News
Speedier Sperm
For some fish, climate change may be the ultimate fertility aid. Or, at least, it could help them hit sperm speed records. A new study of eastern mosquitofish living in southern France shows that male fish reared in warmer environments also churn out faster-swimming sperm. The results reveal, for the first time, how warming global temperatures could influence the performance of sex cells, potentially altering species’ ability to reproduce. From E&ERC Member Bart Adriaenssens.
100 Things we didn't know last year
Results from work conducted by the Wroe Lab on the feeding behaviour of bears ranked in the BBC News Top 100 list of Things We Didn’t Know In 2010; one of only two findings based on work by Australian researchers.
Finding what lies beyond
Scientists from the tropics to Antarctica hope to shed light on the effects of climate change, including recent PhD graduate of the E&ERC, Tiffanie Nelson.
Speedier Sperm
For some fish, climate change may be the ultimate fertility aid. Or, at least, it could help them hit sperm speed records. A new study of eastern mosquitofish living in southern France shows that male fish reared in warmer environments also churn out faster-swimming sperm. The results reveal, for the first time, how warming global temperatures could influence the performance of sex cells, potentially altering species’ ability to reproduce. From E&ERC Member Bart Adriaenssens.
100 Things we didn't know last year
Results from work conducted by the Wroe Lab on the feeding behaviour of bears ranked in the BBC News Top 100 list of Things We Didn’t Know In 2010; one of only two findings based on work by Australian researchers.
Finding what lies beyond
Scientists from the tropics to Antarctica hope to shed light on the effects of climate change, including recent PhD graduate of the E&ERC, Tiffanie Nelson.
Ancient bar had strongest bite
Agriotherium africanum was a giant short-faced bear that became extinct five million years ago. By comparing the skulls of several species, scientists also found polar bears to have surprisingly weak bites. “Our analyses show that it had the most powerful bite of any known terrestrial mammal”.
The findings were published in the Journal of Zoology. Dr Stephen Wroe from the E&ERC and the University of Newcastle, Australia and his team used CT scanners to create 3-D images of bear skulls. They scanned six species, ranging from a giant panda to a reconstructed fossil of A. africanum.
All about the girl: the mating game and how (not) to win it
Long before men asked themselves “What’s the meaning of life?”, they were scratching their heads and wondering “How do I get the girl?”
And it’s not just humans who have been consumed with this question. Working out how to get the girl has been top priority for our animal relatives all the way down the tree of life.
But if everyone is asking the same question, are they all getting the same answer? Are there simple rules in the mating game? Or is something more complex happening – are males tailoring their sexual strategy in subtle ways?
Seven Deadly Sins: Lust- Is Love Blind?
Rob Brooks recently participated in a Valentine’s day event at the Royal Institution of Australia in Adelaide on Lust – is love blind? The video for this event is streaming at
Dance moves help lizards stand out in a crowd
LIZARDS HAVE EVOLVED SOME elaborate moves to communicate their messages in a visually crowded world, new Australian research has found.
Eight species of Anolis lizard found on the islands of Jamaica and Puerto Rico rely on subtle body movements, to both attract mates and ward off rivals. Each species has evolved its own way to stand out from the surrounding visual noise.
"Their tropical habitats are a constant blur of motion, from the sea-breeze moving shrubbery on the coast to the shifting dabbled light of the forest floor in the mountains," says the lead researcher, biologist Dr Terry Ord from University of New South Wales, E&ERC. "All this presents a real challenge for these small, cryptically coloured guys to visually communicate."
Hunkier than thou
WHEN it comes to partners, men often find women’s taste fickle and unfathomable. But ladies may not be entirely to blame. A growing body of research suggests that their preference for certain types of male physiognomy may be swayed by things beyond their conscious control—like prevalence of disease or crime—and in predictable ways.
Researchers led by E&ERC Director Robert Brooks, of the University of New South Wales present their findings in the Proceedings of the Royal Society. Dr Brooks suggests that it is not health-related factors, but rather competition and violence among men that best explain a woman’s penchant for manliness. The more rough-and-tumble the environment, the researcher’s argument goes, the more women prefer masculine men, because they are better than the softer types at providing for mothers and their offspring.
