2013 - the year of the Vagrant Emperor

Check out this guy - a Vagrant Emperor (Hemianax ephippiger) dragonfly captured at Castleventry, West Cork earlier this year.

This individual is one of seven reported this year - a surprise since just two had been identified in Ireland since one was first recorded, in Dublin in 1913. The Dragonfly Ireland Facebook group describe the sightings this year as "absolutely inprecedented".

Dragonfly Ireland has also produced a useful map of Vagrant Emperor records in Ireland. (2013 records are indicated by orange circles; two reports were logged in 2011- orange squares; and the original Dublin sighting is indicated by a blue dot).

Dragonfly Ireland have produced this map of Vagrant Emperor sightings in Ireland.

One of the West Cork sightings was by 'friend of the blog' Kieran Lettice who reports that his family cat dragged the creature into the house (unharmed) one night in late September.After extracting it from the jaws of a proud feline, the emperor was photographed and released without any obvious injuries.

While Kieran and yours truly were able to make a preliminary identification, it fell to butterfly and moth expert Ken Bond to make a definitive identification.

The Vagrant Emperor is native to North Africa and is generally described as a rare long-distance visitor to UK and Ireland. Although it has even been found dead or dying as far North as Iceland, and even as far West as South America; its travels are quite remarkable given its size and fragile appearence. An emperor of vagrants, to be sure!

What would the first mammal look like?

The image below might look like your average small rodent - long tail, sharp teeth for insect-eating and small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, it is in fact, what scientists predict the world's first mammal looked like.

An artist’s rendering of the hypothetical placental ancestor (by Carl Buell)

About 65 million years ago, some 70% of the species on the planet were wiped out by some cataclismic event. After this wipeout, a new group of animals emerged which were to evolve to be the most successful on the planet.

The placental mammals vary hugely in size and shape. Of the c. 5,100 species now extant on earth, they range from the bumblebee bat that weighs around 1.5 g (that's just half the weight of a 2 cent (euro) coin!) to the blue whale that weighs in at 190,000 kg.

Now, scientists from around the world have published (pdf) what they believe the first of these mammals looked like. Using a mixture of genetic and morphological data, the team deduced that the "hypothetical placental ancestor" weighed between 6 and 245 g, ate insects and produced single offspring which were born hairless with their eyes closed.

The paper concludes that the placental mammals arose quickly after that cataclismic extinction event, known to scientists as the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) event, probably between 200,000 and 400,000 years afterwards.

The Ring Whale

Here are some images I took last week (Sunday 21st August) near Ring, Co. Waterford of the remains of a 10 metre long Sperm Whale which live-stranded on the previous Friday.

The animal had tracked close to the South East coast of Ireland for a number of days prior to stranding, leading experts to believe that he was sick.

The whale is now gone - removed and incinerated by Waterford County Council. The Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG) had earlier called for the remains to be used constructively:

"This is a wasted opportunity", according to the group. "The specimen, could have made a fantastic educational resource, not to mention the tourism potential that would flow from such a unique local attraction. The lack of vision from the powers that be is disappointing, especially when one considers that Youghal, in East Cork is only 15 miles away, and is where the original masterpiece "Moby Dick" was filmed with Gregory Peck back in 1955."

I have to say, it was disturbing to see that the carcass had already been poorly treated by the time I reached Ring on Sunday- two days after the stranding. Names and slogans had been carved into the dead animal's blubber and people had obviously attempted (successfully in some cases) to remove teeth from the whale.

According to the IWDG, by the 23rd, "human scavengers had already sawed off the lower jaw bones over-night, so the specimen was no longer intact and the initiative was lost".

Science Snapshot 10: Elephant Teeth Again

For the next few weeks, along with some of our usual posts, we're posting a series of  'Science Snapshots'.
Science Snapshot was really popular when we ran it last year for Science Week and this will be a continuation along the same theme - that's why this is number nine already!

You can see all of the snapshots so far by clicking here.

Some months ago, I asked you to identify a mystery object from the UCC Zoology Museum. Turns out, it was an elephant tooth! Well, here's one in situ in an elephant skull at the Irish Natural History Museum. Makes more sense when you see where it's supposed to be. Doesn't it?

In the running: the origin of the modern racehorse

Byerley Turk

For years there has been intense speculation as to the origin of the so-called "foundation mares" - those female horses which were bred with a handful of Middle Eastern stallions to kick start the Irish and English Thoroughbred racehorse industry.

All modern Thoroughbreds can trace their ancestry back to three stallions which were imported into England in the 17th and 18th century - Byerley Turk (1680s), Darley Arabian (1704) and Godolphin Arabian (1729). Incidentally, Byerley Turk is reputed to have been used by his owner Captain Robert Byerley at the Battle of the Boyne.

