It is commonly known that there is sexual cannibalism in mating, especially with specific species of spiders. Female spiders can decide to eat the males before, during or after mating. Male spiders have tired to find different ways to distract the female to avoid being eaten, which has led to a new type of defense. They tie up the female before sex with their spider silk so they can escape before the female gets free. Alissa G. Anderson, a graduate student in biology at the University of Nebraska, said that she had not witnessed any cannibalism in the nursery. This could have been because these spiders always wrapped up the females so there was never a chance for them to be eaten. Males with shorter legs and ones that couldn’t produce silk were eaten more often. Results have shown that females who are wrapped up have a higher number of eggs which has benefits in both sexual and evolution terms.
Showing posts with label evolve. Show all posts
Showing posts with label evolve. Show all posts
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Spiders That Aren't Dying to Reproduce
Wednesday, November 9, 2016
Mutation In Ebola Virus
The way the Ebola virus spreads has been investigated in the past, it's infectiousness having been linked to it's location, edges of countries with easy to manipulate borders, and human behavior, but it has now been discovered that the most recent outbreak of the virus might have spread much quicker and much more widely due to mutations in the virus itself. Two separate groups of research teams investigated the strain of virus from the most recent outbreak, examining over 1000 viral genomes. One of these studies pinpointed a mutation in the virus that changed during the recent outbreak. The mutation affected the part of the virus that attaches to the human cell. This small changed allowed the virus to easier infiltrate mammal's cells. This mutation allowed the virus to replicate more quickly in it's host, therefore killing the host faster. It was found that those who contracted Ebola towards the end of the epidemic and were infected with the mutated strain were much more likely to die than those who contracted Ebola before the mutation. This mutation also made the virus more easily transmittable, since it could easier infiltrate human host cells, making the virus not only more deadly, but also more common which in turn increased death tolls as well. In the last epidemic the virus infected more than 28,000 people, giving it the chance to mutate and become more successful, leading to hazardous changes like this and making the virus more deadly.
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