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Histones are fundamental components of chromatin in all eukaryotes. Hydra, an emerging model system belonging to the basal metazoan phylum Cnidaria, provides an ideal platform to understand the evolution of core histone components at the base of eumetazoan phyla. Hydra exhibits peculiar properties such as tremendous regenerative capacity, lack of organismal senescence and rarity of malignancy. In...
Nectarivores are animals that have evolved adaptations to efficiently exploit floral nectar as the main source of energy in their diet. It is well known that hummingbirds can extract nectar with impressive speed from flowers. However, despite decades of study on nectar intake rates, the mechanism by which feeding is ultimately achieved − the release of nectar from the tongue so that it can pass into...
The Olkhon mountain vole (Alticola olchonensis) is an endemic species of the Lake Baikal area with an extremely restricted range. We investigated the pattern of differentiation of cranial shape and size in five isolated insular populations of A. olchonensis from the Baikal islands (Olkhon, Hubyn, Borokchin, Ogoy, and Zamogoy). The ventral aspect of the cranium was analysed using landmark-based geometric...
The causes and consequences of trait relationships within and among the categories of physiology, morphology, and life-history remain poorly studied. Few studies cross the boundaries of these categories, and recent reviews have pointed out not only the dearth of evidence for among-category correlations but that trait relationships may change depending on the ecological conditions a population faces...
Promoted by sexual selection, males usually adopt different ways to increase their fertilization chances. In many insect taxa males donate nuptial gifts, together with sperm, which represent a valuable additional nutrient source that females can use to provision eggs. This has also been suggested to occur in simultaneous hermaphrodites, organisms with both sex functions. In theory, donation of nuptial...
Logarithmic transformation is often assumed to be necessary in allometry to accommodate the kind of variation that accompanies multiplicative growth by plants and animals; and the traditional approach to allometric analysis is commonly believed to have important application even when the bivariate distribution of interest is curvilinear on the logarithmic scale. Here I examine four arguments that...
This is the first study to comparatively assess the perception of the Ebbinghaus-Titchener circles and variations of the Delboeuf illusion in four juvenile bamboo sharks (Chiloscyllium griseum) and five damselfish (Chromis chromis) using identical training paradigms. We aimed to investigate whether these two species show similarities in the perceptual integration of local elements into the global...
Courtship and mating behavior generally evolve rapidly in diverging populations and species. The adaptation to different environments may cause behavioral divergence in characteristics involved in mate choice. Our objective in this study was to compare the sexual behavior of two distant populations of the scorpion Bothriurus bonariensis. This species has a broad distribution in South America, inhabiting...
Animals recognize their surrounding environments through the sense of smell by detecting thousands of chemical odorants. Wild boars (Sus scrofa) completely depend on their ability to recognize chemical odorants: to detect food, during scavenging and searching partners, during breeding periods and to avoid potential predators. Wild piglets must be prepared for the chemical universe that they will enter...
This study was designed to determine whether the outflow tract of the holocephalan heart is composed of a myocardial conus arteriosus and a non-myocardial bulbus arteriosus, as is the case in elasmobranchs. This is a key issue to verify the hypothesis that these two anatomical components existed from the onset of the jawed vertebrate radiation. The Holocephali are the sister group of the elasmobranchs,...
Birds are usually considered the main predators shaping the evolution of aposematic signals and mimicry. Nevertheless, some lizards also represent predominately visually oriented predators, so they may also play an important role in the evolution of aposematism. Despite this fact, experimental evidence regarding the responses of lizards to aposematic prey is very poor compared to such evidence in...
In this narrative review we aimed to assess the usefulness of the different animal models in identifying injury mechanisms and developing therapies for humans suffering from spinal cord injury (SCI). Results obtained from rodent studies are useful but, due to the anatomical, molecular and functional differences, confirmation of these findings in large animals or non-human primates may lead to basic...
The sole extant representative of the ancient family Zenkerellidae, the flightless anomalure (Zenkerella insignis), is one of the world’s least studied mammals. No first-hand observations of its behavior and live appearance have been published to date. I report an observation of Z. insignis behavior, live appearance and habitat in the Central African Republic.
Many reptiles have temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD). Sex determination in marine turtles is described by a cool–male, warm–female pattern. Nest sand temperature strongly influences sea turtle embryo development and sex differentiation. Yet, variation in hatchling sex ratios is explained only partially by nest temperature and can be predicted only at the warmest and coolest temperatures...
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