YEAR IN REVIEW 1997: LIFE-SCIENCES

BOTANY The remarkable similarities between plants and animals became more evident in 1996 as scientists unraveled details of the hormonal communication system used by plants to regulate their physiological activities. The natural organic compounds known as steroids play major roles as hormones in animals, but their functions in plants have been much less clear. During the year researchers in California discovered that a plant steroid called brassinolide, which in its molecular structure closely resembles the human male androgen sex hormone, is used by plants as a hormone, although not for sex. Joanne Chory and her team at the Salk Institute, La Jolla, Calif., examined a stunted form of thale cress (Arabidopsis thaliana), a small, fast-growing plant often used for genetics experiments. The stunting was caused by the plant's failure to respond to light, and the problem was traced to a defective gene involved in making brassinolide. Animals use another hormonal communication system based on fairly large, complex molecules called peptides, which are short chains of linked amino acids, the building blocks of proteins. Plant researchers from The Netherlands and Germany, led by Karin van de Sande, reported their discovery that a peptide in legume plants carries signals involved in building special nodules on the plants' roots, where symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria live. Communication in plants previously had been thought to be the work of small molecules, but if peptide signaling turns out to be widespread, it would challenge scientists' current view of the sophistication of plant physiology. (See Molecular Biology, below.) Genetic research revealed some startling insights into plant development. Two separate discoveries showed that a simple genetic switch is all that is needed to transform ordinary green shoots into flowers. Working with A. thaliana, Detlef Weigel and Ove Nilsson of the Salk Institute demonstrated that by jamming into the "on" position the "master switch" gene that controls the other genes involved in flowering, they could not only turn side shoots into flowers but also make the plant flower much sooner than normal. In subsequent experiments they switched on the flowering genes of aspen trees and thereby cut the time to flowering from years to months. Similar results, although by means of a different gene, were achieved by Alejandra Mandel of the University of Arizona and Martin Yanofsky of the University of California, San Diego. A third gene was revealed by biologists at the John Innes Centre, Norwich, Eng., to direct the location at which plant flowers sprout. Normally the gene stops the main stems of snapdragons from producing flowers at their tips, but by interfering with the gene they made each plant bloom only at the tip of its stem. Genetic engineering of plants continued to make progress. Tobacco plants, normally killed by salty water, were given a gene that allowed them to survive brackish waters. This achievement helped to open the way for the development of new crop plants that can grow in arid, salty areas of the world. Potatoes were programmed to commit suicide if they became afflicted with an infectious disease; the intent was to limit disease spread, which in turn would reduce pesticide use. On the other hand, fears for the safety of genetically engineered plants found some support. Danish scientists conducting field trials on oilseed rape (Brassica napus) discovered that a gene inserted into the crop spread alarmingly fast to a wild relative, B. campestris. This raised concern that weeds could accidentally be genetically modified. Paradoxically, while scientists engineered new varieties of crops, the natural genetic diversity of the world's crop plants was rapidly vanishing, leaving the remaining varieties prone to pests and plague. In June 150 government representatives meeting in Leipzig, Ger., pledged to halt the decline in crop varieties, many of which dated back thousands of years. The statistics were alarming; for instance, since 1900 the U.S. had lost most of its 20,000 varieties of agricultural plants. Governments were responding with an international network of gene banks that made use of refrigerated seed-storage facilities and farms to conserve threatened varieties. One big step in plant conservation was the announcement by Kew Gardens, near London, that it would build the world's largest seed bank for wild plants. It would cost $32 million and eventually could be expanded to house as much as 10% of the world's wild plant species, many of which were on the verge of extinction. One of the great attractions of conservation was the potential for finding new drugs and other useful compounds in plants. Scientists studying watercress, for example, discovered compounds that counter