BACKGROUND The Subclass Coleoidea (Class Cephalopoda) accommodates the diverse present-day internally shelled cephalopod mollusks (Spirula, Sepia and octopuses, squids, Vampyroteuthis) and also extinct internally shelled cephalopods. Recent Spirula represents a unique coleoid retaining shell structures, a narrow marginal siphuncle and globular protoconch that signify the ancestry of the subclas...

Moonsnails (Naticidae) are major predators in marine soft substrates worldwide and are thought to prey almost exclusively on shelled molluscs by drilling predation. However, reports on single individuals of various naticid species showing unusual feeding behaviour indicate that naticids possibly also feed on other prey which have an external skeleton. The present study provides the first eviden...

Soft-shell crab is considered a gastronomic delicacy, reaching high values in the international market. Under normal conditions, process of hardening crab's exoskeleton after moulting takes approximately two days to complete; however, commercial consistency soft-shell lost just 3 hours. The goal this research was evaluate effects chemical changes water on duration postmoult, specifically at sta...

A comprehensive analysis of amniote interrelationships is presented in an attempt to test turtle interrelationships. The results refute earlier hypotheses that turtles are related to parareptiles, i.e. to procolophonids or pareiasaurs. Instead, turtles are shown to be the sistergroup of Sauropterygia, the two clades being nested within Sauria as sister-group of Lepidosauriformes. This scenario ...

Axestemys byssina—a large, potentially paedomorphic soft-shelled turtle (Trionychidae)—and a number of other of giant trionychids have been described, but no rigorous analysis has been undertaken to investigate their relationships. Because these trionychids are so unusual and occupy a broad Cretaceous-Eocene temporal range (70-46 myr), their study provides new insights into broad patterns of tr...