Why there are so few fish in the sea

Most saltwater fish may have evolved from a freshwater ancestor, according to a new study that traces the family tree of both marine and freshwater fish.

The finding may seem topsy-turvy given that life originated in the oceans, but the results could help explain why the sea is relatively low in diversity compared with the land. The ocean takes up 70 percent of the Earth's surface, but contains only 15 percent to 25 percent of the Earth's total estimated species.

"It's a striking pattern that we haven't really explained yet," said study researcher John Wiens, a professor of ecology and evolution at Stony Brook University in New York.

1. More science news from msnbc.com

   1. Researchers?revive the call of a Jurassic katydid

      Science editor Alan Boyle's blog: Researchers reproduce a katydid's call from 165 million years ago, based on an analysis of fossilized wings found in China.

   2. Russians reportedly hit buried Antarctic lake
   3. How prejudice reveals the caveman in men
   4. Google Earth update erases 'Atlantis' error

The new results may provide a clue, Wiens told LiveScience. Freshwater fish could have diversified from saltwater ancestors, only to see those ancestors wiped out in ocean extinctions. Such extinctions would free up space for some freshwater fish to evolve, once again, to thrive in the ocean.

Diversity mystery
To investigate the relative dearth of fish in the sea, Wiens and his colleagues turned to the largest group of marine vertebrates on Earth, the ray-finned fishes. This group contains 96 percent of fish species, meaning they're "pretty much every fish you've ever eaten or kept in a fish tank or seen in a coral reef, with the exception of sharks and rays," Wiens told LiveScience. [ Gallery: Glowing Aquatic Life ]

Studying ray-finned fish was a "good place to start," Wiens said, not only because the group is so large but because it allowed for direct comparison between land and sea. Fish aren't land animals, of course, but they do live in a distinct non-marine environment: freshwater.

"Looking at a group in which all these species are aquatic ? helps us to isolate what's special specifically about the ocean," Wiens said.

He and his co-authors pulled information on all living fish species from a comprehensive database called FishBase. Next, they combined that information with a family tree of ray-finned fish that shows relationships between groups and clades (groupings of organisms consisting of an individual species and all its descendents). The researchers also put together a tree for known fossil fishes.

Fish family tree
A first glance at the data confirmed that there is indeed more diversity in freshwater than saltwater, especially given the relative volume of freshwater to saltwater on Earth. Of all living ray-finned fish, the researchers found 15,149 species live in freshwater and 14,736 live in saltwater. (A small minority of ray-finned fish, about 4 percent, can live in both fresh and saltwater. To prevent double-counting these species, the researchers classified them as freshwater.)

The fish family tree also revealed that fish diversity only exploded in the last 100 million years or so. But the strangest finding was what sat at the base of the tree.

"The really weird thing that we found that is most surprising, and may end up being the most controversial, is that all the marine ray-finned fish that we see today appear to be derived from a freshwater ancestor," Weins said.

This ancestor would have lived about 300 million years ago, Weins and his colleagues report today (Feb. 7) in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B. About 180 million years ago, the first unambiguously marine fish in the lineage start showing up. It?s not until about 110 million years ago that a group of fish called percomorpha, which now includes 40 percent of all species of bony fish, started diversifying in saltwater. In freshwater, another group called ostariophysi evolved into many species, which now comprise almost 70 percent of freshwater fish.

"That's the big driver of fish diversity that we see today," Wiens said of these two groups. [ Image Gallery: Freaky Fish ]

Other fish in the sea
The implication of the findings is that the sea today represents the long-term effects of earlier extinctions, said David Reznick, a biologist at the University of California, Riverside, who was not involved in the study.

"The unexpectedly small number of marine species may reflect past mass extinctions that were more severe in marine than freshwater environments," Reznick told LiveScience, adding that he was reading the paper as a "spectator, rather than as a practitioner" of the type of research Wiens carries out.

The phenomenon of organisms evolving "back" to the sea is not unheard of. Whales, for example, evolved from a terrestrial ancestor that resumed an aquatic life and adapted over many generations to deep-sea living.

