Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants

University of Leicester study determines when and how pterosaurs went from tiny tree-climbers to towering terrestrial titans

University of Leicester

 

image: 

Short-tailed pterosaurs, like this Balaenognathus were adapted for a life on the ground. This bizarre creature boasted nearly 500 needle-like teeth in its jaws, and likely used them to filter-feed on tiny food items from shallow waters, similar to the feeding habits of modern flamingos. 

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Credit: Credit: Rudolf Hima

The evolutionary adaptations that allowed ancient pterosaurs to grow to enormous sizes have been pinpointed for the first time by palaeontologists in the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution at the University of Leicester.

The discovery revealed a surprising twist – the ability to walk efficiently on the ground played a crucial role in determining how large the biggest flying animals could grow, with some reaching wingspans of up to 10 metres.

In a new study published today (4 October) in Current Biology, a team of researchers led by the University of Leicester examined the hands and feet of pterosaurs from around the world and across their entire evolutionary history.

They uncovered a surprising level of variation similar to that seen across living birds. This discovery indicates that pterosaurs were not confined to a life in the skies but were also adapted to a wide range of terrestrial lifestyles, from tree-climbing in early species to more ground-based lifestyles in later ones. 

The evolution of pterosaurs, the first true flying vertebrates, showcases some of the most remarkable adaptations in the history of life. While these creatures are best known for their ability to soar through the prehistoric skies of the Mesozoic era (252-66 million years ago), a new study has revealed a surprisingly high degree of diversity in where and how pterosaurs lived when they were not airborne. 

Lead author Robert Smyth, a doctoral researcher in the in the Centre for Palaeobiology and Biosphere Evolution (School of Geography, Geology and the Environment at the University of Leicester), explained: "Early pterosaurs were highly specialised for climbing, with extreme modifications in their hands and feet, similar to those found in climbing lizards and birds like woodpeckers today. Clinging to vertical surfaces by your fingertips for long periods is hard work — it’s a lot easier for small, lightweight animals.” 

These early pterosaurs were likely restricted to arboreal habitats and consequently, small body sizes. However, a major evolutionary shift occurred during the Middle Jurassic period, when pterosaur hands and feet changed to look much more like those of ground-dwelling animals. These adaptations to ground-based movement opened up new ecological opportunities, leading to a wide variety of feeding strategies. Freedom from the size constraints imposed by vertical living allowed some pterosaurs to evolve to gigantic size with wingspans of up to 10 metres. 

Co-author Dr David Unwin from the University of Leicester added: "In early pterosaurs the hind limbs were connected by a flight membrane which severely impeded walking and running. In later, more advanced pterosaurs, this membrane became separated along the midline, allowing each hind limb to move independently. This was a key innovation that, combined with changes to their hands and feet, greatly improved pterosaurs’ mobility on the ground.

“Freed from the constraints of climbing, these later pterosaurs could grow to enormous sizes, with some species becoming true giants of the Mesozoic.” 

The details of the hands and feet are a clear giveaway. In early pterosaurs, the bones at the base of the fingers and toes were relatively short, while those farther from the body were greatly elongated, ending in large, curved claws – together these modifications resulted in a powerful grip – ideal for climbing. By contrast, later, more advanced pterosaurs showed the opposite pattern: the bones at the base of their fingers and toes were much longer, while those closer to the tips were shorter. Their claws were also flatter and less curved, suggesting they were better adapted for walking rather than climbing. 

Robert Smyth added: “These findings underscore the need to examine all aspects of pterosaur locomotion, not just flight, to fully understand their evolution. That pterosaurs could fly is only one part of their story. By exploring how they lived in the trees or on the ground, we can begin to understand the roles that they played in ancient ecosystems." 

When pterosaurs arrived on the ground, it was already inhabited by a wide range of animals, including dinosaurs and many other reptiles. Pterosaurs cleverly avoided competition with these established groups by exploiting ecological niches that required both flying and walking abilities. This resulted in some bizarre feeding strategies such as evolving hundreds of fine, needle-like teeth that were used for filter-feeding. This remarkable feature, resembling the feeding method of modern flamingos, emerged at least 120 million years before the first flamingos evolved. 

• ‘Hand and foot morphology maps invasion of terrestrial environments by pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic’ will be published in Current Biology, DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014 Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014

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Long-tailed pterosaurs, such as Scaphognathus, had large, curved claws on their hands and feet, specially adapted for climbing. Equipped with sharp teeth, they likely preyed on insects and other small animals.

