Chinese turtle passes waste urea through its mouth

Chinese soft-shelled turtles pass waste through their mouths, scientists in Singapore have found.

Biologists were puzzled by the turtle's behaviour because, despite using its lungs to breathe air, it often submerges its head in water.

By testing the water, they found that the reptile was excreting urea through its mouth instead of its kidneys.

The discovery adds to previous research, which suggested the turtles have highly specialised mouth tissues.

Professor Ip Yeung Kwon and colleagues from the National University of Singapore published their study in the Journal of Experimental Biology.

The species, Pelodiscus sinensis, is found in swampy, brackish water and is native to much of East Asia.

Their unusual mouths were first discussed over a century ago when researchers suggested that the velvety tissues inside function in a similar way to gills in fish.

Continued:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/19883278

Modern humans interbred with archaic humans in East Asia

It is well-known today that some of the ancestors of modern humans interbred with Neanderthals, a closely-related human species or sub-species that lived 130,000 to 30,000 years ago in Eurasia. Less known is a new study by researchers at Uppsala University, indicating that the modern human ancestors of East Asians interbred with archaic humans known as Denisovans about 20,000 years ago.

The existence of Denisovans came to light in March 2010 when it was announced that a finger bone fragment of a juvenile that lived about 41,000 years ago had been discovered in Denisova Cave (Altai Krai, Russia), an area inhabited at the same time by modern humans and Neanderthals. The discovery of a tooth and toe bone from two other individuals of the same population added to the evidence.

Based on analysis of mitochondrial DNA, researchers determined that the bone finds belonged to a new species of humans.

Mattias Jakobsson, who conducted the new study along with Pontus Skoglund, says, "Hybridisation took place at several points in evolution, and the genetic traces of this can be found in several places in the world. We'll probably be uncovering more events like these."

Previous studies indicated the occurrence of two separate hybridisation points between archaic humans, who are genetically and morphologically different from modern humans, and modern human ancestors after leaving Africa. One occurred between Neanderthals and modern humans, and the other between Denisovans and ancestors of Oceanians, but the latest study indicates that hybridisation also occurred in East Asia.

"We found that individuals from mainly Southeast Asia have a higher proportion of Denisova-related genetic variants than people from other parts of the world," says Jakobsson. But, adds co-researcher Pontus Skoglund, "we still know very little about the history of these groups and when their contacts with modern humans occurred."

Edited from Popular Archaeology (31 October 2011), The Telegraph (1 November 2011)
http://tinyurl.com/6eedn4l

Illegal trade that’s wiping wildlife off the map

East Asian market has seemingly insatiable appetite

August 2011: Immense and increasingly sophisticated illegal trade in wildlife parts, coupled with antiquated enforcement methods, are decimating the world's most beloved species including rhinos, tigers, and elephants on a scale never before seen, according to Wildlife Conservation Society conservationist Elizabeth Bennett

Ms Bennett says that much of the trade is driven by wealthy East Asian markets that have a seemingly insatiable appetite for wildlife parts.


'We are rapidly losing big, spectacular animals'
According to her report, organised crime syndicates using sophisticated smuggling operations have penetrated even previously secure wildlife populations. Some of the elaborate methods include: hidden compartments in shipping containers; rapidly changing of smuggling routes; and the use of e-commerce whose locations are difficult to detect.

‘We are failing to conserve some of the world's most beloved and charismatic species,' said Ms Bennett, who began her career in conservation more than 25 years ago in Asia. ‘We are rapidly losing big, spectacular animals to an entirely new type of trade driven by criminalised syndicates. It is deeply alarming, and the world is not yet taking it seriously. When these criminal networks wipe out wildlife, conservation loses, and local people lose the wildlife on which their livelihoods often depend.'

For example, South Africa lost almost 230 rhinoceroses to poaching from January to October last year, and fewer than 3,500 tigers roam in the wild, occupying less than seven per cent of their historic range.

'We have taken our eye off the ball'
Bennett says an immediate short-term solution to stave off local extinction of wildlife is through enforcement of wildlife laws, and to bring to bear a variety of resources to supersede those of the criminal organisations involved.

‘We have taken our eye off the ball,' said Bennett. ‘Enforcement is critical: old fashioned in concept but needing increasingly advanced methods to challenge the ever-more sophisticated methods of smuggling. When enforcement is thorough, and with sufficient resources and personnel, it works.'

On a larger scale, Bennett says that law enforcement agencies need to look at wildlife smuggling as a serious crime and its enforcement as part of their job. Encouragingly, Bennett points to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime in Asia, which has recently listed wildlife crime as one of their core focuses, and the potentially powerful International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime was signed into effect.

‘Unless we start taking wildlife crime seriously and allocating the commitment of resources appropriate to tackling sophisticated, well-funded, globally-linked criminal operations, populations of some of the most beloved but economically prized, charismatic species will continue to wink out across their range, and, appallingly, altogether,' she warned.

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/wildlife-smuggling2011.html