Wells and Wellington affair

The Wells and Wellington affair was a dispute about the publication of three papers in the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" in 1983 and 1985. The publication was established in 1981 as a peer-reviewed scientific journal focusing on the study of amphibians and reptiles (herpetology). Its first two issues were published under the editorship of Richard W. Wells, a first-year biology student at Australia's University of New England. Wells then ceased communicating with the journal's editorial board for two years before suddenly publishing three papers without peer review in the journal in 1983 and 1985. Coauthored by himself and high school teacher Cliff Ross Wellington, the papers reorganized the taxonomy of all of Australia's and New Zealand's amphibians and reptiles and proposed over 700 changes to the binomial nomenclature of the region's herpetofauna.
Members of the herpetological community reacted strongly to the pair's actions and eventually brought a case to the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature to suppress the scientific names they had proposed. After four years of arguments, the commission opted not to vote on the case because it hinged largely on taxonomic arguments rather than nomenclatural ones, leaving some of Wells and Wellington's names available. The case's outcome highlighted the vulnerability to the established rules of biological nomenclature that desktop publishing presented. As of 2020, 24 of the specific names assigned by Wells and Wellington remained valid senior synonyms.
Background and publication.
"Australian Journal of Herpetology".
The "Australian Journal of Herpetology" was a scientific journal specialising in herpetology. Its publisher, the Sydney-based Australian Herpetologists' League, was established to facilitate the journal's production. The journal's editorial board consisted of three Australian researchers: Harold Heatwole, an associate professor at the University of New England (UNE) in Armidale, New South Wales, Jeffrey Miller, also of UNE, and Max King of the Australian National University. Richard W. Wells, a first-year student pursuing a Bachelor of Science degree in biology at UNE who had previously collected zoological specimens for several Australian museums, served as the journal's editor. Its editorial board refereed submitted manuscripts and, once accepted, sent them to Wells for publication. Because of Wells's enrolment at UNE, the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" was able to use a mailing address at the university.
In 1981, the Australian Herpetologists' League released the first and second issues of the first volume of the "Australian Journal of Herpetology". They contained papers written both by professional and amateur researchers concerning a number of topics in Australian herpetology, including a description of a novel python species, ""Python" bredli". The journal gained individual and institutional subscribers in Australia and abroad. Meanwhile, Wells did not complete his first year at UNE and moved to Sydney.
Wells and Wellington's papers.
For two years, the journal did not release any further issues. During this time, the editorial board continued to forward accepted manuscripts to Wells, who maintained his UNE address despite having left Armidale. Then, without the board's knowledge, a 56-page double issue consisting of a single article, "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia" by Wells and Cliff Ross Wellington was published dated 31 December 1983. The paper reassessed the taxonomy of Australia's entire reptile class; in doing so, the pair named 33 novel genera and raised eight further genera from synonym status and established 214 additional species, either by elevating subspecies or resurrecting synonyms. The herpetologist Michael J. Tyler described the paper as including "more
taxonomic changes [to Australia's herpetofauna] than had been proposed by all other authors in the previous decade". This issue of the journal listed Wells as the managing editor and Wellington as the advertising sales manager, a change from its prior two issues. Further, the journal stated that copyright was now held by Australian Biological Services, an entity which listed Wells's address for contact and payment.
A single-issue supplemental series to the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" was released in 1985, dated 1 March. At first, only spiralbound printouts of the issue were reported as being available although in September 1985, several professionally printed copies were distributed in Brisbane. The issue contained two articles, both again coauthored by Wells and Wellington. The first, "A Classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia", reassessed Australia's amphibians, naming at least 57 novel genera, resurrecting nine more from synonym status, naming 146 novel species, and resurrecting 110 from synonym status. The second, "A Synopsis of the Amphibia and Reptilia of New Zealand", offered a similar treatment to New Zealand's amphibian and reptile classes, naming four novel genera and elevating or describing six new species. Among other references, "A Classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia" cited over 500 alleged papers, some ostensibly nearly 100 pages long, written primarily by Wells in 1983 and 1984 in the unknown journal "Australian Herpetologist". Neither "Australian Herpetologist" nor the hundreds of papers purportedly published therein were reported as having been available at any major Australian libraries or listed in the Australian Bibliographic Network as of 1985. The first article also referred to several specimens housed in the "Australian Zoological Museum" which was Wells's private collection.
Rationales and responses.
Initial reactions.
Upon the release of "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia", all three members of the "Australian Journal of Herpetology"s editorial board resigned. The trio wrote letters to the editor of the "Herpetological Review", a journal published by the international Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, to clarify that the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" was not affiliated with UNE past its second issue and that Wells and Wellington's papers had been self-published and had not undergone peer review. Heatwole also encouraged authors whose papers had been accepted for future issues to send their work elsewhere, as Wells was unresponsive to calls to return their manuscripts to them.
British paleontologist Tony Thulborn described reactions from professional herpetologists to the pair's actions as ranging "from disbelief to outrage". News of "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia" and the fallout of its publication was reported throughout 1984 in several New South Wales newspapers, including the "Illawarra Mercury", the "Blue Mountains Gazette" and "The Sydney Morning Herald". The latter wrote that the events were "one of the most interesting scientific bun-fights in Australia's history".
Wells and Wellington's combined work put forth more than 700 changes to the binomial nomenclature of Australia's reptiles and amphibians, until this point believed to include around 900 species. Herpetologists asserted that the duo had described species without providing adequate diagnostic characteristics and established new taxa without identifying or examining type species. G. B. Monteith contended that the pair had named numerous species in trivial ways (including, for instance, naming a species after Darth Vader), and wrote that although Wells and Wellington had given some taxa names honouring working herpetologists, many of those namesakes supported suppressing the duo's work. Gordon C. Grigg, president of the Australian Society of Herpetologists, and the evolutionary biologist and ecologist Richard Shine wrote in a letter to the "Herpetological Review" that "the effect of these [Wells and Wellington's] publications, if taken seriously, would be to destabilise permanently the nomenclature of the Australian herpetofauna." The letter was cosigned by over 150 other herpetologists. In September 1984, the Australian Society of Herpetologists elected to petition the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) to suppress all of the names proposed in the first of the pair's three papers, the only one published at that point.
Word spread outside the world of herpetology in 1985 when Monteith, an entomologist, reported on the affair in the "Australian Entomological Society News Bulletin". Monteith's article, "Terrorist Tactics in Taxonomy", was subsequently republished in newsletters covering other fields of taxonomic study. The botanist Jan Frederik Veldkamp remarked that "this all may seem to be very funny, and it's happening to zoologists, anyway, but there is no reason to be so smug about this", continuing that plant nomenclature as governed by the "International Code of Botanical Nomenclature" could be similarly susceptible to destabilization. In 1986, Thulborn reported on the situation in the international journal "Nature".
Wells and Wellington's justifications.
Wells and Wellington, the latter a teacher at Blaxland High School, said that they did "years of research" before publishing their first paper. Wellington claimed in 1984 that their work was self-published due to a dispute with the Australian Museum, to which the pair had donated several specimens. Nonetheless, he said that the museum had prevented him and Wells from using its reptile collections for their research, further saying that,
Relative to other continents, Australia's herpetofauna had been subject to less in-depth research, primarily due to the continent's low population density, uneven population distribution, and high biodiversity. Monteith described the duo's justification for their papers as "a radical conservation ethic" and wrote that their intent appeared to be based on the belief that describing individual populations as distinct species would hasten efforts for their conservation. Wells and Wellington said in the introduction to their first paper that they hoped their work would be taken "not as anarchistic taxonomic vandalism, but as a decisive step intended to stir others into action". They intended to encourage others to generate research either to ratify their conclusions or counter them, either way putting out material to further understanding of reptile and amphibian life in the region.
ICZN case 2531.
Binomial nomenclature, the widely used system of identifying distinct species through two-part Latin names, is related to and distinct from the study of taxonomy, the description and arrangement of these different taxa in relationship to one another. Changes to taxonomy, whether subject to peer review or not, are regarded as reliant on the discretion of subsequent researchers who may choose to incorporate them into or ignore them in future works on the basis of their scientific rigour and the evidence provided. Changes to zoological nomenclature, meanwhile, are governed by the ICZN's "International Code of Zoological Nomenclature" (the "Code"), of which a key component is the Principle of Priority: that "the valid name of a taxon is the oldest available name applied to it". Thus the publication of a new name, so long as it complies with "Code" requirements but regardless of the quality of the source in which it appears, establishes it as a name of record.
The ICZN published Grigg's case for suppressing the names provided in "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia", "A Classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia" and "A Synopsis of the Amphibia and Reptilia of New Zealand" in the June 1987 issue of their journal, the "Bulletin of Zoological Nomenclature". Case 2531 received "strong arguments" from at least 91 writers and was retrospectively characterised by the herpetologists David Williams, Wolfgang Wüster and Bryan Grieg Fry by "the usual professional decorum being notable by its absence in some of the attacks upon Wells and Wellington".
In the initial case to suppress the names, Grigg described several specific issues with the Wells and Wellington works. He wrote that their claim that they examined almost 40,000 specimens (translating to more than ten each day every day for ten years) was unlikely. According to Grigg, the duo had taken 205 subspecies or synonyms directly from a 1983 book by Harold Cogger and colleagues and had elevated or resurrected them to species status with no further discussion. He added that while Wells and Wellington had claimed to have visited several museums outside Australia to examine specimens in their collections, these museums confirmed with him that they had not lent or shown specimens to either Wellington or Wells. Grigg wrote that while many taxonomists would likely reject the nomenclature contained in the three papers because of the quality of the underlying taxonomy, non-taxonomists unaware of the situation surrounding the works might accept the nomenclature, leading to nomenclatural destabilization. This outcome, Grigg speculated, would require piecemeal acceptance or refutation of all of the hundreds of changes offered by the pair in their papers.
The researcher Glenn M. Shea wrote that the names in "A Synopsis of the Class Reptilia in Australia", even those accompanied by "inadequate or erroneous" diagnoses, fulfilled the requirements of the "Code" and were thus available. However, Shea listed 43 species from "A Classification of the Amphibia and Reptilia of Australia" whose diagnoses did not differentiate them from the populations from which the pair was attempting to split them, and also identified three species whose diagnoses were reliant on works that were still in press at the time of Shea's comment (late 1987). Shea identified several proposed species whose holotypes were collected from outside the species' proposed ranges and several well-known populations of species that were suddenly without names based on Wells and Wellington's diagnoses.
The researcher Jonathon Stone wrote that the ICZN permitting Wells and Wellington's names would set a negative precedent for subsequent researchers to enact nomenclatural changes without peer review. Several researchers rejected the argument that suppressing the pair's names was an act of censorship. The Australian Museum's Allan E. Greer rejected calls to suppress the names, noting that the Australian Museum, Cogger, Shea and others had already (by 1988) used some of the nomenclature in subsequent research. The taxonomist and nomenclaturist Alain Dubois and colleagues at the French National Museum of Natural History argued that the names should not be suppressed because it was not within the ICZN's purview or power to make taxonomic (versus nomenclatural) judgements; this sentiment was shared by a number of other authors. They wrote that many of Wells and Wellington's names could be rendered synonymous or unavailable through other means: proposed taxonomic changes like elevating subspecies to species were likely to be rejected by the world zoological community (rendering the names moot) and taxa lacking descriptions would automatically be considered "nomina nuda" per the provisions of the "Code". However, Dubois and colleagues proposed that in some cases it might be advantageous for the ICZN to consider suppressing individual names on a case-by-case basis.
In 1989, the researcher Kraig Adler published the book "Contributions to the History of Herpetology". Its index of herpetologists by John S. Applegarth intentionally omitted Wells and Wellington on the basis that their works were "inconsistent with acceptable practices of taxonomy". Philippe Bouchet and colleagues at the French National Museum of Natural History described Applegarth's attitude as akin to "the Stalinist falsification of history" and by extension, asked facetiously if the pair "should be physically eliminated using an ice-pick".
The ICZN decided the case in September 1991. The commission wrote that while Wells and Wellington had ignored many of the "Code" ethical tenets and while taxonomic arguments against the pair's works were strong, the ICZN did not have the power to rule on the case on those grounds and thus opted not to vote on the case, thereby closing it. The immediate result of the ICZN opting not to vote on their case was to leave researchers of Australian herpetofauna with "a certain amount of detective work to determine which Wells and Wellington names are available, and for what species". Shea and fellow researcher Ross A. Sadlier synonymised around 60 of the duo's proposed species in a 1999 paper. The authorship of, means of publication of, and backlash to the final three "Australian Journal of Herpetology" articles are sometimes referred to collectively as the "Wells and Wellington affair".
Legacy.
In 2001, the American herpetologist John Iverson, and the Australian herpetologists Scott Thomson and Arthur Georges evaluated the changes proposed by Wells and Wellington to Australian turtles and found that just three of them represented available names. In 2017, the Turtle Taxonomy Working Group recognised one subgeneric, one specific, and one subspecific name originally proposed by the duo as being valid senior synonyms among the world's turtle taxa. A 2020 update of the Reptile Database indicated that 23 specific names for reptiles first published in the "Australian Journal of Herpetology" papers were recognised as valid senior synonyms at the time: sixteen lizards (including three geckos), six snakes and one turtle. One amphibian, the northern corroboree frog ("Pseudophryne pengilleyi"), also retains a specific name assigned by the pair. Additionally, several generic names proposed by Wells and Wellington have been accepted and used by subsequent researchers.
Although Wells and Wellington indicated that they intended to write reassessments of fish in Australia, reptiles in Papua New Guinea and global herpetological taxa similar to their three papers in the "Australian Journal of Herpetology", Wells withdrew somewhat from the world of academic herpetology after the affair. He and Wellington republished several of their "Australian Journal of Herpetology" descriptions, some with slight changes, in the following decades. The first instance of this was apparently in the "Australian Herpetologist" in the late 1980s; Wells alone published other taxonomic works in the vanity journal "Australian Biodiversity Record" in the 2000s. In 1997, Robert Sprackland, Hobart Muir Smith, and Peter Strimple initiated another case with the ICZN (number 3043) to suppress a specific name ("Varanus keithhornei") published by Wells and Wellington in 1985 in favour of a name proposed in 1991 by Sprackland, who had not seen the pair's 1985 description. Suppression was widely opposed and the ICZN decided in 2001 to conserve Wells and Wellington's name as the senior synonym. Both Wellington and Wells have occasionally weighed in on other ICZN cases or defended names from their "Australian Journal of Herpetology" papers as senior synonyms.
In its 1991 case decision, the ICZN noted that the affair highlighted the need to update its "Code" to account for the effects that desktop publishing was having and would continue to have on the availability of scientific names. Nonetheless, 25 years after the affair, the herpetologists Van Wallach, Wolfgang Wüster and Donald G. Broadley wrote that "taxonomy remains as vulnerable to acts of nomenclatural vandalism as it was then". Indeed, the term "taxonomic vandalism", coined in the introduction to the pair's 1983 paper, has come be the most widely used term to describe the act of publishing low-evidence taxonomy for the purpose of proposing many new scientific names without peer review. Wells and Wellington's case was cited during a different ICZN case initiated nearly three decades later, concerning the taxonomic work of another amateur Australian herpetologist, Raymond Hoser. Hoser, who writes about Australian herpetofauna in the self-published "Australasian Journal of Herpetology", gave the Pilbara death adder its scientific name ("Acanthophis wellsi") in honour of Wells.


