science news 7.5.2019

Today's selection of science news. Links are normally to press releases on EurekAlert (at the bottom end I may also add a couple of newspaper stories). I include quotes from the summary (using quotation marks) in cases where the title alone doesn't reveal what the story is about. My own thoughts appear without quotation marks, if I have any.


evolution

The fossilization process of the dinosaur remains


conservation

Even more amphibians are endangered than we thought
"Due to a lack of data on many amphibian species, only about 44% of amphibians have up-to-date assessments on their risk of extinction, compared to nearly 100% of both birds and mammals. Now, researchers reporting May 6 in Current Biology have used known ecological, geographical, and evolutionary attributes of these data-deficient species to model their extinction risk -- and their assessment suggests that at least 1,000 more species are threatened than was previously believed."
NB: The paper in Current Biology appears to be on open access.


Credit: Robert Freckleton


reproduction

Female flies respond to sensation of sex, not just sperm


sustainable technology

Radical desalination approach may disrupt the water industry
"Columbia Engineering researchers report that they have developed a radically different desalination approach--"temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)"--for hypersaline brines. Their study demonstrates that TSSE can desalinate very high-salinity brines, up to seven times the concentration of seawater."


humans

Ayahuasca fixings found in 1,000-year-old bundle in the Andes
"archaeologists have discovered traces of the powerfully hallucinogenic potion in a 1,000-year-old leather bundle buried in a cave in the Bolivian Andes."


Origin of Sino-Tibetan language family revealed by new research