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Can wildlife adapt to climate change? - Erin Eastwood

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Animal Websites, quick games and interactives

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Animal Websites, quick games and interactives

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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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Interactive Learning Sites for Education

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What kinds of animals might there be in the future?

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In this Mystery, students learn how people create new breeds of animals by mating (selecting) individuals with desirable traits.

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Male peacock spiders know how to work their angles and find their light. These arachnids are native to Australia. And males are quite a sight to see. They rely on the vibrant hues coloring their hind ends to attract females. A guy will raise skyward his derriere - or, more accurately, a flap on his hind end - and shake it catch the gals' attention. Now scientists have figured out where his fancy colors come from.

Doekele Stavenga is an expert in optics at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He and his colleagues started by collecting peacock spiders. They found these specimens of Maratus splendens in a park outside Sydney, Australia. Then they zoomed in on the scales that cover the spiders' rears.

The team used microscopy, spectrometry and other techniques to image the scales. The red, yellow and cream scales rely on two pigments to reflect their colors. (Pigments are chemicals that reflect light to produce colors.) Even the white scales contained low levels of pigment. Spines lining these scales scatter light randomly. That gives them slightly different hues when viewed from different angles.
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D.G. STAVENGA ET AL/J. R. SOC. INTERFACE 2016

Blue scales worked differently. They're transparent and lack pigment. Instead, the shape of the scales cause them to reflect iridescent blue and purple hues. Each scale resembles a sac or a peapod. It is lined with tiny ridges on the outside. Inside there's a layer of threadlike fibers. The spacing of those fibers may determine whether scales appear more blue or more purple.

Whether peacock spiders' eyes can actually see these posterior patterns is not certain, the researchers say. Species of jumping spiders can see at least three color ranges, just as humans do. So it seems unlikely that such vivid, come-hither dance moves play out in only black and white.

The findings appear in the August Journal of the Royal Society Interface.

Power Words
More About Power Words

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angle The space (usually measured in degrees) between two intersecting lines or surfaces at or close to the point where they meet.

arachnid A group of invertebrate animals that includes spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks. Many have silk or poison glands.

chemical A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (become bonded together) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H2O. Chemical can also be an adjective that describes properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

colleague Someone who works with another; a co-worker or team member.

fiber Something whose shape resembles a thread or filament of some kind. (in nutrition) Components of many fibrous plant-based foods. These so-called non-digestible fiber tends to come from cellulose, lignin, and pectin - all plant constituents that resist breakdown by the body's digestive enzymes.

iridescent Adjective that describes something that seems to change color with a shift in the angle at which it is viewed or at which lighting is applied.

native Associated with a particular location; native plants and animals have been found in a particular location since recorded history began. These species also tend to have developed within a region, occurring there naturally (not because they were planted or moved there by people). Most are particularly well adapted to their environment.

optics Having to do with vision or what can be seen.

organism Any living thing, from elephants and plants to bacteria and other types of single-celled life.

pigment A material, like the natural colorings in skin, that alter the light reflected off of an object or transmitted through it. The overall color of a pigment typically depends on which wavelengths of visible light it absorbs and which ones it reflects. For example, a red pigment tends to reflect red wavelengths of light very well and typically absorbs other colors. Pigment also is the term for chemicals that manufacturers use to tint paint.

range The full extent or distribution of something. For instance, a plant or animal's range is the area over which it naturally exists. (in math or for measurements) The extent to which variation in values is possible. Also, the distance within which something can be reached or perceived.

species A group of similar organisms capable of producing offspring that can survive and reproduce.

spectrometry The collection of data using an instrument that measures a spectrum, such as light, energy or atomic mass. Typically, chemists use this technique to measure and report the wavelengths of light that it observes to help identify the elements or molecules present in an unknown sample.

spider A type of arthropod with four pairs of legs that usually spin threads of silk that they can use to create webs or other structures.

transparent Allowing light to pass through so that objects behind can be distinctly seen.

Helen Thompson is the associate digital editor. She has undergraduate degrees in biology and English from Trinity University and a master's degree in science writing from Johns Hopkins University.

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Peacock spider's radiant rump comes from teeny tiny structures

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Male peacock spiders know how to work their angles and find their light. These arachnids are native to Australia. And males are quite a sight to see. They rely on the vibrant hues coloring their hind ends to attract females.

