Project Information Document
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Load more
Recommended publications
-
Blind Mole Rat (Spalax Leucodon) Masseter Muscle: Structure, Homology, Diversification and Nomenclature A
Folia Morphol. Vol. 78, No. 2, pp. 419–424 DOI: 10.5603/FM.a2018.0097 O R I G I N A L A R T I C L E Copyright © 2019 Via Medica ISSN 0015–5659 journals.viamedica.pl Blind mole rat (Spalax leucodon) masseter muscle: structure, homology, diversification and nomenclature A. Yoldas1, M. Demir1, R. İlgun2, M.O. Dayan3 1Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, Kahramanmaras University, Kahramanmaras, Turkey 2Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Aksaray University, Aksaray, Turkey 3Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Selcuk University, Konya, Turkey [Received: 10 July 2018; Accepted: 23 September 2018] Background: It is well known that rodents are defined by a unique masticatory apparatus. The present study describes the design and structure of the masseter muscle of the blind mole rat (Spalax leucodon). The blind mole rat, which emer- ged 5.3–3.4 million years ago during the Late Pliocene period, is a subterranean, hypoxia-tolerant and cancer-resistant rodent. Yet, despite these impressive cha- racteristics, no information exists on their masticatory musculature. Materials and methods: Fifteen adult blind mole rats were used in this study. Dissections were performed to investigate the anatomical characteristics of the masseter muscle. Results: The muscle was comprised of three different parts: the superficial mas- seter, the deep masseter and the zygomaticomandibularis muscle. The superficial masseter originated from the facial fossa at the ventral side of the infraorbital foramen. The deep masseter was separated into anterior and posterior parts. The anterior part of the zygomaticomandibularis muscle arose from the snout and passed through the infraorbital foramen to connect on the mandible. -
Mopane Woodlands and the Mopane Worm: Enhancing Rural Livelihoods and Resource Sustainability
Mopane Woodlands and the Mopane Worm: Enhancing rural livelihoods and resource sustainability Final Technical Report Edited by Jaboury Ghazoul1, Division of Biology, Imperial College London Authors and contributors Mopane Tree Management: Dirk Wessels2, Member Mushongohande3, Martin Potgeiter7 Domestication Strategies: Alan Gardiner4, Jaboury Ghazoul Kgetsie ya Tsie Case Study: John Pearce5 Livelihoods and Marketing: Jayne Stack6, Peter Frost7, Witness Kozanayi3, Tendai Gondo3, Nyarai Kurebgaseka8, Andrew Dorward9, Nigel Poole5 New Technologies: Frank Taylor10, Alan Gardiner Choice experiments: Robert Hope11, Witness Kozanayi, Tendai Gondo Mopane worm diseases: Robert Knell12 Start and End Date 1 May 2001 – 31 January 2006 DFID Project Reference Number R 7822 Research Programme Forestry Research Programme (FRP) Research Production System Forest Agriculture Interface 1 Also ETH Zürich, Department of Environmental Sciences, ETH Zentrum CHN, Universitätstrasse 16, Zürich 8092, Switzerland 2 Department of Botany, university fo the North, South Africa 3 Forest Commission, Harare, Zimbabwe 4 Veld Products Research and Development, Gabarone, and Division of Biology, Imperial College London 5 Kgetsie ya Tsie, Tswapong Hills, Botswana 6 Imperial College London and University of Zimbabwe, Project Co-ordinator 7 Institute of Environmental Studies 8 Southern Alliance for Indigenous Resources 9 Imperial College London, Centre for Environmental Policy. 10 Veld Products Research and Development 11 University of Newcastle 12 Queen Mary College, University of London 1 Contents Executive Summary 3 Background 3 Project Purpose 6 Research Activities Section 1. Mopane tree ecology and management 7 Section 2.1 Mopane worm productivity and domestication 18 Section 2.2 Mini-livestock: Rural Mopane Worm Farming at the Household Level 34 Section 3. A case study of the Kgetsie ya Tsie community enterprise model for managing and trading mopane worms 59 Section 4. -
Seismic Communication Signals in the Blind Mole-Rat (Spalax Ehrenbergi ): Electrophysiological and Behavioral Evidence for Their Processing by the Auditory System
