The axial skeleton consists of repeating units (vertebrae) that are integrated through their development and evolution. Unlike most tetrapods, vertebrae in the mammalian trunk are subdivided into ...distinct thoracic and lumbar modules, resulting in a system that is constrained in terms of count but highly variable in morphology. This study asks how thoracolumbar regionalization has impacted adaptation and evolvability across mammals. Using geometric morphometrics, we examine evolutionary patterns in five vertebral positions from diverse mammal species encompassing a broad range of locomotor ecologies. We quantitatively compare the effects of phylogenetic and allometric constraints, and ecological adaptation between regions, and examine their impact on evolvability (disparity and evolutionary rate) of serially-homologous vertebrae.
Although phylogenetic signal and allometry are evident throughout the trunk, the effect of locomotor ecology is partitioned between vertebral positions. Lumbar vertebral shape correlates most strongly with ecology, differentiating taxa based on their use of asymmetric gaits. Similarly, disparity and evolutionary rates are also elevated posteriorly, indicating a link between the lumbar region, locomotor adaptation, and evolvability.
Vertebral regionalization in mammals has facilitated rapid evolution of the posterior trunk in response to selection for locomotion and static body support.
The lizard Alopoglossus vallensis (family Alopoglossidae) has been historically recorded in the Cauca River Valley and the western Andes (departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca) of Colombia. Based ...on a review of specimens in biological collections, we report northern and southern range extensions for the species, including the first records from the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío, and Risaralda in the Central Andes of Colombia. These new records also expand the known elevational range and climatic tolerances of A. vallensis.
El lagarto Alopoglossus vallensis (familia Alopoglossidae) ha sido históricamente registrado en el Valle del Río Cauca y la Cordillera Occidental de los Andes (departamentos de Cauca y Valle del Cauca) de Colombia. Con base en una revisión de especímenes en colecciones biológicas, reportamos una extensión de rango al Norte y Sur, incluyendo los primeros registros de los departamentos de Antioquia, Caldas, Quindío y Risaralda en la Cordillera Central de Colombia. Estos nuevos registros también amplían el rango altitudinal y las tolerancias climáticas conocidas de A. vallensis.
Climatic variability, resource availability, and anthropogenic impacts heavily influence an animal's home range. This makes home range size an effective metric for understanding how variation in ...environmental factors alter the behavior and spatial distribution of animals. In this study, we estimated home range size of African elephants (Loxodonta africana) across four sites in Namibia, along a gradient of precipitation and human impact, and investigated how these gradients influence the home range size on regional and site scales. Additionally, we estimated the time individuals spent within protected area boundaries. The mean 50% autocorrelated kernel density estimate for home range was 2200 km2 95% CI:1500–3100 km2. Regionally, precipitation and vegetation were the strongest predictors of home range size, accounting for a combined 53% of observed variation. However, different environmental covariates explained home range variation at each site. Precipitation predicted most variation (up to 74%) in home range sizes (n = 66) in the drier western sites, while human impacts explained 71% of the variation in home range sizes (n = 10) in Namibia's portion of the Kavango‐Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area. Elephants in all study areas maintained high fidelity to protected areas, spending an average of 85% of time tracked on protected lands. These results suggest that while most elephant space use in Namibia is driven by natural dynamics, some elephants are experiencing changes in space use due to human modification.
We analyze the largest dataset of collared elephants ever recorded in Namibia to determine the relative importance of humans and environmental variables in shaping elephant movements. We found that human activities are influencing elephant space use at some sites, though regional trends are still driven by precipitation and vegetation productivity.
Savannas cover one‐fifth of the Earth's surface, harbour substantial biodiversity, and provide a broad range of ecosystem services to hundreds of millions of people. The community composition of ...trees in tropical moist forests varies with climate, but whether the same processes structure communities in disturbance‐driven savannas remains relatively unknown. We investigate how biodiversity is structured over large environmental and disturbance gradients in woodlands of eastern and southern Africa. We use tree inventory data from the Socio‐Ecological Observatory for Studying African Woodlands (SEOSAW) network, covering 755 ha in a total of 6780 plots across nine countries of eastern and southern Africa, to investigate how alpha, beta, and phylogenetic diversity varies across environmental and disturbance gradients. We find strong climate‐richness patterns, with precipitation playing a primary role in determining patterns of tree richness and high turnover across these savannas. Savannas with greater rainfall contain more tree species, suggesting that low water availability places distributional limits on species, creating the observed climate‐richness patterns. Both fire and herbivory have minimal effects on tree diversity, despite their role in determining savanna distribution and structure. High turnover of tree species, genera, and families is similar to turnover in seasonally dry tropical forests of the Americas, suggesting this is a feature of semiarid tree floras. The greater richness and phylogenetic diversity of wetter plots shows that broad‐scale ecological patterns apply to disturbance‐driven savanna systems. High taxonomic turnover suggests that savannas from across the regional rainfall gradient should be protected if we are to maximise the conservation of unique tree communities.