Credit

Credit: Rudolf Hima

Pterosaur evolutionary tree (IMAGE)

University of Leicester

This evolutionary tree illustrates the remarkable transformation of pterosaur hands as they adapted from a climbing lifestyle to one suited for terrestrial movement. Early, long-tailed pterosaurs, which relied on climbing, were limited to smaller body sizes. In contrast, later, short-tailed species that adapted to walking on land were free to grow larger, enabling some to reach giant sizes.

Credit

Artist credit: Rudolf Hima

Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014 

Article Title

Hand and foot morphology maps invasion of terrestrial environments by pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic’

Article Publication Date

4-Oct-2024

 

Scientists uncover auditory “sixth sense” in geckos

University of Maryland researchers discover that geckos use a mechanism usually associated with balance to sense vibrations, leading to new insights about how animals hear and feel their surroundings.

University of Maryland

 

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A tokay gecko.

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Credit: Duncan Leitch

University of Maryland biologists identified a hidden sensory talent in geckos that’s shaking up what we thought we knew about animal hearing.

In a new study published in Current Biology on October 4, 2024, the researchers revealed that geckos use the saccule—a part of their inner ear traditionally associated with maintaining balance and body positioning—to detect low-frequency vibrations. According to the researchers, this special “sixth sense” also plays a complementary role to the geckos’ normal hearing and the way they sense the world around them. The team believes that this previously unrecognized hearing mechanism may be present in other reptilian species as well, challenging existing ideas about how animal sensory systems evolved and diverged over time.

“The ear, as we know it, hears airborne sound. But this ancient inner pathway, which is typically linked to balance, helps geckos detect vibrations that travel through mediums like the ground or water,” said study co-author Catherine Carr, a Distinguished University Professor of Biology at UMD. “This pathway exists in amphibians and fish, and now it’s proven to be preserved in lizards as well. Our findings shed light on how the auditory system evolved from what you see in fish to what you see in land animals including humans.”

The saccule can detect faint vibrations ranging from 50 and 200 Hz, a spectrum well below what geckos can usually hear through their ears. Researchers say this indicates that the saccule serves a distinct yet complementary function to the geckos’ regular auditory system. While geckos can hear airborne sound, many other reptiles do not have that ability. The study’s lead author Dawei Han, a postdoctoral researcher and former graduate student at UMD, says that the discovery of the saccule’s role in gecko hearing may lead to a better understanding of communication and behavior in other animals previously considered to have limited auditory capabilities. 

“A lot of snakes and lizards were thought to be ‘mute’ or ‘deaf’ in the sense that they do not vocalize sounds or hear sounds well,” Han explained. “But it turns out they could potentially be communicating via vibrational signals using this sensory pathway instead, which really changes the way scientists have thought about animal perception overall.”

The existence of this shared sensory pathway in modern reptiles offers a unique window into the evolutionary history of vertebrate sensory systems, suggesting that the transition from aquatic to terrestrial environments likely involved more complex and gradual changes in hearing mechanisms than previously thought.

Although these findings are not directly connected to how humans hear, the researchers believe that there’s always more than meets the eye—or in this case, ear.

“Think about when you’re at a live rock concert,” Carr said. “It’s so loud that you can feel your whole head and body vibrate in the sound field. You can feel the music, rather than just hearing it. That feeling suggests that the human vestibular system may be stimulated during those loud concerts, meaning our sense of hearing and balance may also be linked closely.” 

Carr and Han hope their findings will prompt more investigations into mammalian hearing, especially in the context of this sensory pathway. They believe that the established link between hearing and balance opens up new avenues for research, including the connection between human hearing and balance disorders.

“The implications of this research extend beyond the world of reptiles,” Han said. “As we uncover these hidden mechanisms, we’re also gaining a richer and more nuanced picture of how animals perceive and interact with their environments—and potentially, new insights into our own sensory experiences.”

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The paper, “Auditory pathway for detection of vibration in the tokay gecko,” was published in Current Biology on October 4, 2024

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (Grant No. R01DC019341).