J Comp Physiol A (1998) 183: 503±511 Ó Springer-Verlag 1998 ORIGINAL PAPER R. Rado á J. Terkel á Z. Wollberg Seismic communication signals in the blind mole-rat (Spalax ehrenbergi ): electrophysiological and behavioral evidence for their processing by the auditory system Accepted: 11 May 1998 Abstract Based on morphological and behavioral ®nd- ings we suggest that the seismic vibratory signals that Introduction blind mole-rats (Spalax ehrenbergi) use for intraspeci®c communication are picked up from the substrate by The blind mole-rat, Spalax ehrenbergi, is a subterranean bone conduction and processed by the auditory system. rodent that shows striking behavioral, morphological An alternative hypothesis, raised by others, suggest that and physiological adaptations to fossorial life (Nevo these signals are processed by the somatosensory sys- 1979, 1982). It is a highly solitary species that digs its tem. We show here that brain stem and middle latency tunnel system to its own size, and which it never leaves responses evoked by vibrations are similar to those unless forced to (Nevo 1961). Encounters between in- evoked by high-intensity airborne clicks but are larger in dividuals are very rare and are limited to the mating their amplitudes, especially when the lower jaw is in season, to contacts between mother and pups, and to close contact with the vibrating substrate. Bilateral incidental intrusion of an individual to a foreign tunnel deafening of the mole-rat or high-intensity masking system. noise almost completely eliminated these responses. We and others have shown that for long-distance Deafening also gradually reduced head-drumming be- communication this subterranean rodent uses vibratory havior until its complete elimination about 4±6 weeks (seismic) signals that are produced by rapidly tapping its after surgery. -
Downloaded from Ensembl (Www
Lin et al. BMC Genomics 2014, 15:32 http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2164/15/32 RESEARCH ARTICLE Open Access Transcriptome sequencing and phylogenomic resolution within Spalacidae (Rodentia) Gong-Hua Lin1, Kun Wang2, Xiao-Gong Deng1,3, Eviatar Nevo4, Fang Zhao1, Jian-Ping Su1, Song-Chang Guo1, Tong-Zuo Zhang1* and Huabin Zhao5* Abstract Background: Subterranean mammals have been of great interest for evolutionary biologists because of their highly specialized traits for the life underground. Owing to the convergence of morphological traits and the incongruence of molecular evidence, the phylogenetic relationships among three subfamilies Myospalacinae (zokors), Spalacinae (blind mole rats) and Rhizomyinae (bamboo rats) within the family Spalacidae remain unresolved. Here, we performed de novo transcriptome sequencing of four RNA-seq libraries prepared from brain and liver tissues of a plateau zokor (Eospalax baileyi) and a hoary bamboo rat (Rhizomys pruinosus), and analyzed the transcriptome sequences alongside a published transcriptome of the Middle East blind mole rat (Spalax galili). We characterize the transcriptome assemblies of the two spalacids, and recover the phylogeny of the three subfamilies using a phylogenomic approach. Results: Approximately 50.3 million clean reads from the zokor and 140.8 million clean reads from the bamboo ratwere generated by Illumina paired-end RNA-seq technology. All clean reads were assembled into 138,872 (the zokor) and 157,167 (the bamboo rat) unigenes, which were annotated by the public databases: the Swiss-prot, Trembl, NCBI non-redundant protein (NR), NCBI nucleotide sequence (NT), Gene Ontology (GO), Cluster of Orthologous Groups (COG), and Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG). -
Checklist of Rodents and Insectivores of the Mordovia, Russia
ZooKeys 1004: 129–139 (2020) A peer-reviewed open-access journal doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1004.57359 RESEARCH ARTICLE https://zookeys.pensoft.net Launched to accelerate biodiversity research Checklist of rodents and insectivores of the Mordovia, Russia Alexey V. Andreychev1, Vyacheslav A. Kuznetsov1 1 Department of Zoology, National Research Mordovia State University, Bolshevistskaya Street, 68. 430005, Saransk, Russia Corresponding author: Alexey V. Andreychev ([email protected]) Academic editor: R. López-Antoñanzas | Received 7 August 2020 | Accepted 18 November 2020 | Published 16 December 2020 http://zoobank.org/C127F895-B27D-482E-AD2E-D8E4BDB9F332 Citation: Andreychev AV, Kuznetsov VA (2020) Checklist of rodents and insectivores of the Mordovia, Russia. ZooKeys 1004: 129–139. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1004.57359 Abstract A list of 40 species is presented of the rodents and insectivores collected during a 15-year period from the Republic of Mordovia. The dataset contains more than 24,000 records of rodent and insectivore species from 23 districts, including Saransk. A major part of the data set was obtained during expedition research and at the biological station. The work is based on the materials of our surveys of rodents and insectivo- rous mammals conducted in Mordovia using both trap lines and pitfall arrays using traditional methods. Keywords Insectivores, Mordovia, rodents, spatial distribution Introduction There is a need to review the species composition of rodents and insectivores in all regions of Russia, and the work by Tovpinets et al. (2020) on the Crimean Peninsula serves as an example of such research. Studies of rodent and insectivore diversity and distribution have a long history, but there are no lists for many regions of Russia of Copyright A.V. -
