How can you integrate ads into an area without getting in the way of
your users? You can view a heat map we’ve put together showing where
ads perform well, and keep in mind that above the fold ads and ads
close to primary content tend perform better.

- Don’t forget to think about how advertisers would like to appear. If
you can make your site more appealing to advertisers, while keeping the
above tips in mind, you’re more likely to be able to attract
advertisers and placement targeted ads.

Step 2: Set up custom channels

Custom channels will help you figure out how different ad units are
performing based on a number of variables you can choose, like
placement, size, and color. Create a channel for individual ad units
and categorize them to see how they’re performing. For example, you can
track your leaderboard and medium rectangle to see which performs
better, and use this information in step four below. Custom channels
will also allow you to track and measure results from your
optimizations.

Step 3: Optimize your ad unit design and placement

The next step is to look at color, position, and size of your ad units
and optimize these for user experience, advertiser experience, and
performance. We’ve found that the medium rectangle (300 x 250), wide
skyscraper (160 x 600), and the leaderboard (728 x 90) tend to perform
best. You can also opt in to image ads to receive rich media and video
ads, which tend to perform well too. It’s important that you implement
your ads in a consistent manner and in a way that is desirable to
advertisers. Use colors effectively. Blend ads in, but not too much
that users don’t see them. Borderless ads tend to work well, as does
highlighting the link and URL. Test different colors and placements,
and then keep the changes that perform best.

Step 4: Maximize revenue from multiple units

We recommend adding multiple ad units to your pages, while still
keeping the user experience in mind when deciding on placements. You
can use custom channel reporting to determine which ad unit performs
best, and structure your page to optimize performance based on that.
The highest paying ad we have for your site will be shown in the first
ad unit that shows up in your HTML code. If you have a leaderboard at
the top, but learn with custom channel reporting that a medium
rectangle halfway down the page is outperforming it in terms of CTR and
eCPM, try putting the medium rectangle first in your HTML code. You can
do this by switching the location in the HTML if you’re comfortable
editing the code, or by changing the actual location of the leaderboard
on the page.

Step 5: Track and measure results

The last step is to understand whether your optimizations have made a
difference. Here, use the custom channels you set up earlier to
generate reports on your different ad units. Generate reports on your
custom channels and group results by channel (remember, this depends on
how you’ve set them up) to see how different sizes, colors, and
placements are performing. You can also look at placement targeting
reports to see which ad units are receiving placement-targeted ads, and
if they’ve resulted in improved performance.

We hope these steps and tips are informative, and strongly encourage
you to take the time to try an optimization on your own.

Source: Google Adsense Newsletter

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The Longest Total Solar Eclipse This Century

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009

People in Asia have seen the longest total solar eclipse this century, with large areas of India and China plunged into darkness.

TOTAL SOLAR ECLIPSE

Amateur stargazers and scientists travelled far to see the eclipse, which lasted six minutes and 39 seconds at its maximum point.

The eclipse could first be seen early on Wednesday in eastern India.

It then moved east across India, Nepal, Burma, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, Japan and the Pacific.

The eclipse first became total over India at 0053GMT, and was last visible from land at Nikumaroro Island in the South Pacific nation of Kiribati. It ended at 0418GMT.

Elsewhere, a partial eclipse was visible across much of Asia.

The next total solar eclipse will occur on 11 July, 2010. It will be visible in a narrow corridor over the southern hemisphere, from the southern Pacific Ocean to Argentina.

Video Solar Eclipse 2009:

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M2, A Protein In The Flu Virus, Damages A Protein Responsible For Clearing Fluid From The Lungs

Monday, July 20th, 2009

M2, A Protein In The Flu VirusA protein in influenza virus that helps it multiply also damages lung epithelial cells, causing fluid buildup in the lungs, according to new research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and Southern Research Institute. Publishing online the week of July 13 in the journal of the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the researchers say the findings give new insight into how flu attacks the lungs and provides targets for new treatments.

In severe cases of flu, fluid accumulates in the lungs, making it difficult to breathe and preventing oxygen from reaching the blood stream. The researchers report that M2, a protein in the flu virus, damages a protein responsible for clearing fluid from the lungs by increasing the amount of oxidants, or free radicals, within the cells. Oxidants are necessary for proper cell function, but can become toxic if uncontrolled.

“Under normal conditions, oxidants play an important role, as they destroy pathogens in cells. But our findings suggest that lowering the number of oxidants, or preventing their increase, would prevent damage to the lungs resulting from the M2 protein,” said Sadis Matalon, Ph.D., vice chairman for research and professor of anesthesiology at UAB and principal investigator of the study.

