AUSTRALIA
Male kalutas die from sex
A tiny marsupial found only in the arid, northwest Pilbara region mates so intensely that an entire generation of males can die off during a single breeding season, researchers said yesterday. Biologists studying kalutas — a mouse-sized marsupial — believe that they die en masse because of sex-driven immune system collapse. Female kalutas mate frequently and with different males during each breeding season. “That means that males also have to mate a lot, and have good quality sperm (and lots of it), to outcompete rival males,” said Genevieve Hayes, who led the University of Western Australia research team. “This intense investment in reproduction, evidenced by their large testes, appears to be fatal for males.” Scientists believe that it is a rare example of male semelparity — a reproduction strategy characterized by “synchronized death,” often before offspring are born. “Males were regularly captured in healthy numbers throughout the study, except immediately after the mating seasons, when no males were captured,” Hayes said. “This, coupled with other research in the field and laboratory, strongly suggests that males die after the mating season.” The researchers said that despite the kalutas’ “extreme mating behavior,” the species appears to be doing well.
JAPAN
Scientists discover dinosaur
Scientists have identified a new species of dinosaur from a nearly complete, 8m-long skeleton that was the largest ever discovered in the country. After analyzing hundreds of bones dating back 72 million years, the team led by Hokkaido University concluded that the skeleton once belonged to a new species of hadrosaurid dinosaur, a herbivorous beast that roamed the Earth in the late Cretaceous period. A partial tail was first found in northern Japan in 2013 and later excavations revealed the entire skeleton. The team named the dinosaur Kamuysaurus japonicus, which means “Japanese dragon god,” the university said in a statement. They believe the dinosaur was nine-year-old adult and would have weighed either 4 tonnes or 5.3 tonnes — depending on whether it walked on two legs or four. The discovery was published in British peer-reviewed journal Scientific Reports. “The fact a new dinosaur was discovered in Japan means there was once an independent world of dinosaurs in Japan or in East Asia, and an independent evolution process,” team leader Yoshitsugu Kobayashi said. K. japonicus probably lived in coastal areas, a rare habitat for dinosaurs at that time. The research raises the possibility that some species of dinosaurs “preferred to inhabit areas near the ocean, suggesting the coastline environment was an important factor in the diversification” of the dinosaurs in their early evolution, the university said.
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability