Slashdot Mirror
Elephant DNA Studied
randomErr writes "Africa may harbor three species of elephant instead of just two, suggests a study based on DNA extracted from dung. If that is confirmed, it means that roughly 12,000 elephants living in western Africa are a distinct and endangered species, due to their small scattered populations as reported here at Newsday."
At long last scientists will discover the secret behind the elephant's superior memory.
Karma: Good (despite my invention of the Karma: sig)
And in other news, some food was eaten!
http://www.naildrivin5.com/davec
The results suggest the western elephants have been isolated from the other elephants for some 2.4 million years, Eggert said.
I'd like to know what the term "isolated" means in this context. Obviously, not geographically, since apparently these elephants can be found in the same habitat as the other two species.
I myself am skeptical of these findings. There are no details given as to the distinctions in the DNA between the different species. Does anyone know what the cut-off point is for defining a species by DNA?
Also, has any actual animal behavior been found which suggests that this group of elephants isolates itself from other species of elephants? Maybe to elephant specialists "all elephants look alike" (probably not!), but surely differences between species -- their behavior, their appearance -- should have been observed. If not, can the elephants themselves tell the species apart?
Karma: Chevy Kavalierma.
In the future, the only place to find elephants may be in zoos or ivory ranches.
Never overestimate the end user. -jeramy b. smith
Scientists have all the fun. Who doesn't want to examine elephant crap?
Jonahweb.com has stuff.
Where's the 'news for turds, stuff that splatters' troll?
Large land mammals are basically a relic. Natural selection has weeded most species out.
That would depend on whether you think human intervention is "natural".
Even without the encroachment of man into their world, I think the elephant is a species that will probably eventually die out.
Why? What else would kill them? What else would drive them from their ranges? They seem to have been a rather successful species (or group of species) until humans started to exceed their carrying capacity.
With the africa continent slowly turning into desert, I am not sure what can be done to preserve the natural wild african elephant.
There is some evidence that desertification in Africa is, at least in part, caused by human activity such as overgrazing and attempting to grow row crops on unsuitable land. But even if it's entirely due to non-human factors, it's unlikely to be deadly to all large land mammals. Habitats may grow or shrink, but barring things like asteroids slamming into the planet it's not likely that they'll vanish completely, particularly on a large land mass like Africa. Small island environments are another matter.
Is it possible that the article meant that species one is found in savannah areas, that species two is found in forest areas, and that species three is found in both savannah and forest ares -- without meaning that their areas overlap?
Can't interbreed isn't it? We discussed elephants and mammoths a couple of months ago. I found that there hobbyists who cross lions with tiger, and various other kinds of cats. And there are others who cross zebras with donkeys, and other horselike animals. Just like mules, the cross between horses and donkeys, the offspring are infertile.
Here is an interesting link to an online book that discusses the reintroduction of extinct species.
Teacher: "Jimmy, are you ready to give your presentation to the class?"
Jimmy: "Yes for my project for 12th grade biology I researched the DNA of dogs. I wanted to research the different species of Dogs and see how many variation I could find living around my house.
"I first went to the park and found that dogs left behind doggy dung, which the owners didn't pick up. I found that if I pick up the dung and examine it for it's DNA I could figure out the many variations of dog that live near my house.
"If I examined teh doggy dung further I could tell what brand of dog food the dog eats.
"So let me show you a sample of the doggy dung. Here you can..."
Teacher: "THANK YOU JIMMY! That was very...interesting. Susie are you ready for your presentation."
Dr X: "That third pile of dung smelled different from the other two!" Dr Y: "Yes, I see that now, but you didn't have to rub my nose in it!."
Ross Youngblood
how little the term "endangered species" really means.
Many plants are completely interfertile within entire genuses (grapes for example...almost the whole genus Vitis will cross happily with everything else in the genus except Vitis rotundifolia, which probably should be there anyway)
Fungi, particularly ascomycetes, have a tendency to have two genus and species names.
Ultimately, you just have to admit that species (and genus and family, etc) are pretty much arbitrary, and that life and evolution are nowhere near as nice and orderly as taxonomists would like us to belive. Not to say that taxonomy isn't a useful tool, in its own right.