Extinction

Due to their unique afterglow ability, long-wavelength-light rechargeable persistent luminescence (PersL) nanoparticles (PLNPs) have been emerging as an important category of imaging probes. Among them, ZnGa2 O4 :0.6% Cr3+ (ZGC) PLNPs have gained widespread recognition due to the ease of synthesis and uniform morphology. Unfortunately, the limited absorption arising from the low molar extinction coefficient of Cr3+ results in relatively low afterglow intensity and rapid decay after long-wavelength LED light irradiation...

No Abstract available.

The use of elephant ivory as a commodity is a factor in declining elephant populations. Despite recent worldwide elephant ivory trade bans, mammoth ivory trade remains unregulated. This complicates law enforcement efforts, as distinguishing between ivory from extant and extinct species requires costly, destructive and time consuming methods. Elephant and mammoth ivory mainly consists of dentine, a mineralized connective tissue that contains an organic collagenous component and an inorganic component of calcium phosphate minerals, similar in structure to hydroxyapatite crystals...

Archosauria originated around the Earth's largest biotic crisis that severely affected all ecosystems globally, the Permotriassic Mass extinction event, and comprises two crown-group lineages: the bird-lineage and the crocodylian lineage. The bird lineage includes the iconic pterosaurs, as well as dinosaurs and birds, whereas the crocodylian lineage includes clades such as aetosaurs, poposaurs, "rauisuchians," as well as Crocodylomorpha; the latter being represented today only by less than 30 extant species of Crocodylia...

The increasing frequency and severity of human-caused fires likely have deleterious effects on species distribution and persistence. In 2020, megafires in the Brazilian Pantanal burned 43% of the biome's unburned area and resulted in mass mortality of wildlife. We investigated changes in habitat use or occupancy for an assemblage of eight mammal species in Serra do Amolar, Brazil, following the 2020 fires using a pre- and post-fire camera trap dataset. Additionally, we estimated the density for two naturally marked species, jaguars Panthera onca and ocelots Leopardus pardalis...

South Africa is home to numerous indigenous and locally developed sheep (Nguni Pedi, Zulu, and Namaqua Afrikaner, Afrino, Africander, Bezuidenhout Africander, Damara, Dorper, Döhne Merino, Meat Master, South African Merino, South African Mutton Merino, Van Rooy, and Dorper), goat (SA veld, Tankwa, Imbuzi, Bantu, Boer, and Savanna) and cattle (Afrigus, Afrikaner, Bolowana, Bonsmara, Bovelder, Drakensberger, South African Angus, South African Dairy Swiss, South African Friesland, South African Red, and Veld Master) animals...

Forficuloecus pezopori Martin, Keatley & Ash n. sp. from the western ground parrot Pezoporus flaviventris North, 1911 (Psittaculidae) is proposed based on combined evidence from morphology and COI mitochondrial DNA. Phylogenetically, the new species is closest to its two known congeners from Western Australia: F . josephi Price, Johnson & Palma, 2008 from Bourke's parrot Neopsephotus bourkii (Gould, 1841) and the scarlet-chested parrot Neophema splendida (Gould, 1841), and F . palmai Guimarães, 1985 from the Australian ringneck parrot Barnardius zonarius (Shaw, 1805)...

The prime goal of the present research is to synthesize pristine zinc sulfide (PZS) and cobalt (Co)-doped zinc sulfide (CDZS) thin films with different doping concentrations (DC) via chemical bath deposition (CBD) method. The effect of Co-doping on the surface topography, structural, optical and dc-electrical behaviors of PZS thin films has been ascertained. Scanning electron microscopy images exhibited nearly sphere-shaped agglomerates of grains dispersed throughout the surface with cracks in PZS thin film whereas cracks were absent in CDZS...

Terror birds (Aves, Phorusrhacidae) were large flightless apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic. Here, we estimate a new phylogeny for phorusrhacids using Bayesian inference. We demonstrate phylogenetic evidence for a monophyletic Patagornithinae and find significant support for a distinct crown group associated with the quintessential 'terror bird' characteristics. We use this phylogeny to analyse the evolution of body size and cursoriality. Our results reveal that size overlap was rare between co-occurring subfamilies, supporting the hypothesis that these traits were important for niche partitioning...

The interplay of host-parasite and predator-prey interactions is critical in ecological dynamics because both predators and parasites can regulate communities. But what is the prevalence of infected prey and predators when a parasite is transmitted through trophic interactions considering stochastic demographic changes? Here, we modelled and analysed a complex predator-prey-parasite system, where parasites are transmitted from prey to predators. We varied parasite virulence and infection probabilities to investigate how those evolutionary factors determine species' coexistence and populations' composition...

