The vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) exacts compensatory movements of the extraocular muscles in response to stimulation of the semicircular canals to allow gaze fixation during head movements. In this study, the spatial relationships of these muscles and canals were investigated to assess their relative alignments in mammalian species commonly used in studies of the VOR. The head region of each s...

The study of past pathologies by means quantitative reports is an underexplored approach to deal with the biology and ecology extinct taxa. In present study, we assessed prevalence rate primary osteoarthritis in a large sample Prolagus sardus (Mammalia, Lagomorpha) from Medusa Cave (also known as Grotta Dragonara, Sardinia, Italy; Late Pleistocene) shed light on evolutionary history small mamma...

Abstract Fossils provide an excellent opportunity to study and understand the evolution of insular environments free human-made perturbations. Here, we evaluated life-history traits strategy extinct giant Prolagus sardus (Mammalia: Lagomorpha) by examining microscopically its fossilized bone tissues (osteohistology, skeletochronology, quantitative geometry). For this task, a complete ontogeneti...

Excessive burden of iron, or iron storage disease (ISD), has been reported in a large variety of captive mammal species, including browsing rhinoceroses; tapirs; fruit bats; lemurs; marmosets and some other primates; sugar gliders; hyraxes; some rodents and lagomorphs; dolphins; and some carnivores; including procyonids and pinnipeds. This report collates the comparative evidence for species' s...

Pikas originated in Asia and are small lagomorphs native to cold climates. The plateau pika, Ochotona curzoniae is a keystone species on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and an ideal animal model for hypoxic adaptation studies. Altered mitochondrial function, especially cytochrome c oxidase activity, is an important factor in modulation of energy generation and expenditure during cold and hypoxia adap...

BACKGROUND We investigate the usefulness of expressed sequence tags, ESTs, for establishing divergences within the tree of placental mammals. This is done on the example of the established relationships among primates (human), lagomorphs (rabbit), rodents (rat and mouse), artiodactyls (cow), carnivorans (dog) and proboscideans (elephant). METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We have produced 2000 E...

It has recently been proposed that life-history evolution is subject to a fundamental size-dependent constraint. This constraint limits the rate at which biomass can be produced so that production per unit of body mass is inevitably slower in larger organisms than in smaller ones. Here we derive predictions for how changes in body size and production rates evolve in different lifestyles subject...

The tree shrew is currently located in the Order Scandentia and is widely distributed in Southeast Asia, South Asia, and South China. Due to its unique characteristics, such as small body size, high brain-to-body mass ratio, short reproductive cycle and life span, and low-cost of maintenance, the tree shrew has been proposed as an alternative experimental animal to primates in biomedical resear...