Colophospermum Mopane – a Potential Host for Rearing Wild Silk Worm (Gonometa Rufobrunnea) in Arid Rajasthan
Int.J.Curr.Microbiol.App.Sci (2017) 6(3): 549-560 International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 3 (2017) pp. 549-560 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas.com Original Research Article https://doi.org/10.20546/ijcmas.2017.603.064 Colophospermum mopane – A Potential Host for Rearing Wild Silk Worm (Gonometa rufobrunnea) in Arid Rajasthan V. Subbulakshmi*, N.D. Yadava, Birbal, M.L. Soni, K.R. Sheetal and P.S. Renjith ICAR-Central Arid Zone Research Institute, Regional Research Station, Bikaner-334004, Rajasthan, India *Corresponding author ABSTRACT India is the biggest consumer of raw silk and silk fabrics and second largest K e yw or ds producer of raw silk after China. There are two types of silk viz., mulberry silk Mopane; and vanya silk (non-mulberry silk). India has vast potential for production of wild silkworm; Gonometa vanya silks which plays a major role in rural livelihood security. Vanya silk rufobrunnea, can also be produced from the cocoons of wild silkworm, Gonometa vanya silk. rufobrunnea insect. The main food plant of Gonometa rufobrunnea is Article Info Colophospermum mopane commonly called as mopane. Mopane is a xeric species of South Africa and introduced in India for sand dune stabilization. Accepted: The review discuss about the possibility of rearing Gonometa rufobrunnea in 10 February 2017 already available mopane plantations in arid regions of the country to increase Available Online: 10 March 2017 production of vanya silk and to improve the rural economy in arid regions of India. Introduction Silk is a textile fibre produced by insects and (Ahmed and Rajan, 2011). -
English Cop17 Inf. 47 (English Only / Únicamente En Inglés / Seulement En Anglais)
Original language: English CoP17 Inf. 47 (English only / Únicamente en inglés / Seulement en anglais) CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA Seventeenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Johannesburg (South Africa), 24 September – 5 October 2016 TRADE STUDY OF SELECTED EAST AFRICAN TIMBER PRODUCTION SPECIES This document has been submitted by Germany* in relation to agenda items 62, 77 and 88. * The geographical designations employed in this document do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the CITES Secretariat (or the United Nations Environment Programme) concerning the legal status of any country, territory, or area, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The responsibility for the contents of the document rests exclusively with its author. CoP17 Inf. 47 – p. 1 Anthony B. Cunningham Trade study of selected east African timber production species BfN-Skripten 445 2016 Trade study of selected east African timber production species Handelsstudie zu ostafrikanischen Holzarten (FKZ 3514 53 2003) Anthony B. Cunnigham Cover picture: A worker of a sawmill in front of Dalbergia melanoxylon logs in Montepuez/Mozambique (A.B. Cunningham) Author’s address: Dr. Anthony B. Cunningham Cunningham Consultancy WA Pty Ltd. 2 Tapper Street Au-6162 Fremantle E-Mail: [email protected] Scientific Supervision at BfN: Dr. Daniel Wolf Division II 1.2 “Plant Conservation“ This publication is included in the literature database “DNL-online” (www.dnl-online.de) BfN-Skripten are not available in book trade. Publisher: Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) Federal Agency for Nature Conservation Konstantinstrasse 110 53179 Bonn, Germany URL: http://www.bfn.de The publisher takes no guarantee for correctness, details and completeness of statements and views in this report as well as no guarantee for respecting private rights of third parties. -
Determination of Nutritive Values of Browsable Plants Utilised by Cattle During the Dry Season in Sibbinda Constituency of Zambezi Region - Namibia
