Vegetative characters are widely used in the taxonomy of the amphibious genus Elatine L. However, these usually show great variation not just between species but between their aquatic and terrestrial forms. In the present study we examine the variation of seed and vegetative characters in nine Elatine species (E. brachysperma, E. californica, E. gussonei, E. hexandra, E. hungarica, E. hydropipe...

We agree that the introduction of the manuscript appears to be biased towards the behavioural biology on just one of the extant species, Hippopotamus amphibius. We will correct this impression by also referring to the second recent species, Choeropsis liberiensis, although the biology of this taxon is substantially less known. We will also give the more encyclopedic literature on hippopotamids ...

Few teleost fishes incubate embryos out of water, but the oxygen-rich terrestrial environment could provide advantages for early growth and development. We tested the hypothesis that embryonic oxygen uptake is limited in aquatic environments relative to air using the self-fertilizing amphibious mangrove rivulus, Kryptolebias marmoratus, which typically inhabits hypoxic, water-filled crab burrow...

Sensory development can be dependent on input from multiple modalities. During metamorphic development, ranid frogs exhibit rapid reorganization of pathways mediating auditory, vestibular, and lateral line modalities as the animal transforms from an aquatic to an amphibious form. Here we show that neural sensitivity to the underwater particle motion component of sound follows a different develo...

environments: they believe these are the only insects able to do so. As a further adaptation to living around flowing water, they withstand extremely high and fast floodwaters. “Through a combination of specialised shelter-seeking and use of silk tie-downs and drag lines, larvae avoid exposure to the strongest currents and quickly return themselves to the substrate if dislodged,” the researcher...

The neurohypophysial hormones, arginine vasotocin and isotocin, regulate both hydromineral balance and social behaviors in fish. In the amphibious mudskipper, Periophthalmus modestus, we previously found arginine-vasotocin-specific regulation of aggressive behavior, including migration of the submissive subordinate into water. This migration also implies the need for adaptation to dehydration. ...