Search results for "Vertebrate Animals"
showing 3 items of 3 documents
New Reptile Hosts for Helminth Parasites in a Mediterranean Region
2020
ABSTRACT Parasitic helminths are an almost universal feature of vertebrate animals, but reptiles are among the hosts with the most depauperate parasite communities. Biological traits of reptiles ar...
Evolutionary conserved pathway of the innate immune response after a viral insult in Paracentrotus lividus sea urchin
2019
Despite the apparent simplicity of the body organization of echinoderms, their immune system is competent to perform a complex innate immune response, which is far from being well understood. The echinoderms represent the most advanced invertebrates that form a bridge with the primitive chordates. In fact, they possess numerous receptors and effectors that are used to obtain a fast immune response. After an infection, the humoral and cellular immune response determines a network in which the main protagonists are membrane and endosomal receptors. The recognition of nonself molecules by specific membrane receptors triggers the immune response, stimulating consecutive intracellular events. We…
Ultraviolet vision and foraging in terrestrial vertebrates
2002
Tetrachromatic colour vision, based on four ‘main’ colours and their combinations, is probably the original colour vision in terrestrial vertebrates. In addition to human visible waveband of light (400–700 nm) and three main colours, it also includes the near ultraviolet part of light spectrum (320–400 nm). The ecological importance of ultraviolet (UV) vision in animals has mainly been studied in the context of intra- and inter-sexual signalling, but recently the importance of UV vision in foraging has received more attention. Foraging animals may use either UV cues (reflectance or absorbance) of food items or UV cues of the environment. So far, all diurnal birds studied (at least 35 specie…