Studies have suggested that birth weight (BW) is associated with body mass index (BMI), but its association with waist circumference (WC) in children should be further explored. To determine the ...association between central obesity (OB) in 9-year-old Argentinean schoolchildren and high BW.
Schoolchildren (
= 2567, 1157 males) aged 8.7 ± 2.1 years from 10 elementary schools in 5 states in Argentina were examined between April 2017 and September 2019. Mothers submitted children's BW information. Pediatricians assessed anthropometric measures and blood pressure (BP). Central OB was defined for children as WC ≥90th percentile for age and gender.
The prevalence of overweight (OW) and OB (OW/OB) was 42.7% (1095) and that of central OB was 34.8% (856) in 9-year-old children. The prevalence of low BW (<2500 grams) and high BW (>4000 grams) was 6.6% (
= 169) and 7.4% (
= 190), respectively. BW (3.25 vs. 3.36 kg), weight (31.38 vs. 42.88 kg), BMI (17.29 vs. 22.25 kg/m
), BMI z-scores (z-BMI; 0.25 vs. 1.63), systolic BP (96 vs. 98 mmHg), and diastolic BP (59 vs. 60 mmHg) were significantly lower in 9-year-old children without central OB than in those with central OB, respectively. Multiple logistic regression analysis using central OB as the dependent variable showed that high BW odds ratio, 1.98 (95% confidence interval 1.44-2.73) was associated with central OB, adjusted for age, gender, and systolic and diastolic BP.
This study shows that central OB in 9-year-old children was associated with high BW. Future longitudinal studies should be performed to confirm this finding. Clinical Registration number, IATIMET-08102019.
ABSTRACT We record the presence of Kinosternon leucostomum postinguinale (DUMÉRIL and BIBRON, 1851) populations in the department of Quindío, Central Cordillera of Colombia. Despite the turtle is ...found in the neighboring departments of Tolima and Valle del Cauca, this is the first evidence of its distribution on this locality. We present biological and ecological records of individuals in the lower and middle area of La Vieja basin inhabiting small tributaries and ponds between pastures. Currently it is unknown whether the species was introduced or ignored until now.
Although numerous studies have demonstrated that poor sleep increases the development of AD, direct evidence elucidating the benefits of good sleep on the AD pathogenesis is lacking. Familial Natural ...Short Sleepers (FNSS) are genetically wired to have lifelong reduction in nightly sleep duration without evident consequence on cognitive demise, implying that they may have better sleep quality. Here we investigated two FNSS mutations, DEC2-P384R and Npsr1-Y206H, on the development of tau and amyloid pathology in AD-like mouse models. We found that the development of tau pathology is attenuated in the hippocampus of tau mice carrying FNSS mutations. We also found that DEC2-P384R;5XFAD and female Npsr1-Y206H;5XFAD mice exhibit significantly less amyloid plaques than control mice at 6 months of age. Together, these results reveal that these two FNSS alleles are strong genetic modifiers of AD pathology and may confer resilience to the progression of tau pathology and amyloid plaque formation in neurodegeneration.
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•Two FNSS mutations are strong genetic modifiers of AD-like pathology in mice•Mutant DEC2 and Npsr1 reduced tau pathology in PS19 mouse model of tauopathy•Mutant DEC2 and Npsr1 slowed down amyloid plaques in 5XFAD APP transgenic mouse model•Efficient sleep may be an exciting therapeutic target for ameliorating AD development
Behavioral neuroscience; Biological sciences; Molecular neuroscience
The lizard Alopoglossus vallensis (family Alopoglossidae) has been historically recorded in the Cauca River Valley and the western Andes (departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca) of Colombia. Based ...on a review of specimens in biological collections, we report northern and southern range extensions for the species, including the first records from the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindio, and Risaralda in the Central Andes of Colombia. These new records also expand the known elevational range and climatic tolerances of A. vallensis.
The lizard Alopoglossus vallensis (family Alopoglossidae) has been historically recorded in the Cauca River Valley and the western Andes (departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca) of Colombia. Based ...on a review of specimens in biological collections, we report northern and southern range extensions for the species, including the first records from the departments of Antioquia, Caldas, Quindio, and Risaralda in the Central Andes of Colombia. These new records also expand the known elevational range and climatic tolerances of A. vallensis. Keywords: Distribution, Gymnophthalmoidea, Ptychoglossus, shade lizards. El lagarto Alopoglossus vallensis (familia Alopoglossidae) ha sido historicamente registrado en el Valle del Rio Cauca y la Cordillera Occidental de los Andes (departamentos de Cauca y Valle del Cauca) de Colombia. Con base en una revision de especimenes en colecciones biologicas, reportamos una extension de rango al Norte y Sur, incluyendo los primeros registros de los departamentos de Antioquia, Caldas, Quindio y Risaralda en la Cordillera Central de Colombia. Estos nuevos registros tambien amplian el rango altitudinal y las tolerancias climaticas conocidas de A. vallensis. Palabras clave: Distribucion, Gymnophthalmoidea, lagartijas de sombra, Ptychoglossus.
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