MONROY, JA; NISHIKAWA , KC; Northern Arizona University: Modulation of muscle pre-activation as a function of prey distance in freely behaving toads In toads, the mouth opening muscles, the m. depressor mandibulae, power ballistic tongue projection. During rapid mouth opening, momentum is transferred from the lower jaw to the tongue to launch the tongue from […]

HIERONYMUS, T.L.; Montana State University, Bozeman: Microanatomical correlates of muscle attachment and their implications for muscular reconstruction Reconstructions of the musculature of Dinosauria based on osteological features are often used as a basis for paleobiological inference. Actualistic research on osteological correlates of muscle attachment has shown that most features interpreted as muscle attachment have little […]

AHN, A.N.; MONTI, R.J.; BIEWENER, A.A.; Harvard University; Harvard University; Harvard University: In vivo and in vitro heterogeneity of segment length changes in the toad semimembranosus. Many studies examine sarcomere dynamics in single fibers or whole muscle function, but few studies link the two levels of organization. To link data addressing in vitro sarcomere behavior […]

LAPPIN, A.K.*; NISHIKAWA, K.C.; PIEROTTI, D.J.; Northern Arizona University: How do toads accelerate their tongues at over 2000 m/s2? During feeding, toads exhibit extreme tongue projection velocities (>350 cm/s) and accelerations (>2000 m/s2). This is accomplished via transmission of inertial forces from the rapidly opening mouth to the tongue. The rapid phase of mouth opening, […]

STEWART, J.R.*; THOMPSON, M.B.; East Tennessee State Univ., Johnson City; Univ. of Sydney, Australia: Similarity and Novelty in the Evolution of Reptilian Placentation The placenta of squamate reptiles, which has evolved independently in more than 100 lineages, is a composite structure that arises as a functional interaction between the maternal uterus and extraembryonic membranes. The […]

MUELLER, R. L.; University of California, Berkeley: Genome size, cell size, and the evolution of enucleated red blood cells in the salamander genus Batrachoseps Plethodontid salamanders of the genus Batrachoseps have very unusual blood; a majority of their red blood cells, like those of mammals, do not contain a nucleus. This unusual feature is seen […]

DEMAINTENON, MJ; University of Hawaii at Hilo: Evolution of small body size in columbellid gastropods (Gastropoda: Neogastropoda). The evolution of small body size has important consequences in terms of organismal ecology and physiology, and is also closely associated with episodes of origination and diversification leading to many higher taxa. Most of the extant clades of […]

BERDNIKOVS, Sergejs; University of Cincinnati: Aspects of the evolution of sexual dimorphism in the genus Mustela (Carnivora, Mammalia) The evolutionary basis of morphological differences between the sexes in mammalian species is still debated. Alternative hypotheses for sexual dimorphism include selective mechanisms or the results of phylogenetic constraint. The family Mustelidae is inconsistent with Rensch’s rule […]

ALFARO, M/E; WAINWRIGHT, P/C; Univ. of California, Davis: A simulation study of the relationship between morphological and functional diversity in fish jaws It is widely thought that ecological diversity is strongly correlated with morphological diversity although this assumption, which underlies many comparative evolutionary studies, has rarely been examined. We tested this hypothesis by simulating the […]

NICHOLS, Scott A.; Univ. of California, Berkeley: What molecules can do that morphology cannot: Sponge systematics. Marine sponges are notorious for the extent of their conserved morphology. As a result of having few complex characters that can be used for systematics, species are frequently reported to have cosmopolitan distributions. The few data that we have […]