 

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Journal

Current Biology

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Auditory pathway for detection of vibration in the tokay gecko

Article Publication Date

4-Oct-2024

 

Drier winter habitat impacts songbirds’ ability to survive migration

Climate change-driven drying in Caribbean likely to impact birds throughout annual cycle

Smithsonian National Zoological Park

 

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Researchers found drier winters impact the likelihood of Kirtland’s warblers surviving migration and their ability to survive the breeding season. 

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Credit: Nathan W. Cooper, Smithsonian's National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute

A new study from researchers at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) shows environmental conditions in migratory birds’ winter homes carry over to affect their ability to survive spring migration and the breeding season. 

While scientists have long known that the quality of winter, or non-breeding, habitat influences migratory birds’ migration timing and reproductive success, the study, published today in Current Biology, marks the first time researchers have linked winter conditions with migration survival. Analysis of the data for both the Kirtland’s warbler and the black-throated blue warbler revealed reduced rainfall and diminished vegetative productivity in the birds’ Caribbean non-breeding habitats resulted in fewer birds surviving spring migration. For Kirtland’s warblers, poor quality winter habitat also reduced survival in the subsequent breeding season. 

As bird populations continue to decline, understanding the factors influencing their survival throughout the year is crucial. The Caribbean is expected to get drier in the coming decades due to climate change, suggesting migratory bird species such as these warblers could face even greater challenges going forward.  

“If winter habitat quality continues to degrade over the next half-century due to climate change, we can now say that it will reduce birds’ ability to survive spring migration,” said Nathan Cooper, the study’s lead author and research ecologist at NZCBI. “That knowledge can help us prioritize conservation measures on the most drought-resistant non-breeding grounds.”  

Beginning in 2017, Cooper and his co-authors wanted to investigate how environmental conditions on non-breeding grounds affect survival during spring migration and on the breeding grounds. However, GPS tags, which can track individual birds continuously, are too heavy to attach to most songbirds. Instead, songbird researchers must rely on other devices, like radio transmitters, which are lighter but only reveal their location when a receiver is within 6 to 10 miles. Many species breed over large swathes of North America, making it all but impossible to correctly guess where an individual bird might end up breeding with enough precision to detect its radio transmitter.   

But Kirtland’s warblers offered Cooper and his co-authors a unique opportunity because nearly the entire population breeds in a relatively small part of Michigan. This made it possible to track down the same individual birds tagged in their non-breeding habitat in the Bahamas.  

The team analyzed three years of radio tracking data from 136 tagged Kirtland’s warblers to estimate their survival rate across their migration and its relation to environmental factors.   

In addition to directly estimating survival for Kirtland’s warblers, the team also indirectly estimated migratory survival rates for black-throated blue warblers using a statistical technique first developed by Scott Sillett, co-author of the study and NZCBI wildlife ecologist, in 2002. The researchers improved Sillett’s methods to analyze 14 years of capture-recapture data from the black-throated blue warbler’s New Hampshire breeding grounds and its non-breeding grounds in Jamaica, and then link survival to environmental conditions.  

Despite the two different methodologies, both species showed lower survival rates during migration compared to stationary periods. The study also confirmed that poor winter habitat conditions, such as drought or reduced vegetative productivity, led to lower survival rates during spring migration and, in some cases, the subsequent breeding season. This is the first direct evidence of this type of carry-over effect on survival during migration. The approach facilitated by Kirtland’s warbler’s restricted breeding grounds allowed the team to validate the more indirect approach to estimating migration survival.   

“To effectively conserve migratory birds, we need to pinpoint when and where in their annual cycle they’re under threat,” Cooper said. “Being able to reliably estimate survival during migration versus stationary periods is the first step towards figuring out when, where and how birds are dying throughout the year.”  

But Cooper said it is critical to take a more holistic approach to effectively protect migratory bird species. For instance, it is unclear whether deaths during migration are the primary source of mortality or just one of many factors. Luckily, Cooper and co-authors Clark Rushing of the University of Georgia and Scott Yanco of the University of Michigan received a four-year grant from the U.S Fish and Wildlife Service’s Great Lakes Restoration Act to build full annual-cycle population models for Kirtland’s warblers. This model will help scientists determine how the dangers of migration fit into the broader picture for warblers, a strategy that could prove useful for the conservation of other declining migratory species.  