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Scientists have just uncovered a gene that explains an example of natural selection often mentioned in textbooks. This gene turns mottled-grey peppered moths black. The gene may also control wing-color changes in brightly hued butterflies.

A mystery emerged in Britain during the 1800s. An Industrial Revolution had just taken hold. Busy factories started to darken the skies with smoke from burning wood and coal. The sooty pollution blackened tree trunks. In short order, Victorian scientists took note of a change, too, among peppered moths ( Biston betularia). A new, all-black form emerged. It came to be called B. betularia carbonaria, or the "charcoal" version. The older form became typica, or the typical form.

Yan SENEZ / iStockphoto

Birds had been able to easily spot the old-style, lightly colored peppered moths as they settled onto soot-blackened tree trunks. Their new dark cousins instead blended in. The result: those carbonaria were less likely to be eaten.

Not surprisingly, numbers of light-colored moths started to fall as their dark cousins increased. By 1970, in some polluted regions nearly 99 percent of peppered moths were now black.

In the late 20th century, things began to change. Laws to control pollution phased in. Companies could no longer throw as much sooty pollution into the air. Before long, birds could easily spy the black moths again. Now the carbonaria moths have become rare and typica moths dominate once more.

Pollution didn't make the moths black. It just gave a cloaking advantage to any moths that carried the genetic change that turned their wings black. And when the pollution disappeared, so did the dark moths' advantage.

Still, scientists were puzzled as to how the black moths first came into being. Until now, that is. Researchers in England have traced the difference between a typica and carbonaria moth to a genetic tweak. It occurs in the gene known as cortex.

The scientists reported their finding June 1 in Nature.

An example of quick-change evolution

Genes hold the instructions that tell cells what to do. Over time, some genes may change, often for no apparent reason. Such changes are known as mutations. This study "begins to unravel exactly what the original mutation was" that produced the black moths, says Paul Brakefield. He is an evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge in England. The finding, he says, "adds a new and exciting element to the story."

Wing-color changes in peppered moths are a common example of what scientists refer to as natural selection. In it, organisms develop random mutations. Some of the gene changes will leave individuals better suited - or adapted - to their environment. These individuals will tend to survive more often. And as they do, they'll pass on the helpful mutation to their offspring.

Peter Miller, Richard Crook/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Eventually, most surviving individuals will carry that altered gene. And if this happens to enough individuals, they can constitute a new species. This is evolution.

Another example of adaptation and natural selection is butterflies that copied, or mimicked, the color patterns of others. Some butterflies are toxic to birds. Birds have learned to recognize those butterflies' wing patterns and avoid them. Non-toxic butterflies may develop some genetic tweaks that make their wings look like those of the toxic butterflies. Birds avoid the fakes. This lets the copycats increase in number.

Details of the gene changes behind the peppered-moth and butterfly adaptations had eluded scientists for decades. Then, in 2011, researchers tracked the traits to a region of genes that exists in both the moths and butterflies. Still, which precise gene or genes behind the changes remained a mystery.

In peppered moths, the region of interest included about 400,000 DNA bases. Bases are information-carrying chemical units that make up DNA. The region in these insects hosted 13 separate genes and two microRNAs. (MicroRNAs are short pieces of RNA that do not carry the blueprint for making proteins. They do, however, help control how much of certain proteins a cell will make.)

Screening for the gene change

"There aren't really any genes that scream out to you, saying 'I'm involved in wing patterning,'" observes Ilik Saccheri. He is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Liverpool in England. He also led the peppered-moth study.

Saccheri and his team compared that long DNA region in one black moth and three typical moths. The researchers found 87 places where the black moth differed from the light-colored ones. Most changes were in single DNA bases. Such genetic variants are known as SNPs. (That acronym stands for single nucleotide polymorphisms.) Other changes were additions or deletions of some DNA bases.

One difference was an unexpected 21,925-base-long stretch of DNA. It had somehow become inserted into the region. This big chunk of DNA contained multiple copies of a transposable element . (This is also known as a jumping gene.) Like a virus, these pieces of DNA copy and insert themselves into a host's DNA.

The team examined the DNA of hundreds more typica moths. If a light-colored moth had one of the changes, this meant the change wasn't responsible for its black winged cousin. One by one, the scientists ruled out mutations that might lead to black wings. In the end, they had a single candidate. It was the large transposable element that had landed in the cortex gene.