the cancer-causing effects of nicotine. Other researchers discovered a protein in snowdrop (Galanthus nivalis) that reduces appetite in sap-sucking pests; the gene that codes for the protein was being introduced into potato and tobacco plants to combat aphids. In a search for new biologically active substances, Hermann Niemeyer and colleagues at the University of Chile, Santiago, collected some 400 plant species. Among them was the yellow-flowered Calceolaria andina, from the foothills of the Chilean Andes, which was found to contain two powerful insecticides. These so-called napthoquinones selectively target a range of highly damaging sap-sucking insects, including a virulent strain of the tobacco whitefly, a serious global agricultural pest that was resistant to many current commercial sprays. (PAUL SIMONS) MARINE BIOLOGY The discovery of a species of marine animal that appeared to constitute an entirely new phylum was reported in the science journal Nature as the "zoological highlight of the decade." Two Danish investigators proposed that their newfound invertebrate species, Symbion pandora, be attributed to a new phylum, Cycliophora, related to the phyla Ectoprocta (Bryozoa) and Entoprocta. Symbion is an acoelomate metazoan--i.e., a multicellular animal lacking an internal fluid-filled body cavity. Its sessile stages were found abundantly on the mouthparts of the Norway lobster (Nephrops norvegicus), where they capture food being ingested by their host. Vertical migration rhythms in plankton living in the open sea typically show a daily pattern. However, a U.K. study of newly hatched larvae of the shore crab Carcinus maenas demonstrated endogenous rhythms geared to the tides. Upward swimming during ebb tides evidently disperses the larvae offshore and thus prevents their premature stranding onshore in the intertidal area. In a Polish study two species of mid-water lantern fish from the Atlantic, Hygophum macrochir and H. taaningi, were shown to avoid vertical migration at night during the new moon lunar phase. The fish stayed in cold water below 400 m (1,300 ft) at new moon and did not, as during other lunar phases, rise to warmer surface waters at night. The lunar variations of vertical migration were found to be recorded in the animals' otoliths, so-called ear stones used in maintaining balance. The microstructure of the otolith shows a pattern of daily growth rings, which varies according to the sea temperatures experienced by the fish. A similar record of carbon isotope ratios was detected in baleen plates taken from stranded southern right whales from South Africa. Changes of isotope ratios along the length of the plates provided the first direct evidence of seasonal migrations of the whales north and south of the Subtropical Convergence. French and German researchers fitted five albatross of the species Diomedea exulans with miniature sea-temperature recorders and satellite transmitters and released the birds to forage over the Southern Ocean. During frequent pauses on the sea surface, the birds transmitted, via satellite to a tracking station, the sea-surface temperature where they rested. The technique could be useful for verifying the accuracy of satellite-measurement data and for obtaining data from remote areas when cloud cover precluded direct satellite measurement. Caulerpa taxifolia, a green alga with a circumpolar distribution, was observed for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea in 1984. During 1996 the alga was reported to occur in the Mediterranean over an area of 1,000-2,000 ha (2,500-5,000 ac) and to be spreading annually by a factor of 2-10. The marine coccolithophore Emiliana huxleyi is a single-celled alga that undergoes massive blooms, or rapid population increases, worldwide. Researchers estimated that once the algal masses die off and sink, they transport 800 million tons of carbon as calcite (a form of calcium carbonate) and 500 million tons of carbon as organic compounds to the seabed each year, which confirms the major role of the blooms in regulating global ocean carbon flux. The blooms also emit into the atmosphere dimethyl sulfide, a greenhouse gas, which was shown by European researchers to derive from death of the algal cells following viral infection, which contributes to the termination of the blooms. A laboratory study carried out in the U.S. showed that the tropical flatfish Bothus ocellatus can adjust its pigment patterns for camouflage purposes with surprising fidelity in two to eight seconds to blend with different backgrounds. It even was able to adapt to a black-and-white checkerboard pattern put into the laboratory tank. U.S. and Australian investigators marked coral-reef damselfish (Pomacentrus species) with fluorescent dyes and tiny, implanted, code-carrying tags, which for the first time allowed long-term