Ocular regression conceals adaptive progression of the visual system in a blind subterranean mammal
Article Abstract:
Ocular degeneration in the mole rat (Spalax ehrenberghi) has been offset by the hypertrophying of structures for photoperiodic sensing. The atrophied visual system and lack of reaction to light led most researchers to think that Spalax, which lives underground, is utterly sightless. However, experimental injection of tracers into Spalax retinal ganglion cells showed that some structures, such as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, are more highly developed than in other rodents. This development allows Spalax to control thermoregulation and other photoperiodic responses.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1993
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Hot subterranean biosphere in a continental oil reservoir
Article Abstract:
Indigenous thermophilic bacteria and hyperthermophilic archaea may exist in Alaskan oil fields based on data from a continental petroleum reservoir about 1,670 m below the surface. The isolates were obtained from different wells and survived in simulated deep well conditions, indicating their relationship with a deep indigenous thermophilic community. These findings extend the known ecological habitat of these marine hyperthermophilic archaea while their coexistence with terrestrial bacteria may indicate that thermophilic bacteria is widespread beneath the surface.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1995
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An artic mammal fauna from the early pliocene of North America
Article Abstract:
A peat deposit on Ellesmere Island, Nunavut, Canada offers information about the Early Pliocene terrestrial biota north of the Arctic Circle. The mammalian remains buried in the peat represent mainly taxa of Eurasiatic zoogeographic and phyletic affinities.
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 2003
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