A mammoth find near Mexico City
Scientists have identified the largest ever assemblage of mammoth bones.
18 October, 2020
RODRIGO ARANGUA/AFP via Getty Images
A team of scientists has discovered the largest collection to date of mammoth skeletons in one place, just outside Mexico City. The researchers have counted more than 200 individual mammoths to date—and believe there are still more to discover.
<p>In 2018, the government announced the development of a new Mexico City airport at the Santa Lucía Air Force Base, north of the city. People have found mammoth remains in the northern part of the city and the wider region since the 1970s. So, Pedro Francisco Sánchez Nava, the national coordinator of archaeology of the National Institute of Anthropology and History, anticipated he and his colleagues would find more of these Pleistocene-era fauna in the area.</p><p>"We never assumed that there was going to be the quantity that we are looking at now," says Sánchez. Just a few months ago, the team had identified 60 specimens. In September, the researchers confirmed counting more than 200 individuals. This find beats previous record-breaking collections of mammoths in California, <a href="https://www.mammothsite.org/" target="_blank">South Dakota</a>, and <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/a-record-amount-of-mammoth-bones-was-unearthed-in-siberia" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Siberia</a>.</p><p>The remains date between 20,000 and 10,000 years in age. Sánchez remarks that these bones are not the product of a single event but the accumulation of some 10,000 years of mammoth presence in the region. "These huge animals required a large amount of food; the [nearby] lakeshore had a high concentration of plant species, so many were trapped in the mud by their own weight while they were eating," Sánchez says.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">A</span>rchaeologist Rubén Manzanilla López, the head of the Santa Lucía archaeological salvage project, knows that the findings are a milestone in paleontology and Ice Age archaeology. "None of us imagined that we would find this amount of mammoths," Manzanilla says. "We knew that there were megafauna remains in the area—but not of that magnitude."</p><p>To date, Manzanilla's team of more than 250 archaeologists, restorers, and workers has collected over 8,000 bones from mammoths, South American camels, and <a href="https://www.floridamuseum.ufl.edu/fossil-horses/time-scales/pleistocene/" target="_blank">American horses</a>. The crew hopes to find more before work on the airport, which covers an area of more than 3,000 hectares, is finished in 2022.</p><p>"This finding is very important," asserts Héctor Rivera Sylva, the head of paleontology at the Museum of the Desert in Saltillo, Coahuila, northern Mexico, who wasn't involved with the work. "An excavation of this magnitude had not been done before, which allows us to know more about the ancient Valley of Mexico and how these animals developed around it."</p>
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Mammoths were once a common megafauna in what is now Canada, the United States, and Mexico. But the concentration of mammoth bones at the Mexico City site makes the discovery especially important. The site could help archaeologists understand when and how <a href="https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/mammoth-bones-north-america/" target="_blank">humans and mammoths interacted</a> in this region. For example, laboratory analysis of these bones could help answer questions such as whether humans hunted mammoths sporadically, as many scholars believe, or frequently, relying on the large creatures for food.
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The scientists want to recover all of the available skeletons at the site, not only <a href="https://www.inah.gob.mx/boletines/9180-inah-will-start-a-multidisciplinary-study-at-mammoth-deposits-in-santa-lucia-and-tultepec-ii-state-of-mexico" target="_blank">to study them</a> but also to open a museum near the new airport dedicated to the mammoth collection.
</p><p>This work first appeared on <a href="https://www.sapiens.org">SAPIENS</a> under a <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND 4.0 license</a>. Read the <a href="https://www.sapiens.org/archaeology/mexico-city-mammoth-find/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">original here</a>.<img src="https://www.sapiens.org/track/14400-1602925122648/?dt=A+Mammoth+Find+Near+Mexico+City&dl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.sapiens.org%2Farchaeology%2Fmexico-city-mammoth-find%2F" alt="" width="1" height="1"></p>
<a href="https://www.sapiens.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/02_DSC_0052_compressed-1.jpeg" target="_blank"></a>
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Viewing nature in VR or on television boosts wellbeing, study finds
"Interacting" with nature through virtual reality applications had especially strong benefits, according to the study.
15 October, 2020
Credit: Jag_cz via Adobe Stock
- Previous studies have shown that spending time in nature can lead to a variety of mental and physical health benefits.
