Many decapod crustaceans with sexual dimorphism in body size are economically significant species for fisheries and aquaculture, making monosex culture a desirable practice to increase farmers' yield profits. It is well established that the male-specific androgenic gland (AG) mediates masculinization decapods by producing secreting insulin-like AG hormone (IAG). However, IAG not sex-determining...

Swimming effort of hatchling sea turtles varies across species. In this study we analysed how swim thrust is produced in terms of power stroke rate, mean maximum thrust per power stroke and percentage of time spent power stroking throughout the first 18 h of swimming after entering the water, in both loggerhead and flatback turtle hatchlings and compared this with previous data from green turtl...

BACKGROUND On 21 August 2013, the Event-based Surveillance and Response system of the Department of Health, Philippines captured a foodborne illness event among residents of a coastal village in Eastern Samar, Philippines. The suspected cause was the consumption of a sea turtle found near the village. A team from the Department of Health was sent to conduct an outbreak investigation. METHODS ...

Two new genera of crinoid-associated pontoniine shrimps, Brucecaris, new genus, and Unguicaris, new genus, are described and illustrated. Brucecaris is established for Periclimenes tenuis Bruce. Unguicaris panglaonis, new genus, new species, is described from crinoid-associated material collected at Panglao Island, Bohol Sea, The Philippines. Three species, Periclimenes alegrias Bruce, Periclim...

Loggerhead sea turtle Caretta caretta is widely distributed in the oceans of tropical and subtropical latitude. This turtle is an endangered species due to anthropic and natural factors that have decreased their population levels. In this study, RNA sequencing and de-novo assembly of genes expressed in blood were performed. The raw FASTQ files have been deposited on NCBI's SRA database with acc...

1. Reproductive fitness is often compromised at the margins of a species' range due to sub-optimal conditions. 2. Set against this backdrop, the Mediterranean's largest loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta) rookery at Zakynthos (Greece) presents a conundrum, being at a very high latitude for this species, yet hosting a high concentration of nesting. 3. We used visual surveys combined with glo...

The green sea turtle is one of the long-lived species that comprise the charismatic marine megafauna. The green turtle has a long history of human exploitation with some stocks extinct. Here we report on a 30-year study of the nesting abundance of the green turtle stock endemic to the Hawaiian Archipelago. We show that there has been a substantial long-term increase in abundance of this once se...

We outline a framework for evaluating scientific evidence of sentience, focusing on pain experience. It includes eight neural and cognitive-behavioural criteria, with confidence levels each criterion reflecting the reliability quality evidence. rationale apply our to controversial sentience candidate: decapod crustaceans. have either high or very that true crabs (infraorder Brachyura) satisfy f...

Exposure to sea turtles may be increasing with expanding tourism, although reports of problems arising from interaction with free-living animals appear of negligible human health and safety concern. Exposure both to wild-caught and captive-housed sea turtles, including consumption of turtle products, raises several health concerns for the public, including: microbiological (bacteria, viruses, p...

Two deep-water species of caridean shrimps collected during recent dives by the Chinese manned submersible "Jiaolong" represents new records for the South China Sea: Alvinocaris longirostris Kikuchi & Ohta, 1995 (Alvinocarididae) and Acanthephyra faxoni Calman, 1939 (Acanthephyridae). Specimens of these two species were collected from Jiaolong Cold Seep I, off Guangdong Province, China (depth 1...