Ocular regression conceals adaptive progression of the visual system in a blind subterranean mammal

Article Abstract:

Ocular degeneration in the mole rat (Spalax ehrenberghi) has been offset by the hypertrophying of structures for photoperiodic sensing. The atrophied visual system and lack of reaction to light led most researchers to think that Spalax, which lives underground, is utterly sightless. However, experimental injection of tracers into Spalax retinal ganglion cells showed that some structures, such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, are more highly developed than in other rodents. This development allows Spalax to control thermoregulation and other photoperiodic responses.

Cover Story, Physiological aspects, Blind mole rats, Photoperiodism, Vestigial organs

---

Hot subterranean biosphere in a continental oil reservoir

Article Abstract:

Indigenous thermophilic bacteria and hyperthermophilic archaea may exist in Alaskan oil fields based on data from a continental petroleum reservoir about 1,670 m below the surface. The isolates were obtained from different wells and survived in simulated deep well conditions, indicating their relationship with a deep indigenous thermophilic community. These findings extend the known ecological habitat of these marine hyperthermophilic archaea while their coexistence with terrestrial bacteria may indicate that thermophilic bacteria is widespread beneath the surface.

Observations, Oil fields, Natural history, Bacteria, Thermophilic, Geology, Stratigraphic, Stratigraphy, Archean Eon, Thermophiles

---

An artic mammal fauna from the early pliocene of North America

Article Abstract:

A peat deposit on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada offers information about the Early Pliocene terrestrial biota north of the Arctic Circle. The mammalian remains buried in the peat represent mainly taxa of Eurasiatic zoogeographic and phyletic affinities.

Science & research, Nunavut, Animals, Ellesmere Island, Chinese arbor vitae

Similar abstracts:

• Abstracts: Circular DNA is a product of the immunoglobulin class switch rearrangement. Allelic exclusion model questioned
• Abstracts: Conservation and ecology of the Anastasia Island beach mice. Mexican spotted owl draft recovery plan
• Abstracts: Two cooperatively social populations of the theridiid spider Anelosimus studiosus in a temperate region. Division of labour can be morphological and/or temporal: a reply to Tsuji
• Abstracts: The lab of last resort. MPs warn of threat to the science base
• Abstracts: Transforming frogs and flies. The origins of insect metamorphosis. Pair bonding in spotted poison frogs

This website is not affiliated with document authors or copyright owners. This page is provided for informational purposes only. Unintentional errors are possible.