But this jumping gene didn't land in the DNA that provides the blueprint for making some protein. Instead it landed in an intron. This is a stretch of DNA that gets chopped out after the gene is copied into RNA - and before a protein is made.

To be sure the jumping gene was responsible for the black wings seen during the Industrial Revolution, Saccheri and his coworkers figured out how old the mutation was. The researchers used historical measurements of how common the black wing was throughout history. With that, they calculated that the jumping gene first landed in the cortex intron in about 1819. That timing gave the mutation about 20 to 30 moth generations to spread through the population before people first reported sightings of the black moths in 1848.

Saccheri and his colleagues found this transposable element in 105 of 110 wild-caught carbonaria moths. It was in none of the 283 typica moths tested. The other five moths, they now conclude, are black due to some other, unknown, genetic variation.

Butterfly bands

A second study in the same issue of Nature focused on Heliconius butterflies. These colorful beauties flit throughout the Americas. And like the peppered moths, they have been models for evolution since the 1800s. Nicola Nadeau led a group of researchers that set out to learn what controls wing colors in these butterflies.

Nadeau is an evolutionary geneticist at the University of Sheffield in England. Her team was looking for genetic variants associated with the presence - or absence - of yellow bands on the wings. That coloring is important because that yellow band helps some yummy species of butterflies mimic vile-tasting ones. Pretending to be the bad-tasting butterfly can help the yummy one become a predator's lunch.

Nadeau's team combed through more than 1 million DNA bases in each of five Heliconius species. Among them was H. erato favorinus. The scientists found 108 SNPs in every member of this species that had a yellow band on its hind wings. Most of those SNPs were in introns of the cortex gene or outside of that gene. Butterflies without the yellow band did not have those SNPs.

Other DNA changes around the cortex gene were found that lead to yellow bars on the wings of other Heliconius species as well. That suggests evolution acted multiple times on the cortex gene to stripe the bugs' wings.

Looking for proof of what 'jumping genes' do

The finding that the same gene influences wing patterns in butterflies and moths shows that some genes may be hot spots of natural selection, says Robert Reed. He is an evolutionary biologist at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y.

None of the gene differences in the butterflies or peppered moths changed the cortex gene itself. That means it is possible that the jumping gene and SNPs aren't doing anything to the gene. The changes could be merely controlling a different gene. But the evidence that cortex really is the gene upon which natural selection has acted is strong, says Reed. "I'd be surprised if they were wrong."

Still, it's not obvious how the cortex gene would change wing patterns, says Saccheri. He notes that both of the research teams are "equally puzzled about how it is doing what it appears to be doing."

Moth and butterfly wings are covered with colorful scales. The teams have evidence that the cortex gene helps determine when certain wing scales grow. And in butterflies and moths, the timing of wing-scale development affects their colors, says Reed. "You see colors popping up almost like a paint-by-numbers."

Yellow, white and red scales develop first. Black scales come later. Cortex is known to also be involved in cell growth. So adjusting levels of the protein it makes may speed up wing-scale growth. And that may cause the scales to become colored. Or it may slow their growth, allowing them to turn black, the researchers speculate.

SNPs, of course, can alter genes can affect coloration in other organisms, including people.

But the big take-home message in all of this work, the scientists say, is how a simple change in a single gene can make a difference in the look - and sometimes survival - of a species as conditions change.

Power Words
More About Power Words

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acronym A word made by combining some of the starting letter or groups of letters from a number of words. For instance, STEM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering and Math. Radar is an acronym for RAdio Detection And Ranging. Even laser is an acronym for Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation.

adaptation A process by which an organism or species becomes better suited to its environment. When a community of organisms does this over time, scientists refer to the change as evolution.

base (in genetics) A shortened version of the term nucleobase. These bases are building blocks of DNA and RNA molecules.

biology The study of living things. The scientists who study them are known as biologists.

cell The smallest structural and functional unit of an organism. Typically too small to see with the naked eye, it consists of watery fluid surrounded by a membrane or wall. Animals are made of anywhere from thousands to trillions of cells, depending on their size. Some organisms, such as yeasts, molds, bacteria and some algae, are composed of only one cell.

chemical A substance formed from two or more atoms that unite (become bonded together) in a fixed proportion and structure. For example, water is a chemical made of two hydrogen atoms bonded to one oxygen atom. Its chemical symbol is H ₂ O. Chemical can also be an adjective that describes properties of materials that are the result of various reactions between different compounds.

chromosome A single threadlike piece of coiled DNA found in a cell's nucleus. A chromosome is generally X-shaped in animals and plants. Some segments of DNA in a chromosome are genes. Other segments of DNA in a chromosome are landing pads for proteins. The function of other segments of DNA in chromosomes is still not fully understood by scientists.