Cupulospongia

Cupulospongia is an extinct genus of sea sponges from the Cretaceous of France.
"C. elegans" is vase shaped with a stout stalk. It is known from the sponge beds at Barrou, France.
The taxonomic position of the genus is unclear. "Cupulospongia rimosa" Roemer, 1864 is classified in Theonellidae while "Cupulospongia tenuis" Roemer, 1864 is in Azoricidae, both Demospongiae in the order Tetractinellida.


Frontal scale

Frontal scale refers to the scales of a reptile which lie in the general region of the forehead of a snake, more specifically between the eyes and to the anterior of this area. These are analogous to the frontal bone on a human which corresponds to the forehead.
Snake scales attached to the frontals and to its anterior are called prefrontals.


Consobrinomia

Consobrinomia is an extinct genus of sea sponges.


Octoacanthella

Octoacanthella is a genus of springtails in the family Hypogastruridae. There is at least one described species in "Octoacanthella", "O. aethiopica".


Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard

The Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard ("Ancylocranium somalicum") is a species of amphisbaenian in the family Amphisbaenidae. The species is found in Somalia and Ethiopia.


COX20

Cytochrome c oxidase assembly factor COX20 is a protein that in humans is encoded by the COX20 gene. This gene encodes a protein that plays a role in the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase, an important component of the respiratory pathway. Mutations in this gene can cause mitochondrial complex IV deficiency. There are multiple pseudogenes for this gene. Alternative splicing results in multiple transcript variants.
Structure.
The "COX20" gene is located on the q arm of chromosome 1 at position 44 and it spans 9,757 base pairs. The "COX20" gene produces a 13.3 kDa protein composed of 118 amino acids. It contains two transmembrane helices and localizes to the mitochondrial membrane.
Function.
The "COX20" gene encodes for a protein required for the assembly of cytochrome c oxidase (complex IV). Complex IV is the terminal complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain which is required for catalyzing the oxidation of cytochrome c by molecular oxygen. COX20 is known to act as a chaperone protein during the early stages of COX2 (cytochrome c oxidase subunit II) maturation which leads to the stabilization of the protein. By presenting COX2 to the metallochaperones SCO1 and SCO2, they help facilitate the incorporation of the mature COX2 into the complex IV holoenzyme assembly. However, it has been known that COX20 has no influence on transcription or translation of COX2 or any other genes. The knockdown of the protein COX20 has been shown to result in reduced respiratory capacity and the accumulation of respiratory chain intermediates.
Clinical significance.
Variants of "COX20" have been associated with the mitochondrial Complex IV deficiency, a deficiency in an enzyme complex of the mitochondrial respiratory chain which catalyzes the oxidation of cytochrome c utilizing molecular oxygen. The deficiency is characterized by heterogeneous phenotypes ranging from isolated myopathy to severe multisystem disease affecting several tissues and organs. Other Clinical Manifestations include hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, hepatomegaly and liver dysfunction, hypotonia, muscle weakness, exercise intolerance, developmental delay, delayed motor development and mental retardation. A homozygous mutation of c.154A-C in the "COX20" gene has been found to result in reduced COX20, cytochrome c oxidase, and decreased activity. Other mutations have included a homozygous T52P.
Interactions.
COX20 has co-complex interactions with proteins such as TMEM177, COX2, SCO1, COA6, and others in a COX2 and COX18 dependent manner.


List of authors of South African animal taxa

List of authors of South African animal taxa is a list of authors who have described or revised South African animals, and the standard forms used for identification of those authors in the zoological literature.
The complete entry for each author is given on a single line showing the standard form for their name, name link, dates and other names by which they have been known. Following this comes a list of major groups they have worked on. In cases where there is more than one person who may be referred to by a name, one or more dates of publication may help with disambiguation.
The major groups are.
The dates given are those of birth and death where one or both are available. If neither is known, a date on which the author is known to have published a name (usually the earliest, and optionally also the latest, if more than one is known) is given preceded by 'fl.' ("floruit").
External links.
Wikispecies catalogue of taxon authorities


Agelasida

Agelasida is an order of sea sponges in the class Demospongiae.


