Feelings of awe and joy can bolster your mental and physical health.

              POSITIVE EMOTIONS CAN STRENGTHEN YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM
                                         Image Credit: Mens Health

The wonders of the world can be just as good for your health as they are for your enjoyment, suggests a UC Berkley study.

Researchers have linked positive emotions—awe, contentment, spirituality—with lower levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, proteins that signal your immune system to work harder and bolster good health.

In two separate experiments, more than 200 young adults were asked to log the extent to which they experienced amusement, awe, compassion, joy, love, and pride on a given day. Samples of gum and cheek tissue taken that same day showed that those who experienced more of these positive emotions had the lowest levels of the cytokine Interleukin 6, a marker of inflammation that can cause autoimmune disease and depression.

“That awe, wonder and beauty promote healthier levels of cytokines suggests that the things we do to experience these emotions—a walk in nature, losing oneself in music, beholding art—has a direct influence upon health and life expectancy,” says UC Berkeley psychologist Dacher Keltner, a co-author of the study.

An added emphasis on spirituality and mindfulness may just be enough to get you through this winter happy and healthy. 

Source: Mensfitness

Three new species of saddled loricariid catfishes, and a review of Hemiancistrus, Peckoltia, and allied genera (Siluriformes)

(Figs 2–4). CORBIDI 14685, an adult male (Figs 2–4) from 13.5806 S, 75.2449 W (WGS84), Chicchobamba, upstream of Represa Negrayccassa, upper drainage of the Huaytará river, 3900 m, Provincia Huaytará, Región Huancavelica, Peru, collected by A. Catenazzi, V. Vargas García, and M. Jaico Huayanay

We describe a new species of Telmatobius from the Pacific slopes of the Andes in central Peru. Specimens were collected at 3900 m elevation near Huaytará, Huancavelica, in the upper drainage of the Pisco river. The new species has a snout–vent length of 52.5 ± 1.1 mm (49.3–55.7 mm, n = 6) in adult females, and 48.5 mm in the single adult male. The new species has bright yellow and orange coloration ventrally and is readily distinguished from all other central Peruvian Andean species of Telmatobius but T. intermedius by having vomerine teeth but lacking premaxillary and maxillary teeth, and by its slender body shape and long legs. The new species differs from T. intermedius by its larger size, flatter head, and the absence of cutaneous keratinized spicules (present even in immature females of T. intermedius), and in males by the presence of minute, densely packed nuptial spines on dorsal and medial surfaces of thumbs (large, sparsely packed nuptial spines in T. intermedius). The hyper-arid coastal valleys of Peru generally support low species richness, particularly for groups such as aquatic breeding amphibians. The discovery of a new species in this environment, and along a major highway crossing the Andes, shows that much remains to be done to document amphibian diversity in Peru.

The Tropical Andes are characterized by a large diversification of the aquatic frogs of the genus Telmatobius Wiegmann, 1834. Sixty-two species are currently recognized in this genus (AmphibiaWeb 2014; Aguilar and Valencia 2009; Frost 2014; including species previously assigned to Batrachophrynus Peters, 1873). The altitudinal distribution of Telmatobius ranges from 1000 m to 5400 m (De la Riva and Harvey 2003; Seimon et al. 2007), and its longitudinal distribution extends from the equator (T. niger Barbour & Noble, 1920, whose populations have been extirpated in Ecuador; Merino-Viteri et al. 2005) to 29°S, on the eastern slopes of the Argentinean Andes (T. contrerasi Cei, 1977). Twenty-eight species of Telmatobius are distributed in Peru (Lehr 2005; AmphibiaWeb 2014), but of these only five [T. arequipensis Vellard, 1955; T. intermedius Vellard, 1955; T. jelskii (Peters, 1873); T. peruvianus Wiegmann, 1834; T. rimac Schmidt, 1954] are known to occur in the hyper-arid coastal valleys that drain directly into the Pacific Ocean.

During October 2012 we made several surveys for the Biodiversity and Monitoring Assessment Program of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute’s Center for Conservation Education and Sustainability (Catenazzi et al. 2013a; Catenazzi et al. 2013b). During one of these surveys, we found a population of Telmatobius in the upper drainage of the Huaytará river (Region of Huancavelica), a tributary of the Pisco river in the Pacific slopes of the central Peruvian Andes. Individuals of this population possess traits that do not correspond to the morphological characteristics of other species found in the arid coastal valleys of central Peru (Fig. 1), namely T. rimac to the north and T. intermedius to the south (Vellard 1951; Schmidt 1954; Lehr 2005). Therefore, here we describe the new species and provide a diagnosis to differentiate it from congeneric forms.

Source: Read Full Artical at - zookeys

Female frogs modify offspring development depending on reproduction date

Breeding male of Rana arvalis from the study area. Credit: Germán Orizaola

Global warming is altering the reproduction of plants and animals, notably accelerating the date when reproduction and other life processes occur. A study by the University of Uppsala (Sweden), including the participation of Spanish researcher Germán Orizaola, has discovered that some amphibians are capable of making their offspring grow at a faster rate if they have been born later due to the climate.

Over recent decades many organisms, both plants and animals, have experienced a notable advance in the date when many of their life processes (like reproduction, migration or flowering) occur, attributed to the impact of climate change. An article published in the journal Ecology examines the effects that these changes in the reproduction date have on the life cycles of the amphibians.

"We specifically examined whether changes in the reproduction date of a common amphibian species in the north of Europe, Rana arvalis, can condition the growth and development of their offspring," the Spanish researcher Germán Orizaola, from the University of Uppsala (Sweden) and co-author of the study, said.

Results revealed that female frogs have the ability to influence both the growth rate and the development of their offspring, and they adjust it depending on the date of reproduction.

According to Orizaola, "the mechanism by which the female frogs can condition the growth of their larvae could be due to the genes associated with the maintenance of their biological clock being transferred to the embryos and becoming active even before fertilisation. This would provide the larvae with the exact information regarding the progression of the growing season."

The later the birth, the faster the growth

One of the characteristics associated with climate change is an increase in the interannual variability of climatic conditions, so organisms are also exposed to greater uncertainty when it comes to determining the right time to reproduce. This explains why the existence of mechanisms adjusting growth and development rates depending on the variation in the start of breeding is highly advantageous for many species.

In particular, as part of this study they observed that by delaying the date of reproduction (which simulated a time of environmental instability), the result was an equivalent reduction in the growth period for the larvae. "That means the later this species of frog breeds, the faster the larvae develop," explains the scientist.

An interesting aspect of the study is that the acceleration in growth is produced under constant lab conditions. "The larvae were not exposed to any outside sign that would indicate the progression of the growing season," adds Orizaola.

"This result is very novel and demonstrates that the acceleration in the development of the larvae is conditioned by the breeding females, which reveals the existence of a 'transgenerational effect' in which the breeding adults are capable of altering key aspects of the life cycle for the following generations, to better prepare them to survive the environmental conditions that they are going to experience," concludes the expert.

Source: Plataforma SINC.