Origines du peuplement mammalien en Afrique du Nord durant le miocène terminal

The late Miocene North African mammalianassemblage is considered here from three viewpoints: survivals, extinctions, and immigrations. The Eurasiatic affinities of the large mammals slightly prevail over the Ethiopian affinities. Amongst the North African large mammals, 4 to 8 taxa are Eurasiatic immigrants, while 4 to 6 are of Subsaharian origin. Contrarily, the micromammalian fauna is highly endemic, with only one species, a murid (Paraethomys miocaenicus), considered here as being related to an Asiatic form (Karnimata darwini). Our study of Eurasian and African Miocene faunas reveals that during the late Astaracian-early Turolian interval, the Saharo-Arabic belt permitted very little latitudinal faunal exchanges. However, during the middle and late Turolian such faunal exchanges became frequent. The micromammal record unequivocally indicates that a brief period of faunal exchange occurred between Africa and western Europe at the end of the Miocene, corresponding with the Messinian Salinity Crisis. The increased intercontinental faunal exchange between Africa and Eurasia during the late Miocene coincides with, and counterbalances the extinction of more than 10 taxa at the Mio/Pliocene boundary.     

薄鳞鱼类化石的新发现及其地层意义

本文记述了薄鳞鱼类(leptolepids)一新属新种——罗家峡隆德鱼(Longdeichthys luojiaxiaensis gen.et sp.nov.)。它和广泛分布于我国北方的另一原始真骨鱼类狼鳍鱼(Lycoptera)共生。因而,为研究真骨鱼类的演化和确定我国北方中生代含鱼岩系的时代及地层对比上,提供了新的资料。     

Brachiopod community paleoecology, paleobiogeography, and depositional topography of the Devonian Onondaga Limestone and correlative strata in eastern North America

The Emsian? through early Eifelian Onondaga Limestone of the Appalachian Basin was deposited in a topographic basin and on the carbonate platform which surrounded the basin on the west, north, and northeast. Onondaga strata thin from the platform into the basin. Two sedimentary cycles are present in the sub-Tioga Onondaga of eastern North America. The Edgecliff-Amherstburg represents an interval of transgression, in which epeiric seas spread over much of eastern North America. During the Nedrow-Lucas regression, the interior of the carbonate platform became restricted, resulting in the deposition of evaporites. The Moorehouse-Anderdon transgression continued through the deposition of the Tioga Bentonite, followed by the pre-Speeds-Dundee regression from the craton. Early Eifelian Appalachian Basin Onondaga brachiopod communities, arranged from nearshore to offshore, include the Atrypid-Megakozlowskiella, Atrypid-Levenea, Chonetid, Atlanticocoelia, Ambocoeliid, and Truncalosia Communities. The Onondaga-age Eastern Americas Realm is divided into the Appohimchi Province in the Appalachian Basin and the Michigan Basin-Hudson Bay Lowland Province in the Midwest. The provincial assignment of the James Bay region of Ontario is uncertain; the Eastern Townships of Quebec are near the boundaries both of the two provinces of the Eastern Americas Realm, and of the Eastern Americas Realm and the Old World Realm, the latter realm being probably in the Canadian Maritime Provinces.     

Effects of zomepirac and indomethacin on renal blood flow and electrolyte excretion in anesthetized monkeys

Zomepirac sodium is a new inhibitor of prostaglandin cyclooxygenase with an $\text{in vitro}$ potency equivalent to indomethacin. Since inhibitors of prostaglandin synthesis have marked effects on renal hemodynamics, zomepirac may be expected to reduce renal blood flow (RBF) in a manner similar to indomethacin. This study compares the effects of zomepirac and indomethacin on RBF and electrolyte excretion in anesthetized Rhesus monkeys. Each experiment consisted of a control period followed by 3 or 4 drug treatment periods in which increasing doses of zomepirac (0.5 to 20 mg/kg) or indomethacin (0.5 to 10 mg/kg were given. Indomethacin (5 mg/kg) reduced RBF by 22% and the higher dose (10 mg/kg) reduced RBF by an additional 13%. Zomepirac had little effect on RBF in doses as high as 20 mg/kg. At any given dose the mean plasma concentration of zomepirac was equal to or greater than indomethacin. Peak indomethacin concentration was 48 μg/ml after the 10 mg/kg dose while the peak zomepirac, after 20 mg/kg, was 158 μg/ml. Neither drug had a significant effect on either glomerular filtration rate or excretion rate of sodium or potassium. Thus, zomepirac had only minimal effects on RBF while indomethacin decreased RBF of anesthetized monkeys in a manner qualitatively similar to its effect in other species. The minimal renal effects caused by zomepirac relative to indomethacin in this primate may indicate a therapeutic advantage for zomepirac in man.     

ATP oscillation inPhysarum plasmodium

Summary Using bioluminescence of luciferin-luciferase, we showed that ATP leaked out rhythmically from a strand segment ofPhysarum plasmodium made permeable with caffeine-arsenate. With simultaneous measurement of isometric tension rhythm of the strand, it was revealed that the period and phase of oscillation in ATP leakage correspond well with those of tension production. Further, microinjection of luciferin-luciferase into the plasmodial strand indicated that the intracellular luminescence of luciferin-luciferase also oscillates with the same period and in the same phase as the tension rhythm.The free ATP concentration in a homogenate ofPhysarum plasmodium was of the order of 10 M, but if the homogenate was heated in boiling water, the intensity of luminescence suddenly increased 10–100 fold. ATP available for mechanical workin vivo is thus supposed to be at a much lower level than the total average, which was found in the range of 0.2–0.7 mM.     