DNA (short for deoxyribonucleic acid) A long, double-stranded and spiral-shaped molecule inside most living cells that carries genetic instructions. It is built on a backbone of phosphorus, oxygen, and carbon atoms. +In all living things, from plants and animals to microbes, these instructions tell cells which molecules to make.

environment The sum of all of the things that exist around some organism or the process and the condition those things create for that organism or process. Environment may refer to the weather and ecosystem in which some animal lives, or, perhaps, the temperature, humidity and placement of components in some electronics system or product.

evolution (v. to evolve) A process by which species undergo changes over time, usually through genetic variation and natural selection. These changes usually result in a new type of organism better suited for its environment than the earlier type. The newer type is not necessarily more "advanced," just better adapted to the conditions in which it developed.

evolutionary biologist Someone who studies the adaptive processes that have led to the diversity of life on Earth. These scientists can study many different subjects, including the microbiology and genetics of living organisms, how species change to adapt, and the fossil record (to assess how various ancient species are related to each other and to modern-day relatives).

evolutionary genetics A field of biology that focuses on how genes - and the traits they lead to - change over long periods of time (potentially over millennia or more). People who work in this field are known as evolutionary geneticists.

gene (adj. genetic) A segment of DNA that codes, or holds instructions, for producing a protein. Offspring inherit genes from their parents. Genes influence how an organism looks and behaves.

Industrial Revolution A period of time around 1750 that was marked by new manufacturing processes and a switch from wood to coal and other fossil fuels as a main source of energy.

intron A section of DNA or RNA that does not carry the blueprints for making some protein.

microRNA Short pieces of RNA that do not code for the production of proteins. Instead, they influence whether and how proteins are produced by interfering with normal production processes.

mutation (v. mutate) Some change that occurs to a gene in an organism's DNA. Some mutations occur naturally. Others can be triggered by outside factors, such as pollution, radiation, medicines or something in the diet. A gene with this change is referred to as a mutant.

natural selection This is guiding concept underlying evolution, or natural adaptation. It holds that natural mutations within a population of organisms will create some new forms that are better adapted to their environment. That adaptation makes them more likely to survive and reproduce. Over time, these survivors may come to dominate the original population. If their adaptive changes are significant enough, those survivors may also constitute a new species.

nucleotides The four chemicals that link up the two strands that make up DNA. They are: A (adenine), T (thymine), C (cytosine) and G (guanine). A links with T, and C links with G, to form DNA.

predator (adjective: predatory) A creature that preys on other animals for most or all of its food.

proteins Compounds made from one or more long chains of amino acids. Proteins are an essential part of all living organisms. They form the basis of living cells, muscle and tissues; they also do the work inside of cells. The hemoglobin in blood and the antibodies that attempt to fight infections are among the better-known, stand-alone proteins.Medicines frequently work by latching onto proteins.

RNA A molecule that helps "read" the genetic information contained in DNA. A cell's molecular machinery reads DNA to create RNA, and then reads RNA to create proteins.

single nucleotide polymorphism Abbreviated SNP and pronounced snip, this is a common variation in a DNA base. A SNP is the DNA in which one of the original nucleotides has substituted for another. This change may alter the function of DNA. SNPs are inherited. Each person carries millions of SNPs, making them unique from other people.

soot Also known as black carbon particles, these are the residues of incompletely burned materials, from plastics, leaves and wood to coal, oil and other fossil fuels. The particles can be quite small - nanometers in diameter. If inhaled, they can end up deep within the lung.

species A group of organisms that share similar traits and ancestry, and can usually breed to produce fertile offspring. It is also the basic rank in a classification system called taxonomy. A species name is usually given with the next highest rank, the genus.

toxic Poisonous or able to harm or kill cells, tissues or whole organisms. The measure of risk posed by such a poison is its toxicity.

trait A characteristic feature of something. (in genetics) A quality or characteristic that can be inherited.