About the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute 

The Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute (NZCBI) leads the Smithsonian’s global effort to save species, better understand ecosystems and train future generations of conservationists. Its two campuses are home to some of the world’s most critically endangered species. Always free of charge, the Zoo’s 163-acre park in the heart of Washington, D.C., features 2,200 animals representing 400 species and is a popular destination for children and families. At the Conservation Biology Institute’s 3,200-acre campus in Virginia, breeding and veterinary research on 264 animals representing 20 species provide critical data for the management of animals in human care and valuable insights for conservation of wild populations. NZCBI’s more than 300 staff and scientists work in Washington, D.C., Virginia and with partners at field sites across the United States and in more than 30 countries to save wildlife, collaborate with communities and conserve native habitats. NZCBI is a long-standing accredited member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.  

About the Life on a Sustainable Planet Initiative 

Life on a Sustainable Planet (LSP) is a vital initiative from the Smithsonian designed to advance and inspire global engagement in environmental stewardship. This comprehensive program applies the Smithsonian’s expertise in science, outreach and education to foster holistic approaches to preserving ecosystems, building resilience and educating the world about sustainable climate solutions. Smithsonian scientists partner with communities and organizations around the world, conducting research and educational programs to shape the future. LSP programs save and protect biodiversity, champion sustainable practices and offer innovative solutions to the challenges posed by our changing climate. 

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Photo Credit: Nathan W. Cooper, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute 
Photo Caption: Researchers found drier winters impact the likelihood of Kirtland’s warblers surviving migration and their ability to survive the breeding season. 

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Journal

Current Biology

DOI

10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.015. 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Non-breeding conditions induce carry-over effects on survival of migratory bird

Article Publication Date

4-Oct-2024

 

Experienced and powerful boards are needed to harness the power of overconfident CEOs for breakthrough innovations

Strategic Management Society

C-suites are filled with strong personalities that can help drive new and exciting offerings. But when it comes to breakthrough technological innovations, a new study published in Strategic Management Journal found it’s essential that CEO overconfidence is balanced by a board of directors with expertise and power.

Prior studies have shown that overconfident CEOs are more likely to pursue breakthrough innovations, yet those same qualities make them less likely to consider potential threats associated with risky endeavors. Less was understood about how firms can harness the benefits of overconfident CEOs, and the research team behind the latest SMJ finding — consisting of Priscilla S. Kraft of WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, Teresa A. Dickler of IE University in Madrid and University of Marburg, and Michael C. Withers of Texas A&M University — looked to the influence of the organizations’ boards as an essential mechanism to successful breakthrough innovation.

To examine their hypotheses, the team used a sample of U.S. publicly listed firms within the S&P 1500 that operate in high-tech industries, as previous research has shown that breakthrough innovations — defined as something that significantly alters or creates markets — are especially important in these environments. They focused on two board qualities: expertise and power. The importance of expertise is well studied in other areas such as acquisitions: Firms with boards that have experience in acquiring businesses make better decisions in this avenue. Having experience with breakthrough innovations is crucial, as it can help — for example — to ally investment concerns that board members might otherwise have.

Board power was measured in relation to how much independent sway the board has in relation to the CEO. This would be a board where the CEO is not the chair, or where board members have more tenure with the company than the CEO, or when members have a significant stake in the company. These board members are more likely to put pressure on the CEO to prove an idea is worth pursuing, and to ensure all necessary information is provided.

“The powerful board is necessary to make these adjustments or to rectify some misperceptions that may come with this overconfidence,” Kraft says.”It's not about stopping these CEOs from being innovative — it's good that they want to go for innovation — but rather to guide them to really make better decisions in terms of the right projects, making adjustments in terms of resource allocation decisions, and also take into account new information that comes the further you get with a project.”

The researchers found that the relationship between CEO overconfidence and breakthrough innovations is strongest in firms with high board expertise and power, leading to a 113% increase in breakthrough innovations relative to the sample mean. Both expertise and power were found to be crucial, as they also discovered that powerful boards that lack expertise may be detrimental to harnessing CEO overconfidence.

“If you want to push breakthrough innovation in your firm, then you should be careful of the people you hire for your board,” Kraft says. “You should be surrounded by people that understand the topic, because they can give you good advice. But the company must also balance the power between the CEO and the board.”

To read the full context of the study and its methods, access the full paper available in the Strategic Management Journal.