The origin of the maternal lineage is  less clearcut as the influence of the female line was thought to be less influential than the male line in the early years of horse breeding.

Now, a group of UK and Irish scientists have used mitochondrial DNA from 1929 horses to determine the origin of these foundation mares.

Their results show that Thoroughbred foundation mares were not exclusively Arab or Oriental but, in fact, were of 'cosmopolitan European origin' with some contribution from 'Barbs' (i.e. North African) and significant contributions from British and Irish Native horses.

According to the results (published in Biology Letters) British and Irish Native horses made twice the contribution to the heritage of modern Thoroughbreds that Oriental (term used in historic records referring to Mid-East and West-Asia) horses did.

Mitochondrial DNA analysis is a perfect way of studying female lineage because mitochondria are normally inherited exclusively along the female line. So, all of your mitochondrial DNA was inherited from your mother, becuase mitochondria in sperm cells are usually destroyed by the egg cell after fertilisation has occurred.

You can read all of the research here (pdf).

Ireland's Biodiversity Recorded

The National Biodiversity Data Centre has just published a document outlining the state of knowledge of Ireland's biodiversity in 2010.

This impressive report outlines the breathe of knowledge about Ireland's flora and fauna, while at the same time, highlighting where gaps in this knowledge occur.

The importance of such work cannot be over emphasised, given that services provided by Ireland's biodiversity are estimated to contribute at least €2.6 billion per year to the Irish economy. This figure is arrived at, given the importance of biodiversity in agriculture, forestry, fisheries and tourism industries, as well as the significant contributions towards clean air, water and productive, healthy soils.

Figure 1 (Click on the image to see a larger version; NBDC)

As the report authors point out: "as the Irish economy seeks ways to revitalise itself, gaining a greater understanding of Ireland's biodiversity and protecting Ireland's natural capital should be one of the building blocks of that recovery".

Ireland has 11,422 species of insect; 8000 non-insect invertebrates; 5500 species of fungi and 2328 different species of plant (see figure 1).

Figure 2 (Click on the image to see a larger version; NBDC)

Despite this high level of knowledge about Ireland's rich biodiversity, the NBDC estimate that about 25% of the country's species are yet to be recorded. Significantly, they estimate that up to 5,000 more species of Irish algae need to be recorded.

The report also indicates the threat of extinction of Irish species, with 23% of known species currently threatened, according to IUCN red list data (see figure 2).

You can read the report in full here.

Science Gallery: Dublin Zoo

Regular readers will know that we here at Communicate Science very much believe in the old saying that 'a picture paints a thousand words'. 

With that in mind, we sent our part-time roving reporter Daniel Lettice to Dublin Zoo recently to work his photographic magic and bring us some wonderful examples of the type of animals that the Zoo is home to.

Dublin Zoo was opened in 1831 and received all of its animals from the recently opened London Zoo.

The Zoo has had an interesting history since then: receiving its first giraffe in 1844; its first lions in 1855;surviving the 1916 rising by feeding some of the less fortunate animals to the lions; right up to the present day when it is one of the most visited attractions in the state.

Our first photo is of one of the Sumatran tigers (Panthera tigris sumatrae) - the smallest of all still existing tiger subspecies. The tigers are critically endangered in the wild. Around 400-500 were thought to exist in 1998 and their numbers continue to decline.

Next, it's the Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiaca): an easily recognisable yellow-eyed bird. This guy is a male - the males are virtually pure white, while the females have dark markings.

This hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) looks right at home in the water. Dublin's hippos are named Henri, Hoovie and Heidi. native to central and southern Africa, they are classified as 'vulnerable' in the wild.

Finally, an Asian Elephant (Elephas maximus), from the herd at Dublin Zoo. they have smaller ears than their African counterpart and those ears (kind of) look like India! it's estimated that there are only around 35-50,000 Asian Elephants left in the wild.

Dublin Zoo is open all year round; except for Christmas Day and St. Stephens Day. It's really worth a visit.

Inside the Dead Zoo

To celebrate Darwin Day; a two-part documentary (via youtube) on Ireland's Natural History Museum, also known as The Dead Zoo.

Part1


Part 2

Bat research: not just about bats

One of the top science stories this week has been the discovery of a type of pitcher plant in which bats rest and defaecate during the day. Bats are indeed interesting creatures.

International 'Year of the Bat' takes place (bizarrely over two years) during 2011 and 2012 and aims to educate people regarding "the essential roles of bats in maintaining healthy ecosystems and human economies", according to Merlin Tuttle, an American ecologist and bat researcher.