transposable element Also known as a "jumping gene" or transposon. This is a sequence of DNA that moves - or jumps - from one part of the genome to another. Such jumps can cause mutations or alter the size of a genome.

variant A version of something that may come in different forms. (in biology) Members of a species that possess some feature (size, coloration or lifespan, for example) that make them distinct. (in genetics) A gene having a slight mutation that may have left its host species somewhat better adapted for its environment.

virus Tiny infectious particle consisting of RNA or DNA surrounded by protein. Viruses can reproduce only by injecting their genetic material into the cells of living creatures. Although scientists frequently refer to viruses as live or dead, in fact no virus is truly alive. It doesn't eat like animals do, or make its own food the way plants do. It must hijack the cellular machinery of a living cell in order to survive.

Tina Hesman Saey is a senior staff writer and reports on molecular biology at Science News. She has a Ph.D. in molecular genetics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in science journalism from Boston University.

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Scientists have just uncovered a gene that explains an example of natural selection often mentioned in textbooks. This gene turns mottled-grey peppered moths black. The gene may also control wing-color changes in brightly hued butterflies. A mystery emerged in Britain during the 1800s. An Industrial Revolution had just taken hold.

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Chimpanzees' sophisticated use of tools - BBC wildlife

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Desert Plants and Animals adaptations -For Kids

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One of the ways the Jane Goodall Institute protects wild chimpanzees and other primates is through the Tchimpounga sanctuary and by supporting law enforcement efforts to reduce illegal trafficking.

JGI also raises awareness about the importance of protecting endangered species. Without sanctuaries, law enforcement officers who confiscate chimpanzees from great ape traffickers or hunters would have no place to take them. Raising awareness is critically important as well. Local communities have become increasingly aware that they should alert law enforcement agencies about poachers and that hunting great apes is illegal. We are now seeing an increase in arrests and prosecutions as a result of greater application of the law. Even so, we must continue to work towards better protection of chimpanzees.

The Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center

The Tchimpounga Chimpanzee Rehabilitation Center is the largest chimpanzee sanctuary in Africa. This natural wildlife refuge is home to more than 150 rescued chimps, all victims of illegal trade or poaching.

Public Awareness

Public awareness, school-based programming and community outreach all play a part in our work in the field and at the Tchimpounga sanctuary. It is important that local communities are aware of the decreasing populations of chimpanzees.

Forest Conservation

Deforestation has taken a terrible toll on great ape populations. To save chimps and other primates, we collaborate with communities to protect the surrounding forests.

Photo credits top to bottom: JGI/Fernando Turmo (header and first photo), JGI Canada/Sophie Muset, Rick Quinn

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One of the ways the Jane Goodall Institute protects wild chimpanzees and other primates is through the Tchimpounga sanctuary and by supporting law enforcement efforts to reduce illegal trafficking. JGI also raises awareness about the importance of protecting endangered species.

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History, Evolution, and Traits of Amphibians | Kids Discover Online

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What Are Amphibians? | Kids Discover Online

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artificial selection in apples

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Cut an apple in half horizontally, and you'll see five seed compartments arranged in a star. How many seeds are in each compartment?

Your students will find out in this activity from the Willett Garden of Learning. Students predict the number of seed they will find in each apple, then work in groups to count seeds and compare the results.

Apple growers use seed counting to find out how successful the bees in their orchard have been. Empty seed compartments mean that some of the apple flower's eggs were not pollinated. Some farmers think that apples with more seeds are bigger or juicier. Ask your students what they think, after observing their apples and counting the seeds. (You'll find more information about apple seed counting here.)

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Cut an apple in half horizontally, and you'll see five seed compartments arranged in a star. How many seeds are in each compartment? Your students will find out in this activity from the Willett Garden of Learning. Students predict the number of seed they will find in each apple, then work in groups to count seeds and compare the results.

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All animals have their own unique needs.

The canyon provides habitats for many different creatures. It has warmth for sun-seeking salamanders and cool air for furry black bears. There are leafy plants for sheep and deer to eat, and cool waters for fish to swim in.

More than 80 species of mammals and 50 species of reptiles and amphibians call the Grand Canyon home. You’ll also find 25 fish species and more than 300 kinds of birds.

Today, the most common animal in the Grand Canyon is the human tourist. But right now, let’s hang out with a few of the locals and learn more about them.