#NewSpecies!
New mountain vole from #tibet just came in:

Alticola yarlungia

Treatment: https://treatment.plazi.org/id/DF350893-EB56-58B8-B585-64D256AD44B3
Publication: https://doi.org/10.3897/zse.101.170704
#ZoosystematicsAndEvolution #AlticolaYarlungia

#FAIRdata
#science #OA #openaccess #biology #taxonomy #ecology #biodiversity #nature #wildlife #conservation #animals #mammalogy #mammals #rodentia #rodents #voles

🚨New PhD research, now published in PNAS!🚨

Combining fossils and lab experiments, we found that simple changes in tooth #development explain 6 million years of molar #evolution in #voles 🐭🦷

Shoutout to my coauthors from @cnrs Uni. Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Uni. of Helsinki, and GTK Finland!

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2505624122 #FossilFriday

California Voles (Microtus californicus) stay active year-round, especially at dawn and dusk. As they scurry through their runways, they leave scent trails with urine to track where they’ve been and who else has passed by.

#voles #mammals #wildlife #nature #california

Squirrels spotted hunting and eating animals for first time.

Flesh-eating #squirrels that hunt down and devour #voles have been spotted for the first time in the wild.

Until now, squirrels were thought to be primarily #vegetarian, cramming their cheeks full of seeds and nuts, which they often bury in underground stores to get through the colder months.

Biologists were amazed to see #California ground squirrels chasing and killing voles in predatory behaviour

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/squirrels-spotted-hunting-and-eating-animals-for-first-time/R2HECXUCOBGFDKYVXHHU6VVLAI/

Harris meets with small team as she builds a campaign on the fly

As Vice President Kamala Harris ramps up a presidential campaign with almost unprecedented speed,
she has been meeting quietly but regularly with a small group of close aides to go over everything
from upcoming speeches
to her convention address and debate preparation.

Sometimes the meetings are at Harris’s official residence in the Naval Observatory;
other times, in deference to her intensifying travel schedule, they take place on the road, with some aides joining via Zoom.

The group, which started convening in June to prepare Harris for what was expected to be a vice-presidential debate,
has now become the closest thing she has to a brain trust.

The team includes #Lorraine #Voles and #Sheila #Nix, her chiefs of staff at the White House and campaign respectively.

Also included are #Karen #Dunn, who helped Harris prepare for her 2020 debate,

and #Rohini #Kosoglu, a longtime policy adviser.

Harris, supplied with briefing books by her aides,
often spends time in the mornings or aboard Air Force Two reviewing materials assembled by these aides and others,
taking notes and making edits.

#Philippe #Reines, a longtime aide to Hillary Clinton, has been lined up to play the part of Trump in debate practice.

The meetings are a reminder that Harris is assembling a campaign on the fly.

Less than a month will have elapsed between President Joe Biden’s exit from the race on July 21, making Harris the likely nominee,
and the kickoff of the Democratic National Convention on Aug. 19.

That provides a tiny window for Harris to figure out how she wants to talk to voters and shape her message.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/08/09/harris-trump-debate-plans/