Blennorrhoea

Blennorrhoea aka blennorrhagia or myxorrhoea ('blenno' mucus, 'rrhoea' flow), is a medical term denoting an excessive discharge of watery mucus, especially from the urethra or the vagina, and also used in ophthalmology for an abnormal discharge from the eye, but now regarded as a synonym for conjunctivitis and accordingly rarely used.
Inclusion blennorrhoea aka chlamydial conjunctivitis or swimming pool conjunctivitis, is a condition affecting infants born to women infected with inclusion conjunctivitis of the urogenital tract, frequently caused by "Chlamydia trachomatis", a sexually transmitted organism and often going unnoticed as a mild infection. Such infants may develop acute neonatal conjunctivitis within a few days of birth, and smears from their eyes reveal the presence of characteristic inclusion bodies. If left untreated the infection may persist for 3–12 months and heal, but could result in permanent scarring of the conjunctiva.


Bursicon

Bursicon (from the Greek "bursikos", pertaining to tanning) is an insect hormone which mediates tanning in the cuticle of adult flies.
Structure.
The molecular structure of the hormone has been characterized rather recently. Bursicon is a 30 kDa neurohormone heterodimeric protein which is encoded by CG13419 gene and made of two cysteine knot subunits, Burs-α and Burs-β. It is nondialyzable and loses its activity in alcohol, acetone, some proteases and trichloroacetate, renaturates after adding ammonium sulfate.
Function.
Bursicon plays a very important role in insect wing expansion during the last step of metamorphosis: maturation of the wing. At this time, the newly emerged adult removes dead cells of larval tissues. In "Drosophila" and "Lucilia cuprina" fly, the epidermis of wing is detached by extensive cell death apoptosis, at the time of wing spreading.
The cells that undergo death are removed from the wing cuticle and are absorbed into the thoracic cavity through wing veins. Subsequent wing maturation is disrupted if the process of cell death is inhibited or delayed somehow.
Bursicon is released just after eclosion and induces epidermis cell death. At the same time it hastens the tanning reaction, and hardens the newly expanded cuticle of the wing.
Where the peptide is found.
Bursicon is found in different insects and considered to be unspecific. It is produced by median neurosecretory cells in the brain, circulates in blood and stored in corpora cardiaca.
The structure of the protein has been investigated well in fruit fly ("Drosophila melanogaster"), and in some insect species bursicon gene has been sequenced, including the mosquito ("Anopheles gambiae"), cricket ("Gryllus bimaculatus"), locust ("Locusta migratoria"), and mealworm ("Tenebrio molitor").
The hormone is also present in the silkworm ("Bombyx mori"), blow fly ("Calliphora erythrocephala"), and cockroach ("Periplaneta americana").
Effect of absence.
Firstly, mutants of "Drosophila melanogaster" that lack bursicon gene can not spread their wings after eclosion. Secondly, the elongated abdomen shape of a newly eclosed fly remains for a much longer period of time. In addition, the abdomen of a fly is less melanized.
Using hybridization and immunocytochemistry it has been shown that bursicon is colocalized with Crustacean Cardioactive Peptide (CCAP). CCAP is responsible for activation of the ecdysis motor program. Mutant flies that had a defect in CCAP neurons also couldn’t express bursicon.


Jenkinidae

Jenkinidae is a family of sea sponges in the order Leucosolenida.


Grantia compressa

Grantia compressa is a species of calcareous sponge belonging to the family Grantiidae. It is a very common species of rocky shores along the Atlantic coasts of Europe from France northwards.
It appears as flattened, purse-shaped vases up to 5 cm long with slit-like oscula at the ends, hanging downwards attached by a stalk to rocky overhangs, often in groups among seaweed. This is a pale sponge ranging in color from grey to yellow. The body of sponge looks like a branching tree with slender. Vaselike cylinder of 5to6 mm in diameter. The entire body of the sponge is pierced by numerous holes, the inhalent pores or ostia. The free end of each cylinder communicates outside by large osculum. The osculum is encircled by oscular fringe. Asexual reproduction by regeneration and budding . Development is indirect with free swimming ambhiplastula larva and self-fertilize in the cells surrounding the Ostia. The zygote develops there for a few days prior to being expelled via the Osculum into the water. Grantia compressa also has only 2 cell layers (the ectoderm and the endoderm) and they have no nervous tissue.


Eleanor Carothers

Estrella Eleanor Carothers (4 December 1882 – 1957), known primarily as Eleanor Carothers, was an American zoologist, geneticist, and cytologist known for her work with grasshoppers. She discovered important physical evidence for the concept of independent assortment, vital to modern understanding of genetics.
Early life and education.
Carothers was born on December 4, 1882 in Newton, Kansas. She studied at the Nickerson Normal College and went on to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree and her Master's degree from the University of Kansas, in 1911 and 1912 respectively.
Research career.
She began her career as a Pepper Fellow at Pennsylvania State University, where she stayed from 1913–1914. That year, she was appointed an assistant professor of zoology there, and graduated with her Ph.D. in 1916. Carothers stayed on as assistant professor until 1936, though she also had an overlapping appointment as an independent investigator for the Marine Biological Laboratory, which lasted from 1920 until 1941. In 1936 she moved to the University of Iowa and was a research associate there until 1941. Her work there was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation.
While studying and teaching at the University of Pennsylvania, Carothers traveled to the southern and southwestern regions of the United States on research expeditions, held in 1915 and 1919. During her time at the University of Iowa, she completed her most important work, in the field of genetics and cytology, using grasshopper embryos to study the independent assortment of heteromorphic homologous chromosomes. This was the first physical evidence that homologous chromosomes separated independently during meiosis, which is one source of genetic variation in sexually-reproducing organisms.
Later life.
Carothers retired from the University of Iowa in 1941 and moved from Iowa to Kingman, Kansas, where she continued to conduct research for the Woods Hole Marine Biological Lab. In 1954, she moved to Murdock, Kansas, where she lived and researched for the remainder of her life. Carothers died in 1957 at the age of 75.
Awards and honors.
In 1921, Carothers was awarded the Ellen Richards Research Prize by the Naples Table Association. She received a starred entry for her work on grasshopper embryos in the fourth edition of "American Men of Science", published in 1927, a rare and significant award for a female scientist at the time. Carothers was also elected to the National Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia.


Patricia Louise Dudley

Patricia Louise (Pat) Dudley (1929–2004) was an American zoologist specializing in research of copepods. An early pioneer using an electron microscope to study copepod organs and tissues, she taught at Barnard College for 35 years and served as Chair of the Biological Sciences department. Dudley was a National Science Foundation faculty fellow. She donated funds to establish the Patricia L. Dudley Endowment at Friday Harbor Labs, where she conducted research.
Early life and education.
Dudley was born on May 22, 1929, the daughter of David C. and Carolyn (Latas) Dudley, in Denver, Colorado, where her father was a salesman for State and School Supply. Her father died in 1932, and her family lived in Colorado Springs with her maternal grandparents while she was a child. She graduated from Colorado Springs High School in 1947.
In 1951, Dudley graduated with a B.S. from the University of Colorado, where she studied under the direction of Robert William Pennak, a specialist in limnology. She received her Master of Science in 1953 at the University of Washington, completing her thesis on the subject of fauna present in four brooks in Boulder County, Colorado.
Dudley continued her education with Paul Louis Illg at the University of Washington, where she contributed research on aquatic organisms, including crustaceans known as copepods and invertebrates known as tunicates, throughout the various stages of their development. In 1957 she defended her thesis, "Development of Notodelphyid Copepods and the Application of Larval Characteristics to the Systematics of some Species from the Northeastern Pacific".
Career.
Following her graduate studies, she joined the faculty of Columbia University in 1959, teaching zoology at Barnard College, a position she held until her retirement in 1994. She spent two years (in 1969 and 1971) as an investigator in the Systematics Ecology Program at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute Marine Biology Lab. In 1979 she became Chair of the Biological Sciences department at Barnard.
She was among the first to use electron microscopy to study the fine structures of copepod organs and tissues.
Dudley served as Secretary of the Invertebrate Biology section of the American Society of Zoologists from 1973–1976. She also was a member of the American Institute of Biological Science, the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, and the American Microscopical Society.
During her time as a graduate student in Washington, she worked at Friday Harbor Laboratories, as an instructor in marine invertebrate zoology. She often spent summers there, teaching and continuing copepod research. She left a bequest establishing The Patricia L. Dudley Endowment to support "research or scholarships for the study of systematics, the structure of marine organisms, or for marine invertebrate ecology". She directed that fund recipients spend significant time at Friday Harbor, and added her desire that "findings contribute to the understanding of evolutionary relationships".
Dudley died on September 30, 2004, in Seattle, Washington. Dudley's papers are archived in the Special Collections of the University of Washington Libraries. Her obituary in "Monoculus: Copepod Newsletter" described her as "one of [copepodology]'s clever innovators" and "a knowledgeable, serious, and tireless teacher".
Honors.
Dudley was named a National Science Foundation faculty fellow in 1965.


Lichnomesopsyche

Lichnomesopsyche is an extinct genus of mesopsychid mecopteran which existed in what is now China during the middle Jurassic period. It was found in the Daohugou Bed. It was named by Ren Dong, Conrad C. Labandeira and Shih ChungKun in 2010.