Wiens said that the geography of the sea could also contribute to low biodiversity. In freshwater, fish can get isolated by continents rifting apart, rivers changing course or other geographical barriers. Once isolated, individual populations may lose the ability to breed with one another, splitting into separate species.

In the ocean, Wiens said, fish can "wander anywhere," to mate, or at least farther afield than a freshwater fish can usually swim.

Wiens and his colleagues hope to extend the research to find out why percomorpha and ostariophysi suddenly started diversifying like mad 100 million years ago after a long history of fairly low fish diversity. Wiens warned that future fish fossil evidence could alter the fish family tree, and the conclusions about the freshwater fish ancestry could be overturned, though the current evidence supports the fish-from-freshwater theory.

But if the low diversity we see in the seas today is the result of ancient ocean extinctions, it puts today's problems with overfishing and species loss into context, Wiens said. The ocean can certainly bounce back, he said, but humans may not live to see that day.

"If we wipe out and eat all the fish in the ocean and modify the environment in the ocean so that it's inhospitable, what these analyses that we've done show is it may be 100 million years to recover from that," Wiens said.? "And that's a fast recovery."

You can follow LiveScience senior writer Stephanie Pappas on Twitter@sipappas. Follow LiveScience for the latest in science news and discoveries on Twitter @livescience and onFacebook.

? 2012 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46303377/ns/technology_and_science-science/

cadillac xts rambus rambus pabst blue ribbon pabst blue ribbon mac miller omarion

Greek party leaders seek deal as bankruptcy looms (AP)

ATHENS, Greece ? Under intense pressure from bailout creditors, Greek party leaders on Tuesday will seek a long-delayed agreement on harsh cutbacks demanded to avoid looming bankruptcy, as a general strike disrupted public services nationwide.

Heads of the three parties backing the interim government will confer with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on new income cuts and job losses, which Greece's eurozone partners and the International Monetary Fund are demanding to keep the country's vital rescue loans flowing.

A general strike against the impending cutbacks stopped train and ferry services nationwide, while many schools and banks were closed and state hospitals worked on skeleton staff.

Unions were planning two separate protest marches in central Athens, which will be closely policed as previous demonstrations over the past two years of economic pain have turned violent. In May 2010, three workers died in an Athens bank torched by rioters.

On Monday, Prime Minister Lucas Papademos' government caved in to demands to cut civil service jobs, announcing 15,000 positions would go this year, out of a total 750,000. The decision breaks a major taboo, as state jobs had been protected for more than a century to prevent political purges by governments seeking to appoint their supporters.

The EU and IMF are also pressing Greece to deeply cut the euro751 ($979) minimum wage, which can lead to knock-on reductions in private sector salaries and even unemployment benefits. Unions and employers' federations alike have deplored the measure as unfair and unnecessary.

In the private sector, unemployment has hit a record high of more than 19 percent amid a fifth year of recession.

Athens must placate its creditors to clinch a euro130 billion ($170 billion) bailout deal from the eurozone and the IMF and avoid a March default on its bond repayments.

"It is clear that there is a lot of pressure being put on the country. A lot of pressure is being placed on the Greek people," Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said during a break in talks with EU-IMF debt inspectors late Monday.

He called on coalition parties to work more closely together.

"No one is as strong as Hercules on his own to face the Lernaean Hydra," a swamp monster in Greek mythology, he said. "We must all, together, fight this battle, without petty party motives and slick moves."

A disorderly bankruptcy by Greece would likely lead to its exit from the eurozone, a situation that European officials have insisted is impossible because it would hurt other weak countries like Portugal.

But on Tuesday, the EU commissioner Neelie Kroes, in chage of the bloc's digital policies, said Greece's exit wouldn't be a disaster.

Kroes told Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant that "It's always said: if you let one nation go, or ask one to leave, the entire structure will collapse. But that is just not true."

Greece has been kept solvent since May 2010 by payments from a euro110 billion ($145 billion) international rescue loan package. When it became clear the money would not be enough, a second bailout was decided last October.

As well as the austerity measures, the bailout also depends on separate talks with banks and other private bondholders to forgive euro100 billion ($131.6 billion) in Greek debt. The private investors have been locked in negotiations over swapping their current debt for a cash payment and new bonds worth 50 percent less than the original face value, with longer repayment terms and a lower interest rate.

