Publications by authors named "Christopher M Todd"
Article Synopsis
- Reliable info on how many Christmas Island flying-foxes (CIFF) are left is super important for saving them.
- Researchers used a special method called close-kin mark-recapture to study these bats, since they're hard to find and count.
- They found that there are about 2,050 adult female CIFFs left and learned that not many male bats are helping to make babies, which is key for planning how to protect them better.
Article Synopsis
- Flying-foxes are super important for spreading plant seeds and helping forests stay healthy, especially on islands where they might be the only ones doing this job.!
- Many flying-fox populations, like the Christmas Island flying-fox, are declining, which can harm the ecosystems they help support.!
- Researchers studied the movements and habits of these bats to understand how their size affects their foraging and to see how their decline could impact the forest around them.!
Article Synopsis
- The family Pteropodidae, consisting of over 200 species of Old World fruit bats, primarily feeds on fruit but some have shifted to nectar-based diets.
- Over 50% of these species are threatened, and their evolutionary relationships have been complicated by ancient rapid diversification.
- By analyzing the genetic data of 114 species, researchers have clarified the systematics of these bats, discovering at least seven dietary transitions and proposing a new genus based on their findings.
Article Synopsis
- Flying foxes are a type of bat that grow slowly and take a long time to reach maturity, with some living longer than many other bats.
- The study focused on the Critically Endangered Christmas Island flying fox, finding that both male and female young grow at slow rates and mature at different ages.
- Juvenile males take about 27 months to mature, while females take 24 months, and they grow to be smaller than the males, making it harder for their population to increase.
A molecular study was performed on BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes in a Cypriot family, with a history of both male and female breast cancers. Three variants were detected in the BRCA1 gene, two of which are missense mutations at nucleotide positions 1186 in exon 11 (Q356R), and 4654 in exon 15 (S1512I). The third variant is a polymorphism at position 2430 in exon 11 (771L).
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