Mountain Monsters

Mountain Monsters is an American cryptozoology-themed reality television series airing on Travel Channel. It originally premiered on June 22, 2013 on Destination America. The series follows the Appalachian Investigators of Mysterious Sightings (A.I.M.S.) team, a band of six native West Virginian hunters and trappers, as they research and track unidentified creatures in the Appalachian Mountains. There is also a side-series titled "Mountain Monsters: By The Fire" that features extra facts and never-before-seen footage from different episodes of the series.
The series aired for five seasons on Destination America, from . On after an 18-month hiatus, it was announced that the series was renewed for a sixth season and would be moving to Travel Channel. The new season premiered on April 2 2021
On 2021 it was announced that a TV special titled "Mountain Monsters: A the new" premiere on April 4 2021. It was also announced that the seventh season will premiere on January 10, 2021. It was announced shortly after the premiere of Season 7, that new episodes would only release exclusively on the Discovery+ streaming platform for the rest of the season.
Premise.
The A.I.M.S. team is a self-styled, cryptozoology research team founded by West Virginians John "Trapper" Tice, Jeff Headlee, and Willy McQuillian. Their goal is to prove the existence of mysterious creatures such as Bigfoot, Werewolf, Hellhound, Lizard Man, and Mothman. The episodes normally begin with Trapper, Jeff, Huckleberry, and Buck discussing the specific creature they are hunting on the way to the location where the creature was spotted. They then meet with eyewitnesses who have encountered the creature, giving the team an idea of where to conduct an initial night investigation to find evidence of the creature being in the area.
After concluding their initial night hunt, Willy and Wild Bill begin work on a trap to contain the creature while the rest of the team searches for more evidence, meeting with additional eyewitnesses who normally possess photographic, video, or audio evidence of the creature. After testing the completed trap the team begins the final night hunt.
The creatures are, supposedly, occasionally caught on camera, such as the Cave Creature. They are also shown as a digital rendering that appears before and after commercial breaks. The team attempts to capture these creatures (with Hogzilla, three Devil Dogs and two wolves from the tygart valley being their most recent trapped creatures). In some instances, the team places trail cameras and/or infrared camcorders near the trap to capture photographic evidence of the creature in question. They have caught fleeting, blurry images of what they claim to be the Grassman, Shadow Creature, Cherokee Death Cat, and the Black Wolf on camera, to name but a few. More recently a recurring rogue team has spied on and sabotaged the A.I.M.S. team and their investigations. But the Rogue Team will not have much involvement in the show's 6th season, which will focus more on the team hunting monsters like in the earlier seasons.
Production.
Prior to the season six premiere, John "Trapper" Tice announced that he would have limited involvement due to a myriad of serious health issues. He made a minor appearance in the first episode of the season where he was visited by Huckleberry and Buck to whom he expressed the severity of his situation. He made one more brief appearance in the season's eighth episode. Tice died on December 16, 2019.
Series overview.
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"Finding Bigfoot" "feud".
On April 5, 2015, Matt Moneymaker of "Finding Bigfoot" tweeted that "Mountain Monsters" was scripted and the A.I.M.S. team were merely actors. This led to "Trapper" John Tice directly responding and referring to Moneymaker's show as "Losing Bigfoot". The online feud has continued with "Finding Bigfoot" castmember Cliff Barackman chiming in that the show is "fiction" and the official "Finding Bigfoot" Twitter account calling "Mountain Monsters" a "fake-hoax" show in regards to the series' April 2017 return. On May 30, 2017, the official A.I.M.S. Brasil Twitter account responded by saying that "Finding Bigfoot" "do not find anything".


Homidia laha

Homidia laha is a species of slender springtail in the family Entomobryidae.


Diaphragmatic breathing

Diaphragmatic breathing, or deep breathing, is breathing that is done by contracting the diaphragm, a muscle located horizontally between the thoracic cavity and abdominal cavity. Air enters the lungs as the diaphragm strongly contracts, but unlike during traditional relaxed breathing ("eupnea") the intercostal muscles of the chest do minimal work in this process. The belly also expands during this type of breathing to make room for the contraction of the diaphragm.
Explanation.
According to the National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health, "12.7 percent of American adults [have] used deep-breathing exercises... for health purposes," which it describes as follows, "Deep breathing involves slow and deep inhalation through the nose, usually to a count of 10, followed by slow and complete exhalation for a similar count. The process may be repeated 5 to 10 times, several times a day."
According to the University of Texas Counseling and Mental Health Center, "Diaphragmatic breathing allows one to take normal breaths while maximizing the amount of oxygen that goes into the bloodstream. It is a way of interrupting the 'Fight or Flight' response and triggering the body's normal relaxation response." They provide a video demonstration.
Diaphragmatic breathing has a physiological effect on the body by assisting in blood flow, lowering pulse rate and blood pressure "by improving vagal activity and reducing the sympathetic reaction."
In complementary and alternative medicine.
Some practitioners of complementary and alternative medicine believe that particular kinds of breathing they identify as diaphragm breathing can be used to bring about health benefits.
Deep breathing exercises are sometimes used as a form of relaxation, that, when practiced regularly, may lead to the relief or prevention of symptoms commonly associated with stress, which may include high blood pressure, headaches, stomach conditions, depression, anxiety, and others.
Due to the lung expansion being lower (inferior) on the body as opposed to higher up (superior), it is referred to as 'deep' and the higher lung expansion of rib cage breathing is referred to as 'shallow'. The actual volume of air taken into the lungs with either means varies.
Relation to yoga and meditation.
Hatha Yoga, tai chi and meditation traditions draw a clear distinction between diaphragmatic breathing and abdominal breathing or belly breathing. The more specific technique of diaphragmatic breathing is said to be more beneficial.
Fitness and Wellness.
This deep breathing technique has an effect on the physiology of stress, a process that can be detrimental to a "person's physical and/or mental health". Stress can increase the secretion of cortisol which leads to a domino effect of increasing respiratory rate, heart rate and systolic blood pressure. Diaphragmatic breathing helps decrease the cortisol levels through its technique of expanding the lungs into the diaphragm in order to decrease respiratory rate by developing a pattern of inhalation and exhalation. According to WHO, there is an increasing cost of psychosocial counselling and medication to aid in the treatment of stress but researchers have found that diaphragmatic breathing could provide a cost-efficient and accessible way of helping those combat high stress.
There is also evidence that diaphragmatic breathing has an effect in managing and reducing symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), a chronic condition with symptoms of "abdominal cramping, discomfort or pain, bloating, loose or frequent stools and constipation, and can significantly reduce the quality of life." This breathing technique helps increase a balance in the sympathetic and parasympathetic systems. A case study on a patient with IBS has shown that it helps relieve discomfort of the bowel through the increasing blood flow that enters the abdomen thus warming it to relax the body and relieve pain in the stomach.
Benefits.
The use of diaphragmatic breathing is commonly practiced, especially in those patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, to improve a variety of factors such as pulmonary function, cardiorespiratory fitness, respiratory muscle length, and respiratory muscle strength. Specifically, diaphragmatic breathing exercise is essential to asthmatics since breathing in these patients is of the thoracic type in association with decreased chest expansion and chest deformity as a result of a deformed sternum like pectus excavatum (funnel chest); a shortened diaphragm, intercostals and accessory muscles from prolonged spasm causing stenosis of the major airways leading to an abnormal respiratory pattern.
Relation to music.
Diaphragmatic breathing is also widely considered essential for best possible singing performance. Diaphragmatic breathing also allows wind instrumentalists to maximise intake of air, minimising the number of breaths required for progressing players.


Panniculus carnosus

The panniculus carnosus is a part of the subcutaneous tissues in vertebrates. It is a layer of striated muscle deep to the panniculus adiposus. In humans the platysma muscle of the neck, palmaris brevis in the hand, and the dartos muscle in the scrotum are described as a discrete muscle of the panniculus carnosus. Some of the muscles of facial expression in the head are part of the panniculus carnosus. In other parts of the body, the layer is vestigial, and may be absent or may exist only as microscopic, disconnected fibers.
In other animals, the panniculus carnosus is more extensive. A grazing animal may twitch the panniculus carnosus to frustrate the attempts of a bird to perch on its back. This is known as "twitching the withers". For another example, the panniculus carnosus in the echidna covers almost its entire body, enabling it to change its shape to a certain degree, most characteristically by rolling into a ball and presenting its spines to a potential predator.


Digastric muscle

The digastric muscle (also digastricus) (named "digastric" as it has two 'bellies') is a small muscle located under the jaw. The term "digastric muscle" refers to this specific muscle. However, other muscles that have two separate muscle bellies include the suspensory muscle of duodenum, omohyoid, occipitofrontalis.
It lies below the body of the mandible, and extends, in a curved form, from the mastoid notch to the mandibular symphysis. It belongs to the suprahyoid muscles group.
A broad aponeurotic layer is given off from the tendon of the digastric muscle on either side, to be attached to the body and greater cornu of the hyoid bone; this is termed the suprahyoid aponeurosis.
Structure.
The digastricus (digastric muscle) consists of two muscular bellies united by an intermediate rounded tendon.
The two bellies of the digastric muscle have different embryological origins, and are supplied by different cranial nerves.
Each person has a right and left digastric muscle. In most anatomical discussions, the singular is used to refer to a muscle, even when each person actually has two of that muscle—one on the right side, and another on the left. For example, we speak of the deltoid, even though there is one deltoid in each shoulder. Likewise, we speak of the digastric even though there is a right and left digastric muscle.
Posterior belly.
The posterior belly, longer than the anterior belly, arises from the mastoid notch which is on the inferior surface of the skull, medial to the mastoid process of the temporal bone. It lies posterior to the parotid gland and the facial nerve. The mastoid notch is a deep groove between the mastoid process and the styloid process. The mastoid notch is also referred to as the digastric groove or the digastric fossa.
The posterior belly is supplied by the digastric branch of facial nerve.
The digastric muscle stretches between the mastoid process of the cranium to the mandible at the chin, and part-way between, it becomes a tendon which passes through a tendinous pulley attached to the hyoid bone. It originates from the second pharyngeal arch.
Anterior belly.
The anterior belly arises from a depression on the inner side of the lower border of the mandible called the digastric fossa of mandible, close to the symphysis, and passes downward and backward.
The anterior body is supplied by the trigeminal via the mylohyoid nerve, a branch of the inferior alveolar nerve, itself a branch of the mandibular division of the trigeminal nerve. It originates from the first pharyngeal arch.
Intermediate tendon.
The two bellies end in an intermediate tendon which perforates the stylohyoideus muscle, and is held in connection with the side of the body and the greater cornu of the hyoid bone by a fibrous loop, which is sometimes lined by a mucous sheath.
Variations.
Variations are numerous.
The posterior belly may arise partly or entirely from the styloid process, or be connected by a muscle slip to the middle or inferior constrictor; the anterior belly may be double, or extra slips from this belly may pass to the jaw or mylohyoideus or decussate with a similar slip on opposite side; anterior belly may be absent and posterior belly inserted into the middle of the jaw or hyoid bone.
The tendon may pass in front, more rarely behind the stylohoideus. The mentohyoideus muscle passes from the body of hyoid bone to chin.
Triangles.
The digastric muscle divides the anterior triangle of the neck into three smaller triangles.
Function.
The digastric muscle is involved in any complex jaw action such as speaking, swallowing, chewing and breathing.
When the digastric muscle contracts, it acts to elevate the hyoid bone.
If the hyoid is being held in place (by the infrahyoid muscles), it will tend to depress the mandible (open the mouth).
Other animals.
The digastric muscles are present in a variety of animals, specific attachment sites may vary. For example, in the orangutan, the posterior digastric attaches to the mandible rather than the hyoid.