The researchers say the recent outbreak of H1N1 influenza and the rapid spread of this strain across the world highlight both the need to better understand how the virus damages the lungs and the urgency to find new treatments. Influenza is a contagious disease leading to about 36,000 human deaths and 200,000 hospitalizations every year in the United States alone.

Matalon, along with co-investigators Ahmed Lazrak, Ph.D., and Karen E. Iles, Ph.D., from the Department of Anesthesiology at UAB, and James W. Noah, Ph.D., and Diana L. Noah, Ph.D., of Southern Research, injected frog eggs with M2 protein and the lung protein involved with fluid removal. Using molecular biology techniques, they removed part of the flu protein until they could isolate the segment responsible for the lung injury.

“We found that when the flu protein was shortened in length, it did not damage the lung protein responsible for removing fluid from the lungs,” said Diana Noah. “This is important information as it will enable us to design drugs that will hopefully prevent this M2 flu protein from functioning properly, making it possible for those infected with the flu to recover faster.”

Another set of experiments involved injecting intact flu proteins and their target lung proteins into frog eggs along with agents that remove oxidants.  The findings of the study show that following this procedure the lung proteins were no longer damaged by the flu viruses.

The team then repeated the experiments in cells from human lungs and found the same results. “We were able to understand the basic mechanisms by which the flu damages key components of the lungs in a simple system, such as the frog eggs, and then confirm these findings in human lung cells,” said Matalon.

The researchers are hesitant to say that these results indicate a simple antioxidant, such as vitamin C, can prevent or minimize flu. “The issue is too complex and we simply can’t answer that yet,” said James Noah. “Vaccination is our leading defense against flu and we have anti-viral drugs that are effective in some cases, but flu viruses show a remarkable ability to mutate, rendering vaccines and drugs less effective. Having a new target for potential interventions opens up an entirely new approach to combating influenza.”

Funding came from the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute and the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, parts of the National Institutes of Health, and the UAB Department of Anesthesiology.

Source: University of Alabama at Birmingham.

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Which Facial Features Our Brain Examines To Identify Faces?

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Facial FeaturesA study by the University of Barcelona (UB) has analysed which facial features our brain examines to identify faces. Our brain adapts in order to obtain the maximum amount of information possible from each face and according to the study the key data for identification come from, in the first place, the eyes and then the shape of the mouth and nose.

The objective of this study, undertaken by researcher Matthias S. Keil from the Basic Psychology Department of the UB and published in the prestigious US journal PLOS Computational Biology, was to ascertain which specific features the brain focuses on to identify a face. It has been known for years that the brain primarily uses low spatial frequencies to recognise faces. “Spatial frequencies” are, in a manner of speaking, the elements that make up any given image.

As Keil confirmed to SINC, “low frequencies pertain to low resolution, that is, small changes of intensity in an image. In contrast, high frequencies represent the details in an image. If we move away from an image, we perceive increasingly less details, that is, the high spatial frequency components, while low frequencies remain visible and are the last to disappear.”

As a result of the psychophysical research carried out prior to the publication of this study, it was known that the human brain was not interested in very high frequencies when identifying faces, despite such frequencies playing a significant role in, for example, determining a person’s age. “In order to identify a face in an image, the brain always processes information with the same low resolution, of about 30 by 30 pixels from ear to ear, ignoring distance and the original resolution of the image,” Keil says. “Until now, nobody had been able to explain this peculiar phenomenon and that was my starting point”.

What Matthias S. Keil did was to analyse a large number of faces, namely those belonging to 868 women and 868 men. “The idea was to find common statistical regularities in the images.” Keil used a model of the brain’s visual system, that is, “I looked at the images to certain extent like the brain does, but with one difference: I had no preferred resolution, but considered all spatial frequencies as equal. As a result of this analysis, I obtained a resolution that is optimum in terms of encoding, as well as the signal-to-noise ratio, and was also the same resolution observed in the psychophysical experiments”.

This result therefore suggests that faces are themselves responsible for our resolution preference. This led Keil to one of the brain’s properties: “The brain has adapted optimally to draw the most useful information from faces in order to identify them. My model also predicts this resolution if we take into account the eyes alone – ignoring the nose and the mouth – but also by considering the mouth or nose separately, albeit less reliable.”

Therefore, the brain extracts key information for facial identification primarily from the eyes, while the mouth and the nose are secondary, according to the study. According to Keil, if we take a photo of a friend as an example, one might think that every feature of the face is important to identify the person. However, numerous experiments have demonstrated that the brain prefers a coarse resolution, regardless of the distance between the face and the beholder. Until now, the reason for this was unclear. The analysis of the pictures of 868 men and 868 women in this study could help to explain this.

