Search results for "Vertebrate"
showing 10 items of 830 documents
A functional multivariate analysis of Mesopithecus (Primates: Colobinae) humeri from the Turolian of Greece.
2012
12 pages; International audience; The genus Mesopithecus is well represented in the late Miocene of Greece by several recognized species. The present paper investigates functional aspects of the humeri of Mesopithecus delsoni/pentelicus, M. pentelicus and M. aff. pentelicus of several Turolian sites from central and northern Greece, using multivariate approaches. For these purposes, we selected significant humeral functional features, which were represented by 23 linear dimensions and three angles on 14 fossil humeri and 104 humeri from 10 genera and 22 species of extant African and Asian Colobines. All size-adjusted measurements were examined through a principal components analysis, follow…
Pesticides and conservation of large ungulates: Health risk to European bison from plant protection products as a result of crop depredation.
2020
The coexistence of large mammals and humans in the contemporary landscape is a big challenge for conservationists. Wild ungulates that forage on arable fields are exposed to the negative effects of pesticides, and this problem also applies to protected species for which intoxication by pesticides may pose a health risk and directly affect the effectiveness of conservation efforts. In this paper we assessed the threat posed by pesticides to the European bison Bison bonasus, a species successfully restituted after being extinct in the wild. We studied samples of B. bonasus liver from three free-living populations in Poland (Białowieska, Knyszyńska, and Borecka forests) and captive individuals…
Pre-imaginal exposure to Oberon® disrupts fatty acid composition, cuticular hydrocarbon profile and sexual behavior in Drosophila melanogaster adults
2021
International audience; Oberon® is a commercial formulation of spiromesifen, a pesticide inhibitor of lipid biosynthesis via acetyl CoA carboxylase, widely used in agricultural crop protection. However, its mode of action requires further analysis. We currently examined the effect of this product on Drosophila melanogaster as a non-target and model organism. Different concentrations of spiromesifen were administered by ingestion (and contact) during pre-imaginal development, and we evaluated its delayed action on adults. Our results suggest that spiromesifen induced insecticidal activity on D. melanogaster. Moreover, spiromesifen treatment significantly increased the duration of larval and …
Do bank voles (Myodes glareolus) trapped in live and lethal traps show differences in tick burden?
2020
In studies assessing tick abundance, the use of live traps to capture and euthanize rodent hosts is a commonly used method to determine their burden. However, captive animals can experience debilitating or fatal capture stress as a result prior to collection. An alternative method is the use of lethal traps, but this can potentially lead to tick drop-off between the time of capture and collection. In this study, in order to determine whether subjecting animals to capture stress is inevitable, we tested the difference in sheep tick (Ixodes ricinus) larval burdens between bank voles (Myodes glareolus) captured alive and euthanized, and lethally trapped bank voles. During 2017 and 2018, 1318 b…
The ecomorphology of southern African rodent incisors: Potential applications to the hominin fossil record.
2018
AbstractThe taxonomic identification of mammalian fauna within fossil assemblages is a well-established component of paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, many fragmentary specimens recovered from fossil sites are often disregarded as they can be difficult to identify with the precision required for taxonomic methods. For this reason, the large numbers of isolated rodent incisors that are often recovered from hominin fossil bearing sites have generally been seen as offering little interpretive value. Ecomorphological analysis, often referred to as a “taxon-free” method, can potentially circumvent this problem by focusing on the adaptive, rather than the taxonomic significance of rode…
Intraspecific competition affects population size and resource allocation in an ant dispersing by colony fission
2010
Intraspecific competition is a pervasive phenomenon with important ecological and evolutionary consequences, yet its effect in natural populations remains controversial. Although numerous studies suggest that in many cases populations across all organisms are limited by density-dependent processes, this conclusion often relies on correlative data. Here, using an experimental approach, we examined the effect of intraspecific competition on population regulation of the ant Aphaenogaster senilis. In this species females are philopatric while males disperse by flying over relatively long distances. All colonies were removed from 15 experimental plots, except for one focal colony in each plot, w…
Rod-cone based color vision in seals under photopic conditions
2016
Marine mammals have lost the ability to express S-cone opsin, and possess only one type of M/L-cone in addition to numerous rods. As they are cone monochromats they should be color blind. However, early behavioral experiments with fur seals and sea lions indicated discrimination ability between many shades of grey and blue or green. On the other hand, most recent training experiments with harbor seals under "mesopic" conditions demonstrated rod based color blindness (Scholtyssek et al., 2015). In our experiments we trained two harbor seals (Phoca vitulina) and two South African fur seals (Arctocephalus pusillus) with surface colors under photopic conditions. The seals had to detect a triang…
WNT Signaling Perturbations Underlie the Genetic Heterogeneity of Robinow Syndrome
2018
International audience; Locus heterogeneity characterizes a variety of skeletal dysplasias often due to interacting or overlapping signaling pathways. Robinow syndrome is a skeletal disorder historically refractory to molecular diagnosis, potentially stemming from substantial genetic heterogeneity. All current known pathogenic variants reside in genes within the noncanonical Wnt signaling pathway including ROR2, WNT5A, and more recently, DVL1 and DVL3. However, ∼70% of autosomal-dominant Robinow syndrome cases remain molecularly unsolved. To investigate this missing heritability, we recruited 21 families with at least one family member clinically diagnosed with Robinow or Robinow-like pheno…
A moderate diet restriction during pregnancy alters the levels of endocannabinoids and endocannabinoid-related lipids in the hypothalamus, hippocampu…
2017
Existe para su consulta material suplementario aportado por el editor. Undernutrition during pregnancy has been associated to increased vulnerability to develop metabolic and behavior alterations later in life. The endocannabinoid system might play an important role in these processes. Therefore, we investigated the effects of a moderate maternal calorie-restricted diet on the levels of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoyl glycerol (2-AG), arachidonic acid (AA) and the N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) anandamide (AEA), oleoylethanolamide (OEA) and palmitoylethanolamide (PEA) in the brain of newborn rat offspring. We focused on brain structures involved in metabolism, feeding behavior, as well as em…
Melanocortin receptor agonists MCR1-5protect photoreceptors from high-glucose damage and restore antioxidant enzymes in primary retinal cell culture
2016
Retinal photoreceptors are particularly vulnerable to local high-glucose concentrations. Oxidative stress is a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy development. Melanocortin receptors represent a family of G-protein-coupled receptors classified in five subtypes and are expressed in retina. Our previous data indicate that subtypes 1 and 5 receptor agonists exert a protective role on experimental diabetic retinopathy. This study focuses on their role in primary retinal cell cultures in high-glucose concentrations. After eye enucleation from wild-type male C57BL/6 mice, retinal cells were isolated, plated in high-glucose concentration and treated with melanocortin receptors 1 and 5 agonists an…