Latest news with #PeerJ
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
More than a long face: horses use ‘rich repertoire' of expressions to interact
They might get asked by bartenders about their long faces, but horses pull a variety of expressions when interacting with each other, researchers have found. While facial movements can help members of the same species communicate emotions or other signals to each other, they can also be important for inter-species understanding – such as helping humans glean insights into the experiences of domesticated animals. In horses, for example, ear movements have long been viewed as important indicators of their internal state. However, the new work suggests there are many more signals to look out for. 'Horses produce a rich and complex repertoire of facial expressions, and we should not overlook the nuances in these if we want to truly understand the subjective experiences of horses,' said Dr Kate Lewis, the first author of the research, from the University of Portsmouth. She said the new work could also be important for improving the care and welfare of horses. Related: Like a Tom Cruise stunt: hawk uses traffic patterns to target prey Writing in the journal Peer J, Lewis and colleagues report how they drew on an existing directory of horse facial movements known as the Equine Facial Action Coding System (EquiFACS) to unpick the combinations of facial expressions and behaviours made by 36 domestic horses during different types of naturally occurring interactions. These were classified by the team as friendly, playful, aggressive or attentional. The team analysed 72 hours of filmed observations to explore which facial movements tended to occur in each context. 'Something of this size has not been attempted before in horses, and it's really exciting to see the subtleties in how animals communicate with each other,' Lewis said. While the researchers found that almost all facial movements occurred in all of the different contexts, some were more specific to certain types of interaction. In particular, they found that during friendly, peaceful interactions with other horses, the animals tended to put their noses forward. By contrast, when paying attention to something, the horses' ears were typically forward and pulled together. During aggressive encounters, the ears tended to be flattened and backward-facing, while the inner brows were raised, the nostrils dilated and the head lowered. During play, the lower lip was often depressed, the chin raised, lips parted, mouth stretched open wide, and the ears rotated and flattened backwards. In addition, the team noted that during play horses often had an increase in visible eye white, the nose was pushed forward, and the head tended to be up or turned to the right, or both. 'These results really highlight the importance of not relying on just one aspect of the face, such as the ears, to understand what the horse is trying to communicate,' Lewis said. 'Instead we need to consider how the individual facial movements work together to create the overall facial expression.' Primates and some carnivores such as bears also open their mouths during play, Lewis added, in order to indicate the interaction is not aggressive, thereby preventing unwanted fighting. 'This face has been anecdotally described in horses previously, but here we were able to show that it definitely exists and, crucially, that it involves the same muscles as it does in primates,' Lewis said, adding that the similarity suggested that the 'play face' evolved in mammals earlier than previously thought, before horses and primates split on the evolutionary tree. She said: 'There are both similarities and differences between the facial expressions made by non-human primates and horses, so if we are to gain a comprehensive understanding of facial expressions and their evolutionary origins, we need to look beyond our closely related primate cousins.'
Miami Herald
03-03-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
Researchers inside deep-sea vehicle collect strange creatures — and find new species
Off the western coast of Australia, the Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone splits open the seafloor. The fracture in the Earth's crust reaches depths of 21,000 feet below the surface, and much of it remains unexplored. Some of the creatures that call the depths of the WZFZ home were undiscovered until 2017, and now, a manned deep-sea mission has brought more new species into the light. 'From October 2022 to March 2023, a joint China-New Zealand scientific expedition carried out a large-scale and systematic manned, deep-diving investigation,' according to a study published Feb. 21 in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ. Researchers aboard the 'Fendouzhe,' a Chinese vessel, collected holothuroids, also known as sea cucumbers, from the eastern Indian Ocean, according to the study. Two of the sea cucumbers were never-before-seen species. The first new species was found at a depth of 20,987 feet, researchers said. Psychropotes diutiuscauda, or the longer-tailed sea cucumber, is 'yellowish green' in color with 15 'shield-shaped' tentacles, according to the study. The sea cucumber's color is 'unique,' researchers said, and its smaller number of tentacles (15 compared to 18 found in other related species) sets the animal apart. The species earns its name from a tail-like appendage from the back of its body that is longer than the body itself, researchers said. The sea cucumber has rough skin and small, tube-like feet in two rows on its belly side, according to the study. The species is about 7 inches long in the water, researchers said. The second new species was found in the same fracture in the Indian Ocean at a depth of 22,669 feet, researchers said. Unlike the highlighter-like color of the longer-tailed sea cucumber, this species is 'dark violet,' with darker tube feet reaching 'almost black,' according to the study. The animal was named Psychropotes nigrimargaria, or the black pearl sea cucumber, 'which alludes to the shape and color of the tentacles of this species,' researchers said. The sea cucumber has 'thick' skin and an appendage that is conical and tapers toward one end, appearing almost like a horn off its back, according to the study. The appendage is only one-third of the animal's body size, compared to the large appendage of P. diutiuscauda, researchers said. The sea cucumber is 11.8 inches long when in the water but gets much smaller when taken out of the ocean. Sea cucumbers are scavenger feeders that use the tube feet along their belly to move along the seafloor, according to the National Wildlife Federation. They can be found in the deep sea as well as shallow ocean environments. The Wallaby-Zenith Fracture Zone is off the western coast of Australia, south of Indonesia. The research team includes Yunlu Xiao and Haibin Zhang.