"Bats are found nearly everywhere and approximately 1,200 species account for almost a quarter of all mammals. Nevertheless, in recent decades their populations have declined alarmingly. Many are now endangered, though they provide invaluable services that we cannot afford to loose" said Tuttle.

But bat research isn't just about saving the flying mammals; researchers investigating how to protect bats from extinction are also working with the US air force to design unmanned aircraft based on the mechanics of bat flight. Understanding how bats are able to fly in vast crowds without injury is key to designing drones which can fly in cluttered skies.

The sounds that bats make are also of interest to scientists. Australian scientists have recently shown that bats there have distinctive regional calls. Scientists took 4,000 bat calls and analysed them using custom-made software and was able to identify different species and sources.

The bats us the calls to navigate and hunt using the echolocation technique - where sounds, inaudible to humans, hit objects and bounce back.

There is also some evidence where bats have been useful for humans, particularly in the area of medicine. Researchers in the US have looked into using an enzyme present in vampire bat saliva to thin human blood and help save brain cells in stroke patients. Desmoteplase, a drug based on an enzyme from Desmodus Rotundus have produced mixed results.

Prof. Christopher Bladin, who also works on the same enzyme in Australia, is enthusiastic about the ability of bats to impact on human medicine: "Well vampire bats, you have to love them. I mean, they've got a range of novel pharmaceutical drugs inside them, so they're an animal dear to my heart and more importantly, dear to my brain".

You can find out more about bats and the Year of the Bat here.

My Secret Life - Animals at Play

My latest guest post for PBS NOVA's Secret Life of Scientists blog is now online. This week's episode features engineer and product designer Judy Lee talking about her love of design and how she's sharing that love on TV.


You can read the post and watch the episode here.

In this month's post, I look at how animals can demonstrate they're playful side.

Mammal size exploded after dinosaurs

A team of international scientists have shown that when the dinosaurs became extinct some 65 million years ago, mammals began to get bigger - a lot bigger!

The study published this week in the journal Science, shows that mammals became a thousand times bigger than they had been once the dinosaurs were out of the way.

"Basically, the dinosaurs disappear and all of a sudden there is nobody else eating the vegetation. That's an open food source and mammals start going for it, and it's more efficient to be an herbivore when you're big," says paper co-author Dr. Jessica Theodor, associate professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at the University of Calgary.

The mammals considered as part of the research includes Indricotherium transouralicum, a hornless, rhino-like herbivore that weighed about seventeen tonnes and stood about 18 feet high at the shoulder. That animal lived in Eurasia almost 34 million years ago.

The researchers gathered data on the maximum size for the major groups of land mammals on each continent, including Perissodactyla (odd-toed ungulates like horses and rhinos), Proboscidea (which includes elephants, mammoths and mastodon), Xenarthra (anteaters, tree sloths and armadillos), as well as a number of other extinct groups.

"that's really rapid evolution"Theodore says the results confirm that ecosystems can reset themselves relatively quickly after a major disruption: "You lose dinosaurs 65 million years ago, and within 25 million years the system is reset to a new maximum for the animals that are there in terms of body size. That's actually a pretty short time frame, geologically speaking," she says. "That's really rapid evolution."

The scientists found that mammals grew to a maximum of about 10 kg when they shared the earth with dinosaurs but up to 17 tonnes once the dinosaurs were gone.

The research, funded by a National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network grant, was led by scientists at the University of New Mexico, who brought together paleontologists, evolutionary biologists and macroecologists from universities around the world.

John Gittleman from the University of Georgia in the US was also involved in the research and says that there is a much better fossil record for mammals than for many other groups. "That's partly because mammals' teeth preserve really well. And as it happens, tooth size correlates well with overall body size" says Gittleman.

"During the Mesozoic, mammals were small," said Gittleman. "Once dinosaurs went extinct, mammals evolved to be much larger as they diversified to fill ecological niches that became available. This phenomenon has been well-documented for North America; we wanted to know if the same thing happened all over the world."

 Image: The largest land mammals that ever lived, Indricotherium (left) and Deinotherium (middle), would have towered over the living African elephant (right). [Credit: Alison Boyer/Yale University]

Science Snapshot Two: Skulls and Crossbones

Science Week kicked off yesterday in Ireland. For more details of events taking place around the country, you can visit here.

Here on Communicate Science, for the duration of Science Week, along with our usual posts, we'll be posting a 'Science Snapshot' every day. If you have a Science Snapshot you'd like to share, you can email here and we'll post the best later in the week.

The next picture is a selection of skulls on display at University College Cork's Schools Open Day which took place last month.

The skulls are part of the School of Biological, Earth and Environmaental Sciences' (BEES) extensive zoological museum.