Cesarz, Simone Eisenhauer, Nico Bucher, Solveig Franziska Ciobanu, Marcel Hines, Jes
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Artificial light at night (ALAN) is increasing worldwide, but its effects on the soil system have not yet been investigated. We tested the influence of experimental manipulation of ALAN on two taxa of soil communities (microorganisms and soil nematodes) and three aspects of soil functioning (soil basal respiration, soil microbial biomass and carbon...
Richard, Brian A Spence, Meghan Rull-Garza, Mateo Roba, Yonas Tolosa Schwarz, Daniel Ramsay, Jason B Laurence-Chasen, J D Ross, Callum F Konow, Nicolai
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Intra-oral food processing, including chewing, is important for safe swallowing and efficient nutrient assimilation across tetrapods. Gape cycles in tetrapod chewing consist of four phases (fast open and -close, and slow open and -close), with processing mainly occurring during slow close. Basal aquatic-feeding vertebrates also process food intraor...
Richter, Adrian Economo, Evan P
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Ants are a dominant family of eusocial terrestrial insects with a diversity of ecologies, lifestyles and morphologies. Ant diet preferences range from strict carnivory through omnivory to almost complete herbivory in species feeding on seeds or exudates of plant-sucking insects. While several studies have investigated ant feeding performance on dif...
Laird, Myra F Ross, Callum F Kang, Victor Konow, Nicolai
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
How animals process and absorb nutrients from their food is a fundamental question in biology. Despite the continuity and interaction between intraoral food processing and post-oesophageal nutritional extraction, these topics have largely been studied separately. At present, we lack a synthesis of how pre- and post-oesophageal mechanisms of food pr...
Clauss, Marcus Fritz, Julia Hummel, Jürgen
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Both teeth and the digestive tract show adaptations that are commonly interpreted in the context of trophic guilds-faunivory, herbivory and omnivory. Teeth prepare food for the digestive tract, and dental evolution focuses on increasing durability and functionality; in particular, size reduction of plant particles is an important preparation for mi...
Spence, Meghan Rull-Garza, Mateo Roba, Yonas Tolosa Konow, Nicolai
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Chewing is widespread across vertebrates, including mammals, lepidosaurs, and ray-finned and cartilaginous fishes, yet common wisdom about one group-amphibians-is that they swallow food whole, without processing. Earlier salamander studies lacked analyses of internal kinematics of the tongue, analyses of muscle function, and sampled few individuals...
Beale, Phillipa K Foley, William J Moore, Ben D Marsh, Karen J
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
The interplay between ambient temperature and nutrition in wild herbivores is frequently overlooked, despite the fundamental importance of food. We tested whether different ambient temperatures (10°C, 18°C and 26°C) influenced the intake of protein by a marsupial herbivore, the common brushtail possum (Trichosurus vulpecula). At each temperature, p...
Schwarz, Daniel Heiss, Egon Pierson, Todd W Konow, Nicolai Schoch, Rainer R
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
The vertebrate water-to-land transition and the rise of tetrapods brought about fundamental changes for the groups undergoing these evolutionary changes (i.e. stem and early tetrapods). These groups were forced to adapt to new conditions, including the distinct physical properties of water and air, requiring fundamental changes in anatomy. Nutritio...
Püffel, Frederik Walthaus, O K Kang, Victor Labonte, David
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Herbivores large and small need to mechanically process plant tissue. Their ability to do so is determined by two forces: the maximum force they can generate, and the minimum force required to fracture the plant tissue. The ratio of these forces determines the relative mechanical effort; how this ratio varies with animal size is challenging to pred...
Panagiotopoulou, Olga Robinson, Dale Iriarte-Diaz, Jose Ackland, David Taylor, Andrea B Ross, Callum F
Published in
Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
Three-dimensional finite element models (FEMs) are powerful tools for studying the mechanical behaviour of the feeding system. Using validated, static FEMs we have previously shown that in rhesus macaques the largest food-related differences in strain magnitudes during unilateral postcanine chewing extend from the lingual symphysis to the endocondy...