DETERMINATION OF NUTRITIVE VALUES OF BROWSABLE PLANTS UTILISED BY CATTLE DURING THE DRY SEASON IN SIBBINDA CONSTITUENCY OF ZAMBEZI REGION - NAMIBIA A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTERS OF SCIENCE IN RANGELAND RESOURCES AND MANAGEMENT OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA FACULTY OF AGRICULTURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES DEPARTMENT OF ANIMAL SCIENCE BY FABIAN KASALE Student No: 201203803 NOVEMBER 2013 MAIN SUPERVISOR: PROF. IRVIN D.T. MPOFU CO-SUPERVISOR: DR P. PETRUS This thesis has been approved in terms of content and style by: Main supervisor: Prof I.D.T. Mpofu …………………………………… Date ………. Co-Supervisor: Dr P. Petrus …………………………………….. Date …......... ABSTRACT This study was conducted in the Sibbinda constituency of Zambezi region in Namibia to determine and contrast the nutritional values of available browsable plants and to recommend and promote the use of these browsable plants and plant parts as cattle feed supplements during dry seasons. In depth focus group discussions and interviews were conducted to glean indigenous knowledge on how cattle utilize the browse in- situ. A total of 200 households from the Sibbinda constituency were interviewed through a questionnaire to identify locally important browse species. Besides that, cattle were followed and observed while grazing and browsing undisturbed .This was done to confirm and validate the indigenous knowledge obtained from focus group discussion with communal farmers in the Sibbinda constituency. The palatability was determined through a structured experiment were the browse was offered in feeding pens. The palatability trial revealed contrast in the palatability of leaves and pods browsed by cattle during the dry season in Sibbinda constituency. -
Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report
MIOMBO ECOREGION VISION REPORT Jonathan Timberlake & Emmanuel Chidumayo December 2001 (published 2011) Occasional Publications in Biodiversity No. 20 WWF - SARPO MIOMBO ECOREGION VISION REPORT 2001 (revised August 2011) by Jonathan Timberlake & Emmanuel Chidumayo Occasional Publications in Biodiversity No. 20 Biodiversity Foundation for Africa P.O. Box FM730, Famona, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe PREFACE The Miombo Ecoregion Vision Report was commissioned in 2001 by the Southern Africa Regional Programme Office of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF SARPO). It represented the culmination of an ecoregion reconnaissance process led by Bruce Byers (see Byers 2001a, 2001b), followed by an ecoregion-scale mapping process of taxa and areas of interest or importance for various ecological and bio-physical parameters. The report was then used as a basis for more detailed discussions during a series of national workshops held across the region in the early part of 2002. The main purpose of the reconnaissance and visioning process was to initially outline the bio-physical extent and properties of the so-called Miombo Ecoregion (in practice, a collection of smaller previously described ecoregions), to identify the main areas of potential conservation interest and to identify appropriate activities and areas for conservation action. The outline and some features of the Miombo Ecoregion (later termed the Miombo– Mopane Ecoregion by Conservation International, or the Miombo–Mopane Woodlands and Grasslands) are often mentioned (e.g. Burgess et al. 2004). However, apart from two booklets (WWF SARPO 2001, 2003), few details or justifications are publically available, although a modified outline can be found in Frost, Timberlake & Chidumayo (2002). Over the years numerous requests have been made to use and refer to the original document and maps, which had only very restricted distribution. -
Diversity, Structure and Dynamics of an Acacia Erioloba Woodland in the Windhoek Area: Insights for the Management of Urban Habitats
DIVERSITY, STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICS OF AN ACACIA ERIOLOBA WOODLAND IN THE WINDHOEK AREA: INSIGHTS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF URBAN HABITATS A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN BIODIVERSITY MANAGEMENT AND RESEARCH THE UNIVERSITY OF NAMIBIA and HUMBOLDT UNIVERSITAT ZU BERLIN The Department of Biological Sciences BY Mandene Morkel (9704795) March 2013 Supervisor: Prof. I. Mapaure (University of Namibia) ii ABSTRACT Acacia erioloba, a tree species of great ecological and economic importance is threatened by urban expansion and a lack of sustainable management in the Windhoek area. The overall objective of this study was to determine the diversity and structure