Fossil Vertebrate Animals

The neurobiology of magnetoreception in vertebrate animals.

Diverse vertebrate animals can sense the earth's magnetic field, but little is known about the physiological mechanisms that underlie this sensory ability. Three major hypotheses of magnetic-field detection have been proposed. Electrosensitive marine fish might sense the geomagnetic field through electromagnetic induction, although definitive evidence that such fish actually do so has not yet b...

Microsporidiosis in Vertebrate Companion Exotic Animals

Veterinarians caring for companion animals may encounter microsporidia in various host species, and diagnosis and treatment of these fungal organisms can be particularly challenging. Fourteen microsporidial species have been reported to infect humans and some of them are zoonotic; however, to date, direct zoonotic transmission is difficult to document versus transit through the digestive tract....

Brief Note Fossil Vertebrate Taxonomic Diversity Correlated with Outcrop Area

At the Origin of Animals: The Revolutionary Cambrian Fossil Record

The certain fossil record of animals begins around 540 million years ago, close to the base of the Cambrian Period. A series of extraordinary discoveries starting over 100 years ago with Walcott's discovery of the Burgess Shale has accelerated in the last thirty years or so with the description of exceptionally-preserved Cambrian fossils from around the world. Such deposits of "Burgess Shale Ty...

The earliest fossil record of the animals and its significance.

The fossil record of the earliest animals has been enlivened in recent years by a series of spectacular discoveries, including embryos, from the Ediacaran to the Cambrian, but many issues, not least of dating and interpretation, remain controversial. In particular, aspects of taphonomy of the earliest fossils require careful consideration before pronouncements about their affinities. Neverthele...