The results obtained by Kiel indicate that the most useful information is drawn from the images if they are around 30 by 30 pixels in size. “Furthermore, the pictures of the eyes provide the least ‘noisiest’ result, which means that they transmit more reliable information to the brain than the pictures of the mouth and the nose,” the researcher said. This suggests that the brain’s facial identification mechanisms are specialised in eyes.

This research complements a previous study published by Keil in PLoS ONE, which already advanced that artificial face identification systems obtain better results when they process small pictures of faces, which means that they could behave in this sense like humans.

Source: Plataforma SINC

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LASER LIGHT TECHNOLOGY CREATES NEW FORMS OF METAL

Monday, July 20th, 2009

AFOSR-funded researchers at the University of Rochester are using laser light technology that will help the military create new forms of metal that may guide, attract and repel liquids and cool small electronic devices.

Dr. Chunlei GuoDr. Chunlei Guo and his team of researchers for the project discovered a way to transform a shiny piece of metal into one that is pitch black, not by paint, but by using incredibly intense bursts of laser light. The black metal created, absorbs all radiation that shines upon it.

“With the creation of the black metal, an entirely new class of material becomes available to us, which may open up a whole new horizon for various applications,” said Guo.

“To do this, we looked at the reverse process of light absorption or light radiation and transformed the incandescent lamp into a bulb that glows twice as brightly as a regular light source, while consuming the same amount of energy,” he said.

The key to creating this super-filament is an ultra-brief, ultra-intense beam of light called a femtosecond laser pulse. The laser burst lasts only a few quadrillionths of a second. That intense blast forces the surface of the metal to form nano-structures and micro-structures that dramatically alter how efficiently light can radiate from the filament.

In addition to increasing the brightness of a bulb, Guo’s process can be used to tune the color of the light as well. Last year, his team used a similar process to change the color of nearly any metal to blue, gold, gray, in addition to the black. They controlled the size and shape of the nano-structures — and thus what colors of light those structures absorb and radiate — to change the amount of each wavelength of light the filament radiates.

In addition to this research, Guo and his team have been working on creating technology that may enable the Air Force to create an additional kind of metal. They are able to do this by using the femtosecond laser once again to alter the surface of metal and create unique nano- and micro-scale structures on the metal.

“During its brief burst, the laser unleashes as much power as the entire electric grid of North America does, all focused onto a spot the size of a needle,” said Guo.

The unique nano-structures which are created from the laser affect the way liquid molecules interact with metal molecules. The liquid spreads out over the metal because the nano-structures attach themselves to the liquid’s molecules more readily than the liquid’s molecules bond to each other. The end result is the formation of a new kind of metal that can cool the plane’s electronic brain and heat pumps and allow the craft to retain dominance over any enemy that is also in flight.

Currently, the researchers need only about half an hour to change the surface of metal that is approximately the size of a quarter. Nevertheless, their next goal is to make the metal even more quickly so they can meet the ever increasing demands of warfighting.

Source: Air Force Office of Scientific Research.

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Pacific tsunami threat greater than expected

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Pacific tsunamiThe potential for a huge Pacific Ocean tsunami on the West Coast of America may be greater than previously thought, according to a new study of geological evidence along the Gulf of Alaska coast.

The new research suggests that future tsunamis could reach a scale far beyond that suffered in the tsunami generated by the great 1964 Alaskan earthquake. Official figures put the number of deaths caused by the earthquake at around 130: 114 in Alaska and 16 in Oregon and California. The tsunami killed 35 people directly and caused extensive damage in Alaska, British Columbia, and the US Pacific region*.

The 1964 Alaskan earthquake – the second biggest recorded in history with a magnitude of 9.2 – triggered a series of massive waves with run up heights of as much as 12.7 metres in the Alaskan Gulf region and 52 metres in the Shoup Bay submarine slide in Valdez Arm.  

The study suggests that rupture of an even larger area than the 1964 rupture zone could create an even bigger tsunami. Warning systems are in place on the west coast of North America but the findings suggest a need for a review of evacuation plans in the region.

The research team from Durham University in the UK, the University of Utah and Plafker Geohazard Consultants, gauged the extent of earthquakes over the last 2,000 years by studying subsoil samples and sediment sequences at sites along the Alaskan coast. The team radiocarbon-dated peat layers and sediments, and analysed the distribution of mud, sand and peat within them. The results suggest that earthquakes in the region may rupture even larger segments of the coast and sea floor than was previously thought.

The study published in the academic journal Quaternary Science Reviews and funded by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the US Geological Survey shows that the potential impact in terms of tsunami generation, could be significantly greater if both the 800-km-long 1964 segment and the 250-km-long adjacent Yakataga segment to the east were to rupture simultaneously.