C5orf34

C5orf34 (chromosome 5 open reading frame 34) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the "C5orf34" gene (5p12).
C5orf34 is conserved in mammals, birds and reptiles with the most distant ancestor being the Burmese python, "Python bivittatus". The C5orf34 protein contains two mammalian conserved domains: DUF 4520 and DUF 4524. The protein is also predicted to have a polo-box domain (PBD) of polo-like kinase 4 (plk4), which has predicted conservation in distant orthologs from the clade Aves.
Gene.
"C5orf34" is located on the negative DNA strand of the short arm of chromosome 6 at locus 12. The gene is 28,744 base pairs long and spans from base pair 43,486,701 to base pair 43,515,445. The gene produces a single transcript of 2,540 base pairs long and encodes for 638 amino acids.
Gene neighborhood.
The gene "PAIP1" is found on the negative strand just downstream of "C5orf34" and is a member of the polyadenylate-binding family. "PAIP1" extends from base pairs 43,526,267 to 43,557,419. "CCL28" is found downstream on the negative strand and extends from base pairs 43378052 to 43413837.
Gene expression.
There indication of multiple sources that suggest, in humans, C5orf34 protein is expressed non-ubiquitously in select tissues at low/moderate levels, with the most abundant expression in the tissues of the stomach, small intestine, testis, skeletal muscle and heart muscle. A study of Rho kinase inhibitor effect on primary cell lines also showed that C5orf34 is expressed in dermal fibroblasts of normal human tissue samples.
Promoter.
The promoter region for C5orf34 is predicted to be between 43515079 and 43515773 and spans 695 base pairs.
Protein.
C5orf34 consists of 638 amino acids, has a weight of 72.7 kDa and an isoelectric point of 7.77 in humans.
Function.
Although the precise function of C5orf34 in humans remains unknown, there is evidentiary support based on structure that it is involved in kinase-related cellular functions. In addition, C5orf34 is predicted to be nuclear, thus it has potential involvement in gene regulation and cell proliferation seeing as these are two primary signal transduction pathways involve nuclear kinase proteins.
Structure.
In humans, C5orf34 contains two domains of unknown function, DUF 4520 (pfam 15016) and DUF 4524 (pfam 150125), found between residues 6-153 and 444–539, respectively. The protein is serine and threonine rich. The charge distribution of the protein is equally dispersed per there are no positive or negative charge clusters sequestered within the protein.
The predicted secondary structures of the human protein were assessed by multiple bioinformatic tools. All of the programs predicted the protein's structure to consist of alpha helices, extended strands, random coils and beta turns. The Phyre2 server provided a predicted human protein structure that indicated domains of plk polo-box of the serine/threonine-protein kinase plk4. The server predicted with 96.8% confidence of 20% coverage (130 residues) of the protein. The coverage exhibited residues of the conserved polo-box domain and the two DUF domains. The protein was predominantly soluble, with an average hydrophobicity of -0.478.
Post-translational modifications.
There is extensive, predicted phosphorylation of C5orf34, with 32 phosphoserines and 7 phosphothreonines being conserved in orthologs of the human C5orf34 protein. This analysis indicates C5orf34 as a phosphoprotein and supports structural predictions of it being a kinase protein. The protein contains only one nuclear export signal residue, found at 481-L; however the NES score was found to be low at 0.515. Structural analysis of the protein indicated it was sequestered in the nucleus with an 87% probability.
Interacting proteins.
Databases of protein interactions (MINT, STRING, IntAct, and BioGRID) have not identified any interactions with C5orf34.
Homology and evolution.
"C5orf34" is highly conserved in primates and mammals and moderately conserved in reptiles. The furthest conserved ortholog is in "Python bivittatus", or the Burmese python. Below is a selected list of orthologs to demonstrate the homology of this gene with relation to the reference sequence in "Homo sapiens".
Orthologous space.
151 organisms have been predicted orthologs with "C5orf34". The most distant ortholog is the Burmese python, which diverged from humans 296 million years ago, indicating "C5orf34" developed in reptiles and birds.
Paralogous space.
There are no predicted paralogs for "C5orf34" in both humans and mice.
Conserved regions.
Multiple sequence alignments indicated amino acid residue conservation throughout the C5orf34 protein in an array of orthologs, with the most highly conserved regions at both N-terminus and C-terminus where the DUF are located. DUF 4520 (pfam 15016) was found to be conserved in C-terminus and DUF 4524 (pfam 150125) was found to be conserved in the N-terminus. Also, the polo-box domain of plk4 was found to be conserved in the C-terminus in a multiple sequence alignment in both strict and distant orthologs.


Pufferfish mating ritual

The white-spotted pufferfish ("Torquigener albomaculosus") is known for its unique and complex courtship display which involves creating large, geometric circles in the sand. These circles are constructed in an effort to attract females for copulation. Males must maintain their circles in order to attract a mate. A female will evaluate the structure and choose to mate with the males after evaluation and completion of other mating behaviors.
The geometric circles had first been noticed by divers in 1995, but it was not discovered that they were created by white-spotted pufferfish until 2013 when the species was discovered in the Ryukyu Islands. It is thought that white-spotted pufferfish are the only species of their kind to engage in this type of mating ritual.
Discovery.
The white-spotted pufferfish is a relatively small (10 cm) fish that was named in 2014 by a research group for the National Museum of Nature and Science. The fish has a brownish-yellow body with white spots and the ventral part of the body is translucent. The study specimens were collected off the south coast of Amami-oshima Island in the Ryukyu Islands. Naming this species took the genus "Torquigener" to a total of 20 species.
The species was first discovered to be the manufacturers of highly ordered, large, circular sand structures on the sea floor in 2013. These structures have been observed by local SCUBA divers since 1995, although it was not yet known how they were formed. In 2012 an underwater photographer observed a pufferfish forming this structure. "Torquigener albomaculosus" is thought to be the only species of pufferfish to engage in this behaviour.
Description.
These structures are found at depths of 10–30 m on the seabed off the south coast of the Amami-oshima Island. These circular structures are geometrically ordered with a diameter of 2 meters and are formed in 7–9 days. The outer ring of the nest consists of a series of mountains and groves and the center is an irregular maze like pattern. The center is formed with very fine sand particles with respect to the outer portion. It is now thought that they are the most ordered structures created by any fish.
There's a set number of steps the fish must follow in order to complete the structure. The fish begins making the structure by forming a simple circle shape in the sand using its belly. Once this is complete the fish makes the valleys and peaks by waving its fins while swimming in a straight line from the outside to the inside of the nest. The center is formed by either inside to the outside or outside to inside movements, while waving its anal fin to form the irregular pattern. Through these movements very fine sand particles are moved to the center. Once the structure is completed, it is maintained until spawning by continuing the same inward-outward movements. After spawning the structure gradually deteriorates since maintenance behavior is halted.
Purpose of the "mystery circles".
Female choice.
This behavior is an example of a mating ritual, because it is used to attract mates and raise their young. It is assumed that the nest is important in female choice, however, there is no definitive factors known to influence the females choice. There are a number of possible factors in which to consider such as, size and number of peaks/valleys, size of circle, sand composition and color. This is also believed to be the most geometrically ordered structure created by any fish. There is evidence that females my be able to predict male body size, and thus, health of the fish from the structure formed. Larger males were shown to push sand further than smaller males, thus making larger spaces between peaks of the outer ring structure than those of a smaller males nest. Females may be able to recognize these difference and assess who she wants to mate with.
In addition to this, two more courtship behaviors are carried out by the males before spawning. When females approached the nest the males would stir up the sand in the nest, and then performed a rush and retreat behavior to the females. It is hypothesized that the stirring of the sand is to show females the quality and quantity of the sand in the structure. For the rush and repeat behavior, the males would move to the outer portion of the nest then rush towards the females, then retreat back to the outer ring. After these courtship behaviors, the female will decide whether or not to spawn.
Mating.
Spawning occurs from spring to summer. If a female decides to mate after the male performs the courtship behaviors, she will descend to the floor of the nest and the male will approach her. Mating occurs in pairs and they will press their bodies together and vibrate until the female releases her gametes in the nest. Males may mate with multiple females in one day.
Parental care.
After mating the females leave the nest and the males stay. The males will no longer perform maintenance on the nest once the eggs are deposited. Males will care for the eggs and protect them until they hatch. They will chase off predators or other rival males that come to the nest. Eggs hatch around 5 days after mating and the nest slowly deteriorates over this time. After hatching males leave and will not reuse the same nest again.


Hydnophora

Hydnophora is a genus of large polyp stony corals in the family Merulinidae.
List of species.
According to World Register of Marine Species :


Fissure

In anatomy, a fissure (Latin "fissura", plural "fissurae") is a groove, natural division, deep furrow, elongated cleft, or tear in various parts of the body. It is also generally called a sulcus, but this term can also reffer specifically to the analagous brain structure.
Abnormal fissure.
Fissure can also refer to an unnatural tract or ulcer, most commonly found in the anus and called an anal fissure.


