ScienceDaily: Top Environment News

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• Snail shell coiling programmed by protein patterning
• Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Niño
• Even farm animal diversity is declining as accelerating species loss threatens humanity
• Rats have a double view of the world
• Bechstein's bat is more Mediterranean than originally thought

Snail shell coiling programmed by protein patterning Posted: 27 May 2013 08:18 PM PDT Snail shells coil in response to a lopsided protein gradient across their shell mantles, finds new research. In contrast the shell mantle of limpets, whose shells do not coil, have a symmetrical pattern of the protein Decapentaplegic (Dpp).

Climate researchers discover new rhythm for El Niño Posted: 27 May 2013 07:06 AM PDT Why El Niño peaks around Christmas and ends quickly by February to April has been a long-standing mystery. The answer lies in an interaction between El Niño and the annual cycle that results in an unusual tropical Pacific wind pattern with a period of 15 months, according to scientists.

Even farm animal diversity is declining as accelerating species loss threatens humanity Posted: 27 May 2013 07:06 AM PDT The accelerating disappearance of Earth's species of both wild and domesticated plants and animals constitutes a fundamental threat to the well-being and even the survival of humankind, warn scientists.

Rats have a double view of the world Posted: 27 May 2013 07:05 AM PDT Scientists using miniaturised high-speed cameras and high-speed behavioural tracking have discovered that rats move their eyes in opposite directions in both the horizontal and the vertical plane when running around. Each eye moves in a different direction, depending on the change in the animal's head position. An analysis of both eyes' field of view found that the eye movements exclude the possibility that rats fuse the visual information into a single image like humans do. Instead, the eyes move in such a way that enables the space above them to be permanently in view -- presumably an adaptation to help them deal with the major threat from predatory birds that rodents face in their natural environment.

Bechstein's bat is more Mediterranean than originally thought Posted: 27 May 2013 07:04 AM PDT Although the Bechstein's bat is regarded as a Euro-Siberian species, a new study has revealed that the historical transformation of part of its original habitat rather than bioclimatic reasons could be responsible for this distribution.

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