Greek government officials say they expect private investors to take losses of up to 70 percent on the value of their bonds.

However, the EU-IMF bailout has to be secured for the deal with private investors to go ahead as about euro30 billion from the bailout will be used as the cash payment in the bond swap deal.

Greece's coalition party leaders held a first key meeting on the austerity measures on Sunday, and postponed a second round of talks by a day so Papademos could complete negotiations with EU-IMF debt inspectors that ended early Tuesday.

The leaders have already agreed to cut 2012 spending by 1.5 percent of gross domestic product ? about euro3.3 billion ($4.3 billion) ? improve competitiveness by slashing wages and non-wage costs, and re-capitalize banks without nationalizing them. But the details remain to be worked out.

Creditors are also demanding spending cuts in defense, health and social security.

European Commission spokesman Amadeu Altafaj Tardio said Greece is already "beyond the deadline" to end the talks.

And German Chancellor Angela Merkel warned that "time is pressing," and "something has to happen quickly."

___

Derek Gatopoulos in Athens and Gabriele Steinhauser in Brussels contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/business/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20120207/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_greece_financial_crisis

devil inside ted nugent dash diet how to make moonshine joel osteen emmy rossum moonshine

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales, in exchange for patent license

New details have emerged about the ongoing Apple-Motorola drama in Germany, courtesy of a court document uncovered by FOSS Patents. The two companies have been engaged in a patent battle of swelling proportion these past few months, with the most recent wrinkle unfolding on Friday, when Apple promptly removed (and returned) its 3G / UMTS-enabled iPads and iPhone 4s from its online German store, in response to a court ruling. At issue in this particular case is a Motorola patent that Apple wants to use under FRAND obligations, but Moto apparently isn't willing to license its technology for free. According to a court filing, the handset maker is asking for 2.25 percent of Apple sales in return for the license, though it remains unclear whether this pertains to sales of all products or, more likely, the 3G-enabled devices under consideration in court. Either way, though, Motorola would stand to see quite a bit of extra revenue, especially considering that Apple's iPhone sales have totaled about $93 billion since 2007. Under Motorola's request, the company would have made about $2.1 billion from these sales alone -- not to mention the payments it'd see from iPad sales, as well. Apple, meanwhile, has filed motions to access Motorola's licensing agreements with Nokia, HTC and other manufacturers, in the hopes of exposing a double standard.

Motorola wants 2.25 percent of Apple sales, in exchange for patent license originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 06 Feb 2012 13:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TUAW  |  FOSS Patents  | Email this | Comments

Source: http://feeds.engadget.com/~r/weblogsinc/engadget/~3/fBfkA35OTpQ/

x factor finale pro bowl voting kindle fire update college board pasco county rooney mara solstice

Very Poor GOP Voter Turnout in Nevada (Little green footballs)

Share With Friends: | | Politics - Top Stories News, RSS and RSS Feed via Feedzilla.

Source: http://news.feedzilla.com/en_us/stories/politics/top-stories/195983575?client_source=feed&format=rss

sveum benetton ads cornucopia best buy black friday deals thanksgiving crafts matt cassel snowman

Designing for Mobile: 7 Guidelines for Startups to Follow

As an investor, I?ve seen hundreds of mobile application pitches. And as a consumer, I?ve downloaded hundreds more ? some out of curiosity and others in the hope that I?ll find something so useful and exciting that I?ll make room for it on my iPhone?s home screen. From both perspectives, I am rarely excited by download numbers. What gets my attention is engagement: how frequently an application is used and how engaged users are. This ultimately is the barometer for an application?s utility and/or strength of community. And if either of those two factors are strong: growth will certainly come. Just ask Instagram, Evernote, LogMeIn and others.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/4ZZn6qFVy18/

road conditions newt gingrich wives weather gina carano at last al green etta james at last

Russia warns of "scandal" in U.N. Syria vote (Reuters)

MOSCOW (Reuters) ? Russia sought to delay a U.N. Security Council vote on a resolution aimed at ending the bloodshed in Syria, warning on Saturday of a "scandal" if the current draft was put to council members, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's remarks, which Itar-Tass said came in an interview to be aired on state-run Rossiya-1 television, suggest Russia would likely veto the resolution if its latest proposed amendments were not taken into account.