Yahoo
20-02-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
New sponge species discovered in Kaneohe Bay
HONOLULU (KHON2) — Researchers at the University of Hawaii at Manoa's Hawaii Institute for Marine Biology (HIMB) have uncovered 10 new species of marine sponges in Kaneohe groundbreaking studies, published in PeerJ and Zootaxa, showcase the use of a novel method that combines genetic analysis with structural characteristics to identify these species. Despite being among the oldest life forms on Earth, marine sponges have long been understudied. 1 in 3 Americans say debt is causing health problems: How it's impacting Hawaiʻi This discovery not only sheds light on sponge biodiversity in the Hawaiian Islands but also adds to our understanding of marine life throughout the Pacific region. 'We used ARMS to collect sponges from within the reef,' said Rachel Nunley, a Scientists in Parks intern at Kaloko-Honokōhau National Historical Park and lead author of the study in PeerJ. 'After collecting the sponges, we conducted DNA analysis to identify the species. We found that these species in Kaneohe Bay are new to science and haven't been seen anywhere else in the world.' Download the free KHON2 app for iOS or Android to stay informed on the latest news Kaneohe Bay is also home to HIMB and is rich with small, isolated patch reefs that are not only filled with undiscovered sponge species but also host non-native species introduced from the Caribbean and Indo-Pacific regions. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Finally, scientists get a penguin's-eye-view of the world
Getting a penguin's-eye view of the ocean is now a reality. An international team of researchers have developed PenguCams, an new animal-borne camera system that can help track how much prey they need to eat, where they are finding fish, and how much energy they spend getting to their meals. The unique findings–and foraging–are described in a study published January 28 in the journal PeerJ. Animal-borne cameras like the new PenguCams and National Geographic's Crittercam can give researchers a view of behaviors they normally could not see. One of those important behaviors is how they interact with their prey. This is typically done by sampling their feces or what is inside the stomachs of dead birds, but this new method will help scientists understand just how much work it is for these penguins to get food. Understanding how an animal hunts and how much prey they need can help understand why they may be foraging for certain prey in certain spots. In the study, an international team of researchers affixed small, lightweight cameras to Humboldt, Tawaki, and King penguins in New Zealand. They then used the known distance between the penguin's beak and the camera to determine a correction factor–a number that adjusts an observed value. The correction factor that the team created is a way to convert the pixel-based measurements in the footage into actual dimensions. It allows scientists to take a still image just before prey is consumed and measure how long or tall it is in pixels. Then, that pixel measurement can be converted into a real-world measurement in millimeters. This allows scientists to estimate just how much energy the penguin is getting from each foraging trip. The team tested video footage using a reference object–a grid with known dimensions–at multiple distances, water salinities, and angles. They then used these findings to create linear models that predict correction factors for distances that were beyond the tested range. This new correction factor takes into account distance traveled, refraction, and distortion to offer a practical tool to estimate size underwater. The study found that the correction factors were significantly different in air and water environments due to the differences in light refraction. However, these factors remain consistent across salt and fresh water, so they can be applied to several different marine habitats in the future. 'We created a new way to study marine predators through animal borne camera footage,' Owen Dabkowski, a study co-author and student at the University of Otago in New Zealand, said in a statement. 'The correction factor allows measurements to be taken directly from video footage using a simple method. This innovative technique allows energetics of the prey to be calculated which can help explain the decisions made by predators during foraging.' [ Related: When penguins divorce, the whole colony is impacted. ] The new method also takes distortion effects in the water and the air to ensure more precise measurements. The team also created a quick-reference table and have example footage demonstrating how the method works in real-world scenarios for other scientists to use. Using the correction factors developed with PenguCams could enable more accurate studies of ecological interactions. Having this data could better inform conservation measures for threatened or endangered species. PenguCams was developed by scientists from the University of Otago, the Tawaki Trust, the Global Penguin Society, the Antarctic Research Trust, and CONICET in Argentina.
