OKLAHOMA EVOLUTION/CLIMATE NEWS–DECEMBER 2022

1.  Anti-science education legislation in Oklahoma2.  

Armored dinos may have used their tail clubs to bludgeon each other

3.  Climate-change content shrinks in US university textbooks4.  

Long genital spines on male wasps can save their lives

5.  Research into tyrannosaur feet may one day help treat sports injuries

6.  Sleeping glass frogs hide by storing most of their blood in their liver

7.  December videos

ANTI-SCIENCE EDUCATION LEGISLATION IN OKLAHOMA

Oklahoma’s Senate Bill 140 by Dahm, which would empower science denial in the classroom, was prefiled in the Oklahoma legislature.
Styled “the Oklahoma Science Education Act,” the bill would ostensibly provide Oklahoma’s teachers with the right to help students “understand, analyze, critique and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught,” while prohibiting state and local administrators from exercising supervisory responsibility.  The bill is nearly identical to the creationist bills that have been filed for the last several years.

As of this writing, 185 bills have been filed in the Senate and 34 in the House.  There will probably be over 2,000 bills filed before the end of the filing period on January 19.  

We will continue to monitor bills as they are filed and let you know what actions need to be taken. Session starts on February 6. Please check the OESE website for updates.  More at NCSE.

ARMORED DINOS MAY HAVE USED THEIR TAIL CLUBS TO BLUDGEON EACH OTHER

Tanklike armored dinosaurs probably pummeled each other — not just predators — with huge, bony knobs attached to the ends of their tails. Thanks to new fossil findings, researchers are getting a clearer understanding of how these rugged plant eaters may have used their wicked weaponry.
Many dinosaurs known as ankylosaurids sported a heavy, potentially microwave-sized tail club. This natural sledgehammer has long been considered by both scientists and artists as a defensive weapon against predators, says Victoria Arbour, a paleontologist at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Canada.  More at Science News, Ars Technica, and New York Times.  Original paper at Biology Letters.

CLIMATE-CHANGE CONTENT SHRINKS IN US UNIVERSITY TEXTBOOKS

University biology textbooks published in the United States in the 2010s contained less climate-change content than those published in the 2000s, despite the increasing urgency of the climate crisis.
That’s not the only shift. In a survey of dozens of widely used introductory biology textbooks from the past 50 years, researchers also found that passages on climate change moved farther back in the books, and that the amount of information about its impacts grew, whereas the space devoted to solutions shrank. The work was published on 21 December in PLoS ONE.

More at Nature, including analysis by OU Botany professor Mariëlle Hoefnagels, the Hill, and phy.org. Original paper in PLOS ONE.

LONG GENITAL SPINES ON MALE WASP CAN SAVE THEIR LIVES

Fending off an attacker by swordplay with two genital spines turns out to be a moderately useful form of self-defense for male wasps, an unusual study shows. A mason wasp’s rear spikes may be useless when it comes to delivering sperm, but they could save his life.
Male wasps (and bees) don’t grow venom-injecting stingers. That’s female weaponry that evolved with the equipment for laying eggs. Instead, males of a mason wasp species fight against gulping tree frogs (and collecting entomologists) by deploying a pair of spines that evolved with male reproductive genital equipment at the wasp’s rear.  More at Science News, New York Times,  and Science.  Original paper at Current Biology.

RESEARCH INTO TYRANNOSAUR FEET MAY ONE DAY HELP TREAT SPORTS INJURIES

There’s no debate that Tyrannosaurus rex’s monstrous teeth and jaws — and its multi-ton bite force — were instrumental in the dinosaur’s ability to catch and eat prey. But what about their feet?

A group of health professionals, scientists and paleontologists, including two anatomy professors from Oklahoma State University College of Osteopathic Medicine, recently published a study into tyrannosaurs’ unique feet and how they may have played a role in this dinosaur family’s success as top predators — and how their findings could help treat or prevent sports injuries in humans.
Tyrannosaurs have longer feet for their body size than other carnivorous dinosaurs. The large middle bone of the foot is triangular when viewed from the front or in a cross section and then it tapers to become narrow at the ankle.
In previous studies by Eric Snively, OSU-COM associate professor of anatomy, and Thomas Holtz, vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Maryland’s Department of Geology, they found this unique long bone called arctometatarsus enabled tyrannosaurs to have relatively fast forward motion.  More at this OSU press release.

SLEEPING GLASS FROGS HIDE BY STORING MOST OF THEIR BLOOD IN THEIR LIVER

As tiny glass frogs fall asleep for the day, they take almost 90 percent of their red blood cells out of circulation.
The colorful cells cram into hideaway pockets inside the frog liver, which disguises the cells behind a mirrorlike surface, a new study finds. Biologists have known that glass frogs have translucent skin, but temporarily hiding bold red blood brings a new twist to vertebrate camouflage.
“The heart stopped pumping red, which is the normal color of blood, and only pumped a bluish liquid,” says evolutionary biochemist Carlos Taboada of Duke University, one of the discoverers of the hidden blood.  More at Science News, and New York Times, and Science.  Original paper in Science.

DECEMBER VIDEOS

Finding Trilobites on Anticosti Island

Genital spines keep a male wasp from becoming a frog’s snack 

Watch a glass frog hide away its blood while sleeping