Lead author, Professor Ian Shennan, from Durham University’s Geography Department said: “Our radiocarbon-dated samples suggest that previous earthquakes were fifteen per cent bigger in terms of the area affected than the 1964 event. This historical evidence of widespread, simultaneous plate rupturing within the Alaskan region has significant implications for the tsunami potential of the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific region as a whole.

“Peat layers provide a clear picture of what’s happened to the Earth. Our data indicate that two major earthquakes have struck Alaska in the last 1,500 years and our findings show that a bigger earthquake and a more destructive tsunami than the 1964 event are possible in the future. The region has been hit by large single event earthquakes and tsunamis before, and our evidence indicates that multiple and more extensive ruptures can happen.”

Tsunamis can be created by the rapid displacement of water when the sea floor lifts and/or falls due to crustal movements that accompany very large earthquakes. The shallow nature of the sea floor off the coast of Alaska could increase the destructive potential of a tsunami wave in the Pacific.

Earthquake behaviour is difficult to predict in this region which is a transition zone between two of the world’s most active plate boundary faults; the Fairweather fault, and the Aleutian subduction zone. In 1899 and 1979, large earthquakes occurred in the region but did not trigger a Tsunami because the rupturing was localized beneath the land instead of the sea floor.

Prof Ron Bruhn from the University of Utah said: “If the larger earthquake that is suggested by our work hits the region, the size of the potential tsunami   could be signficantly larger than in 1964 because a multi-rupture quake would displace the shallow continental shelf of the Yakutat microplate.

“In the case of a multi-rupture event, the energy imparted to the tsunami will be larger but spread out over a longer strike distance. Except for the small communities at the tsunami source in Alaska, the longer length will have more of an effect on areas farther from the source such as southeastern Alaska, British Columbia, and the US west coast from Washington to California.”

Warning systems have been in place on the US western seaboard and Hawaii since the 1946 Aleutian Islands tsunami. Improvements were made following the 2004 earthquake under the Indian Ocean that triggered the most deadly tsunami in recorded history, killing more than 230,000 people.

Prof Shennan said: “Earthquakes can hit at any time of the day or night, and that’s a big challenge for emergency planners. A tsunami in this region could cause damage and threaten life from Alaska to California and beyond; in 1964 the effects of the tsunami waves were felt as far away as southern California and were recorded on tide gages throughout the Pacific Ocean.”

Dr George Plafker from Plafker Geohazard Consultants said: “A large scale earthquake will not necessarily create a large wave. Tsunami height is a function of bathymetry, and the amount of slip and dip of the faults that take up the displacement, and all these factors can vary greatly along the strike.

“Tsunamis will occur in the future. There are issues in warning and evacuating large numbers of people in coastal communities quickly and safely. The US has excellent warning systems in place but awareness is vital.”

Source: Durham University, via AlphaGalileo.

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Explore the moon in Google Earth

Monday, July 20th, 2009

Google Earth the MoonEver since I was a young girl, it has been a dream of mine to travel into space. In September of 2006, I was fortunate enough to make that dream a reality - I took off from the launch pad in Baikonur bound for the International Space Station and became the world’s first private female space tourist. Since then, it’s been my mission to help as many people as possible think ambitiously about ways to push the boundaries of exploration, both here on Earth and beyond. As a trustee of the X PRIZE Foundation, and the sponsor of the Ansari X PRIZE, I support Google’s goal of opening up space through projects like the Google Lunar X PRIZE, which serve to educate the public about the global benefits of space exploration.

That’s why I’m so excited about the release of Moon in Google Earth, which is launching today at the Newseum in Washington D.C. This tool will make it easier for millions of people to learn about space, our moon and some of the most significant and dazzling discoveries humanity has accomplished together. Moon in Google Earth enables you to explore lunar imagery as well as informational content about the Apollo landing sites, panoramic images shot by the Apollo astronauts, narrated tours and much more. I believe that this educational tool is a critical step into the future, a way to both develop the dreams of young people globally, and inspire new audacious goals.

With Google Earth, young explorers around the world can bounce around the galaxy in Sky, fly to Mars and now visit the moon from wherever they may be. To learn more watch the video below or visit the Lat Long Blog. Finally, outer space doesn’t seem so far away anymore.

Source: Google Blog, by Anousheh Ansari, Trustee, X PRIZE Foundation, and first female private space explorer

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IRI Scientists Predict High Probability for El Niño for Second Half of 2009

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

El NiñoScientists at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI), based at the Earth Institute at Columbia University, predict high probability for El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO, commonly referred to as El Niño) conditions from July 2009 through to the end of the year.