Great white shark's jaw weakness revealed
At up to 3m in length, adolescent great white sharks certainly look like formidable predators.
But until they reach maturity, the sharks have surprisingly weak jaws, according to researchers.
A team of scientists in Australia including centre member Stephen Wroe and postgraduate Toni Ferrara used 3-D digital models of the sharks' heads to reveal the mechanics behind their infamous mouths.
This showed that tough skin and bone of large prey could actually damage their relatively delicate young jaws.
Marsupial carnivores 'as diverse as other mammals once'
They are an extraordinary and now rare group of animals but Earth has had some formidable marsupial carnivores.
These pouched killers have included lions, wolves, and even sabretooths.
Today, the only large marsupial carnivore left in existence is the Tasmanian Devil, and that is on the brink of extinction.
An international team including centre member Stephen Wroe examined the skulls of some 130 carnivores - marsupial and placental, living and extinct - from the past 40 million years.
Anglers Hooked on Research
HOOK a mulloway when you wet a line this month in the Richmond River and you could be making a valuable contribution to scientific research.
For the past few years, the University of NSW has run the NSW Mulloway Classic.
Although it seems like any normal fishing competition, this one helps researchers at the university’s Fisheries and Marine Environmental Research Facility including Matt Taylor and Iain Suthers of the E&ERC to assess stocking strategies, angler effort and contribution of stocked fish to catches.
Successful mothers get help from their friends: Dolphin Study
Female dolphins who have help from their female friends are far more successful as mothers than those without such help, according to a landmark new study.
Previous research into reproductive success in animal populations has had mixed findings: some studies point to the benefits of inherited genetic characteristics, while others show the benefits of social effects, such as having an honorary aunt or uncle or other unrelated helpers.
The new study is the first to look at the effects of these factors together in a wild animal population and has shown that social and genetic effects are both important for reproduction.
The finding, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was only possible thanks to 25 years of field observations by an international team of behavioural researchers on the dolphin population at Shark Bay, in Western Australia, plus more than a decade of genetic samples taken by a team led by Dr Bill Sherwin of the E&ERC and Dr Michael Kruetzen of the University of Zurich
Behavioural traits and Metabolic Rates
According to Dr Peter Biro and his colleagues in their latest study, people obsessed with staying fit may have higher sex drives and also tend to be more aggressive and socially dominant. The team was studying the relationship between behavior and metabolic rate in a number of insects, birds and animals.
Dr Biro, a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales's Evolution and Ecology Research Centre, has written on the subject with Judy Stamps of the University of California, Davis, in a review article in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.
E&ERC Member wins NSW Young Tall Poppy Award
E&ERC Centre member and Postdoc Michael Kasumovic was last night awarded with a NSW Tall Poppy Award for 2010.
Michael’s work examines the evolution of mating strategies in response to the social environment specifically and the evolution of mating systems in general.
The NSW Tall Poppy Awards were given out in a ceremony at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum on 14 October 2010.
E&ERC Postgraduate Student wins the UNSW Three Minute Thesis Competition
A presentation by centre Postgraduate Alex Jordan exploring why males are not more promiscuous has won the inaugural UNSW Three Minute Thesis competition.
Research by Alex suggests male promiscuity is not more common – despite its potential evolutionary advantages – because it’s subject to natural limitations.
Alex used tropical fish to show that promiscuous males will forgo essential life tasks in favour of sexual effort: the trade-off was that they grew more slowly and died younger. His work will be published in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology.
E&ERC Postgraduate Students win at the UNSW Postgraduate Research Competition
Two E&ERC Postgraduate students - Alex Jordan and Margo Adlet -featured among the prize-winning submissions from the next generation of bright young researchers in the Faculty's first Postgraduate Research Competition. Entries flowed fast and strong, with 86 postgraduate students from within the Faculty vying for almost $25,000 in prizes to support travel linked to their research projects.