recognition of individual reef fish in studies of immigration and emigration. Related studies around Apo Island in the central Philippines provided evidence of the emigration of adult fish from protected reserves to fished areas, justifying the establishment of reserves. Larvae of vestimentiferans, gutless worms that live around deep-sea hydrothermal vents and cold seeps, were cultured and described for the first time. The larvae resemble trochophores, the free-swimming larvae characteristic of polychaete annelid worms, which places the vestimentiferans phylogenetically closer to that group than hitherto recognized. An investigator reported the first known case of eusociality in a marine invertebrate, analogous to the social behaviour of bees and termites. A sponge-dwelling shrimp, Synalpheus regalis, was found to live in colonies of more than 300 individuals. A single reproductive animal functions as a queen, while other members serve to protect the colony against intruders. (See Zoology, above.) Living specimens of the sea anemone Gerardia, obtained from a depth of 620 m (2,034 ft) off The Bahamas, were revealed by means of carbon-dating techniques to have been alive for 1,500-2,100 years. (ERNEST NAYLOR) This article updates crustacean; fish; mollusk. PALEONTOLOGY In 1996 students of fossils continued to provide new insights about past life that resulted in new philosophical challenges. A major event was the sixth North American Paleontological Convention (NAPC), held in June in Washington, D.C., and attended by 650 paleontologists, about 120 from outside North America. The meeting opened with discussions by J. William Schopf and Bruce Runnegar of the University of California, Los Angeles, about Precambrian life (before about 545 million years ago) and the oldest known fossils on Earth--3.5 billion-year-old bacterial filaments. Two months later David McKay (see BIOGRAPHIES) of NASA and colleagues announced the finding of organic residue and bacteria-like structures about 3.6 billion years old in a meteorite thought to be from the planet Mars. The findings may be the first indications of life on another planet and the first real data available to the science of exobiology. Debate over the interpretation of the findings was just beginning. For example, Schopf (an expert in very ancient microfossils) reckoned, "I think it's very unlikely they [McKay and colleagues] have remnants of biological activity." Another notable event at the NAPC was the firm placement of conodont animals among jawless vertebrates and closer to lampreys than to amphioxus. Conodonts are known mostly from abundant disarticulate toothlike microfossils. The most recent work meant that conodonts finally yielded the title "fossils of unknown affinities." They had eyes, an asymmetrical ray-supported tail fin, and a notochord (the forerunner of the spinal column of higher vertebrates), as reported by M.A. Purnell of the University of Leicester, Eng., and I.J. Sansom and M.P. Smith of the University of Birmingham, Eng., and colleagues. Twenty-nine researchers from around the world devoted a full day to the origin and evolution of whales. Eocene fossils (about 50 million years ago) provide the missing links documenting the transition of land mammals to amphibious whales that lived along rivers to marine whales, as reported by J.G.M. Thewissen of Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine and colleagues. Other advances in the study of vertebrates included new information on dinosaurs. Gregory M. Erickson of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues reported that according to the results of their experiments, Tyrannosaurus rex had very strong, impact-resistant teeth that could withstand the stresses associated with struggles during prey capture. Their data did not resolve the debate as to whether T. rex was a hunter or a carrion feeder; they did show that T. rex was not mechanically limited by its dentition to scavenging carrion. John A. Ruben of Oregon State University and colleagues reported that their analyses of the nasal regions of four dinosaur species indicated that dinosaurs had metabolic rates significantly lower than those in modern warm-blooded animals. Their data were derived from the study of the cross-sectional area of the nasal passages and the presence or absence of nasal turbinate bones, which in warm-blooded animals are involved in warming and cooling the blood during respiration. As the Washington Post noted in its Sept. 2, 1996, issue: "Paleontology: Cold-Blooded Idea Ahead by Nose." Paul Sereno of the University of Chicago and colleagues announced the discovery of two large carnivorous dinosaurs from Cretaceous rocks (about 90 million years ago) of Morocco. The larger dinosaur, Carcharodontosaurus saharicus, had a skull measuring 1.63 m (64 in), which may be larger than that