- The new study involved exposing people to a high-definition nature program through one of three mediums: TV, VR and interactive VR.
- The results suggest that nature programs may be an easy and effective way to give people a "dose" of nature, which may be especially helpful during pandemic lockdowns.
<p>Spending time in nature can bring you <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/ecotherapy-benefits?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1" target="_self">well-established health benefits</a>, from lowered anxiety and depression, to reduced blood pressure and a stronger immune system. But how nature produces these effects remains unclear. Is it the awe you feel hiking through a centuries-old forest? Time spent away from screens? The physical exercise?</p><p>Recent research adds a new dimension to scientists' understanding of how nature impacts wellbeing. <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_821333_en.html" target="_blank">The study</a>, published in the Journal of Environmental Psychology, found that people who watched high-definition nature programs on TV or in virtual reality reported lower levels of boredom and other negative emotions. </p><p>For the study, researchers at the University of Exeter asked 96 participants to watch a video of a person describing their job at an office supply company. This was done to induce boredom. </p><p>The participants then watched or interacted with a nature program about a coral reef (which includes several scenes from the BBC's "Blue Planet II" series) under one of three randomly assigned conditions: </p><ul><li>2D video viewed on a high-definition TV screen</li><li>360-degree VR, viewed via a head mounted display (HMD)</li><li>Interactive computer-generated VR (CG-VR), also viewed via a HMD and interacted with using a hand-held controller</li></ul>
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUyMTIyMC9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTk0MTA0OX0.WD4pU0_oQe_93_n0nDzT0GwawBQuhcpdNgpuwrupKJE/img.png?width=980" id="9722b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e0003021b52fc8d173869040d1b2eba5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Credit: Yeo et al.
<p>The results showed that watching the nature program under all three conditions lowered negative affect, including emotions like boredom and sadness. But only the group who experienced the program in interactive VR reported a boost in mood, and feelings of being more connected to nature.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Our results show that simply watching nature on TV can help to lift people's mood and combat boredom," lead researcher Nicky Yeo <a href="https://www.exeter.ac.uk/news/research/title_821333_en.html" target="_blank">told</a> University of Exeter News. "With people around the world facing limited access to outdoor environments because of COVID-19 quarantines, this study suggests that nature programmes might offer an accessible way for populations to benefit from a 'dose' of digital nature."</p>Helping those without access to nature
<p>"Dose" is probably a keyword: The researchers didn't compare the benefits of experiencing nature via TV or VR to experiencing it in person. But even beyond the pandemic, the findings suggest that experiencing nature via virtual reality could help people improve their mental wellbeing — a tool that could prove especially useful for people who don't live near natural environments.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Virtual reality could help us to boost the wellbeing of people who can't readily access the natural world, such as those in hospital or in long term care," co-author Mathew White told University of Exeter News. "But it might also help to encourage a deeper connection to nature in healthy populations, a mechanism which can foster more pro-environmental behaviours and prompt people to protect and preserve nature in the real world."</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7dbb34dc2cdb359617d23eeb4f554801"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7AkbUfZjS5k?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>High-end VR headsets remain prohibitively costly for many consumers. One of the cheapest models, the Oculus Quest 2, costs $300, while more advanced headsets can run upward of $1,000. Still, you can buy barebones devices, like Google Cardboard, for about $10. These don't enable you to engage in fully interactive VR applications, but you could use them to view 360-degree <a href="https://youtu.be/mBWj443FNGs" target="_blank">virtual reality nature videos on YouTube</a>.<br></p>
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Researchers discover intact brain cells of man killed by Mt Vesuvius eruption
The young man died nearly 2,000 years ago in the volcanic eruption that buried Pompeii.
11 October, 2020
Credit: PLOS ONE
- A team of researchers in Italy discovered the intact brain cells of a young man who died in the Mount Vesuvius eruption in A.D. 79.
- The brain's cell structure was visible to researchers (who used an electron microscope) in a glassy, black material found inside the man's skull.
- The material was likely the victim's brain preserved through the process of vitrification in which the intense heat followed by rapid cooling turned the organ to glass.
