Browsing by Author "Hanken, James"
Now showing items 1-14 of 14
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Biology of tiny animals: three new species of minute salamanders (Plethodontidae: Thorius) from Oaxaca, Mexico
Parra-Olea, Gabriela; Rovito, Sean M.; García-París, Mario; Maisano, Jessica A.; Wake, David B.; Hanken, James (PeerJ Inc., 2016)We describe three new species of minute salamanders, genus Thorius, from the Sierra Madre del Sur of Oaxaca, Mexico. Until now only a single species, T. minutissimus, has been reported from this region, although molecular ... -
Causes and Consequences of Lung Loss in Salamanders
Lewis, Zachary Robert (2016-02-26)Lungs were once thought to be a universal feature of tetrapods and essential for vertebrate life on land. This view changed in the late 19th century with the discovery of several salamander species that lack lungs. Since ... -
Concealed weapons: Erectile claws in African frogs
Blackburn, David C.; Hanken, James; Jenkins, Farish (Royal Society Publishing, 2008)Vertebrate claws are used in a variety of important behaviours and are typically composed of a keratinous sheath overlying the terminal phalanx of a digit. Keratinous claws, however, are rare in living amphibians; their ... -
Convergent evolutionary reduction of atrial septation in lungless salamanders
Lewis, Zachary R.; Hanken, James (Wiley-Blackwell, 2016)Nearly two thirds of the approximately 700 species of living salamanders are lungless. These species respire entirely through the skin and buccopharyngeal mucosa. Lung loss dramatically impacts the configuration of the ... -
DNA Damage in Preserved Specimens and Tissue Samples: A Molecular Assessment
Zimmermann, Juergen; Hajibabaei, Mehrdad; Blackburn, David C; Hanken, James; Cantin, Elizabeth; Posfai, Janos; Evans, Thomas C., Jr. (BioMed Central, 2008)The extraction of genetic information from preserved tissue samples or museum specimens is a fundamental component of many fields of research, including the Barcode of Life initiative, forensic investigations, biological ... -
Evolution of the Amphibian Head and Neck: Fate and Patterning of Cranial Mesoderm in the Axolotl (Ambystoma Mexicanum)
Sefton, Elizabeth Marie (2016-02-19)The vertebrate head is a complex structure derived from all three embryonic germ layers. Cranial mesoderm forms most of the neurocranium, cardiovascular tissues and voluntary muscles required for intake of food and oxygenated ... -
Evolution of the head-trunk interface in tetrapod vertebrates
Sefton, Elizabeth M; Bhullar, Bhart-Anjan S; Mohaddes, Zahra; Hanken, James (eLife Sciences Publications, Ltd, 2016)Vertebrate neck musculature spans the transition zone between head and trunk. The extent to which the cucullaris muscle is a cranial muscle allied with the gill levators of anamniotes or is instead a trunk muscle is an ... -
Evolutionary innovation and conservation in the embryonic derivation of the vertebrate skull
Piekarski, Nadine; Gross, Joshua B.; Hanken, James (Nature Publishing Group, 2014)Development of the vertebrate skull has been studied intensively for more than 150 years, yet many essential features remain unresolved. One such feature is the extent to which embryonic derivation of individual bones is ... -
Forelimb-Hindlimb Developmental Timing Changes across Tetrapod Phylogeny
Bininda-Emonds, Olaf RP; Jeffery, Jonathan E; Sánchez-Villagra, Marcelo R; Colbert, Matthew; Pieau, Claude; Selwood, Lynne; ten Cate, Carel; Raynaud, Albert; Osabutey, Casmile K; Hanken, James; Richardson, Michael K. (BioMed Central, 2007)Background: Tetrapods exhibit great diversity in limb structures among species and also between forelimbs and hindlimbs within species, diversity which frequently correlates with locomotor modes and life history. We aim ... -
From Clinging to Digging: The Postembryonic Skeletal Ontogeny of the Indian Purple Frog, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis (Anura: Nasikabatrachidae)
Senevirathne, Gayani; Thomas, Ashish; Kerney, Ryan; Hanken, James; Biju, S. D.; Meegaskumbura, Madhava (Public Library of Science, 2016)The Indian Purple frog, Nasikabatrachus sahyadrensis, occupies a basal phylogenetic position among neobatrachian anurans and has a very unusual life history. Tadpoles have a large ventral oral sucker, which they use to ... -
Homology of the cranial vault in birds: new insights based on embryonic fate-mapping and character analysis
Maddin, Hillary C.; Piekarski, Nadine; Sefton, Elizabeth M.; Hanken, James (The Royal Society, 2016)Bones of the cranial vault appear to be highly conserved among tetrapod vertebrates. Moreover, bones identified with the same name are assumed to be evolutionarily homologous. However, recent developmental studies reveal ... -
Molecular phylogenetics, morphological evolution, and speciation of Chinese stout newts (Salamandridae: Pachytriton)
Wu, Yunke (2013-10-08)China harbors 10% of the world's salamander species. Studying their evolutionary history provides critical insights into the evolution of the fauna of the Far East. The stout newts (Pachytriton, also known as paddle-tailed ... -
Semantic Annotation of Mutable Data
Morris, Robert A.; Dou, Lei; Hanken, James; Kelly, Maureen; Lowery, David B.; Ludäscher, Bertram; Macklin, James A.; Morris, Paul J. (Public Library of Science, 2013)Electronic annotation of scientific data is very similar to annotation of documents. Both types of annotation amplify the original object, add related knowledge to it, and dispute or support assertions in it. In each case, ... -
Terrestrialization, Miniaturization and Rates of Diversification in African Puddle Frogs (Anura: Phrynobatrachidae)
Zimkus, Breda Marie; Lawson, Lucinda; Loader, Simon P.; Hanken, James (Public Library of Science, 2012)Terrestrialization, the evolution of non-aquatic oviposition, and miniaturization, the evolution of tiny adult body size, are recurring trends in amphibian evolution, but the relationships among the traits that characterize ...