Pectoral girdle and forelimb musculoskeletal function in the echidna ( Tachyglossus aculeatus ): insights into mammalian locomotor evolution

Evolution of the Pectoral Girdle and Forelimb in Sauropodomorpha (dinosauria, Saurischia): Osteology, Myology and Function

Functional characterization of the rod visual pigment of the echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus), a basal mammal.

Monotremes are the most basal egg-laying mammals comprised of two extant genera, which are largely nocturnal. Visual pigments, the first step in the sensory transduction cascade in photoreceptors of the eye, have been examined in a variety of vertebrates, but little work has been done to study the rhodopsin of monotremes. We isolated the rhodopsin gene of the nocturnal short-beaked echidna (Tac...

Locomotor function of the pectoral girdle 'muscular sling' in trotting dogs.

In therian mammals, gravitational and locomotor forces are transferred between the forelimb and trunk primarily, or entirely, through the muscles that connect the limb and trunk. Our understanding of this force transmission is based on analyses of shoulder anatomy and on a handful of descriptive electromyographic studies. To improve our understanding, we manipulated the locomotor forces of trot...

Optimizing reproduction in the Tasmanian echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus setosus: the influence of an obligatory hibernation period and intense sexual conflict

................................................................................................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER 1: GENERAL INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................... 1 CHAPTER 2: COOL SEX? HIBERNATION AND REPR...

The echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus combines REM and non-REM aspects in a single sleep state: implications for the evolution of sleep.

Placental and marsupial mammals exist in three states of consciousness: waking, non-REM sleep, and REM sleep. We now report that the echidna Tachyglossus aculeatus, a representative of the earliest branch of mammalian evolution (the monotremes), does not have the pattern of neuronal activity of either of the sleep states seen in nonmonotreme mammals. Echidna sleep was characterized by increased...