Species360

Human languages balance communicative informativity with complexity, conveying as much as needed through the simplest means required to do so. Yet, these concepts-informativity and complexity-have been operationalized in various ways, and it remains unclear which definitions best capture empirical linguistic patterns. A particularly successful operationalization is that offered by the Information Bottleneck framework, which suggests a balance between complexity and informativity across domains like color, kinship, and number. However, we show that the notion of complexity employed by this framework has some counterintuitive consequences. Focusing on color terms, we then study to what extent this and other notions of complexity play a role in explaining cross-linguistic regularity. We propose a method to assess their explanatory contributions; and to probe whether they enter in a joint optimization or in a trade-off competition. This offers a more general framework to study language change and the forces that shape it, where instead of showing that a given model is compatible with existing data, the data is used to adjudicate between candidatemeasures.

The consumption of insects by humans has been around since the dawn of mankind, with many people around the world incorporating edible insects into their diets today. This practice is increasingly recognized as a potential solution to food insecurity issues. It is worth noting that ants (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) occupy a significant position within entomophagy since they are one of the most noticeable and plentiful groups of insects in forests, agricultural ecosystems, and urban habitats. As much as 59 species of ants are recognized as edible and are consumed during their egg, larva, pupa, or adult stage. However, available scientific information shows that their consumption must be accompanied by standardized and sustainable production. In this review, the use of ants as food will be discussed, with special reference to different ant species, the regional and country-specific meanings, differences in entomophagy related to ants, the bioecology, nutritional characteristics, and pharmaceutical benefits, and the rearing and processing processes. Additionally, consumer acceptance towards the consumption of edible ants will be overviewed. This review aims to provide a foundation for further research on the use of ants as food, while serving as a valuable source of information in response to growing interest in this field.

Across human cultures and historical periods, women, on average, live longer than men, a pattern best understood from a comparative evolutionary perspective. Here, we analyzed adult life expectancy in 528 mammal and 648 bird species in zoos. Like humans, 72% of mammals exhibited a female life expectancy advantage, while 68% of birds showed a male advantage, as expected from the harmful effects of sex chromosomes described by the heterogametic sex hypothesis. Yet, sex differences varied widely. In zoos, we found strong evidence that this variation generally correlated with both the mating system and sexual size dimorphism. Although with weaker evidence, the patterns remained consistent in populations from the wild, with an even larger effect of the mating system. Thus, even in zoos, where environmental pressures are largely reduced, precopulatory sexual selection seems to play a fundamental role in shaping sex differences in life expectancy in mammals and birds.

This study aims to evaluate the necessity of ear packing in otological operations where the annulus fibrosus is not elevated, focusing on graft success rates and postoperative hearing outcomes. A randomized controlled prospective clinical trial was conducted at a tertiary care hospital involving 200 patients aged 18 years and above undergoing myringoplasty for inactive chronic suppurative otitis media. Patients were randomly assigned to receive either ear packing with absorbable gelatin sponge (Gelfoam®) or no packing. The primary outcome is graft success assessed via microscopic examination at 3 and 6 months post-surgery. Secondary outcomes include hearing gains measured by pure-tone audiometry at 500-, 1000-, 2000-, and 4000-Hz frequencies. At 3 months, the graft take rate was 92% in the ear packing group and 90% in the no packing group, with no statistically significant difference ( p = 0.63). At 6 months, the graft take rate was 90% in the packing group and 88% in the no packing group ( p = 0.67). Hearing improvements, as measured by air conduction thresholds, were also similar between the two groups ( p = 0.73). This study demonstrates that myringoplasty without ear packing yields comparable graft take rates and hearing improvements to traditional myringoplasty with ear packing. These findings suggest that omitting ear packing in appropriate cases may simplify the procedure without compromising patient outcomes.

ContextElucidating how demography and contemporary landscape features regulate functional connectivity is crucial to implementing effective conservation strategies. We assessed the impacts of landscape features on the genetic variation of a locally endangered carnivore, the leopard cat (Prionailurus bengalensis) in Taiwan.ObjectivesWe aim to evaluate the association between genetic structure and landscape features. We further predicted the changes in genetic diversity and suitable habitats in the future.MethodsWe genotyped 184 leopard cats in western Taiwan using 12 nuclear microsatellites and a mitochondrial marker. We applied a landscape optimization procedure with two genetic distances to identify major genetic barriers and employed ecological niche modeling to predict the future distribution of the leopard cat.ResultsBayesian demographic inferences revealed a dramatic population decline for all leopard cat populations in Taiwan. Genetic clustering and resistance surface modeling supported that the population connectivity was influenced by highways and high elevation. Niche modeling indicated low temperature was one of the primary factors limiting the occurrence of leopard cats that may inhibit their movement in high elevations. We predicted the suitable habitats of leopard cats would shrink northward and towards higher altitudes with rugged topography in response to global warming.ConclusionsOur study provided genetic evidence that leopard cats in Taiwan had undergone a dramatic population decline that may be associated with anthropogenic impacts. We also inferred the anthropogenic linear feature compromised the connectivity and persistence of leopard cats in human-mediated landscapes. Our finding serves as a model for landscape genetic studies of island carnivores in subtropical regions.

