Take a deep breath and dive in: mammals and myoglobin
by Jamie Gonzales |
How did marine mammals develop their amazing capacity to dive and forage for food
and what can the genetic code of today's mammals tell us about the ancestors of everything
from shrews to whales? Could elephants have amphibious ancestors?UAA Professor of Biological Sciences Jennifer Burns is the co-author of a paper detailing
the answers to those questions, published in Science and highlighted by National Geographic and BBC News this month.
The key to diving mammals' evolutionary adaptation: myoglobin, a well-known protein
that efficiently stores the oxygen a diver needs in muscle tissues while submerged.
Working with that given, the multi-disciplinary, multi-national team of researchers
from University of Liverpool, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg and University of Alaska
Anchorage, used samples from modern mammals, including some of Alaska's own sea otters
and seals, to craft a predictive model of the dive behavior and foraging ecology of
long-extinct species.
Read the full scholarly journal article in Science here.
Read the BBC News coverage here: Oxygen mystery: How marine mammals hold their breath.
Read the National Geographic piece here: One Protein Shows Elephants and Moles had Aquatic Ancestors.
"Take a deep breath and dive in: mammals and myoglobin" is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
