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n2doc's JournalHunting Group Sues USFWS Over Ban on Importing Elephant Hunt Trophies
Hunting advocacy group Safari Club International says its suing the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) over its recent ban on the importation of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
Contending that the FWS initiated the ban based on inadequate information, the hunting group filed the lawsuit in federal district court in the District of Columbia on Monday. The lawsuit follows the Safari Club International (SCI) publicly asking the FWS to rescind its ban.
The SCI contends that the temporary ban, which was put into effect earlier this month, does more harm than good. Sport hunting in the African nations is a key means of conservation overall, providing revenue to combat illegal poaching and support local economies, the SCI said in a statement detailing its lawsuit.
The FWS, however, said it elected to ban the import of sport-hunted elephant trophies from Zimbabwe and Tanzania based on a history of poor regulations in the African nations, as well as a growing need to address the impact of illegal poaching on the nations' elephants.
more
http://www.natureworldnews.com/articles/6732/20140424/hunting-group-sues-usfws-over-ban-on-importing-elephant-hunt-trophies.htm
First sex-determining genes appeared in mammals some 180 million years ago
Man or woman? Male or female? In humans and other mammals, the difference between sexes depends on one single element of the genome: the Y chromosome. It is present only in males, where the two sexual chromosomes are X and Y, whereas women have two X chromosomes. Thus, the Y is ultimately responsible for all the morphological and physiological differences between males and females.
But this has not always been the case. A very long time ago, the X and Y were identical, until the Y started to differentiate from the X in males. It then progressively shrank to such an extent that, nowadays, it only contains about 20 genes (the X carries more than one thousand genes). When did the Y originate and which genes have been kept? The answer has just been brought to light by the team of Henrik Kaessmann, Associate Professor at the CIG (UNIL) and group leader at the SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics, and their collaborators in Australia. They have established that the first " sex genes " appeared concomitantly in mammals around 180 million years ago.
4,3 billion genetic sequences
By studying samples from several male tissues -- in particular testicles -- from different species, the researchers recovered the Y chromosome genes from the three major mammalian lineages: placentals (which include humans, apes, rodents and elephants), marsupials (such as opossums and kangaroos) and monotremes (egg-laying mammals, such as the platypus and the echidna, a kind of Australian porcupine). In total, the researchers worked with samples from 15 different mammals, representing these three lineages, as well as the chicken, which they included for comparison.
Instead of sequencing all Y chromosomes, which would have been a " colossal task " according to Diego Cortez, researcher at CIG and SIB and main author of the study, the scientists " opted for a shortcut ." By comparing genetic sequences from male and female tissues, they eliminated all sequences common to both sexes in order to keep only those sequences corresponding to the Y chromosome. By doing so, they established the largest gene atlas of this " male " chromosome to date.
more
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/04/140423151035.htm
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Native American Burial Mound and Village Site paved over for Marin County homes
A treasure trove of Coast Miwok life dating back 4,500 years - older than King Tut's tomb - was discovered in Marin County and then destroyed to make way for multimillion-dollar homes, archaeologists told The Chronicle this week.
The American Indian burial ground and village site, so rich in history that it was dubbed the "grandfather midden," was examined and categorized under a shroud of secrecy before construction began this month on the $55 million Rose Lane development in Larkspur.
The 300-foot-long site contained 600 human burials, tools, musical instruments, harpoon tips, spears and throwing sticks from a time long before the introduction of the bow and arrow. The bones of grizzly and black bears were also found, along with a ceremonial California condor burial.
"This was a site of considerable archaeological value," said Dwight Simons, a consulting archaeologist who analyzed 7,200 bones, including the largest collection of bear bones ever found in a prehistoric site in the Bay Area. "My estimate of bones and fragments in the entire site was easily over a million, and probably more than that. It was staggering."
more
http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Indian-artifact-treasure-trove-paved-over-for-5422603.php
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