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《Nature》11月11日内容提要（中英文对照）
封面故事：刻在脸上的社会地位
在动物世界中，“地位标志”指的是能提供关于标志佩戴者的社会地位的信息的标志。本期封面所示为一个引人注目的例子：常见胡蜂（Polistes dominulus）的面部特征。这种胡蜂极为丰富的面部特征变化是与其社会地位和搏斗能力相关的，这是在无脊椎动物中第一种已知的以视觉特征为基础的地位标志。有一个问题让人不解，即这些标志地位的特征具有明显的任意性：形成这种标志的成本并不很高，但却能真正反映具有这种标志的胡蜂的社会地位。一个可能的解释是，这种标志是通过与其相关的社会成本来保真的，造假者将受到惩罚。现在，对这些胡蜂所做的研究证实了这一理论，研究结果非常肯定地表明，佩戴不诚实“地位标志”的个体要承受很高的社会成本。 Page: 218
Nature 432, 218 - 222 (11 November 2004); doi:10.1038/nature02949
A socially enforced signal of quality in a paper wasp
Organisms use signals of quality to communicate information about aspects of their relative phenotypic and genetic constitution. Badges of status are a subset of signals of quality that reveal information about an individual's size and dominance. In general, signals of quality require high and differential costs to remain honest (that is, prevent low-quality cheaters from exploiting any fitness benefits associated with communicating high quality). The theoretically required costs for badges of status remain controversial because the development (or 'production') of such signals often seems to be relatively cost-free. One important hypothesis is that such signals impose social (or 'maintenance') costs incurred through repeated agonistic interactions with other individuals. However, convincing empirical evidence for social costs remains elusive. Here we report social costs in a previously undescribed badge of status: the highly variable black facial patterns of female paper wasps, Polistes dominulus. Facial patterns strongly predict body size and social dominance. Moreover, in staged contests between pairs of unfamiliar wasps, subordinate wasps with experimentally altered facial features ('cheaters') received considerably more aggression from the dominant than did sham controls, indicating that facial patterns are signals and that dishonest signalling imposes social costs.
澳大利亚神秘的袋鼹
南方袋鼹（Notoryctes typhlops，在当地语言中叫做itjaritjari）被称为澳大利亚内地神秘的有袋动物。同澳大利亚本土很多小型动物一样，它们也濒临灭绝。这种动物列在了由澳大利亚政府支持的一个恢复计划中，但由于对它们生存在哪里、是怎样生存的知之甚少，因此难以估计其种群数量以及其种群数量是否在下降。现在，一个正在进行当中的生态研究项目可帮助驱散其中的一些迷雾，使保护措施瞄准正确的方向。Page: 142
Nature 432, 142 - 143 (11 November 2004); doi:10.1038/432142a
Zoology: A mole in hand...
A strange Australian mole has eluded scientific study for more than a century. Now biologists are teaming up with Aboriginal trackers to unearth the secrets of the itjaritjari. Carina Dennis checks on their progress.
J. BENSHEMESH
Caught! An Aboriginal tracker proudly displays a rare find — the elusive itjaritjari.
A thin layer of red dust has settled across Joe Benshemesh's desk, coating boxes brimming with field instruments, wires, maps and notebooks. He has just returned from one of the most remote corners of Australia's outback. Still picking the dirt out from under his fingernails, he talks excitedly about the trip — his enthusiasm all the more remarkable given that he has seen the object of his studies only a few times.
Benshemesh, an ecologist at the Northern Territory Government's Biodiversity Conservation Division in Alice Springs, is studying the elusive sand-dwelling marsupial mole of Australia. The animal spends most of its life underground, rarely surfacing, and until now has been classified as 'too hard' to investigate by scientists. Even the local Aboriginal people — who have lived alongside the mole for thousands of years — know relatively little about its secretive life.
But they do know a lot about desert tracking. Now, in an unusual collaboration between scientists and an Aboriginal group, Benshemesh and his colleagues have combined ancient hunting methods with modern technology to learn more than ever before about this mysterious animal.
First recorded by Westerners in the late 1800s, the mole, often referred to by its Aboriginal name itjaritjari, caused a stir in zoological circles with its unusual features. At no more than 14 centimetres long, its tubular body fits into the palm of the hand. It lacks eyes and has only tiny holes for ears. And its short, cream-coloured fur, spade-like front claws and a backwards-facing pouch give it an unearthly appearance.
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2010-11-05 05:11
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