On the Balearic Islands of Spain, in the Mediterranean Sea, a complex relationship has evolved between a lizard and a lily. The dead horse arum is a lily that mimics rotting flesh visually, chemically, and thermally to attract fly pollinators. Balearic lizards come calling, too — and it seems to benefit both lizard and plant.

Read the whole story at my Animal Minds blog: The Lizard and the Rotting Meat Lily.

I have two new stories in the latest Pediatrics Nationwide:

Updated Guidance on Oral Food Challenges: Oral food challenges are integral for allergists to diagnose food allergies. In 2009, the Adverse Reactions to Foods Committee within the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology published a report providing guidance for safely conducting an oral food challenge. Now, an update to this report has been published that expands on previously established guidance and provides more practical information for clinicians and patients.

Advances in Neonatal GERD: Differentiating gastroesophageal reflux (GER), which is defined as the passage of gastric contents into the esophagus, from GER disease (GERD), when reflux is associated with troubling symptoms, remains a challenge in infants. Now, two new papers from Nationwide Children’s provide new evidence-based insights into diagnosing, classifying and treating GERD in infants.

Duchenne and Becker muscular dystrophy are progressive neuromuscular diseases caused by mutations in the DMD gene, which encodes the protein dystrophin. About two-thirds of patients (nearly all boys) inherit the mutation in an X-linked recessive pattern from their mothers. It was thought that female carriers of this mutation would be protected from expressing the disease due to the normal copy of the DMD gene on their second X chromosome. But a new study from Nationwide Children’s Hospital reports about half of women who carry the genetic defect responsible for muscular dystrophy show evidence of cardiac fibrosis.

Read the whole report here: Cardiomyopathy in Mothers of Boys with Muscular Dystrophy.

How did selective breeding by ancient humans change the timid, rainforest-dwelling junglefowl into today’s domesticated chicken? In a recent study, researchers from Linköping University in Sweden bred wild junglefowl with the least fear of humans for ten generations, ending up with smaller-brained birds more tolerant of potentially frightening stimuli. The results show how the process of domestication may shape the brains and behavior of chickens and other animals that live among humans.

Read my latest Animal Minds blog post: Domestication Made Smaller-Brained, Less Fearful Chickens.

When talking to infants, people tend to change the speed, pitch and timbre of their voice in a phenomenon known as motherese or baby talk. According to new research, this may not be unique to humans: Some bat moms use their own version of 'baby talk' to communicate with their pups.

Read my latest Animal Minds post: Bat Moms ‘Baby Talk’ to their Pups.