The North American «Hipparion Datum and implications for the Neogene of the Old World

A large sample of skulls and associated dentitions of Cormohipparion sphenodus (Cope, 1889). new combination, is described from Miocene deposits of Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, and California. This species is morphologically more advanced than the most primitive species of the genus, C. goorisiMacFadden & Skinner, 1981, and more primitive than a third and more advanced species of this genus. C. occidentale (Leidy, 1856). In several characters such as configuration of the preobrital fossa, size, hypsodonty, shape of protocone, and complexity of enamel plication, C. sphenodus is morphologically similar, and potentially related to, some Old World Vallesian «Hipparion. In addition, based on radiometric calibration of stratigraphic sequences in Nebraska and California, C. sphenodus spans an interval of time from about 13.6 to 11 Ma. Inasmuch as the Old World «Hipparion Datum is calibrated at about 12 Ma, we conclude that C. sphenodus exhibits the morphological and chronological prerequisites to have been directly ancestral to some of these Old World forms.The hipparion horses apparently were a polyphyletic assemblage of several genera, and their biogeographic and biochronologic history is more complex than classically thought. Several dispersal events involving these horses may have occurred between the New and Old Worlds during the late Miocene.     

Isolation and sequence determination of a peptide located in or near the active site of bovine muscle pyruvate kinase

Bovine muscle pyruvate kinase was inactivated by treatment with trinitrobenzenesulfonic acid; approximately one trinitrophenyl group was incorporated per subunit. ADP or Mg-ADP decreased the rate of inactivation but Mg⁺⁺ alone or phosphoenolpyruvate had no effect. The inactivated protein was treated with trypsin and the trinitrophenylated peptide isolated by gel filtration. Homogeneity of the isolated peptide was shown by high voltage electrophoresis and high pressure liquid chromatography. Amino acid analysis and sequence determination revealed the presence of an acidic peptide 34 amino acids long and containing ?-trinitrophenylated lysine.     

An improved method based on the Porter-Silber reaction for determining 17-hydroxycorticosteroids in urine

This paper describes a highly specific method for determining urinary 17-hydroxycorticosteroids, which has been developed by (i) changing the composition of the Porter-Silber reagent and (ii) removing contaminants interfering with the color reaction by addition of sodium bisulfite to β-glucuronidase-hydrolyzed urine before extraction with solvent. For a reference method the Norymberski-Riondel (J. K. Norymberski and A. Riondel 1970, Biochem. J. 120, 493–498) gas chromatography (glc) was used: Correlation coefficient between the present method and GLC = 0.988, deviation from the theoretical regression LINE = 6.8%, and coefficient of SIMILARITY = 0.56. These results are much better than those obtained by I. Ernest, B. Håkansson, J. Lehmann, and B. Sjögren (1964, Acta Endocrinol. 46, 552–562) for the original Porter-Silber method in comparison with the chromatographic measurement of grouped and individual steroids.     

A phytosociological study of weed communities on the southwestern Coastal Plain of North Carolina

Summary The vegetation of cultivated, fallow and ‘old’ fields of Scotland County, N.C. was both randomly and subjectively sampled throughout the growing season of 1973. Relevés were placed in each of the above management units, and the data collected in this relevé analysis were sorted into phytosociological charts, with the aid of the digital computer. Weed associations delimited in the charts reflected the importance of edaphic factors, time (aspect), and man's agricultural activities as causal factors in the determination of characteristic assemblages of weeds. Several character and differential species were denoted, in a tentative classification of the weed associations. The cultivated and fallow stands in the spring aspect were noted to be dominated by a group of spring annuals. Summer annuals were more prevalent in homologous situations in the summer. It was determined that perennials, appearing mainly as seedlings in cultivated and fallow fields, attained dominance in ‘old’ fields, one to five years in age. Within each of the major spheres of management, and in each season, associations of weeds mainly reflected differences in edaphic factors. Many character species were noted to maintain affinities to an assortment of soil types that ranged from moist loams to xeric, sterile sands. A study of roadsides, hedgerows, field margins and other ecotonal areas inhabited by weeds was carried throughout the growing season of 1973, also. Species presence was documented in each of these habitat types and reported in Sharp (1974). The weed flora of Scotland County was found to be rich in species. A total of 506 species representing 248 genera and 80 families were encountered throughout the study. Of the total number of species listed, approximately 25 percent were of foreign origin, and 28 percent represented additions to the flora of Scotland County. This paper is the short version of a masters thesis for the Department of Botany, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The author would like to extend his appreciation and gratitude to Professors H. Lieth, A. E. Radford and J. Hardin for their generous advice and encouragement extended through the duration of the study.     

NORTH CAROLINA MARINE ALGAE. VI. SOME CERAMIALES (RHODOPHYTA), INCLUDING A NEW SPECIES OF DIPTEROSIPHONIA1

Six members of the Ceramiales are added to the flora of North Carolina. Two of these, Acrosorium uncinatum (Turner) Kylin and, Rhododictyon bermudensis Taylor, are also reported from South Carolina for the first time. One species, Mesothamnion boergeseni Joly, was previously known only from Brazil and another, Dipterosiphonia reversa sp. nov., is added to the algal literature for the first time. Evidence is presented for the reassignment of R. bermudensis from the Dasyaceae to the Ceramiaceae.