About the Strategic Management Society

The Strategic Management Society (SMS) is the leading global member organization fostering and supporting rigorous and practice-engaged strategic management research. SMS enjoys the support of 3,000 members, representing more than 1,100 institutions and companies in more than 70 countries. SMS publishes three leading academic journals in partnership with Wiley: Strategic Management Journal, Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, and Global Strategy Journal. These journals publish top-quality work applicable to researchers and practitioners with complementary access for all SMS Members. The SMS Explorer offers the latest insights and takeaways from the SMS Journals for business practitioners, consultants, and academics.

Click here to subscribe to the monthly SMS Explorer newsletter.

Click here to learn more about the programs and opportunities SMS has to offer.

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Journal

Strategic Management Journal

DOI

10.1002/smj.3657 

Method of Research

Case study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

When do firms benefit from overconfident CEOs? The role of board expertise and power for technological breakthrough innovation

 

Political parties in South America relied on will of the people to implement major economic reforms, analysis shows

University of Exeter

The success and legacy of major economic reforms in Ecuador and El Salvador has depended on the will of the people, analysis shows.

The strength of political party ideology and support of unions, workers and the financial sector has hugely influenced decision-making.

In both countries, administrations led by left-wing parties tightened capital flow management, while their right-wing successors took the opposite approach. The extent of this depended on how much popular support the party had.

In Ecuador extensive protests and strikes prevented left-wing governments extensively liberalising the economy and meant successor right wing governments had to take a more gradual approach.

In El Salvador left wing governments went unchallenged as they implementing economic reforms. Successive right-wing administrations faced little resistance to implementing a radical agenda that included even the adoption of bitcoin as legal tender alongside the United States dollar.

Dr Pedro Perfeito da Silva, from the University of Exeter, examined economic policies in Ecuador and El Salvador since the late 2000s.

In Ecuador, the strength of the bottom-up pressure against marketization led the Correa administration to reshape the country’s relationship with capital flows, deploying encompassing outflow controls and restrictive macroprudential regulations. During the following presidencies of Lenín Moreno, Guillermo Lasso, and Daniel Noboa pressure from indigenous movements and labour unions slowed down the adoption of neoliberal policies, contributing to watering down the deregulation of capital flows.

In El Salvador the fragility of the bottom-up resistance against reforms led the presidencies of Mauricio Funes and Salvador Cerén to embrace a moderate left-wing agenda, taking far less intrusive initiatives to mitigate the negative effects of capital mobility. This weakness of popular organizations also explains why Nayib Bukele’s authoritarian neoliberalism and his adoption of Bitcoin as legal tender have faced few obstacles.

Dr Perfeito da Silva said: “The case of Ecuador shows that states can still challenge global financial markets. If even a country that does not issue its currency can impose capital account restrictions, this calls into question the inevitability of neoliberal financial policies in advanced economies.

“As observed in El Salvador, dollar-centred, rule-based globalization may not be the end of the road as domestic elites turn peripheral countries into laboratories for the riskiest financial innovations.

“The experience of Ecuador also demonstrates macroeconomics is not condemned to depoliticization. Even something highly technical like capital controls can become an issue of mass politics when social movements consider them a necessary condition for achieving their demands.”

Moves from the early 1990s in Ecuador’s led to the removal of capital controls, the deregulation of the banking sector, and the constitutional approval of central bank autonomy. This culminated in the late 1990s banking crisis and a massive currency devaluation.

The administration led by Jamil Mahuad adopted the US dollar as the sole legal tender in January 2000. This continues to be divisive in the country.

As a result of this Ecuador experienced a political stalemate. Indigenous movements and labour unions were not strong enough to revert dollarization but toppled three presidents in one decade.

The Correa government’s restrictions to capital mobility met expected business resistance but the countervailing force from indigenous organizations and labour unions kept the government committed to this agenda.

The deterioration of the economy meant Lenín Moreno struggled to defeat the right-wing opposition in the 2017 presidential election, winning the second round by a narrow margin. His proposals for economic reform were withdrawn following massive protests.

In El Salvador the right wing Nationalist Republican Alliance reforms included the deregulation of the banking sector, capital account liberalization, and the concession of vast incentives to foreign investors. In January 2001 the US dollar was adopted as the sole legal tender.

Popular organizations did not offer a strong resistance as protests were cancelled due to a devastating earthquake only 13 days after the start of dollarization. El Salvador did not experience any general strikes during the two decades of the ARENA administration.