of the largest known T. rex. The other dinosaur, Deltadromeus agilis, had long, slender limbs, which suggested agility and speediness. Paleobotanists held their twice-a-decade international meeting in Santa Barbara, Calif. A major theme was early land plants and the environments of early terrestrial ecosystems. C.L. Hotton and F.M. Hueber of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., discussed evidence for environmental partitioning among Lower Devonian (about 400 million years ago) plants with embryos in the rocks of Gasp, Que. T.N. Taylor of the University of Kansas and colleagues reported that in the Lower Devonian rocks of Scotland, fungi functioned as saprophytes (living on decayed material), parasites, and various types of mutualists (two organisms living together for the benefit of both). Lichen terrestrial mutualism is also present in these rocks. William Shear of Hampden-Sydney (Va.) College and Paul Seldon of the University of Manchester, Eng., noted that terrestrial arthropods are known to occur with vascular and nonvascular land plants in rocks ranging in age from Late Silurian to Late Devonian (about 410 million to 360 million years ago) in both North America and Europe. Shear and Seldon indicated that none of the arthropods known to date are herbivores but rather are detritus feeders or predators. Thus, in early terrestrial ecosystems, plants and animals were decoupled in the food chain, and primary productivity flowed through detritivores. At the NAPC, C.C. Labandeira of the Smithsonian presented data showing that by Late Pennsylvanian time (about 295 million years ago) insect herbivores were partitioning food use of plant tissues in major and essentially modern ways. David A. Grimaldi of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, was directing the collecting of rich deposits of amber-preserved fossils in the Cretaceous rocks of New Jersey; the amber is about 90 million to 94 million years old. To date, about 100 previously unknown species of insects and plants were identified. Included in this amber treasure trove were a mushroom, a bee, a mosquito, a moth, a blackfly, flowers, and a feather. The year was one of festivals celebrating fossils. In addition to the standard professional and amateur gatherings, Dinofest International was held in April at Arizona State University, Tempe, and Fossilfest at the Museum of Natural History and Science in Cincinnati, Ohio. In November the Florida Museum of Natural History, Gainesville, served as host for Paleofest 96. In part, all three festivals were sponsored by the Paleontological Society. They were designed to increase the public's knowledge about fossils and to give hands-on experience with collecting and identifying fossils. The three festivals attracted at least 250,000 people. (JOHN POJETA, JR.) See also Anthropology; Earth Sciences; The Environment. This article updates evolution, theory of; dinosaur; geochronology. MOLECULAR BIOLOGY Self-Defense in Plants. Rooted to the ground and thus unable to flee, plants need defenses against a variety of predators and disease-causing microorganisms. While obvious structural features such as thorns can deter large animal predators, more covert defenses are required against plant-eating insects and microorganisms. When organic chemists first began analyzing the chemical composition of plants, they found a bewildering array of compounds whose functions were totally unknown. The compounds were collectively termed secondary metabolites, which seemed to imply that they were not of great importance. Since the early 1990s it has become increasingly clear that most of these compounds function as part of a remarkably sophisticated passive-aggressive defense system, which ongoing work in 1996 continued to explore. The interaction of the disease-causing fungus Phytophthora with a tomato or tobacco plant can serve as an example of the way that part of the defense system was found to work. In the immediate vicinity of contact with the fungus, the plant dramatically changes its metabolism so as to prevent the growth of the fungus. It increases its local production of certain highly reactive, oxygen-derived chemical species--namely, hydrogen peroxide and groups of atoms called free radicals. It also steps up local production of toxic compounds called phytoalexins. The oxygen-derived species and phytoalexins cause local cell death. This activity leads to a spot of dead tissue on the leaf, but it also impedes the spread of the fungus. Concomitant with the local reaction, the plant produces chemical signals that circulate systemwide throughout the plant and induce changes leading to general resistance. As Phytophthora attempts to infect the plant, it secretes small proteins, called elicitins, that ultimately serve a structural role for the fungus. It is the elicitins that