Published in BMC Evolutionary Biology
BackgroundMany animals rely heavily on olfaction to navigate their environment. Among rodents, olfaction is crucial for a wide range of social behaviors. The vomeronasal olfactory system in particular plays an important role in mediating social communication, including the detection of pheromones and recognition signals. In this study we examine pa...
Published in The Journal of experimental biology
Mass-specific metabolic rate negatively co-varies with body mass from the whole-animal to the mitochondrial levels. Mitochondria are the mainly consumers of oxygen inspired by mammals to generate ATP or compensate for energetic losses dissipated as the form of heat (proton leak) during oxidative phosphorylation. Consequently, ATP synthesis and prot...
Published in Journal of mammalogy
Suisun Marsh (Solano County, California) is the largest contiguous marsh remaining on the West Coast of the United States, and makes up approximately 10% of the wetlands remaining in the San Francisco Estuary. Suisun Marsh has been safeguarded from development through the operation of over 100 privately owned waterfowl hunting clubs, which manage f...
Karyotypes of 18 rodent species collected in various localities in Thailand were analysed as part of an epidemiological survey of the region using conventional cytogenetic techniques. The aim was to re-assess the reliability of karyotype-based diagnoses of Thai rodents using an updated taxonomic framework. The species examined include Menetes berdm...
Since the year 1500, islands have been home to over 75% of known bird, mammal, amphibian, and reptile extinctions. The majority of these have been caused by introduced species, particularly vertebrates such as rats, mice, cats, and ungulates. Arguably, the most damaging vertebrate taxon on island ecosystems is the rodents. Mice and rats have been i...
The 2019 rodent eradication on 1,455-ha Lord Howe Island was the second and largest attempted on a permanently inhabited island. With 350 residents, it presented numerous novel challenges, resulting in an operation best summarised in four words: Compromise, Commensal, Complexity, and Cost. A ground-based operation was conducted across the built-up ...
Based on compiled small mammal trapping data collected over 12 years from Benin and Niger (3701 individual records from 66 sampling sites), located in mainland Africa, we here describe the small mammal community assemblage in urban habitats along the commercial axis connecting the two countries, from the seaport of Cotonou to the Sahelian hinterlan...
Based on compiled small mammal trapping data collected over 12 years from Benin and Niger (3701 individual records from 66 sampling sites), located in mainland Africa, we here describe the small mammal community assemblage in urban habitats along the commercial axis connecting the two countries, from the seaport of Cotonou to the Sahelian hinterlan...
TH17 cells originating from regulatory T (Treg) cells upon loss of the Treg-specific transcription factor Foxp3 accumulate in sites of inflammation and aggravate autoimmune diseases. Whether an active mechanism drives the generation of these pathogenic 'ex-Foxp3 TH17' cells, remains unclear. Here we show that pro-inflammatory cytokines enhance the ...
Published in Molecular phylogenetics and evolution
Murid rodents (Rodentia: Muridae) represent the most diverse and abundant mammalian family. In this study, we provide a refined set of fossil calibrations which is used to reconstruct a dated phylogeny of the family using a multilocus dataset (six nuclear and nine mitochondrial gene fragments) encompassing 161 species representing 82 murid genera f...
