SECOR, S.M.*; NAGY, T.R.: Postprandial response of plasma lipds and the hormone leptin in pythons With each meal, pythons rapidly upregulate gut performance and dramatically increase metabolic rate. We suggest one manner by which pythons fuel these postprandial responses is to mobilize stored energy sources, particularly lipids. To evaluate the mobilization of lipids with feeding […]

HAZARD, L.C.*; SHEMANSKI, D.R.; NAGY, K.A.: Digestibility of native and exotic food plants eaten by juvenile desert tortoises Exotic plants can comprise a major component of the diet for some desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) in the Mojave Desert. Introduced plants may not be as nutritious as native plants. Nutrient availability in a native grass (Achnatherum […]

Stein, R.W.*; Williams, T.D.; Place, A.R.; del Rio, C.M.: Age-related differences in digestive function during migration in the Western Sandpiper (Calidris mauri) It is common practice to use species’ mean values of standardized measures, such as BMR, to evaluate changes in energy demands. However, relying upon species’ mean values becomes problematic when age-related differences are […]

SWIDERSKI, D.L.: Diversity of patterns of variation in the lower jaw of tree squirrels. Squirrels have a reputation for being morphologically conservative, and some investigators explicitly argue that most evolution of squirrel morphology can be described by an allometric trend. Most previous morphometric studies of squirrels have used sets of distance measurements. Such studies are […]

Theodor, J. M.*; Janis, C. M.; Boisvert, B.: Camelid foot morphology and the evolution of the pacing gait Among wild mammals, camels are unique in their use of a running pacing gait instead of a trot. Extant camelids are characterized by features unusual among artiodactyls: their feet are secondarily digitigrade, with a broad, flat pad […]

WHIDDEN, H.P.*; WOODS, C.A.: Assessment of sexual dimorphism in the Antillean insectivoran Nesophontes The Antillean insectivoran Nesophontes is known only from subfossil material from Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the Cayman Islands. When the first Nesophontes species was described from Puerto Rico, specimens appeared to fall into 2 size classes, and this size variation was […]

HAUSSMANN,M.F.*; VLECK,C.M.; BRENNER,S.A.: Aging animals using telomere length – a novel approach. Field biologists often must work with animals for which there is no prior history. A physiological marker of an animal’s age would offer insight into how age and experience affect reproductive success and other life history parameters. The length of telomeres, theprotective caps […]

SANTINI, F.: Origin and Evolution of the Tetraodontiformes (Teleostei, Pisces), with an Analysis of the Patterns of Speciation of the Family Triacanthodidae. Fossil evidence seems to point towards an origin in shallow waters, during the upper Cretaceous, of several lineages of Acanthopterygian fishes, which now are widely distributed in deep waters. Among these groups, we […]

JONES, T.D.*; RUBEN, J.A.: Feather origins and the myth of “feathered dinosaurs” The origin of feathers has been linked to flight and/or insulation. Recent discoveries of dinosaurs with feathers or presumed feather precursors have been used to substantiate the latter hypothesis. However, analyses of the nasal passages and associated sinuses demonstrates that dinosaurs and early […]

PADIAN, K.*; HORNER, J.R.; de RICQLES, A.: Dinosaurian life history strategies: Evidence of differential growth rates from bone histology Dinosaurs, like other tetrapods, grew more quickly shortly after hatching than later in life. However, they did not grow like other non-avian reptiles, slowing their trajectory gradually in a convex arc through ontogeny. Rather, dinosaurs (especially […]