turn on the defensive responses of the plant. In fact, it was shown experimentally that a light touch of a dilute solution of pure elicitins induces both the local acute response and the systemic response. The signal within the plant that mediates the systemic changes leading to resistance is carried by salicylic acid, which is made in response to elicitins. This simple compound serves several kinds of signaling roles in plants and is more familiar to people in the form of a chemical derivative, aspirin. Recent research also revealed that plants mount other types of defenses to ward off plant-eating insects like caterpillars and beetles. The response may involve the production and release of compounds distasteful or toxic to the insect. In some cases the plant releases volatile compounds that attract predators or parasites of the insect. In addition, the mechanical injury caused by the insect sets off a signaling cascade that induces the entire plant to adapt to the attack. The first element in the cascade is a short chain of amino acids, or oligopeptide, called systemin, which is produced in response to the mechanical damage. Systemin activates the production of jasmonic acid, which in turn signals the entire plant to prepare for attack. This systemic call to arms includes the production of lignin and a protease inhibitor. Lignin is a woody polymer that caterpillars and beetles find indigestible. The protease inhibitor prevents digestive enzymes called proteases from breaking down proteins in foods and thus keeps insects from benefiting from the plant protein that they ingest. Protease inhibitors, which are proteins themselves, are abundant in such seeds as soybeans as a defense against seed eaters. Humans circumvent natural protease inhibitors in foods by cooking, which inactivates them and renders the food digestible. The recent discoveries about plant defense systems uncovered parallels between them and the defensive responses and signaling reactions of mammals. For example, the phagocytic white blood cells of the human body respond to invading organisms by producing hydrogen peroxide and a free radical called superoxide, similar to the response of plants. Furthermore, the human body produces signaling molecules, called prostaglandins, made from the polyunsaturated fatty acid arachidonic acid; plants produce jasmonic acid from a similar fatty acid, linolenic acid. The existence of chemical defenses in plants is a powerful argument for the maintenance of maximum biological diversity. Scientists have only begun to explore the compounds involved in these systems, and the same can be said for the defense systems of insects, amphibians, and many other organisms. Unraveling these secrets may provide as great a benefit to human beings as have the discoveries of the major antibiotics, like penicillin and streptomycin, which are defensive antimicrobial compounds made by molds and bacteria. Lou Gehrig's Disease. Advances continued in the past year in the understanding of the molecular and genetic basis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), or Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a degenerative disease of the motor neurons--the nerve cells that control muscular movements. The inexorably progressive paralysis that results usually begins during the third or fourth decade of life, and victims of ALS usually die within a few years after the appearance of symptoms. ALS occurs in two forms, one familial (FALS) and the other sporadic (SALS). Except for the heritable character of FALS, the two forms are symptomatically indistinguishable. The search for a genetic defect involved in the cause of FALS led first to chromosome 21 and then, in the early 1990s, to a gene called SOD1. The gene was found to encode--i.e., to carry the genetic code for making--an enzyme called superoxide dismutase. The enzyme protects the body's cells against the destructive effects of accumulating superoxide radicals by catalyzing their conversion into molecular oxygen and hydrogen peroxide. FALS is genetically dominant, which means that one copy of the defective gene is sufficient to cause the disease. The corollary is that one copy of the normal gene cannot prevent the disease. In theory, mutations in the SOD1 gene could cause FALS by specifying a superoxide dismutase product that has modestly decreased activity or, alternately, by giving the enzyme a novel deleterious activity. The latter mechanism recently was shown to be the case in experiments that involved mice genetically engineered to carry a normal or defective human form of the SOD1 gene in addition to the natural mouse form of the gene. When the normal human SOD1 gene was expressed in mice, they did not develop paralysis. On the other hand, when genes coding for FALS-associated mutant forms of SOD1 were expressed, the mice did