Third-instar Oestrus caucasicus larvae (n = 236) obtained from Iberian ibex, Copra pyrenaica, were reared in a laboratory to obtain adult flies. They were maintained at a temperature of 21.9 +/- 2.7 degrees C and a relative humidity of 38.9 +/- 8.0 %. In all, 78 imagos emerged (33.1 %), with a sex-ratio at emergence not differing significantly from 1:1; 25 larvae did not complete pupariation. A...

Twelve of the 17 Cervus nippon nippon deer from Kyushu Island, Japan, that we examined were infected with one or two Cercopithifilaria species. C. longa n. sp. adults were in the subcutaneous tissues of limbs and the abdomen, and C. crassa n. sp. adults were in the skin, mainly in the anterior part of the back; the distribution of the dermal microfilariae generally matched that of the adult wor...

Because of their physiological and life history characteristics, mammals exploit adaptive zones unavailable to ectothermic reptiles. Yet, they perform best in energy-rich environments because their high and constant growth rates and their sustained levels of resting metabolism require continuous resource supply. In resource-limited ecosystems such as islands, therefore, reptiles frequently disp...

This paper focuses on biological relationships between mammalian species richness and the community structure of dung beetles in cool-temperate forests in the northernmost part of mainland Japan. The composition of beetle assemblages was evaluated at 3 sites in undisturbed beech forests with different mammalian fauna. In spring and summer 2009, beetles were collected at each site using pitfall ...

Grooming in small felids has received little attention compared with grooming in rodents, bovids and primates where grooming is also common. This study set out to describe the general pattern, time budget and degree of cephalocaudal sequencing of self-oral grooming in the domestic cat. In 11 cats confined for the purposes of videotaping, sleeping and resting accounted for 50% of the time budget...

a Hominid Paleobiology Doctoral Program, CASHP, Department of Anthropology, The George Washington University, 2110 G Street NW, Washington, DC 20052, USA b Department of Vertebrate Paleontology, American Museum of Natural History, Central Park West at 79th Street, New York, NY 10024, USA c Center for the Study of Human Origins, Department of Anthropology, New York University, 25 Waverly Place, ...

Late Pliocene climate changes have long been implicated in environmental changes and mammalian evolution in Africa, but high-resolution examinations of the fossil and climatic records have been hampered by poor sampling. By using fossils from the well-dated Shungura Formation (lower Omo Valley, northern Turkana Basin, southern Ethiopia), we investigate palaeodietary changes in one bovid and in ...

Gestation periods in mammals are generally in line with scaling laws. There are several exceptions in which species of relatively similar size and degree of neonatal maturation show a significant difference in gestation length. For example the giraffids have a very long gestation period, compared to bovids of similar size. By using published data about the placental surface area at term, we sho...