Masked owl

Masked owl or masked-owl refers to various owls in the genus Tyto, including:


Corneocyte

Corneocytes are terminally differentiated keratinocytes and compose most if not all of the stratum corneum, the outermost part of the epidermis. They are regularly replaced through desquamation and renewal from lower epidermal layers, making them an essential part of the skin barrier property.
Structure.
Corneocytes are keratinocytes without nuclei and cytoplasmic organelles. They contain a highly insoluble cornified envelope within the plasma membrane, and lipids (fatty acids, sterols and ceramides) released from lamellar bodies within the epidermis. The corneocytes are interlocked with each other and organized as vertical columns of 10–30 cells to form the stratum corneum.
Corneocytes in the lower part of the stratum corneum are bridged together through specialized junctions (corneodesmosomes). Those junctions disintegrate as corneocytes migrate toward the surface of the skin and result in desquamation. At the same time, as those loosened junctions encounter more hydration, they will expand and connect together, forming potential entry pores for microorganisms.
The stratum corneum can absorb three times its weight in water but if its water content drops below 10% it no longer remains pliable and cracks.
Formation.
Corneocytes are keratinocytes in their last stage of differentiation. Keratinocytes in the stratum basale of the epidermis will multiply through cell division and migrate toward the skin surface. During that migration keratinocytes will undergo multiple stages of differentiation to finally become corneocytes once they reach the stratum corneum. As corneocytes are continually eliminated through desquamation or through rubbing, skin washing or detergents they are also continually formed through keratinocyte
differentiation.
Corneocytes, also referred to as squames (from Latin "squama", meaning a “thin flake” or “scales”) are terminally differentiated, anucleated cells of keratinocyte lineage that constitute the majority of stratum corneum, the outermost layer of the epidermis. Size of a corneocyte is approximately 30-50 µm in diameter and 1 µm thick, and the average area of corneocytes at the surface of the skin reaches approximately 1000 µm2, but may vary according to anatomical location, age and external environmental conditions such as ultraviolet (UV) irradiation. Major constituents of corneocytes are keratin intermediate filaments organized in parallel bundles to form a matrix to give rigidity to the overall structure of the skin.
Functions.
Layers of corneocytes produce high mechanical strength which allows epidermis of the skin to perform its function as a physical, chemical and immunological barrier. For example, corneocytes act as UV barrier by reflecting the scattered UV radiation, protecting cells inside the body from apoptosis and DNA damage. As corneocytes are essentially dead cells, they are not prone to viral attacks, though invisible microabrasions may cause permeability. Colonization of pathogens in the skin is prevented via complete turnovers of corneocyte layer every 2–4 weeks. Corneocytes are also capable of absorbing and storing small amounts of water to keep the skin hydrated and maintain its flexibility.
Natural moisturizing factor.
Corneocytes contain small molecules called natural moisturizing factors, which absorb small amounts of water into the corneocytes thereby hydrating the skin. The natural moisturizing factor is a collection of water-soluble compounds produced from the degradation of histidine-rich proteins called filaggrin, which are responsible for aggregating keratin filaments to form keratin bundles that maintain the rigid structure of the cells in stratum corneum. When filaggrin is degraded, urea, pyrrolidone carboxylic acid (1,2), glutamic acid and other amino acids are produced. These are collectively referred to as the ‘natural moisturizing factor’ of the skin. The components of the natural moisturizing factor absorb water from the atmosphere to ensure that the superficial layers of the stratum corneum stay hydrated. As they are water-soluble themselves, excessive water contact may leach them and inhibit their normal functions which is why prolonged contact with water makes the skin drier. The intercellular lipid layer helps prevent the loss of natural moisturizing factor by sealing the outside of each corneocyte.
Extracellular structures.
Although stratum corneum is mostly composed of corneocytes, other supporting structures are present in the extracellular matrix to assist in the function of stratum corneum. These include:
Lamellar bodies.
Lamellar bodies are tubular or ovoid-shaped secretory organelles derived from the Golgi apparatus of keratinocytes in the upper part of stratum spinosum. From the site of production, lamellar bodies migrate to the top of the stratum granulosum and then into the intercellular domain of the stratum corneum to extrude their contents, which are predominantly lipids. The lipids ultimately form the lamellar lipid bilayer that surrounds corneocytes and also contribute to permeability barrier homeostasis of the stratum corneum. The homeostasis function is regulated by the calcium gradient in the epidermis. Usually the calcium level is very low in stratum corneum, but high in stratum granulosum. Once the permeability barrier is disrupted an influx of water occurs in the stratum corneum, which in turn increases the calcium levels in the stratum corneum but decreases it in the stratum granulosum. This perturbation induces lamellar bodies to undergo exocytosis and secrete lipids such as glycosylceramides, cholesterol and phospholipids to retrieve the permeability barrier function of stratum corneum.
Intercellular lipids (lamellar lipid bilayer).
Corneocytes are embedded in a matrix of specialized lipids that constitute approximately 20% of the stratum corneum volume. The major constituents of the intercellular lipids in stratum corneum include ceramides (30-50% by mass), cholesterol (25% by mass) and free fatty acids (10-20% by mass), mostly produced by lamellar bodies. These hydrophobic components fuse together to form multiple bilayers of lipids between corneocytes to act as the principal barrier to the transcutaneous movement of water and electrolytes.
Cornified envelope.
The cornified envelope is a protein shell that surrounds each corneocyte. Its thickness varies between 15 and 20 nm. The highly insoluble cornified envelope is formed by cross-linking of soluble precursor proteins such as loricrin, involucrin, envoplakin and periplakin.
Corneodesmosomes and desquamation.
The overall integrity of the stratum corneum is maintained by specialized intercellular proteins called corneodesmosomes. Three adhesive proteins desmoglein-1, desmocollin-1 and corneodesmosin compose the corneodesmosomes and provide the cohesive forces to connect the adjacent corneocytes. The components of the corneodesmosomes are gradually degraded by the enzymes that digest proteins, as the corneocytes are pushed towards the surface of the skin. As a result of the weakened corneodesmosomes in the outer skin surface, the uppermost layers of corneocytes get exfoliated through frictional forces such as rubbing or washing. This process is a normal protective mechanism of the skin to prevent pathogens from colonizing the skin, and is referred to as desquamation. In healthy skin, desquamation is an invisible process and the stratum corneum is turned over completely within 2–4 weeks, while maintaining the tissue thickness.
Dry skin (xerosis).
Dry skin (xerosis) involves increased thickness of stratum corneum (hyperkeratosis), which may occur due to various reasons including aging, humidity of the environment or UV irradiation. The accumulation of corneocyte clumps on the surface of the skin may lead to abnormal detachment of squames as visible clusters. Xerosis is common, especially in elderly individuals which may be due to decreased quantity of free amino acids, a constituent of natural moisturizing factor. Consequently, many moisturizers in the markets incorporate the components of the natural moisturizing factor as well as keratin and elastin.
Localization.
Corneocytes are part of the stratum corneum of the epidermis and contribute the barrier function of the skin.


Ciliary arteries

The ciliary arteries are divisible into three groups, the long posterior, short posterior, and the anterior.


Cryptoplax iredalei

Cryptoplax iredalei, the Iredale's fleshy-chiton, is a species of chiton in the genus "Cryptoplax".
Description.
The typical shell-length of "Cryptoplax iredalei" can reach about . Body is narrow and flattened, oval shaped, with 8 shell sections or valves. The basic color is brown to red-brown, sometimes with light and dark bands.
Distribution and habitat.
This species is endemic to southeastern and southwestern Australia. These chitons can be found subtidally under rocks and stones.
Etymology.
The name honours Tom Iredale.


Voragonema

Voragonema is a genus of hydrozoans belonging to the family Rhopalonematidae. The genus comprises four species. Unlike most hydromedusae, these do not have a sessile stage. Rather, they spend their entire lives in the water column as plankton. Centripetal expansions protruding from the ring canal is a characteristic that separates this genus from other genera in the family Rhopalonematidae.


Chin shields

Chin shields or chinshields, genials scales on a snake are scales found on the underside of the snake's head towards the anterior and touching the lower labial scales.
Chin shields to the front of the snake (towards the snout) are called anterior chin shields while those to the rear of the snake (towards the tail) are called posterior chin shields.


Thomas Martyn (zoologist)

Thomas Martyn (probably 1760 – 1816) was an English zoologist, conchologist and entomologist. He should not be confused with the botanist of the same name.
Life.
Little is known about Thomas Martyn's life and nothing about his parents, his wife and his children. It is believed that he was born in 1760 in Coventry. Later he lived at several addresses in London. At 10 Great Marlborough Street, Westminster he established an academy for the painting of Natural History. Besides English, Martyn spoke French and Latin.
Works.
In 1784, Martyn started his major work, "The Universal Conchologist", which he completed and published in London in 1784, dedicating it to the King. His publications included:
Martyn edited "Natural System of Colours" by Moses Harris, 1811, with a dedication to Benjamin West.


Palatine aponeurosis

Attached to the posterior border of the hard palate is a thin, firm, fibrous lamella called the palatine aponeurosis, which supports the muscles and gives strength to the soft palate.
It is thicker above and narrows on the way down where it becomes very thin and difficult to define.
Laterally, it is continuous with the pharyngeal aponeurosis.
It serves as the insertion for the tensor veli palatini and levator veli palatini, and the origin for the musculus uvulae, palatopharyngeus, and palatoglossus.
It provides support for the soft palate.