<p>Almost 2,000 years ago, Mount Vesuvius — located on the gulf of what is today Naples in Campania, Italy — erupted, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2007/09/vesuvius-volcano-dormant-eruption-pompeii/" target="_blank">burying the ancient cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii</a> beneath hot ash.</p><p>Recently, a team of researchers in Italy discovered the intact brain cells of a young man who died in the disaster in A.D. 79. The team studied remains that were first unearthed in the 1960s from Herculaneum, a city once nestled into the shadow of Mount Vesuvius. The man was around 25 years old when he perished and was discovered lying face-down on a wooden bed in Herculaneum's Collegium Augustalium (the College of the Augustales), located near the city's main street. The building was the headquarters of the cult of Emperor Augustus who was worshipped as a deity, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/3141986.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a common Roman tradition</a> at the time. </p>
Discovery of cells
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDUwNTc3Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzkxOTE3Nn0.P40yPfGHp1jlqrALyP2BXokaKnS1u0ThXdmsbOuRrtw/img.png?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C78%2C0%2C0&height=700" id="ba6e0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="72ff4c56563712e6e7a89df6207cebf1" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Electron microscope image of brain axons.
Credit: PLOS ONE
<p>Now, subsequent research has described how the researchers, using an electron microscope, discovered cells in the vitrified brain. According to Petrone they were "incredibly well preserved with a resolution that is impossible to find anywhere else." Additionally, the team used another method called energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy to determine the chemical compounds of the glassy material. The sample was rich in carbon and oxygen, which indicates that it was organic. The researchers compared those ancient proteins to a database of proteins found in the human brain, and found that all of the discovered proteins are indeed present in human brain tissue.</p> <p>Additionally, Petrone and his team suspect they also discovered vitrified nerve cells in the ancient victim's spinal cord and cerebellum based on the position of the sample in the mind of the skull and the concentration of the proteins. </p>Future research
<p>These impeccable preservations of brain tissue are unprecedented and will undoubtedly open the door to new and exciting research opportunities on these ancient people and civilizations that weren't possible until now.</p> <p>The Italian research team will continue to study the remains to learn more about the vitrification process, including the precise temperatures the victims were exposed to and the cooling rate of the ash. They also, according to Petrone, want to analyze proteins from the remains and their related genes. </p>
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How a 15-minute 'awe walk' drastically improves mental health
Move over, forest bathing.
01 October, 2020
Credit: Robsonphoto / Shutterstock
- A new study found that weekly 15-minute "awe walks" have positive effects on mental health.
- Volunteers reported higher levels of gratitude and compassion after eight weeks of these short walks.
- Researchers believe this low-cost intervention could help prevent cognitive decline in older adults.
<p>Watch out <a href="https://bigthink.com/surprising-science/ecotherapy-benefits" target="_blank">forest bathers</a>, you have competition.</p><p>Perhaps better put, you have an addition to your ritual. According to a <a href="https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/emo0000876" target="_blank">new study</a>, published in the journal Emotion, one surefire way to improve your mental health is by taking regular 15-minute "awe walks." </p><p>Researchers at the UC San Francisco Memory and Aging Center and the Global Brain Health Institute wanted to see if these focused walks in the woods could improve prosocial emotions in seniors. The team chose this cohort due to longstanding links between cognitive decline and mental health problems associated with anxiety and depression. </p><p><a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/09/418551/awe-walks-boost-emotional-well-being" target="_blank">According to</a> associate professor Virginia Sturm, loneliness is particularly damaging to older adults and can help drive the onset of Alzheimer's disease. She was quite happy with the results. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"What we show here is that a very simple intervention – essentially a reminder to occasionally shift our energy and attention outward instead of inward – can lead to significant improvements in emotional well-being."</p><p>The walking group was comprised of volunteers in their sixties to eighties. Each participant was told the study was about exercise, when in reality their task—taking a selfie at the end of each walk—revealed the actual intentions of researchers. </p>
Finding Happiness Through "Awe Walks"