become paralyzed. Since the transferred human genes were expressed against a background of normal mouse SOD1 genes and the mice did indeed show normal levels, or even somewhat greater-than-usual levels, of superoxide dismutase, their paralysis could not have been due to a lack of the enzyme. What toxic property of mutant superoxide dismutase could cause degeneration of motor neurons? As of 1996 two possibilities had been put forward, with data supporting each. One is that the mutant enzyme catalyzes novel oxidation reactions that ultimately destroy the motor neurons. The other is that it catalyzes the addition of nitrate groups to tyrosine, one of the amino-acid building blocks of proteins. In fact, tests devised specifically to detect the nitrated tyrosine product found it in the spinal cords of ALS patients but not in those of persons free of the disease. Although many aspects of ALS remained mysterious, given the impressive gains in understanding in the past few years, investigators looked forward to a time in the near future when they would be able to predict, prevent, or at least slow the progress of the disease. Of course, the sporadic form of ALS does not involve mutations in the SOD1 gene. Nevertheless, because its symptoms are so similar to those of FALS, there is likely some similarity in causation. (IRWIN FRIDOVICH) ZOOLOGY Zoological research during the past year contributed to an improved understanding of the relationships between genetics and the aging process, further explored some of the intricacies of internal physiology, and uncovered the first known example of eusociality in a marine organism. A new species of mammal was discovered in the rain forests of the Philippines, and studies of turtles and lizards provided insight into current conservation issues. Molecular techniques established that the guinea pig is not a rodent, as had been thought. Bernard Lakowski and Siegfried Hekimi of McGill University, Quebec, presented evidence that four genes, named the Clock genes, interact to determine the life span of the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, a microscopic, wormlike soil animal used extensively in genetic studies. The Clock genes appear to extend life span by a mechanism distinct from that of other Caenorhabditis genes, the dauer genes, that previously had been found to affect life span. Nematodes containing mutations in both a Clock gene and a dauer gene lived nearly five times longer than normal wild-type nematodes--the greatest increase in life span over the species average that had been achieved by any means in any organism. The Clock genes also were found to affect other timed processes, including the length of development and the cell cycle. The study showed that Clock-gene mutations affect the rate of development and adult life span in a similar manner, which suggests that the long life of the mutant nematodes may be a consequence of a "slower rate of living," possibly due to a slower rate of metabolism. The Clock genes may be regulatory genes that control metabolic rates and influence a general physiological clock in nematodes. Lawrence C. Rome and Stephen M. Baylor of the University of Pennsylvania and colleagues investigated the physiological mechanisms that allow muscle fibres involved in sound production in vertebrates to have contraction cycles 10-20 times faster than most vertebrate locomotory muscles. The tail muscles causing the rattling of western diamondback rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) contract repeatedly at about 90 hertz (Hz; cycles per second), whereas muscles that surround the swim bladders of the oyster toadfish (Opsanus tau) and are used in creating a mating call contract at about 200 Hz, the fastest known rate for any vertebrate. The investigators found in both instances that calcium, the trigger for muscle contraction, cycles in a manner that allows the muscle fibres to activate and relax at a rapid rate. Movement of calcium through toadfish bladder muscle is as much as 50 times faster than through most muscles used for locomotion. In addition, the myosin-filament cross bridges, whose repeated binding to actin filaments and subsequent release generate the force in muscle contraction, attach and detach about 50 times faster as well. One significant revelation of the study was that the physiological traits necessary to permit muscle fibres to move rapidly evolved independently in the rattlesnake and toadfish. A study of the rubber boa (Charina bottae), a nocturnally active snake, by Michael E. Dorcas and Charles R. Peterson of Idaho State University revealed that the internal temperature of the animal's head is significantly warmer than either its internal body temperature or cool nighttime air temperatures. Precise regulation of temperature in the head region of an organism is presumed