Gilbert L. Voss

Gilbert L. Voss (1918 – 23 January 1989) was an American conservationist and oceanographer. He was one of the main persons behind the establishment of John Pennekamp Coral Reef State Park in Florida and he spoke out successfully against several proposed real estate developments that might have threatened the ecology of the Florida Keys.
Early life and family.
Born in Hypoluxo, Florida in 1918, Voss was the son of early South Florida pioneers Captain Frederick C. Voss and his wife Lillie Pierce Voss, who was inducted into the Florida Women's Hall of Fame in 2012/2013. His father was a boat captain and steam engineer. Voss grew up on the water, sailing and fishing. He and his brothers, Frederick Jr. and Walter, were guides and captains in tuna and bill fishing tournaments throughout Florida and the Caribbean. Voss' wife, Nancy (1929–2020), was Research Professor Emeritus and Museum Director at Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences. His son, Robert Voss, is Curator, Department of Mammalogy, Division of Vertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History.
Scientific career.
He earned bachelor's and master's degrees from the University of Miami and a doctorate from George Washington University. He started at the University of Miami in 1951 and was at the university's Rosensteil School of Marine and Atmospheric Science when he retired in 1988. From 1962 to 1973 he was chairman of the biology division. He had been a research fellow at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, editor of the Bulletin of Marine Science and editor of Studies in Tropical Oceanography.
Professor Voss published over 200 items, including 73 book reviews, 16 editorials, and 124 research papers on such diverse topics as cephalopods, fishes, crustaceans, botany, zoogeography, history of oceanography, anthropology, archaeology, fisheries, and marine and deep sea biology. He authored or co-authored descriptions of two new families or subfamilies, 6 new genera and more than 65 new species or subspecies.
A teuthologist, Voss "served the leading role in American cephalopod research for nearly 40 years". Michael J. Sweeney and Clyde F. E. Roper wrote of Voss's contribution to the field:
So important is his influence on the resurgence of cephalopod systematic research, hardly a paper has been published in cephalopod systematics and zoogeography, and even other
aspects of cephalopod biology and fisheries, that doesn't cite at least one paper published by Voss. This has been the case for nearly 4 decades and it will continue to be so for many decades into the 21st Century.
Voss authored the books "Seashore Life of Florida and the Caribbean" and "Coral Reefs of Florida". A species of swimming crab, "Portunus vossi", is named after him.


Actaeopsis

Actaeopsis is an extinct genus of crab, containing the single species Actaeopsis whiltshirei from the Lower Cretaceous.


Fred Wanless

Fred R. Wanless (194015 December 2017) was a British arachnologist. Active in the field especially in the seventies and eighties of the 20th century, he described several dozen taxa, in particular among the spiders of the Salticidae family. Wanless played a significant role in the British Arachnological Society being its member in 1969–1973, 1974–1976 and 1986–1989, and Meetings Secretary in 1973–1978. From 1973 to 1988 he described 137 new species and 13 new genera.
Career.
He worked at the Natural History Museum in London, dealing with the arachnid collections and at the Australian Museum in Brisbane. At the Museum Wanless developed interest in African jumping spiders while editing Doug Clark’s notes and later working on their collaborative paper. During his work at the Museum he published a number of academic papers and supervised the studies of post-graduate students.
Wanless played a significant role in the British Arachnological Society being its member in 1969–1973, 1974–1976 and 1986–1989, and Meetings Secretary in 1973–1978. From 1973 to 1988 Wanless described 137 new species and 13 new genera. Among them only nine species (7%) have been later synonymized, while all his genera and the subfamily Spartaeinae remain valid.
Wanless traveled extensively as part of his research working notably in Borneo and Botswana. In 1977, he joined the Royal Geographical Society’s expedition to Gunung Mulu National Park in Sarawak where he collected and described local species. Wanless retired from the National History Museum in 2003, however he continued studying grasses and sedges publishing a guide on them in 2013. Upon retirement, Wanless became increasingly involved in the work of the Wren Group and the Lakehouse Lake project being a member of its committee.
Fred R. Wanless died on 15 December 2017.


Isjuminella

Isjuminella is a species of extinct, brachiopod, a marine rhynchonellate lampshell in the family Tetrarhynchiidae.
These stationary epifaunal suspension feeders lived in the Late Jurassic period.


Endocochlear potential

The endocochlear potential (EP; also called endolymphatic potential) is the positive voltage of 80-100mV seen in the cochlear endolymphatic spaces. Within the cochlea the EP varies in the magnitude all along its length. When a sound is presented, the endocochlear potential changes either positive or negative in the endolymph, depending on the stimulus. The change in the potential is called the summating potential.
With the movement of the basilar membrane, a shear force is created and a small potential is generated due to a difference in potential between the endolymph (scala media, +80 mV) and the perilymph (vestibular and tympanic ducts, -70 mV). EP is highest in the basal turn of the Cochlea and decreases in the magnitude towards the apex. EP is highly dependent on the metabolism and ionic transport.
An acoustic stimulus produces a simultaneous change in conductance at the membrane of the receptor cell. Because there is a steep gradient (150 mV), changes in membrane conductance are accompanied by rapid influx and efflux of ions which in turn produce the receptor potential. This is known as the Battery Hypothesis. The receptor potential for each hair cell causes a release of neurotransmitter at its basal pole, which elicits excitation of the afferent nerve fibres.


Warren Harmon Lewis

Warren Harmon Lewis (June 17, 1870 - July 3, 1964) was an American embryologist and cell biologist. He was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. He served as president of the American Association of Anatomists and the International Society for Experimental Cytology, and held honorary memberships in the Royal Microscopical Society in London and Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Rome.


Invisible rail

The invisible rail, Wallace's rail, or drummer rail ("Habroptila wallacii") is a large flightless rail that is endemic to the island of Halmahera in Northern Maluku, Indonesia, where it inhabits impenetrable sago swamps adjacent to forests. Its plumage is predominantly dark slate-grey, and the bare skin around its eyes, the long, thick bill, and the legs are all bright red. Its call is a low drumming sound which is accompanied by wing-beating. The difficulty of seeing this shy bird in its dense habitat means that information on its behaviour is limited.
Recorded dietary items include sago shoots and insects, and it also swallows small stones to help break up its food. It is apparently monogamous, but little else is known of its courtship behaviour. The only known nest was a shallow bowl in the top of a rotting tree stump that was lined with wood chips and dry leaves. The two young chicks were entirely covered in black down typical of precocial newly hatched rails. The estimated population of 3,500–15,000 birds and the restricted range mean that the invisible rail is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Habitat loss has occurred through the harvesting of sago and conversion of the wetlands to rice cultivation, and the rail is eaten by local people. The described nest was in an area frequented by local villagers, so the rail may be more adaptable to habitat changes than had been thought.
Taxonomy.
The rails are a large and very widespread family, with nearly 150 species. They are small to medium-sized, terrestrial or wetland birds, and their short bodies are often flattened laterally to help them move through dense vegetation. Island species readily become flightless; of 53 extant or recently extinct taxa restricted to islands, 32 have lost the ability to fly.
The invisible rail, first classified by English zoologist George Robert Gray in 1860, is the only member of the monotypic genus "Habroptila". The genus name "Habroptila" derives from the Greek , "delicate, pretty, splendid" and , "feather, wing"; "wallacii " commemorates British zoologist Alfred Russel Wallace. Local names include "soisa", "tibiales" and "rèie".
This rail is related to the New Guinea flightless rail, "Megacrex inepta", and the chestnut rail, "Eulabeornis castaneoventris", all three Australasian genera probably being derived from "Amaurornis" ancestors. Storrs Olson argued that the genus "Megacrex" was so similar to "Habroptila" that "Megacrex" should be considered a junior synonym of "Habroptila", resulting in two species in the genus. This was further lumped in Sidney Dillon Ripley's 1977 monograph of the Rallidae; he included "Habroptila" within the large genus "Rallus". This suggestion was not accepted by Gerlof Fokko Mees, who pointed out distinct differences in the shape and structure of the bill. A 2012 molecular phylogenetic analysis based on mitochondrial DNA sequence similarity found that "Habroptila" is part of evolutionary radiation within the broad genus "Gallirallus" that took place around 400,000 years ago in the region. A 2014 genetic study found that it formed a clade with the extinct Hawkins's rail of the Chatham Islands, New Zealand, the divergence was estimated to have taken place around 10 million years ago, this clade was in turn sister to "Gallirallus."
Description.
The invisible rail is a large, long, flightless bird. The adult has a mainly dark slate-grey body, dark brown plumage on the lower back, rump and wings, and a black uppertail. Its underparts are slightly paler slate-grey than the back, and the bare skin around the eye, the long, thick bill and the strong legs are bright red. It has a small spine at the bend of the wings. The sexes are identical in appearance; the plumage of fledged immature birds has not been described.
The invisible rail is superficially similar to the purple swamphen, "Porphyrio porphyrio", which has recently been found in Halmahera, but that species is larger, with a short, thick red bill and a red forehead shield; it also has purple underparts and a white undertail. The invisible rail is different from the Calayan rail, "Gallirallus calayanensis", in that it is larger and lacks the barred plumage of that species; there is no overlap between the ranges of the two species.
The call is a low drumming, accompanied by a "tuk, tuk, tuk" made with the wings. The nature of the vocalisation led to a local legend that the sound is made by the bird beating on a hollow tree or branch with its feet. Gerd Heinrich noted the local name "soisa", meaning drum, and described the call as being a subdued drumming "purre – purre – purre – purre – purre" which sometimes ends in a loud shrill scream. The bird also produced a dull hum similar to the voice of the banded pig ("Sus scrofa vittatus") and reminiscent of the call of the snoring rail ("Aramidopsis plateni"). Calling is most frequent in the early morning or late evening, and a human tapping a sago stem with a machete may elicit a response from the bird. A quieter version of the call is given at the nest.
Other sounds attributed to this rail, such as loud screams, may be incorrect, since they are like those produced by the pale-vented bush-hen ("Amaurornis moluccana").
Distribution and habitat.
The invisible rail inhabits the dense, spiky sago swamps of Halmahera, particularly where forest adjoins the boggy areas. Claims that the rail occurs in alang-alang grass are thought to have arisen from confusion with the pale-vented bush-hen. German ornithologist Gerd Heinrich, who prepared for his Halmahera trip by rolling in stinging nettles, wrote of the sago swamp habitat in the 1930s:
I am solidly confident no European has ever seen this rail alive, for that requires such a degree of toughening and such demands on oneself as I cannot so easily attribute to others. "Habroptila" is shielded by the awful thorns of the sago swamps... In this thorn wilderness, I walked barefoot and half-naked for weeks.
Sightings of the rail from 1950 to 2003 were from a restricted area of West Halmahera Regency, at the base of the western peninsula of the island, but it was recorded prior to 1950 as far as the southern point of Halmahera. More recent records showed that it is still present in a significantly larger area, including the northeast of the island, and locals claim that it also occurs in the swamps near Kao, in the northwest.
Behaviour.
The difficult habitat and retiring nature of the invisible rail mean that information on its lifestyle is sparse, and there are few confirmed sightings. Recorded food items include sago shoots and insects. It also feeds at cut sago plants, although it is unclear whether it is eating the decaying plant or searching for other edible items. It swallows small stones, as do all rails, to help break up its food in the gizzard.
The invisible rail is thought to be monogamous, but little else is known of its courtship behaviour prior to nesting. A report of four or five striped chicks was long thought to be incorrect, since such a plumage is not normal for rails. In this family, chicks are typically precocial, downy and black, with any ornamentation confined to the head, bare flesh, or specially modified plume feathers.
The issue was resolved in November 2010 when a nest was found in the top of a rotting tree stump, above ground level and in from the edge of a dry swamp forest in Aketajawe-Lolobata National Park. The nest depression was in depth, with a lower layer of small wood chips at its base and a lining of dead leaves. The egg shells were brownish-white with dark brown and black markings of different sizes. The two very young chicks were entirely covered in black down, contrasting with a white pollux (the equivalent of the thumbnail on a human hand) and pink index nail. The bill was black with a white tip, and the legs were black-streaked brown. The eyes had grey irises and blue pupils. Rail chicks leave the nest soon after hatching, so the chicks were assumed to be only a day or two old.
Status.
Bird species with a restricted range are especially vulnerable to human activities, and eight of the 26 bird species occurring only in the Northern Maluku Endemic Bird Area are threatened, including the invisible rail. Almost a quarter of all rail species have conservation concerns, and flightless island species are particularly at risk, at least 15 species having become extinct since 1600. The estimated population of the invisible rail is 3,500–15,000 birds, and its restricted range and small population mean that the species is classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), although this rail is so poorly known that it may be more common than the estimates suggest.
Habitat loss has occurred through commercial harvesting of the sago, or conversion to rice cultivation and fishponds. The rail is prized food for local people who catch it with traps made from strings of bark and hunt it with dogs. The only described nest was in an area well-used by local villagers, and the rail may be more adaptable to habitat changes than had been thought. There were also several sightings in northeast Halmahera in 2008 and 2011, extending the area in which this bird has been seen in recent years.