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0988a4421b47d7cdc45d740014a53b17"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-nVx6SriWPM?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span><p>Importantly, participants were instructed to observe details while walking around the forest. If the goal was only exercise, volunteers were likely to power through trails without noticing their surroundings. This is where awe comes into the picture.</p><p>UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner <a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2020/09/418551/awe-walks-boost-emotional-well-being" target="_blank">explains</a> the relevance, noting that feelings of awe help us feel more generous and humble, while increasing our overall well-being. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"Awe is a positive emotion triggered by awareness of something vastly larger than the self and not immediately understandable — such as nature, art, music, or being caught up in a collective act such as a ceremony, concert or political march."</p><p>The post-walk selfie is key. Week after week, their smiles grew larger. Incredibly, their bodies shrunk in the photos—the photographer stepped back to include more of nature. Instead of the normal close-ups we associate with selfies, volunteers naturally became more integrated with their environment, without any prompting from the research team.</p><p><a href="https://bigthink.com/21st-century-spirituality/individualism-is-spreading-and-thats-not-good" target="_self">Research</a> on individualist versus collectivist societies shows that the members of individualist societies tend to prioritize independence and autonomy. These seem like positive qualities, though higher rates of anxiety and depression are reported in such cultures. By contrast, collectivist societies emphasize interdependence, which ultimately makes members feel like they're part of a bigger landscape. </p><p>This is exactly what was reflected in those selfies. </p><img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDQ1MzQ0NC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNTg1ODkzMX0.x8zLKLALb_kM43eNALUrRhMB_GKkjCxkPdjdgaYgSrM/img.jpg?width=1245&coordinates=0%2C43%2C0%2C164&height=700" id="7e1fa" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ec4fd502a5e6a273154a44a7a6591a33" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p class=""><br></p>Credit: Rudmer Zwerver / Shutterstock
<p>Classical Japanese art offers plenty of examples of interdependence. Humans are rarely the focal point in these landscape paintings. People only appear as part of a much larger scene. This trend cuts across Buddhist art, perhaps unsurprisingly given the philosophy stresses collectivity. Happiness levels tend to be higher in these societies than in individualist nations.</p><p>America, arguably the global leader in individualism, has <a href="https://worldhappiness.report/ed/2019/the-sad-state-of-happiness-in-the-united-states-and-the-role-of-digital-media/" target="_blank">continually ranked lower</a> on world happiness charts over the last 40 years. Meanwhile, our rates of Alzheimer's disease <a href="https://bigthink.com/mind-brain/alzheimers-risks" target="_self">rise</a> every year.</p><p>Can a 15-minute awe walk change all of that? Not completely, but we'll take whatever help we can get. As mythologist Joseph Campbell <a href="https://www.jcf.org/works/quote/awe-is-what-moves-us-forward/" target="_blank">once remarked</a>, "awe is what moves us forward." He cited awe as a primary driver in the creation of mythology: the overwhelming sensation that you're part of something grand. </p><p>As Sturm says, this is a low-cost, worthwhile means for alleviating distress and filling people with gratitude and compassion. Given the state of the world, those qualities are in high demand. </p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"I find it remarkable that the simplest intervention in the world – just a three-minute conversation at the beginning of the study suggesting that participants practice feeling awe on their weekly walks – was able to drive significant shifts in their daily emotional experience. This suggests promoting the experience of awe could be an extremely low-cost tool for improving the emotional health of older adults through a simple shift in mindset." </p><p>--</p><p><em>Stay in touch with Derek on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/derekberes" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DerekBeresdotcom" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Facebook</a> and <a href="https://derekberes.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Substack</a>. His next book is</em> "<em>Hero's Dose: The Case For Psychedelics in Ritual and Therapy."</em></p>
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For starlet sea anemones, more food means more arms
A new study finds that starlet sea anemones have the unique ability to grow more tentacles when they've got more to eat.
16 September, 2020
Credit: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center/Wikimedia
- These anemones belong to the Cnidaria phylum that continues developing through its lifespan.
- The starlet sea anemone may grow as many as 24 tentacles, providing there's enough food.
- When deprived of the chance to reproduce, they also grow more tentacles.