 

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Journal

Review of International Political Economy

DOI

10.1080/09692290.2024.2405162 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

The politics of capital mobility in dollarized economies: comparing Ecuador and El Salvador

 

University of Houston leads collaborative effort to improve Gulf Coast workforce development and community benefits in the unfolding energy transition

Project to provide training and resources needed to access jobs in the new hydrogen economy

University of Houston

Key Takeaways:

• Focus on Underserved Communities: The project aims to ensure disadvantaged communities along Texas’s Gulf Coast benefit from the emerging hydrogen economy.
• Workforce Development: A key goal is to involve local communities in planning workforce opportunities and provide training programs tailored to their needs.
• Creation of a Toolkit: The project will develop a publicly available online toolkit to guide workforce engagement to ensure equitable access to emerging job opportunities.

 

HOUSTON, October 04, 2024 –The U.S. Department of Energy has selected a University of Houston-led project to receive funding as part of a $62 million effort to advance clean hydrogen technologies nationwide – it is the only one from Texas. Titled "Equitable Workforce Opportunities: Engaging Gulf Coast Communities in their Clean Energy Economy," the project is one of four chosen under the “Equitable Hydrogen Technology Community Engagement” category to begin contract negotiations, which when successfully completed will lead to $1 million in funding. The project team includes MRSW Management, Houston Advanced Research Center, Houston Community College and Lamar University.

UH – The Energy University – is a Tier One public research university, a Hispanic-Serving Institution and an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution that serves Houston and the Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class research and innovation, experiential learning, and strategic industry partnerships.

Clean hydrogen is a versatile energy carrier and key for industries like fertilizer production and steelmaking. It can be produced from various clean energy sources, including renewables, nuclear, and fossil fuels with carbon capture. Its ability to reduce emissions in hard-to-decarbonize sectors, such as industrial processes and heavy transportation, makes it crucial in addressing the climate crisis. Additionally, it can serve as long-duration energy storage to support renewable energy expansion.

“America is leading the world in the development and deployment of clean hydrogen—a versatile fuel critical to reducing emissions from the most energy-intensive and polluting sectors of our economy,” said U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm in the DOE press release.

Local Impact of a National Initiative

This project aligns with the goals of Invest in America's Workforce, a federal initiative aimed at strengthening the U.S. labor force. The initiative focuses on preparing workers for jobs in emerging industries like clean energy, advanced manufacturing, and infrastructure development.

As the nation shifts toward a clean energy future, the Texas Gulf Coast — long dominated by the oil, gas, and petrochemical industries — stands at the forefront of a new economic opportunity. The UH collaborative effort aims to ensure underserved and disadvantaged communities in the region, particularly in areas like Chambers, Galveston, Harris, and Jefferson Counties, are not left behind in this transition to the hydrogen economy and reshape how energy investments benefit local communities.

“Historically, many of these communities have not been included in the planning or decision-making processes related to workforce development in the energy sector. This project seeks to change that by placing community input at the heart of future planning,” said Ramanan Krishnamoorti, vice president of energy and innovation at UH and principal investigator on the project.

“The current Community Benefits Plan process, while important, is often confusing or unknown to the very people it aims to help,” he added. “By listening to community members, engaging with educators and tailoring workforce training and experiential learning to meet their specific needs, we hope to make real, meaningful impact.”

A Toolkit for Workforce Engagement

Ensuring that local communities, particularly those in fence-line areas near industrial operations, have a say in how the hydrogen economy develops, is key, according to Krishnamoorti. As the project moves forward, the team will continue to engage with local communities, workforce training providers, and other stakeholders to collaboratively build a knowledgebase of needs, challenges, solutions and opportunities, emphasizing equitable access to emerging jobs in the new hydrogen economy.

Besides developing a multilingual outreach program, the team will also set up workforce councils – comprised of representatives from organizations providing workforce development resources and services and community leaders –in the project’s target area for facilitating continuous open communication between the team and all stakeholders.

Central to the team’s effort is the creation of a publicly available online toolkit that will serve as a resource for Community Benefits Plans and hydrogen hubs nationwide, with a special emphasis on Texas’s HyVelocity Hub. The toolkit will provide a clear process for building workforce engagement programs, updating technical trade curriculums, and setting targets for inclusive and equitable access. Most importantly, it will be shaped by direct input from the residents most affected by energy industry transitions.