Ursulinacaris

Ursulinacaris is a genus of hurdiid radiodont from the Cambrian of North America. It contains one known species, Ursulinacaris grallae. It was described in 2019, based on fossils of the frontal appendages discovered in the 1990s and thereafter. Unlike all other hurdiids, but like non-hurdiid radiodont, the frontal appendages of "Ursulinacaris" have two rows of ventral spines called endites instead of one. The endites of "Ursulinacaris" were very slender, unlike other hurdiids such as "Peytoia" or "Hurdia". "Ursulinacaris" helps resolve the evolution of hurdiid anatomy, showing what order characteristics of the frontal appendages evolved in by showing that the distinctive shape of hurdiid endites evolved before they transitioned from two rows to one row of endites.
Discovery and naming.
"Ursulinacaris" fossils have been found in the Northwest Territories and Nevada. Most specimens come from the Little Bear biota of the Mount Cap Formation, though one referred specimen is from the Jangle Limestone member of the Carrara Formation of Nevada. Its generic name refers to the Little Bear biota, being derived from Latin "ursulina" meaning "from little bear" and "caris" meaning "crab". The name of the type species, "U. grallae", is derived from the Latin word "grallae," which means "stilts," as a reference to the shape of the spines.


Chaetonotus (Chaetonotus)

"Chaetonotus" ("Chaetonotus") is a gastrotrich subgenus in the family Chaetonotidae.


Aphelochaeta

Aphelochaeta is a genus of bitentaculate cirratulidan, or two-tentacled marine worms.


Posterior compartment of thigh

The posterior compartment of the thigh is one of the fascial compartments that contains the knee flexors and hip extensors known as the hamstring muscles, as well as vascular and nervous elements, particularly the sciatic nerve.
Structure.
The posterior compartment is a fascial compartment bounded by fascia. It is separated from the anterior compartment by two folds of deep fascia, known as the medial intermuscular septum and the lateral intermuscular septum.
The muscles of the posterior compartment of the thigh are the:
These muscles (or their tendons) apart from the short head of the biceps femoris, are commonly known as the hamstrings. The depression at the back of the knee, or "kneepit" is the popliteal fossa, colloquially called the "ham". The tendons of the above muscles can be felt as prominent cords on both sides of the fossa—the biceps femoris tendon on the lateral side and the semimembranosus and semitendinosus tendons on the medial side. The hamstrings flex the knee, and aided by the gluteus maximus, they extend the hip during walking and running. The semitendinosus is named for its unusually long tendon. The semimembranosus is named for the flat shape of its superior attachment.
Innervation.
The hamstrings are innervated by the sciatic nerve, specifically by a main branch of it: the tibial nerve. (The short head of the biceps femoris is innervated by the common fibular nerve). The sciatic nerve runs along the longitudinal axis of the compartment, giving the cited terminal branches close to the superior angle of the popliteal fossa.
Blood supply.
The arteries that supply the posterior compartment of the thigh arise from the inferior gluteal and the perforating branches of the profunda femoris artery, a major collateral branch of the femoral artery and part of the anterior compartment of thigh. The femoral artery itself crosses the adductor hiatus to enter the posterior compartment at the level of the popliteal fossa, giving branches that supply the knee. This crossing marks the point in which the vessel changes its name to popliteal artery.
Clinical significance.
As with any other fascial compartment, the posterior compartment of thigh can develop compartment syndrome when pressure builds up inside it, reducing the ability of arteries to transport blood to muscles and nerves. In acute cases, this is most frequently a consequence of trauma.


Paratungusella

Paratungusella is an extinct genus from a well-known class of fossil marine arthropods, the trilobites. It lived during the Botomian stage, which lasted from approximately 524 to 518.5 million years ago. This faunal stage was part of the Cambrian Period.


Pale fork-marked lemur

The pale fork-marked lemur (Phaner pallescens), or western fork-marked lemur, is known from western Madagascar; south of the Fiherenana River to the region of Soalala. It is listed on CITES Appendix I.


Keith Ferguson (musician)

Keith Ferguson (July 23, 1946 – April 29, 1997) was an American bass guitarist, best remembered as a member of the blues rock band, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, based in Austin, Texas. Ferguson received several awards for his musicianship.
Biography.
Ferguson was born July 23, 1946, and raised in the 'Sexto' – the Sixth Ward of Houston Texas, where he graduated from San Jacinto High School in 1964.
In 1969 he joined "Sunnyland Special", a blues band with Angela Strehli and Lewis Cowdrey. They recorded a 45rpm single. In 1972 he joined "Black Kangaroo" with guitarist Peter Kaukonen, and toured with them. In 1974 he played in the "Nightcrawlers" together with Stevie Ray Vaughan. Keith also played with Rocky Hill at that time.
In 1976, Ferguson joined The Fabulous Thunderbirds, along with vocalists Lou Ann Barton and Kim Wilson and guitarist Jimmie Vaughan. (Barton left soon after the group began.) The band had an initial large local following, but was unable to maintain a sustained following with commercially positive results. More than five years of being dropped by small and large record labels, with Chrysalis Records being the last in their initial period to drop the band, there was a hiatus of several years, during which time a re-shuffling of band members began to take place, and Ferguson was one of the first to leave.
Ferguson went on to become a member of the Tailgators along with Don Leady and Gary "Mudcat" Smith.
After leaving the Tailgators, Ferguson freelanced with a number of Austin blues bands on the 6 Street blues circuit and played with the Excellos and the Solid Senders.
He died of liver failure at the age of 50, on April 29, 1997, due in part to a nearly thirty-year addiction to heroin.
In 2014, a biography was written by author Detlef Schmidt: "Keith Ferguson: Texas Blues Bass".


Central retinal artery

The central retinal artery (retinal artery) branches off the ophthalmic artery, running inferior to the optic nerve within its dural sheath to the eyeball.
Structure.
The central retinal artery pierces the eyeball close to the optic nerve, sending branches over the internal surface of the retina, and these terminal branches are the only blood supply to the larger part of it.
The central part of the retina where the light rays are focused after passing through the pupil and the lens is a circular area called the macula. The center of this circular area is the fovea. The fovea and a small area surrounding it are not supplied by the central retinal artery or its branches, but instead by the choroid.
The central retinal artery is approximately 160 micrometres in diameter.
Variation.
In some cases - approximately 20% of the population - there is a branch of the ciliary circulation called the cilio-retinal artery which supplies the retina between the macula and the optic nerve, including the nerve fibers from the foveal photoreceptors. If this artery is present, the central vision will be preserved even in case of central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).
Development.
The central retinal artery is formed from the proximal part of the hyaloid artery after atrophy of its distal part has formed the hyaloid canal.
Function.
The central retinal artery supplies blood to all the nerve fibers that form the optic nerve, which carries the visual information to the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus, including those that reach over the fovea. Its blood flow can be revealed by fluorescein angiography or laser Doppler imaging.
Clinical significance.
Thus if the central retinal artery gets occluded, there is complete loss of vision in that eye even though the fovea is not affected. The entire retina (with the exception of the fovea) becomes pale and swollen and opaque while the central fovea still appears reddish (this is because the choroid color shows through). This is the basis of the famous "Cherry red spot" seen on examination of the retina on funduscopy of a central retinal artery occlusion (CRAO).
However it should be remembered that the Cilio retinal artery itself is a branch of the Short Posterior Ciliary Arteries which is derived from the Ophthalmic Artery. Therefore, its possible for the cilio retinal artery itself to occlude causing significant visual loss in the perfused macula region (surrounding visual field will remain intact).
Other animals.
In dogs, it is the continuation of the long ciliary artery.


Callyspongia serpentina

Callyspongia serpentina is a species of demosponges in the family Callyspongiidae. It is found in Australia and New Zealand.