of an Acacia erioloba woodland and the influence of herbivory, wood harvesting, fire and physical soil properties on vegetation structure. Forty quadrats 625m2 in size were demarcated in pairs on alternative sides of a transect line to sample trees at 50m intervals. Shrubs were sampled in 100m2 quadrats nested in the tree quadrats and herbaceous plant cover was estimated in 1m2 quadrats within the shrub quadrats. Mean Shannon-Wiener diversity (Hˈ) index was 1.929, and could be interpreted as reflecting moderate to low species diversity, indicative of a disturbed community. Height structure and density differed significantly between the woodland community and A. erioloba population. A. erioloba population height patterns showed an ageing population with most plants in the largest (>5m) height class. Density patterns supported this trend with higher shrub densities in the community than in the A. erioloba population. The HCA and DCA of plant species composition showed no a clear separation of quadrats into definable groupings. -
Chromosomal Evolution of the Genus Nannospalax (Palmer 1903) (Rodentia, Muridae) from Western Turkey
Turkish Journal of Zoology Turk J Zool (2013) 37: 470-487 http://journals.tubitak.gov.tr/zoology/ © TÜBİTAK Research Article doi:10.3906/zoo-1208-25 Chromosomal evolution of the genus Nannospalax (Palmer 1903) (Rodentia, Muridae) from western Turkey Ferhat MATUR*, Faruk ÇOLAK, Tuğçe CEYLAN, Murat SEVİNDİK, Mustafa SÖZEN Department of Biology, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Bülent Ecevit University, Zonguldak, Turkey Received: 29.08.2012 Accepted: 17.02.2013 Published Online: 24.06.2013 Printed: 24.07.2013 Abstract: We used 33 blind mole rats belonging to 10 different chromosomal races from 10 localities in western Turkey. We applied G- and C-banding techniques to compare chromosomal races as well as clarifying relationships between them. We discussed cytogenetic similarities and differences between chromosomal races. We concluded that 2n = 60C is the ancestor of the other chromosomal races. However, as a result of ongoing evolution processes 2n = 38 and 2n = 60K have become ancestors to chromosomal races on their peripherals. We discovered which rearrangements contribute to the evolution of such a complex chromosomal race system in a genus. With this study we provide a comprehensive comparison of the 10 chromosomal races and perform a cladistic analysis using chromosomal rearrangement character states. According to our tree, chromosomal races with a low diploid number formed a monophyletic group. Key words: Blind mole rat, comparative cytogenetic, G- and C-banding, chromosome differentiation, phylogeny, Anatolia 1. Introduction assumed that ancestral karyotype diverged into the 2n The genus Nannospalax includes blind rodents that have = 60W and R chromosomal races, and independent adapted to living underground. -
Chapter 15 the Mammals of Angola
Chapter 15 The Mammals of Angola Pedro Beja, Pedro Vaz Pinto, Luís Veríssimo, Elena Bersacola, Ezequiel Fabiano, Jorge M. Palmeirim, Ara Monadjem, Pedro Monterroso, Magdalena S. Svensson, and Peter John Taylor Abstract Scientific investigations on the mammals of Angola started over 150 years ago, but information remains scarce and scattered, with only one recent published account. Here we provide a synthesis of the mammals of Angola based on a thorough survey of primary and grey literature, as well as recent unpublished records. We present a short history of mammal research, and provide brief information on each species known to occur in the country. Particular attention is given to endemic and near endemic species. We also provide a zoogeographic outline and information on the conservation of Angolan mammals. We found confirmed records for 291 native species, most of which from the orders Rodentia (85), Chiroptera (73), Carnivora (39), and Cetartiodactyla (33). There is a large number of endemic and near endemic species, most of which are rodents or bats. The large diversity of species is favoured by the wide P. Beja (*) CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Vairão, Portugal CEABN-InBio, Centro de Ecologia Aplicada “Professor Baeta Neves”, Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisboa, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] P. Vaz Pinto Fundação Kissama, Luanda, Angola CIBIO-InBIO, Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos, Universidade do Porto, Campus de Vairão, Vairão, Portugal e-mail: [email protected] L. Veríssimo Fundação Kissama, Luanda, Angola e-mail: [email protected] E.