Article
Biology
Maiah E. M. Devereaux, Kevin L. Campbell, Daniel Munro, Pierre U. Blier, Matthew E. Pamenter
Summary: Star-nosed moles did not show a blunted hypoxic ventilatory response or decreased body temperature in hypoxia, only a slight depression in metabolic rate. This intolerance to hypoxia may reflect an evolutionary trade-off favoring their extreme sensory biology.
JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY
(2021)
Article
Agriculture, Dairy & Animal Science
Di Xu, Mengyao Sun, Zenghao Gao, Yiping Zhou, Qingqian Wang, Lei Chen
Summary: In this study, the mitochondrial genomes of 14 Talpidae species were compared, and it was found that variations in the control region repeats are responsible for the differences in mitochondrial genome lengths. The phylogenetic tree of Talpidae was reconstructed using the mitochondrial genome Cyt b genes as biomarkers. The divergence of Talpidae was found to be closely related to historical global climate changes, providing valuable experimental data for the systematic evolution and ecological adaptability of Talpidae.
Article
Biology
Varun Parmar, Rigzin Norboo, Rahul Magotra
Summary: This study reports on the dental remains of a hedgehog and a mole from the Miocene deposits in India. The fossils, found in northwestern India, represent the first members of these families discovered in the Indian subcontinent. The findings suggest that these animals migrated to India from the west but could not survive beyond the Miocene.
HISTORICAL BIOLOGY
(2023)
Editorial Material
Infectious Diseases
Sayantani Chakraborty, Abheek Sil, Avik Panigrahi
Summary: The Cydnidae bug, known as the burrowing bug, is an arthropod with morphological adaptations for digging. They release an odorous substance for self-defense, causing pigmented macules on human skin, especially during the rainy season. Understanding this condition can help avoid unnecessary investigations.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Damaris Montano, Marta Gasparrini, Axel Gerdes, Giovanna Della Porta, Richard Albert
Summary: The Nordlinger Ries Crater in Southwest Germany, formed by a meteorite impact in the Miocene, provides a well-established geological framework for studying lacustrine carbonate using U-Pb LA-ICPMS method. The study demonstrates the accuracy and potential of this method in determining the timing of sedimentation in lacustrine systems.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Biodiversity Conservation
Jeremy P. Bird, Aleks Terauds, Richard A. Fuller, Penelope P. Pascoe, Toby D. Travers, Julie C. McInnes, Rachael Alderman, Justine D. Shaw
Summary: Maximising survey efficiency can help reduce the tradeoff between spending limited conservation resources on identifying population changes and responding to those changes through management. We evaluated a stratified random survey design for generating unbiased population estimates simultaneously for four petrel species nesting on Macquarie Island, Australia, where the survey cue, burrow entrances, is similar for all species. We failed to generate unbiased population estimates for two rare and localised species from our stratified random survey.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Andrea Villa
Summary: The Middle Miocene gekkotan Palaeogekko risgoviensis from Germany has been a puzzle for paleontologists due to limited knowledge of its osteology and relationships. This study reevaluates the type material of P. risgoviensis, comparing it with other geckos from Europe, and confirms its status as a distinct taxon. Although the phylogenetic relationships of Palaeogekko are still uncertain, it is supported as a non-eublepharid gekkonoid.
Article
Engineering, Geological
Hosain Bagheri, Daniel Stockwell, Benjamin Bethke, Nana Kwame Okwae, Daniel Aukes, Junliang Tao, Hamid Marvi
Summary: This study presents a bio-inspired burrowing robot and explores its burrowing behavior in glass beads. The study found that the four-bladed screw provides higher translational velocity but comes at the expense of higher motor torque and power, resulting in higher cost of transport. Additionally, operating the one-bladed screw at a lower rotational speed provides lower cost of transport. The tubercled fin design showed promising results in decreasing vertical drag and increasing translational velocity during burrowing.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Haruhiko Adachi, Makoto Ozawa, Satoshi Yagi, Makoto Seita, Shigeru Kondo
Summary: The last larval instars of Trypoxylus dichotomus burrow in two different ways depending on the hardness of the soil, which is thought to be an adaptation to diverse soil conditions. These results are crucial for understanding soil ecology and pose a challenge for engineers developing newer excavation technology.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Ecology
Christian F. Kammerer
Summary: The study explored the relationships between cranial suture complexity and the inferred ecology of dicynodont synapsids, finding that the naso-frontal sutures of the Cistecephalidae clade were substantially more complex, likely due to compressive forces sustained during burrowing. This suggests that the head may have played an important role in locomotion in this group, with increased sutural complexity potentially being an adaptation to resisting compressive forces during burrowing in dicynodonts.
FRONTIERS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION
(2021)
Article
Robotics
Nicholas D. Naclerio, Andras Karsai, Mason Murray-Cooper, Yasemin Ozkan-Aydin, Enes Aydin, Daniel Goldman, Elliot W. Hawkes
Summary: Robotic navigation on land, through air, and in water is well researched, but subterranean navigation remains largely unexplored due to higher interaction forces and lack of fundamental physics understanding. By deriving hypotheses from biological observation and physics of granular intrusion, researchers designed a burrowing robot that can control lift and drag forces underground, achieving faster burrowing than previous approaches. This advancement in robotic subterranean locomotion showcases the potential for future exploration in underground environments.
Editorial Material
Cell Biology
Michael J. Sheehan
Summary: The allele-specific expression analysis of hybrid mice provides a new approach for understanding the genetic substrates of behavioral evolution, particularly in identifying causative regulatory loci that influence species-specific behavior.
Article
Geology
Andrea Baucon, Carlos Neto de Carvalho, Fabrizio Felletti, Gabriele Tosadori, Alexandre Antonelli
Summary: The study reveals that burrow morphologies show persistent patterns over evolutionary time scales, influenced by small-world dynamics and forming associations between shallow and deep-sea burrows. This pattern follows assembly rules similar to those shaping human social networks.
Article
Geology
Lingqi Zeng, Dag B. Ruge, Guenther Berger, Karin Heck, Stefan Hoelzl, Andreas Reimer, Dietmar Jung, Gernot Arp
Summary: The study indicates that the drill core succession, previously thought to be deposits of an impact ejecta-dammed lake within the mid-Miocene Climate Transition, is more likely to be fluvial sediments from a pre-impact age. Lithofacies analysis shows the absence of lacustrine criteria, suggesting a floodplain environment. Carbonate isotope signatures and Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios support the interpretation of a fluvial setting with a change in solute provenance from Triassic to Jurassic rocks.
Article
Paleontology
Zhaoyu Li, Thomas Mors
Summary: Glirid dental material found in the Middle Miocene channel fill of the Hambach open-cast lignite mine in Germany shows a high diversity, with seven species in six genera. This assemblage is similar to Middle Miocene European localities and shares characteristics with late Middle Miocene faunas. These findings suggest a warm, humid forested environment during the Mid-Miocene Climate Optimum.