The El Niño phenomenon is a fluctuation in ocean surface water temperature that causes shifts in normal global climate patterns such as drier and hotter conditions in Southeast Asia and Northern Australia, a milder hurricane season in the Caribbean and North Atlantic, and wetter, warmer winters in the Midwestern U.S.

El Niño conditions recur irregularly, with successive events typically happening three to seven years apart. Once an El Niño or La Niña event develops, it tends to persist for approximately one year. ENSO forecasts enable those in climate-sensitive industries such as agriculture and fishing to adjust business plans accordingly and government agencies to make projections about disaster relief need.

IRI is one of the leading sources worldwide for global climate forecasting and monitoring and has a long history of successfully predicting El Niño conditions. Mark Cane, G. Unger Vetlesen Professor of Earth and Climate Sciences, and Stephen Zebiak, IRI director-general were co-authors of the first computer model used to successfully forecast the El Niño.

A May forecast from IRI predicted that, “By Jul-Sep season and enduring through the end of 2009, the probability for El Niño conditions rises to 45%.” The probability for ENSO-neutral (near normal) conditions is 45 to 50 percent, and 5 to 10 percent for La Niña conditions. For the current May-July season, the probability for ENSO-neutral conditions is 75 percent.

The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is a system of interactions between the waters of the equatorial Pacific Ocean and the atmosphere above it. Seasonal shifts in ENSO influence climate elements such as temperature, wind and rainfall in many parts of the world. In addition to forecasting ENSO conditions, the IRI maintains an ENSO information page with basic as well as more technical information about these climate phenomena.

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Scientists Sprint to Save Tasmanian Devil

Wednesday, July 15th, 2009

While saving an endangered species can be a race against time, saving the Tasmanian devil has become an all-out sprint. Similar to a fuzzy black bear cub but with bright pink ears, sharp teeth and a “devilish” snarl, this carnivorous marsupial has been devastated in the last decade by a contagious outbreak of devil facial tumor disease (DFTD).

the Tasmanian devilTo date, at least half of the population has been wiped out. Unless a dramatic turnaround occurs, the Tasmanian devil could become extinct within the next 20 to 25 years.

DFTD manifests as tumors on the devil’s face and neck and spreads when devils bite each other while feeding or breeding. Once infected, the animal dies within a few months.

Australian researchers discovered that the devil’s lack of genetic diversity seems to be responsible for the disease’s rapid spread. The devil’s immune system doesn’t appear to recognize that it’s being attacked by the cancer. While scientists struggle to find a vaccine, researchers funded by Morris Animal Foundation are tackling the epidemic on another front.

Dr. Justine O’Brien, an honorary research associate at the University of Sydney and the scientific director at SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Reproductive Research Center, is examining the Tasmanian devil’s natural reproduction patterns and developing assisted reproductive procedures. Along with co-investigator, Tamara Keeley, she is studying how DFTD affects the devils’ sperm.

“Preserving spermatozoa represents an important conservation tool because the genetic material can be stored indefinitely and potentially used to produce offspring through artificial insemination long after the male has died,” O’Brien says.

While preserving devils’ sperm proved to be somewhat difficult because of low overall sperm production and fragility, the research team persevered. Recently, they identified safe methods for freezing, storing and thawing sperm.

With the successful collection and storage of sperm, O’Brien’s team began the process of developing a genome resource bank for the Tasmanian devil. For a species facing extinction, a bank is crucial for preserving important genetic material for future use.

“Once artificial insemination or in vitro fertilization techniques are developed for this species, genome bank samples have the potential to be infused into captive or wild populations to maintain biodiversity,” O’Brien says.

O’Brien is also looking at female reproductive and stress hormone production during the breeding season. By studying the animals’ feces, her team can detect hormonal changes that will hopefully lead to a better understanding of the natural mating behavior of the female devils. Having a clearer picture of the females’ reproductive patterns, combined with the safe collection of high-quality frozen sperm samples from the males, should provide the team with the valuable information needed to improve captive breeding efforts that just might save the species.

Facts about the Tasmanian devil

  • Known as the vacuum cleaners of the forest
  • World’s largest carnivorous marsupial
  • Live up to 5 years and are nocturnal
  • Have nasty tempers
  • Are currently facing extinction

    Heidi Jeter, Morris Animal Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit established in 1948, is dedicated to funding animal health research that protects, treats and cures companion animals, horses & wildlife. MAF has been at the forefront of funding breakthrough research studies benefiting animals on all seven continents. MAF has its headquarters in Denver. For more info, call 800.243.2345.

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