The fossil fish Ptychodus Agassiz, 1834, characterized by a highly distinctive grinding dentition and an estimated gigantic body size (up to around 10 m), has remained one of the most enigmatic extinct elasmobranchs (i.e. sharks, skates and rays) for nearly two centuries. This widespread Cretaceous taxon is common in Albian to Campanian deposits from almost all continents. However, specimens mostly consist of isolated teeth or more or less complete dentitions, whereas cranial and post-cranial skeletal elements are very rare...

The machairodontine felid Homotherium achieved a global geographic distribution throughout much of the Pleistocene. Accordingly, that large carnivore is important for understanding patterns of community composition. We report on a new record of Homotherium based on a fragmentary premaxilla-maxilla discovered on McFaddin Beach, Texas, along the Gulf of Mexico. Skeletal remains of extinct, Pleistocene vertebrates accumulate on McFaddin Beach. Those fossils appear to originate from submerged deposits on the continental shelf in the Gulf of Mexico, an area that was subaerially exposed in the Late Pleistocene during glacial intervals...

Since their radiation in the Middle Triassic period ∼ 240 million years ago, stony corals have survived past climate fluctuations and five mass extinctions. Their long-term survival underscores the inherent resilience of corals, particularly when considering the nutrient-poor marine environments in which they have thrived. However, coral bleaching has emerged as a global threat to coral survival, requiring rapid advancements in coral research to understand holobiont stress responses and allow for interventions before extensive bleaching occurs...

The limbic system, particularly the NAc, shows a high concentration of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). Recent evidence suggests the significant involvement of mGluRs in mental disorders, including substance abuse and addiction. The objective of this study was to examine the involvement of mGlu8 receptors in the NAc in the mechanisms underlying the extinction and reinstatement of conditioned place preference (CPP) induced by morphine. Male Wistar rats underwent surgical implantation of bilateral cannulas in the NAc and were assessed in a CPP protocol...

Ant fossils from the Cretaceous are rare but critical for understanding the early evolution of this incredibly successful group of animals. New amber fossils fill important gaps, revealing patterns of death, survival, and radiation around the end Cretaceous extinction.

Prolonged exposure therapy (PE) is a well-established first-line treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is based on emotional processing theory. PE has been rigorously evaluated and tested in a large number of clinical trials in many countries covering a wide range of trauma populations. In this review, we summarize the evidence base supporting the efficacy of PE across populations, including adults with sexual assault-related PTSD and mixed trauma-related PTSD, military populations, and adolescents...

In the last decade, the Fossilized Birth-Death (FBD) process has yielded interesting clues about the evolution of biodiversity through time. To facilitate such studies, we extend our method to compute the probability density of phylogenetic trees of extant and extinct taxa in which the only temporal information is provided by the fossil ages (i.e. without the divergence times) in order to deal with the piecewise constant FBD process, known as the "skyline FBD", which allows rates to change between pre-defined time intervals, as well as modelling extinction events at the bounds of these intervals...

Mastotermitidae, the first-diverging extant family of termites, has only one relic extant species; however, this family had greater richness during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Fossil termites from the Cretaceous provide information on the early evolution of termites and the transition between extinct families. Herein, two new Mastotermitidae species found in upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian) Kachin amber are reported. One is a female imago described as Angustitermesreflexus gen. et sp. nov. and assigned to the subfamily Mastotermitinae...

Cocaine use disorder (CUD) is a global health problem with no approved medications. One potential treatment target is the gut microbiome, but it is unknown if cocaine induces long-lasting effects on gut microbes. A novel therapeutic candidate for CUD, cannabidiol (CBD), can improve gut function in rodent models. It is possible that protective effects of CBD against cocaine use are mediated by improving gut health. We examined this question in this experiment. Cocaine conditioned place preference (CPP) was conducted in adult male C57BL/6JArc mice...

Where there are bacteria, there will be bacteriophages. These viruses are known to be important players in shaping the wider microbial community in which they are embedded, with potential implications for human health. On the other hand, bacteria possess a range of distinct immune mechanisms that provide protection against bacteriophages, including the mutation or complete loss of the phage receptor, and CRISPR-Cas adaptive immunity. While our previous work showed how a microbial community may impact phage resistance evolution, little is known about the inverse, namely how interactions between phages and these different phage resistance mechanisms affect the wider microbial community in which they are embedded...