to be advantageous in optimizing functions of the central nervous system. Although differential temperatures in parts of a reptile body had been reported for other species, the findings in the rubber boa represented the first instance of the phenomenon in a reptile active at night. The study suggested that some reptiles may have greater versatility in regulating temperatures in different bodily regions than formerly suspected. Social insects, such as ants, honeybees, and termites, and the naked mole rat, a mammal, are considered eusocial, with reproduction often being limited to a single female, or queen, within a colony. Additional characteristics of eusociality are cooperative care of the young and division of labour among nonreproductive members of the colony. The discovery by J. Emmett Duffy of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Va., of eusociality in a coral-reef shrimp (Synalpheus regalis) was the first such report in a marine organism or a crustacean. S. regalis lives in the internal canals of sponges. Duffy dissected more than 30 sponges from the coast of Belize, each of which housed a shrimp colony with a single reproductive female and usually with multiple generations of her offspring. Examination of the shrimp colonies supported previous hypotheses that altruistic behaviour among nonbreeding members of a colony can be favoured as a result of kin selection in species living in enclosed habitats that provide protection against predators and an adequate food supply. In the area of conservation ecology, investigators found evidence that the use of turtle excluder devices (TEDs) by shrimp trawlers indeed did result in reduction of the numbers of sea turtles killed in trawling operations. TEDs are grid attachments within trawl nets that retain shrimp but allow most turtles to escape. Without TEDs, shrimpers can unintentionally drown turtles in their nets. Larry B. Crowder and J. Andrew Royle of North Carolina State University and Sally R. Hopkins-Murphy of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources completed a statistical analysis of the numbers of dead loggerhead sea turtles washed ashore in South Carolina in a 15-year period. In years when shrimping was under way, 44% fewer dead turtles turned up on shore when TEDs were in use than when they were not. TED use also reduced the rate of decline in the population of nesting females along South Carolina beaches and, according to the investigators, had the potential for allowing the loggerhead population to expand by a factor of 10 by the year 2055. In a continuation of a long-term study on islands in The Bahamas, Thomas W. Schoener and David A. Spiller of the University of California, Davis, experimentally demonstrated the way in which introduction of a predator (an anole lizard) into a system can have devastating effects on the diversity and abundance of prey species (web spiders). The investigators ran a seven-year experiment in which they selected four groups of three islands each, one inhabited by lizards and two without lizards; all of the islands were inhabited by spider species. In each trio of islands, lizards were introduced onto one of the two lizard-free islands. Within two years the islands onto which lizards had been introduced were almost identical in spider diversity and abundance to those with natural lizard populations. The proportion of spider species becoming extinct on islands with introduced lizards was 12.6 times higher than on islands with no lizards, and most rare species disappeared. The study underscored the impact that predator introductions can have in some situations by severely threatening species composition and integrity of natural systems. The order Rodentia traditionally has been divided on the basis of morphology into several suborders, one of which, Caviomorpha, includes such animals as chinchillas, degus, agoutis, porcupines, capybaras, and guinea pigs. On sequencing the complete genome, or genetic endowment, of the mitochondrion (a DNA-containing cell organelle) of the guinea pig (Cavia porcellus) and using three distinct analytic methods, Anna Maria D'Erchia and Cecilia Saccone of the University of Bari, Italy, and colleagues provided evidence supporting an earlier contention that guinea pigs are in a separate phylogenetic line from the rodents. They concluded that guinea pigs should be placed in a new order of mammals distinct from Rodentia. A new mammalian species from the Philippine rain forest was reported by Robert Kennedy of the Cincinnati (Ohio) Museum of Natural History & Planetarium and Pedro Gonzales of the National Museum of the Philippines. Named the Panay cloudrunner (Crateromys heaneyi), the tree-dwelling, squirrellike rodent has soft brown fur, small ears and eyes, and a long black tail and weighs about 1 kg (2.2 lb). (J. WHITFIELD GIBBONS)