"If they want another scandal for themselves in the Security Council, then we probably cannot stop them," Lavrov said, according to Itar-Tass. Rossiya-1 said the interview was recorded early on Saturday.

Lavrov said he hoped the draft - scheduled to be put to a vote at 1500GMT on Saturday - would not come to a vote without changes "because our amendments to this draft are well-known."

"I sent them to (U.S. Secretary of State) Hillary Clinton yesterday, and to our representative at the United Nations to convey them to our partners," Lavrov was quoted as saying.

"The reasonableness and objectivity of these amendments should not raise any doubts. I hope that a prejudiced view does not prevail over common sense."

Activists said on Saturday that more than 200 people had been killed in shelling by Syrian forces in the city of Homs, ahead the U.N. vote.

In the remarks reported by Itar-Tass, Lavrov gave no detail about the proposed changes in the resolution, which gives "full support" to an Arab League plan that calls for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to cede power.

Western and Arab nations that have pushed for Assad to give up power after an 11-month government crackdown that the United Nations says has led to more than 5,000 deaths are struggling to overcome Russian resistance to Security Council action.

REVISED

They revised a draft resolution first circulated last month to deal with Russia's concerns, adding some language it wanted and removing sections that Moscow had suggested would prompt it to use its veto power as a permanent Council member.

The latest draft, circulated by Morocco on Thursday, makes no specific mention of what the Arab League plan to end the bloodshed entails, such as Assad giving up power.

However, it still "fully supports" the plan, which Russia has complained contains too many specifics that could predetermine the outcome of a settlement dialogue between the government and its opponents.

Russia has said political decisions such as a transfer of power must be made only as a result of dialogue inside Syria, not set in advance from outside.

It has also said previous Western drafts put to much blame for the bloodshed on the government, while Russia says militant opponents of Assad are behind much of the violence.

Assad's government has given post-Soviet Russia its firmest foothold in the Middle East, buying Russian weapons and hosting a naval maintenance facility on its Mediterranean coast that is Russia's only military base outside the former Soviet Union.

Russia and China vetoed a European-drafted resolution on Syria in October, with the Kremlin saying it put too little blame on Assad's opponents and could have opened the way to Western military intervention.

Russia allowed a Security Council resolution authorizing air strikes on Libya by abstaining in a vote last year and then accused the United States and its NATO allies of overstepping its bounds and using it to help rebels oust Muammar Gaddafi.

(Writing by Steve Gutterman)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/russia/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20120204/wl_nm/us_syria_russia

x factor auditions flds flds revenge revenge boston redsox red sox

Re: Hayes Coleman Kettlewell Tree - General - Family History ...

Hi,
Yes, well this is where it gets very interesting. I have an extract of her marriage certificate and she actually used a false name and false details, a few years later it was corrected, to the correct details. The notations in the margin were so tiny!!!. I have had it blown up to get the information I need. John Thomas was my father. Previous to that marriage she had 5 children, who were all surrendered for adoption / or placed in institutions. All four of us were also placed in institutions as well. I cannot find their marriage record at all. I am going to try interstate registeries and see how I go. I have found some records for Mervyn Henry Charles Coleman where he was in the army and discharged. His trail stops there, however my fathers army records don't show up at all. I am assuming AMF stands for Australian Milarty Forces?. I know he was in the army because the address at Ryde was an army house and I remember him being in uniform. My mother passed away in the Mary Potter Nursing Home in Cairns in 1990, they also have no records. She wasn't using her correct name then either, she was using a variation of it Sheila Marie Kettlewell. I have tried BDM Qld and I cannot access the date ranges I need for her or her siblings. I have heard she had 6 sisters. Its becoming a very interesting search and frustrating at the same time!!! lol
Deb

Source: http://boards.ancestry.com.au/localities.oceania.australia.general/9952.1.1.1.1/mb.ashx

matt schaub fire island fire island diaspora social network diaspora breaking dawn premiere rock center