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Desert long-legged ant: It’s the brain has identified the visual and olfactory signs of the navigation system.

As we all know, after getting lost in the desert, it will stop turning in circles. Scientists can not help but ask: In the absence of any signs of navigation, the desert ants how to find the direction of home? A new study shows that the desert ants can smell and visual cues of local input navigation system, in order to find their way home.

Prior to this, scientists have always thought that living in Tunisia, on the ground barren salt desert ants Cataglyphis fortis (long-legged desert ants) is a simple to navigate through the vision of insects. However, the German Chemical Ecology Research Center Kathrin Knaden, Bill Hansson, and Max Planck by gas chromatography (gas chromatography, referred to as “GC”, a gas as the mobile phase chromatographic analysis.) Confirmed that the desert micro-habitat land (Microhabitats) exists in the unique smell of features to help ants return to the cave.

The researchers identify several of these characteristics in the smell, and training for land-based life experience of the ants to identify those smells – the smell can guide them to find the hidden nest entrance. Ants were able to smell the cave entrance with a link, and this smell and other odors to distinguish. They can even smell from the four kinds of mixed distinguish that unique odor. Compared with several mixed smell, the smell seemed to be more conducive to a single ants find the way home.

Pigeons are the use of the environment are usually in some sort of smell as their own navigation signs, and most ants through pheromone secreted themselves for their own navigation. However, for Cataglyphis fortis, they often go to feed up to 100 meters away, where the heat and the ever-changing food, usually so that the smell of their own weakened and can not be effective. This may be why they have to rely on the fixed access in caves near the smell of reasons.

“We are surprised to find that ants can not only based on visual landmarks, but also the sense of smell to gather information for their own navigation.” Knaden said he hoped that in future studies able to combine visual and olfactory information to do further study.

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From butterflies to the rainbow stripes colorful colorful lizards in general; from between the film can take advantage of the limbs of the squirrel to glide from one tree “fly” to another tree snake, various species of nature in order to adapt to the environment evolved out of its strange properties staggering.

Natural selection has always been regarded by scientists believe is a major factor in driving the direction of evolution, but also created one of the main biological diversity, but we are able to create this natural selection is rich and varied as nature’s only reason?

New York, Stony Brook University, Institute of Ecology and Evolutionary scientists have left singular Massimo Pigg, said: “We believe that the current biology’s greatest unsolved mystery is one of the positioning of natural selection, natural selection is not in the end to promote the creation of species diversity in evolutionary direction and the only reason? and perhaps unknown factors that we have been at work, I hope that this assumption will eventually become a reality, to enrich our lives in a world of deep understanding. ”

Flexible and diverse gene

Some scientists have set out a number of other factors that may drive biological evolution. Pigg left-ki, said: “In the past two decades, scientists have begun to speculate complex biological systems (such as a living organism itself) have driven some of the attributes of the evolution of the role they and the role of natural selection together, making the original biological evolution out of the eyes, bacterial flagella, wings or shells, the characteristics of a class of strange to meet the environmental needs. ”

Here we introduce one called “significant phenotypic plasticity” concept, this phenomenon refers to the biological process of adaptation to the environment, you can change through evolutionary and flexible characteristics of a part of the body, development of new organs and tissues. But this difference is not at the gene level, for example, the bees and worker bees Bee populations where the gene is completely identical, but in the process of development of complete expression of different genes, so that has happened two kinds of Bees in behavior and signs on the considerable differences in the external environment factors, such as temperature or in the embryonic stage of its food, all contributed to the worker bees and soldier bees express different genes.

This “remarkable phenotypic plasticity,” the meaning lies in the evolutionary process can be beneficial to the shape of the genetic to the next generation, when the phenotype of genetic characteristics of continuous accumulation of time, outside of the natural environment will help eliminate a species need to adapt to the environment traits, while maintaining the descendants of those who have a competitive advantage.

The natural order of the formation of

Some researchers believe that living and non-biological systems tend to have a spontaneous order of self-formation characteristics, such self-organization of capacity is also one of the engines to promote the evolution of species, and this ability it can also be passed on to biological the next generation.

For non-biological systems for a typical example is the storm, this huge storm is absolutely not a random combination of airflow, scientific research found that the storm is a weather system with a high degree of order, all kinds of air flow in the storm in the formation of spontaneously sequence structure, together to reach an enormous destructive effect. Scientists have discovered more and more evidence that biological organisms also have similar features, their various traits are combination of spontaneous and orderly manner.

Biological orderliness of the typical example is the protein structure, we know that protein is a long string of amino acids formed in space, to reverse the winding, and its spatial structure determines the characteristics of the protein. The ever-changing characteristics of the protein because of its spatial structure can have many kinds, if the protein is only by the 100 amino acids, it forms the shape is enough to reach an astronomical figure. Shape of a protein is installed for a few seconds or minutes of time in an orderly manner, but such a conversion sequence, even if we use today are the world’s most powerful supercomputers can not be calculated because this transformation is the order of too complicated.

Nature is full of novel

Environmental factors can also change the external characteristics of animals and living habits, a phenomenon that has attracted many scientists to carry out in-depth research. For example, the U.S. cell biologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison 西恩卡罗尔 found in East Africa some of the butterflies, when in accordance with its breakthrough in the environment in which to create a different color, during the rainy season with the emergence of the butterflies are generally bright eyes, the shape of the pattern, while the emergence of the butterflies during the dry season showed the protection mentioned in a deep color.

So far, biologists from the fertilized egg to mature on biological individuals are fully aware of the development process, but in the course of their development on how environmental and genetic factors play a role is always unclear. Scientists study called redbreast of seabirds found in some of the migratory routes of birds will be different according to changes in certain biological traits.

Popular Calidris sandpipers have been locked in a cage stocking relatively cold areas of climate, when the bird’s flight muscles and some organs will shrink to reduce heat loss, the characteristics of such a change can be passed on to the next generation of Red Calidris sandpipers.

With the biology, ecology, genetics and computer science integrated development to promote the biological evolution of the various factors and their evolution in the role will become increasingly clear that, while natural selection, Darwin proposed the theory of evolution will be driven by enriched in the developing correctly.

When we understand the various driving forces of biological evolution, the next question before us then – and that is incidental factors in the process of biological evolution in the end played a role in how much? We happen to grow into what it was now the do?