Search results for "SYSTEMATICS"
showing 10 items of 6702 documents
Inheritance in the water frog Rana ridibunda Pallas, 1771 - Is it Mendelian or hemiclonal?
2008
The genome of Rana ridibunda has been detected in all known hybridogenetic water frog systems. This raises the question whether R. ridibunda is pre-adapted to reproduce hemiclonally by hybridogenesis. We allozymatically compared genotypes of primary oocytes and somatic cells of R. ridibunda females from several sites in southern France. In case of hemiclonal reproduction only one allele per locus is expected to be detectable in oocytes. However, patterns detected from oocytes of analysed females were not different from those of sexually reproducing water frogs. We therefore conclude that R. ridibunda in southern France reproduces sexually and is not pre-adapted to hemiclonal reproduction.
Chromosome Painting in Cercopithecus petaurista (Schreber, 1774) Compared to Other Monkeys of the Cercopithecini Tribe (Catarrhini, Primates)
2023
The Cercopithecini tribe includes terrestrial and arboreal clades whose relationships are controversial, with a high level of chromosome rearrangements. In order to provide new insights on the tribe’s phylogeny, chromosome painting, using the complete set of human syntenic probes, was performed in Cercopithecus petaurista, a representative species of the Cercopithecini tribe. The results show C. petaurista with a highly rearranged karyotype characterized by the fission of human chromosomes 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 8, 11, and 12. These results compared with the literature data permit us to confirm the monophyly of the Cercopithecini tribe (fissions of chromosomes 5 and 6), as previously proposed by ch…
Early Jurassic (Sinemurian) gastropods from the Lusitanian Basin (west of Portugal)
2020
The Sinemurian gastropod specimens herein studied come from two sources: from museum collections and from samplings in field. The study of the Sinemurian gastropod specimens housed in the collections of the Museu Geológico (Laboratório Nacional de Energia e Geologia), Museu Nacional de História Natural e da Ciência (University of Lisbon), Museu da Ciência (University of Coimbra) and of the Museu de História Natural e da Ciência (University of Porto), has allowed the systematic and taxonomical update of this material. These specimens come mostly from Sinemurian outcrops in S. Pedro de Moel area and Coimbra region, and were collected by Paul Choffat and collaborators in the geological field w…
Evaluating the performance of artificial neural networks for the classification of freshwater benthic macroinvertebrates
2014
Abstract Macroinvertebrates form an important functional component of aquatic ecosystems. Their ability to indicate various types of anthropogenic stressors is widely recognized which has made them an integral component of freshwater biomonitoring. The use of macroinvertebrates in biomonitoring is dependent on manual taxa identification which is currently a time-consuming and cost-intensive process conducted by highly trained taxonomical experts. Automated taxa identification of macroinvertebrates is a relatively recent research development. Previous studies have displayed great potential for solutions to this demanding data mining application. In this research we have a collection of 1350 …
Methane-oxidizing and photoautotrophic bacteria are major producers in a humic lake with large anoxic hypolimnion
2011
Heterotrophic processes are considered to prevail in lakes with high terrestrial loading and a high content of dissolved organic carbon. However, previous studies have shown abundant methanotrophic bacteria (MOB) and photoautotrophic green sulphur bacteria (GSB) in some boreal lakes. We used genetic and lipid biomarkers to follow the seasonal succession of the abundance and carbon biomass of the major bacterial groups in Lake Mekkojarvi, a small Finnish polyhumic lake with a large anoxic hypolimnion. Biomarkers were based on length heterogeneity analysis of 16S rRNA gene amplification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) (LH-PCR) and on phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) analysis. Representative …
Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. (Tardigrada, Macrobiotidae), a new tardigrade species from Calvert Island (British Columbia, Canada)
2022
Tardigrades reports from British Columbia (Canada) trace back to 1908 and numerous species have been recorded from this region, despite the relatively few published sampling studies. We describe by integrative taxonomy (light microscopy morphology, morphometrics, and DNA sequencing) a new tardigrade species, Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. from the British Columbia central coast. The new species has been found in moss collected from a vertical rock outcrop near the Hakai Institute Calvert Island Field Station. Sisubiotus hakaiensis sp. nov. differs from all the other known species in the genus by the presence of a labyrinthine layer inside the egg process walls, whereas no consistent differe…
Sensitivity of bipartite network analyses to incomplete sampling and taxonomic uncertainty
2023
Bipartite network analysis is a powerful tool to study the processes structuring interactions in ecological communities. In applying the method, it is assumed that the sampled interactions provide an accurate representation of the actual community. However, acquiring a representative sample may be difficult as not all species are equally abundant or easily identifiable. Two potential sampling issues can compromise the conclusions of bipartite network analyses: failure to capture the full range of interactions (sampling completeness) and use of a taxonomic level higher than species to evaluate the network (taxonomic resolution). We asked how commonly used descriptors of bipartite antagonisti…
Additions to terrestrial flora of Tunisia: occurrence and taxonomic notes
2020
We document new records of 11 vascular taxa. Some were found in the wild for the first time and, therefore, are new reports to terrestrial flora of Tunisia. One species, Ranunculus acris L., is reported for the first time for North Africa. Parietaria cretica L. is confirmed for North Africa. Details about the distribution and habitats of the 11 species are provided, and comments on their status and taxonomy are included.
Gill area explains deviations from body size–metabolic rate relationship in teleost fishes
2022
Whether gill area constrains fish metabolism through oxygen limitation is a debated topic. Here, the authors provide insights into this question by analysing mass-specific metabolic rates across 44 teleost fishes extracted from FishBase. They explore whether species deviations from metabolic rates predicted by body mass can be explained by species gill area. They show that the gill area explains c. 26%–28% of species-level deviations from mass-specific metabolic rates. Their findings suggest that gill area might indeed be one of the factors limiting metabolic rate in fishes.
Prenatal thyroid hormones accelerate postnatal growth and telomere shortening in wild great tits
2021
AbstractEarly-life environment is known to affect later-life health and disease, which could be mediated by the early-life programming of telomere length, a key hallmark of ageing. According to thefetal programming of telomere biology hypothesis, variation in prenatal exposure to hormones is likely to influence telomere length. Yet the contribution of key metabolic hormones,i.e. thyroid hormones (THs), has been largely ignored. We recently showed that in contrast to predictions, exposure to elevated prenatal THs increased postnatal telomere length in wild collared flycatchers, but the generality of such effect, its underlying proximate mechanisms and consequences on survival have not been i…