Nepenthes pitcher plants are typically carnivorous, producing pitchers with varying combinations of epicuticular wax crystals, viscoelastic fluids and slippery peristomes to trap arthropod prey, especially ants. However, ant densities are low in tropical montane habitats, thereby limiting the potential benefits of the carnivorous syndrome. Nepenthes lowii, a montane species from Borneo, produce...

Carnivorous aquatic Utricularia species catch small prey animals using millimetre-sized underwater suction traps, which have fascinated scientists since Darwin's early work on carnivorous plants. Suction takes place after mechanical triggering and is owing to a release of stored elastic energy in the trap body accompanied by a very fast opening and closing of a trapdoor, which otherwise closes ...

The giant panda Ailuropoda melanoleuca belongs to the family of Ursidae; however, it is not carnivorous, feeding almost exclusively on bamboo. Being equipped with a typical carnivorous digestive apparatus, the giant panda cannot get enough energy for an active life and spends most of its time digesting food or sleeping. Feeding and mating are both regulated by odors and pheromones; therefore, a...

We conducted the first systematic inventory of ant species richness in pitcher-plant bogs of Massachusetts. Twenty-six species were collected in 18 bogs during 1999 and 2000. We collected the bog-specialist Myrmica lobifrons for the first time in Massachusetts and found that it occurred in bogs from the Berkshire Mountains to Nantucket. Ant species composition in bogs displayed a nested subsets...

Dionaea is a highly specialized carnivorous plant species with a unique mechanism for insect capture. The leaf is converted into an osmotically driven trap that closes when an insect triggers sensory trichomes. This study investigates the significance of insect capture for growth of Dionaea at different successional stages after a fire, under conditions where the prey is highly variable in its ...

Abstract Dams reduce the longitudinal connectivity of rivers and thereby disrupt fish migration spatial distribution species, impacts that remain poorly studied for some Neotropical from mega-diverse basins. We investigated species with different trophic movement/reproductive/size characteristics to assess how functional groups have responded a cascade dams on Uruguai River in southern Brazil. ...

Predatory theropod dinosaurs can usually be identified as such by features of their jaws, teeth, and postcrania, but different clades of these reptiles differed in their adaptations for prey handling. Inferences about theropod diets and hunting behavior based on functional morphology are sometimes supported by evidence from taphonomic associations with likely prey species, bite marks, gut conte...

The main objective of the present study was to evaluate the relative contribution of the intestine to glucose homeostasis in rainbow trout. In a first set of in vivo experiments trout were subjected to oral glucose treatments alone or in combination with insulin injections to assess changes in glucose-related enzymes activities, metabolite levels, and mRNA levels. Rainbow trout gut displays an ...

The total antioxidant capacities (TAC) of feces of mammalian herbivores and carnivores were compared. TAC were estimated using three different methods: 2,2'-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) radical (ABTS*) reduction, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH*) reduction, and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). TAC of 18 herbivorous species were generally higher with res...

Recently a new carnivorous theropod dinosaur has been unearthed in the Tiaojishan Formation of Hebei Province, China. This formation, near Beijing, is famous for its primitive bird fossils from the Jurassic Period. Without fail, it has yet again turned up a unique and amazing specimen, described in the May 7th issue of the journal Nature. The dinosaur, named Yi qi (meaning “strange wing”) by a ...