The feeding habits of four species of mesopelagic fishes from northern Chile are described: Triphoturus mexicanus, Diogenichtys atlanticus, Vinciguerria lucetia and Cyclothone acclinidens. Samples were captured in September 1988 between 18 degrees 25' and 19 degrees 09'S in the South West Pacific. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of the stomach content showed that the species have a zo...

Short-term temporal cycles in ecological pressures, such as shifts in predation regime, are widespread in nature yet estimates of temporal variation in the direction and intensity of natural selection are few. Previous work on threespine stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus) has revealed that dorsal and pelvic spines are a defense against gape-limited predators but may be detrimental against gra...

Birds are important pollinators, but the evolutionary history of ornithophily (bird pollination) is poorly known. Here, we report a skeleton of the avian taxon Pumiliornis from the middle Eocene of Messel in Germany with preserved stomach contents containing numerous pollen grains of an eudicotyledonous angiosperm. The skeletal morphology of Pumiliornis is in agreement with this bird having bee...

BACKGROUND Invasive species are among the most significant threats to biodiversity. The diet of invasive animal populations is a crucial factor that must be considered in the context of biological invasions. A broad dietary spectrum is a frequently cited characteristic of invasive species, allowing them to thrive in a wide range of environments. Therefore, empirical studies comparing diet in in...

A fatality resulting from the suicidal ingestion of risperidone is described. The decedent had a lengthy history of mental illness but was otherwise healthy. Biological fluid samples obtained at autopsy were analyzed for risperidone by high-performance liquid chromatography. The blood concentration of risperidone was 1.8 mg/L, the urine concentration was 14.4 mg/L, and the concentration in the ...

The spatial heterogeneity of grasslands determines the abundance and quality of food resources for grazing animals. As plants mature, they increase in mass, which allows greater instantaneous intake rates, but the cell wall concentrations increase too, reducing diet quality. In ruminants, daily intake rates are often constrained by the time needed for the ingesta to pass through the rumen, whic...

Prey size is an important factor in food consumption. In studies of feeding ecology, prey items are usually measured individually using calipers or ocular micrometers. Among amphibians and reptiles, there are species that feed on large numbers of small prey items (e.g. ants, termites). This high intake makes it difficult to estimate prey size consumed by these animals. We addressed this problem...

Jasminum sambac is used in folk medicine as the treatment of many diseases. The aim of the present investigation is to evaluate the gastroprotective effects of ethanolic extracts of J. sambac leaves against acidified ethanol-induced gastric ulcers in rats. Seven groups of rats were orally pre-treated with carboxymethylcellulose (CMC) as normal group, CMC as ulcer group, 20 mg/kg of omeprazole a...

Studies to elucidate the mechanism responsible for histamine effects on the development of acute hemorrhagic ulcers were undertaken using laboratory animals, i. e. a control group consisting of rats with chronic gastric fistula, V. Ba deficient diet group, cimetidine administered group and vagotomized group. The respective groups were subjected to cold restraint and the degree of hemorrhage, er...

Four orchardgrass diets ranging in cell wall content from 60 to 78% were fed to sheep, and relationships among intake, digestion, passage and ruminal measurements were determined. As cell wall concentration increased, dry matter intake, digestible energy intake, dry matter digestibility and excretion rate decreased, while cell wall intake rumen volume, rumen cell wall and retention time increas...