Abstract The article addresses the axolotl, the human fish, and the deep see squid, their living environments, and the relationships with man or man with these animals that live in different worlds ...than man, but that at the same time inhabit the same planet, where we coexist in mutual dependence. The author examines human approaches to these animals, which expand from exhibiting the fear of the unknown, of the "power of Nature," and the theoretical admiration to the exercises of human dominance, be it in the form of hero fairy tales or biopower of regenerative medicine. With regenerative medicine, the economy of body parts (transplantations, xeno-transplantations) has been replaced by the economy of auto-regeneration (regeneration of tissues from one's own cells), which is cyclic and proliferative (productive of a great number of cells with their division) (ibid., 182). In his famous examination of biopower, Michel Foucault highlighted the importance of the historical shift regarding the relations between politics and life, which he located between the ancient era of sovereign power and the modern era of biopower, "when the life of the species is wagered on its own political strategies" (Foucault 1978, 143).
ABSTRACT
Cover illustration. Like most other cave animals, the Proteus anguinus anguinus (cave‐dwelling salamander) experiences periodically poor and discontinuous food supply and/or intermittent ...hypoxia that may occur for long periods in the subterranean environments. The salamander adjusts its metabolism and utilization of metabolic reserves to these fluctuating periods of food supply. In this issue of the Journal of Morphology, Mali and coauthors studied morphological and biochemical changes of liver tissue of the cave‐dwelling salamander during periods of food deprivation (pp 887–900). With a combination of qualitative morphological and quantitative biochemical data, the authors evaluate the adaptive capacity of the liver and the importance of the liver as an energy storing organ.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SAZU, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
The European cave salamander
Proteus anguinus Laurenti 1768 is one of the best-known subterranean animals, yet its evolutionary history and systematic relationships remain enigmatic. This is the ...first comprehensive study on molecular evolution within the taxon, using an mtDNA segment containing the control region (CR) and adjacent sequences. Two to seven tandem repeats of 24–32 bp were found in the intergenic spacer region (VNTR1), and three, four or six repeats, 59–77 bp each, in the 3′ end of the CR (VNTR2). Different molecular mechanisms account for VNTR2 formation in different lineages of
Proteus. The overall CR variation was lower than that of the spacer region, the 3′ end of the
cytb gene, or the tRNA genes. Individual genes and the concatenated non-repetitive sequences produced similar, well resolved maximum likelihood, Bayesian inference and parsimony trees. The numbers of repeat elements as well as the genealogy of the VNTR2 repeat units were mostly inconsistent with the groupings of the non-repetitive sequences. Different degrees of repeat array homogenization were detected in all major groups. Orthology was established for the first and the second VNTR2 elements of some populations. These two copies may therefore be used for analyses at the population level. The pattern of CR sequence variation points to strong genetic isolation of hydrographically separated populations. Genetic separation of the major groups of populations is incongruent with the current division into subspecies.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Later, an additional specimen was seen and photographed in a spring at Jelševnik and finally, after a strong rain, we found more than ten specimens creeping from holes through the thin turf, ...evidently covering a porous karst rock, in another spring, Na trati, at Jelševnik.Beside dark pigmentation and evidently functional eyes, these are a normally shaped head without a snout elongation, differently shaped skull bones, lower teeth number, shorter legs, shorter tail (with lower vertebrae number), and longer trunk with higher vertebrae number.Beside proteus, the springs at Jelševnik are draining also some epigean and even terrestrial (Diplopoda, Chilopoda) animals, which indicates a relatively good food supply, resulting in a comparatively weak selection pressure for this non-troglomorph troglobiont.
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