In addition to the toolkit, the team will develop an inventory of the resources and services available to residents in each county.  Webinars will also be offered to help other regions replicate the process, creating a nationwide network of community-driven workforce opportunities.

The end goal is to build a more inclusive approach to workforce development that can be scaled across the country.

“This effort is about building a stronger, more inclusive workforce,” Krishnamoorti said. “We’re committed to ensuring that the benefits of the clean energy transition reach those who need them most.”

To learn more about this DOE initiative and the other projects, read the DOE press release.

About the University of Houston

The University of Houston is a Carnegie-designated Tier One public research university recognized with a Phi Beta Kappa chapter for excellence in undergraduate education. UH serves the globally competitive Houston and Gulf Coast Region by providing world-class faculty, experiential learning and strategic industry partnerships. Located in the nation's fourth-largest city and one of the most ethnically and culturally diverse regions in the country, UH is a federally designated Hispanic, Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-serving institution with enrollment of more than 46,000 students.

 

When dogs and humans find a common language

Institut Pasteur

Humans and dogs have been birds of a feather for millennia. But how can such distant species understand each other? A recent study published in PLOS Biology by researchers from the University of Geneva and the Hearing Institute, an Institut Pasteur Center, reveals that the pair meets halfway between their differences to communicate together. From their findings, the researchers hypothesize that dogs and humans have coadapted to communicate with each other. Comparison with other canids not domesticated by humans, such as wolves, would reveal which of the dog's linguistic abilities are due to genetics and which are due to socialization.

Having a unique speech rate has advantages for a species: it can avoid predators, recognize members of its own kind, including potential mates. But sometimes it can be useful to know how to adapt to a foreign rhythm, to find out what others are saying, whether competitively by eavesdropping, or collaboratively, as between dogs and humans.  Part removed here

In this study, researchers have shed light on the adaptation of dogs and humans to enable communication beyond the barriers of species.

Do you speak dog?

Do you change your voice when speaking to your dog? This is a natural and useful process! Eloïse Déaux, a researcher in animal behavior and neurosciences at the University of Geneva, analyzed hundreds of vocalizations from dogs and humans with her team. According to her results, dogs have a slower vocalization rate than humans. And when a human addresses a dog... the speech’s rhythm is halfway between the two. “Humans slow down their speech when addressing their pets; it's a modification that brings them closer to the dog's typical speech rate and could facilitate understanding,” explains Eloïse Déaux.

So how do we explain this difference between humans and dogs? For the researcher, the answer lies not only in anatomy, but also in brain mechanisms, more specifically neural oscillations, the electrical patterns in the brain that result from the synchronous activity of neurons.

Not on the same wavelength

Neural oscillations are classified according to their frequency: delta waves have a frequency between 0.5 and 4 Hertz (Hz), while theta waves have a frequency between 4 and 7 Hz. They are also distinct in their implications for cognitive mechanisms. In human language, for example, gamma waves are associated with the coding of phonemes (the sounds of speech), theta waves with syllabification, and delta waves with intonation (also known as prosody).

And what about other animals? “The study of the role of brain oscillations in the perception of speech is relatively recent, even in humans,” says Anne-Lise Giraud, professor of neuroscience at the University of Geneva and director of the Hearing Institute, an Institut Pasteur Center, behind the project. “So, applying it to our four-legged companions is not insignificant.” To study the brain waves of canines, researchers have adapted non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG) protocols. Participants, both humans and dogs, are exposed to auditory stimuli, and brain activity in response is measured. “We study the correlation, or similarity, between the acoustic signal and EEG oscillations,” explains the researcher. The result: “In humans, the theta waves that make up the EEG signal line up with the acoustic envelope, whereas in dogs, it's the delta waves.”

To prove that the oscillations measured by the EEG enable the perception of speech in the auditory signals, the researchers made sure that the latter are clearly understood by the participants. Part removed here.

From behavior to understanding

In humans, we can easily assess the intelligibility of a sound stimulus: the person is able to report their comprehension in both spoken and written form. With dogs, that’s a whole different ballgame!  “We used dog-directed speech consisting of commands rather than praises, so that we could objectively measure the intelligibility of the stimuli for the dog, via its execution of the various commands,” says Eloïse Déaux. An innovative approach that brings together behavior, understanding, and brain mechanisms.