Although cryobanking represents a powerful conservation tool, a lack of standardized information on the species represented in global cryobanks, and inconsistent prioritization of species for future sampling, hinder the conservation potential of cryobanking, resulting in missed conservation opportunities. We analyze the representation of amphibian, bird, mammal, and reptile species within the San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Frozen Zoo® living cell collection (as of April 2019) and implement a qualitative framework for the prioritization of species for future sampling. We use global conservation assessment schemes (including the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species™, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the Alliance for Zero Extinction, the EDGE of Existence, and Climate Change Vulnerability), and opportunities for sample acquisition from the global zoo and aquarium community, to identify priority species for cryobanking. We show that 965 species, including 5% of all IUCN Red List "Threatened" amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles, were represented in the collection and that sampling from within existing zoo and aquarium collections could increase representation to 16.6% (by sampling an additional 707 "Threatened" species). High-priority species for future cryobanking efforts include the whooping crane (Grus americana), crested ibis (Nipponia nippon), and Siberian crane (Leucogeranus leucogeranus). Each of these species are listed under every conservation assessment scheme and have ex situ populations available for sampling. We also provide species prioritizations based on subsets of these assessment schemes together with sampling opportunities from the global zoo and aquarium community. We highlight the difficulties in obtaining in situ samples, and encourage the formation of a global cryobanking database together with the establishment of new cryobanks in biodiversity-rich regions.

Fecal consistency is routinely used as an indicator of gastrointestinal health and diet suitability in zoo animals. The underlying processes in ungulate fecal consistency are not often investigated. The authors assessed multiple factors on fecal consistency scores in six adult zoo moose (Alces alces) retrospectively for a 3-yr period. All animals were regularly tested for gastrointestinal parasites and received antiparasitics when noted. Neither the provision of dietary browse nor number of visitors had a significant effect. Seasonally varying intake of the staple pelleted diet was the main explanatory factor, with an additional effect from environmental temperature or season. Higher intakes and higher temperatures were linked to less well-formed feces. The authors hypothesize that during the summer hyperphagia to replete body reserves, the water re-absorption function of the large intestine apparently becomes overtaxed. Heat stress may have an additional, intake-independent effect. Although monitoring fecal consistency is a part of good health surveillance, physiologic seasonal effects, as reported here, need to be taken into consideration when interpreting the observations.

Growing evidence suggests that the origins of the panzootic amphibian pathogens Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) are in Asia. In Taiwan, an island hotspot of high amphibian diversity, no amphibian mass mortality events linked to Bd or Bsal have been reported. We conducted a multi-year study across this subtropical island, sampling 2517 individuals from 30 species at 34 field sites, between 2010 and 2017, and including 171 museum samples collected between 1981 and 2009. We analyzed the skin microbiome of 153 samples (6 species) from 2017 in order to assess any association between the amphibian skin microbiome and the probability of infection amongst different host species. We did not detect Bsal in our samples, but found widespread infection by Bd across central and northern Taiwan, both taxonomically and spatially. Museum samples show that Bd has been present in Taiwan since at least 1990. Host species, geography (elevation), climatic conditions and microbial richness were all associated with the prevalence of infection. Host life-history traits, skin microbiome composition and phylogeny were associated with lower prevalence of infection for high altitude species. Overall, we observed low prevalence and burden of infection in host populations, suggesting that Bd is enzootic in Taiwan where it causes subclinical infections. While amphibian species in Taiwan are currently threatened by habitat loss, our study indicates that Bd is in an endemic equilibrium with the populations and species we investigated. However, ongoing surveillance of the infection is warranted, as changing environmental conditions may disturb the currently stable equilibrium.

Bupleurum kaoi Liu, Chao, and Chuang is an endemic and endangered herb in Taiwan. In this study, the complete circular chloroplast genome of B. kaoi was reconstructed and annotated using Illumina sequencing. The genome size of B. kaoi is 155,938 bp, including a pair of inverted repeat regions (IRs: 26308 bp), separated by a large single-copy (LSC) region of 85,784 bp and a small single-copy (SSC) region of 17,538 bp. The GC content of the chloroplast genome is 37.6%. There are 113 different genes in the chloroplast genome of B. kaoi, including 79 protein-coding genes, 30 tRNA genes, and four rRNA genes. A maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analysis showed that Bupleurum species is the monophyletic group, and B. kaoi belongs to subgenus Bupleurum and is closely related to B. scorzonerifolium.

Previous studies have demonstrated a correlation between longevity and brain size in a variety of taxa. Little research has been devoted to understanding this link in parrots; yet parrots are well-known for both their exceptionally long lives and cognitive complexity. We employed a large-scale comparative analysis that investigated the influence of brain size and life-history variables on longevity in parrots. Specifically, we addressed two hypotheses for evolutionary drivers of longevity: the cognitivebuffer hypothesis, which proposes that increased cognitive abilities enable longer lifespans, and the expensive brain hypothesis, which holds that increases in lifespan are caused by prolonged developmental time of, and increased parental investment in, large-brained offspring. We estimated life expectancy from detailed zoo records for 133 818 individuals across 244 parrot species. Using a principled Bayesian approach that addresses data uncertainty and imputation of missing values, we found a consistent correlation between relative brain size and life expectancy in parrots. This correlation was best explained by a direct effect of relative brain size. Notably, we found no effects of developmental time, clutch size or age at first reproduction. Our results suggest that selection for enhanced cognitive abilities in parrots has in turn promoted longer lifespans.