Search results for "Neoteny"

Pseudoshasticrioceras bersaci nov. sp. (Ammonoidea, Gassendiceratinae), and new ammonite biohorizon for the Upper Barremian of southeastern France

2009

International audience; Research in the Feraudianus Subzone of the Sartousiana Zone of the Barremian stage led to the discovery of a new species of Pseudoshasticrioceras: P. bersaci nov. sp. Its study provides evidence concerning the developments of the latest Gassendiceratinae BERT et alii, 2006, and the relationship between the genus Pseudoshasticrioceras DELANOY, 1998, and Gassendiceras BERT et alii, 2006. In particular, this new species is derived from Pseudoshasticrioceras magnini (DELANOY, 1992) by a minor revision in the processes of ontogenesis (retardation of ornamentation - neoteny). However, the evolution towards Pseudoshasticrioceras autrani DELANOY, 1998, implies a "failure" in…

Globacrochordiceras gen. nov. (Acrochordiceratidae, late Early Triassic) and its significance for stress-induced evolutionary jumps in ammonoid linea…

2013

<i>Globacrochordiceras transpacificum</i> gen. et sp. nov. is an ammonoid (Ammonoidea, Cephalopoda) with a shell characterized by plicate ribbing (rounded and undulating ribs strengthening on the venter without interruption), increasing involution through ontogeny, overhanging and deep umbilical wall, absence of tuberculation, subtriangular whorl section, globose adult shape with a closed umbilicus followed by an abrupt egressive coiling, and a subammonitic adult suture line. This new taxon occurs in Nevada (USA) and in Guangxi (South China). It has its typical occurrence within the <i>Neopopanoceras haugi</i> Zone of late Spathian age (Early Triassic). The plicate r…

2020

While many morphological, physiological, and ecological characteristics of organisms scale with body size, some do not change under size transformation. They are called invariant. A recent study recommended five criteria for identifying invariant traits. These are based on that a trait exhibits a unimodal central tendency and varies over a limited range with body mass (type I), or that it does not vary systematically with body mass (type II). We methodologically improved these criteria and then applied them to life history traits of amphibians, Anura, Caudata (eleven traits), and reptiles (eight traits). The numbers of invariant traits identified by criteria differed across amphibian orders…

Ornamentation of dermal bones of Metoposaurus krasiejowensis and its ecological implications

2018

Background Amphibians are animals strongly dependent on environmental conditions, like temperature, water accessibility, and the trophic state of the reservoirs. Thus, they can be used in modern palaeoenvironmental analysis, reflecting ecological condition of the biotope. Methods To analyse the observed diversity in the temnospondyl Metoposaurus krasiejowensis from Late Triassic deposits in Krasiejów (Opole Voivodeship, Poland), the characteristics of the ornamentation (such as grooves, ridges, tubercules) of 25 clavicles and 13 skulls were observed on macro- and microscales, including the use of a scanning electron microscope for high magnification. The different ornamentation patterns fo…

Ontogeny of Heterocypris bosniaca (Ostracoda: Cyprididae): description of postembryonic instars and rediscovery of the neglected A-9 stage

2013

Despite being the most common and widespread family of Ostracoda in fresh water, the Cyprididae are still poorly known with respect to species ontogeny. The full series of eight juvenile instars has been described in detail for just five of the approximately 1000 living species, and only in one case did this include the earliest A-9 stage. We aimed to fill this gap with a morphological study of the post-embryonic development of Heterocypris bosniaca Petkowski, Scharf and Keyser, 2000, a species with unusual morphological traits within the genus, including putatively paedomorphic characters such as valves without tubercles and the narrow calcified inner lamella on both valves. Inside the egg…

Challenging Darwin: Evolution of Triassic Conodonts and Their Struggle for Life in a Changing World

2017

Abstract The phylogeny and distribution of Triassic conodonts reveal many aspects of their natural history. Conodonts incorporate the morphologic response to temperature as well as to eustatic cycles. Speciation, radiation, and extinction are not fortuitous and evolution uses heterochrony (progenesis and neoteny) in response to stress-generating events. Proteromorphosis (reappearance of ancestral morphs) and paedomorphosis (retention of juvenile traits) is a reaction to sublethal environmental stress. This often follows radiation of fully developed forms in the recovery stage after extinction that timely matches transgressions. Evolutionary retrogradation (neoteny) during eustatic high stan…

Discussion

1999

Homo sapiens L. has been described as the naked ape, and this nakedness undoubtedly constitutes one of the most striking differences in appearance between man and the apes. Nakedness has been attributed at various times to sexual selection [1], aquatic stage [2], hunting [3], cooling [4], sex [5], neoteny [6] and allometry [7], most proposed explanations logically revealing some aspect of the phenomenon. However, most fail to account for the distinctiveness of man's hairlessness among mammals of the same size. Unfortunately, fossils cannot help us to explain how denudation occurred, and how it helped hominids to survive. In this paper I will present an old hypothesis with a new point of vie…

Social structure in termite societies

1989

The societies of Isoptera and Hymenoptera differ in two general features. 1. The termite societies are bisexual. From a primitive symmetry between both sexes, many asymmetries appeared during the course of their evolution. These asymmetries are related either to a sexual dimorphism, or a biased sex ratio, or both, and are differently expressed in the separate castes of a given species. 2. The hemimetabolous development allows a termite to take part in the social tasks before the end of its postembryonic development, and even to reproduce at a larval stage (neoteny). Thus Isoptera exhibit a polymorphism of larvae, unlike Hymenoptera where a polymorphism of imagoes is observed. Moreover, an i…

Trajectoires ontogénétiques et hétérochronies complexeschez des ammonites (Harpoceratinae) du Jurassique inférieur (Domérien)

1989

Evolutive transformations of ontogeny in the two main groups of Harpoceratinae which colonize the North-West Europe during the lower Domerian — Protogrammoceras (Matteiceras) and Protogrammoceras (Fieldingiceras) — are analyzed. Within P. (Matteiceras) these transformations belong to a strict heterochronical logic (translation of a standard ontogenetic trajectory). Within P. (Fieldingiceras) the alterations of the ontogeny cannot be placed in a same logic. Moreover, the P. (Matteiceras) heterochronical issues are complex: paedomorphic (neoteny) and peramorphic (acceleration) tendencies appear on both sides of critical point (inversion point) for a same feature, the ribs density.

Redescription of the rare European harvestman Dicranopalpus brevipes Marcellino, 1970, based on first records from Sardinia (Arachnida: Opiliones)

2020

New records of the small, enigmatic harvestman Dicranopalpus brevipes are presented, the male is redescribed and the female is described for the first time. The species originates from Sicily, while the novel findings are from Sardinia, where it may have been introduced by man. Paedomorphic modifications such as reduced sexual dimorphism in colouration and pedipalpal morphology, regression of genital structures and shortening of the legs, appear to result from its ground-dwelling habits induced by xeric climatic conditions. Avoiding the dry and hot season, D. brevipes matures in autumn and winter and has completed its lifecycle in April. Additional information on phenology, ecology, distrib…