Using this approach, the limits of intelligibility of acoustic signals for humans and dogs can be tested: the researchers modify the recorded sentences to speed up or slow down their rate. They also play signals without content or prosody. Eloïse Déaux describes her method: “To get the content-free condition, for example, we reverse the recording of the master’s command. So 'sit' becomes something like ‘tis’. We then reverse back the prosody to match that of the original signal.”

According to the scientists' findings, dogs don't respond to commands with too fast of a rate. They are therefore able to process human language, but only if it is in the delta band, between 1 and 3 Hz. Furthermore, the loss of content also influences comprehension in dogs: with prosody only, command intelligibility is lower than in normal conditions. “Our study debunks the myth that dogs are only sensitive to our intonation, or prosody. Phonological content is important if they are to understand what we say, but unlike us syllables are not the basic building blocks of comprehension”, reports the researcher.

Furthermore, and critically, the results show that understanding and oscillations are deeply linked. The more the oscillations – theta in humans and delta in dogs – follow the signal’s envelope, the higher the comprehension is.

An exception or a generality?

From their results, the researchers hypothesized that dogs and humans have coadapted to communicate with each other. But is this behavior solely due to the special bond between the two species? “It would be interesting to see whether other animals with which humans interact (cows, sheep, goats, pigs, etc.) have developed the same ability for adaptation, and whether humans reduce their speech rate when talking to them,” note the researchers.

A comparison with other non-domesticated canids, such as wolves, would provide insight into which of the dog's linguistic abilities are due to genetics and which are due to socialization. The NCCR Evolving Language's Special Interest Group (SIG) Canid Cognition, initiated by Klaus Zuberbühler (UniNE), Martin Meyer (UZH) and Anne-Lise Giraud, could tell us more about this in the near future. “A better understanding of the dog's cerebral mechanisms will enable us to gain knowledge about humans and our evolution, as this animal is evolutionarily very distant from us, but also to improve training techniques for our four-legged friends,” concludes Eloïse Déaux.

 

Source

Dog-human vocal interactions match dogs' sensory-motor tuning, Plos Biology, 1er octobre 2024

E. C. Déaux1*, T. Piette1, F. Gaunet2, T. Legou3, L. Arnal4 and A-L. Giraud1,4

1 Department of Basic Neurosciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland
2 Aix-Marseille University and CNRS, Laboratoire de Psychologie Cognitive (UMR 7290), Fédération de recherche 3C, Marseille, France
3 Aix Marseille University and CNRS, Laboratoire Parole et Langage (UMR 6057), 13 100, Aix-en-Provence, France
4 Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Hearing Institute, Paris, France.
* Corresponding authors

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About the NCCR Evolving Language
The Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language is a nationwide interdisciplinary research consortium bringing together research groups from the humanities, from language and computer science, the social sciences, and the natural sciences at an unprecedented level. Together, we aim at solving one of humanity’s great mysteries: What is language? How did our species develop the ca­pa­city for linguistic expression, for processing language in the brain, and for con­sist­ently passing down new variations to the next generation? How will our capacity for language change in the face of digital com­munication and neuroengineering?

About the Institut Pasteur
The Institut Pasteur, a non-profit foundation with recognized charitable status set up by Louis Pasteur in 1887, is today an internationally renowned center for biomedical research.  In the pursuit of its mission to tackle diseases in France and throughout the world, the Institut Pasteur operates in four main areas: research, public health, training, and development of research applications. The Institut Pasteur is a globally recognized leader in infectious diseases, microbiology, and immunology, with research focusing on the biology of living systems. Among its areas of investigation are emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, certain cancers, neurodegenerative diseases, and brain connectivity disorders. The Institut Pasteur's outstanding research is facilitated by the development of a technological environment of the highest standard, with core facilities for nanoimaging, computational biology and artificial intelligence. Since its inception, 10 Institut Pasteur scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine, including two in 2008 for the 1983 discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) that causes AIDS.
The Institut Pasteur is part of the Pasteur Network a worldwide network of 33 members on five continents, united by Pasteurian values, that contribute to global health.
Since July 1, 2021, the Institut Pasteur is a research partner organization of Université Paris Cité.

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Journal

PLoS Biology

DOI

10.1371/journal.pbio.3002789 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Animals

Article Title

Dog–human vocal interactions match dogs’ sensory-motor tuning