<p>By now, you've probably worked out your personal go-to strategy for those times when you discover — a little bit too late — that you've eaten too much. Maybe you're the proactive type, arriving at the table in sweatpants. Otherwise, maybe a quick postprandial nap or a loosened belt is your thing. A new paper published in the journal <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-18133-0" target="_blank">Nature Communications</a> describes the unique way that starlet sea anemones deal with extra food: They simply grow a pair of new tentacles, as if to make room.</p>
Starlet sea anemone basics
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM5Mzk3MS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0Njc2MDk0OX0.q_e2-_VyGcBaOoGM53Uu1XZPaaVxsPhsn7shaxVGu1c/img.jpg?width=980" id="ac056" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="200a59225bbce7ddda78d80a20fc267d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="sea anemone" />Credit: Smithsonian Environmental Research Center/Flickr
<p>The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starlet_sea_anemone" target="_blank">starlet sea anemone</a>, or <em>Nematostella vectensis</em>, lives burrowed into the mud and silt of coastal salt marshes. Research suggests it's originally native to the east coast of North America, although it can also be found along the continent's west coast, around Nova Scotia, and in U.K. coastal marshes.</p><p>Being stationary creatures, starlet sea anemones have to reach out and grab nutrition floating by. Their natural diet is mainly copepods and midge larvae, though they're also perfectly happy eating brine shrimp in a laboratory setting. The anemones grab food with their tentacles whose cilia then wiggle the meal down to their mouths.</p><p>In the larval stage, the anemones have a quartet of tentacles, though they may develop up to 24 of them. A more typical amount is 16.</p><p>While the starlet sea anemone may grow larger in a lab setting, in the wild its clear, worm-like body typically extends from 10 to 19 millimeters (about three quarters of an inch) in length. Tentacles may add another 8 mm.</p><p>Members of the phylum to which the starlet sea anemone belongs, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnidaria" target="_blank"><em>Cnidaria</em></a> phylum, have the unique ability to grow new body parts throughout their lives in response to environmental influences. Among these influences are fluctuations in the amount of available food. Nonetheless, no other animal has yet been seen growing new appendages when they get extra sustenance.</p>The study
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM5NDAwOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTMzMTcyMX0.aSMrGNPw3Hz_dAmy-PGe7sWHp-ePGZFhi4AT2M5zEfE/img.jpg?width=980" id="7f3ff" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="fb709c543b60912c99dc5ee9c2871d49" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />Tentacles budding, or not, under different feeding conditions
Credit: Ikmi, et al./Nature Briefing
<p>Observations of starlet sea anemones in his lab prompted lead author of the paper, <a href="https://www.embl.de/research/units/dev_biology/ikmi/members/index.php?s_personId=CP-60026325" target="_blank">Aissam Ikmi</a> of the European Molecular Biology Lab Heidelberg, to undertake the new research. He'd noticed what seemed to be an association between the amount of brine shrimp being consumed and the sprouting of new tentacles.</p><p>Ikmi and his team raised over 1,100 starlet sea anemone polyps to which they fed brine shrimp. Some of them began with 4 tentacles while the rest already had 16.</p><p>For over six months, the researchers varied the animals' food supply at cyclical intervals, feeding the anemones for a few days and then stopping for a few days.</p><p>The scientists tracked tentacle growth throughout the experiment, creating a spatio-temporal map that identified periods of tentacle growth in relation to feeding cycles.</p><p>They found that the anemones grew new tentacle pairs during feeding periods, and new tentacle production did indeed stop when their food supply was temporarily cut off. Tentacle-pair budding occurred at the same time as an anemone also doubled its body size.</p><p style="margin-left: 20px;">"When food was available, however, primary polyps grew and sequentially initiated new tentacles in a nutrient-dependent manner, arresting at specific tentacle stages in response to food depletion." — Ikmi, et al.</p>Two ways to bud
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDM5NDA1NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwNjgzNDMzMX0.H7ATzKUDxJvdt1xKiaJe1oKG-foXqPWASin3nNm97gw/img.jpg?width=980" id="abca1" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3ac439c1ad951d3a2aa2afa4b3a8a14b" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />In this illustration from the paper, development from 4 to 12 tentacles is characterized by trans budding. Cis budding is present beginning with 16 tentacles.
Credit: Ikmi, et al./Nature Briefing
<p>The team identified two budding modalities, they named "cis" and "trans." In both modes, pairs of tentacles were produced, budding either simultaneously or consecutively. In:</p><ul><li><em>Trans budding</em> — the two new tentacles budded on opposite sides of the anemone.</li><li><em>Cis budding</em> — the two new tentacles budded from within the same segment.</li></ul><div>The experiments also suggest that the starlet sea anemone appears to have ability to make good use of available energy dependent on its situation. Being prevented from spawning, for example, prompted the anemones to grow more tentacles, as if they were rechanneling the energy they'd have otherwise directed to reproduction.</div>
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