龟鳖类血液学研究概述

龟鳖类血液学的研究涉及生理生态、系统进化、遗传、生物化学、病理学等相关领域,目前已测定了不少种类的血液生理和血液化学指标及这些指标因性别、季节、温度、盐度、潜水等因素的变化。但研究结果不尽相同,特别是白细胞分类、血清酶活性、生化指标的调节机制等还需要进一步研究。     

河南舞阳县贾湖遗址中的龟鳖类

本文记述了贾湖遗址中的龟鳖类甲壳。主要为现生黄缘闭壳龟（Ｃｕｏｒａ ｆｌａｖｏｍａｒｇｉｎａｔａ）,背、腹甲完整者有５０多件。其它龟类和鳖类只有部分甲壳或碎片为代表。文中除属种鉴定外,还对甲壳上的个体变异和有关人类活动等问题作了探讨。     

龟鳖类寄生血簇虫六新种

血簇虫(Haemogregarina Danilewsky,1885)属真球虫目(Eucoccidia)血簇虫科(Haemogregarinidae),这一属的寄生虫,其寄主以爬行动物为主,两栖动物和鱼类也有寄生。至今已记载有300余种。龟鳖类的血簇虫研究,国内尚无报道。作者在1984年3月—1985年3月,对我国龟鳖类寄生的血簇虫进行了调查研究,共解剖检查了中华     

龟鳖类温度依赖型性别决定机制的研究进展

近几十年来,发现很多爬行动物具有温度依赖型性别决定机制(TSD),即性别分化取决于胚胎发育过程中温度敏感期(TSP)的环境温度高低.龟鳖类存在两种TSD模式,即低温产雄性、高温产雌性的TSD Ⅰ a,低温、高温均产雌性而中间温度产雄性的TSDⅡ.TSD机制在生理水平的作用机制主要受到性腺类固醇激素的控制,温度通过影响芳香化酶和5α-还原酶的活性控制雌、雄激素转化,进而决定了个体的性别分化.在分子水平的研究发现:Sf1、Mis、Sox9、Dax1、Wt1和Dmrt1等基因的表达受到温度的影响,参与了龟鳖类性别分化.介绍了关于TSD的进化意义提出的假说,有待进一步验证.     

江西官山自然保护区四种雉类的生境选择差异

2009年10月—2010年11月在江西官山国家级自然保护区对白颈长尾雉、白鹇、勺鸡和灰胸竹鸡4种雉类的生境选择进行了研究:共调查了6条样线上的388个样方,选取了与这四种雉类栖息地相关的17个生态因子进行观测和测量。结果显示,4种雉类均偏好阔叶林和针阔混交林、阳坡或半阴半阳坡的生境。Kruskal-Wallistest检验表明,4种雉类在海拔、坡度、乔木盖度、灌木盖度、灌木数量、灌木高度、草本盖度、草本种类、草本数量、落叶层盖度和水源距离11个生态因子上存在极显著差异(P<0.01),乔木种类存在显著差异(P<0.05),其余生态因子无显著差异(P>0.05)。典则判别函数图显示,4种雉类在生境选择上存在一定程度的重叠,又有比较明显的差异。逐步判别表明在区分4种雉类生境选择差异方面有一系列的生态因子发挥作用,依照贡献值的大小依次为海拔、草本数量、灌木高度、水源距离、灌木盖度、乔木盖度、坡度、落叶层盖度、灌木数量、草本盖度。由这10个变量构成的方程对4种雉类生境选择差异的正确区分率为74.7%。     

中国产龟鳖类分类研究概述

近年来,国外对中国产龟鳖类的研究工作开展较多,解决了长期存在于分类中的一些疑难,也提出了一些新的问题。但国内多年来一直沿用旧的分类体系,一些新的工作没有充分反映,妨碍了我国龟鳖类分类工作的进一步开展。现就近年来研究较多的几个分类学问题做     

龟鳖类线粒体全基因组的比较研究

在基因组水平上,比较分析了已登录GenBank的19种龟鳖类线粒体全基因组的结构特征．结果表明：1）除平胸龟、扁陆龟外,其余17种龟鳖类线粒体基因组结构、基因排列顺序均与典型的脊椎动物相似,显示龟鳖类线粒体基因组在进化上十分保守：2）19种龟鳖类线粒体全基因组和各部分的碱基组成均表现出高AT、低G含量的偏向,在控制区中表现尤为明显：3）除中华鳖和白腹摄龟外,其余种类的某些蛋白编码基因中都存在一个或多个额外插入的核苷酸：4）除侧颈龟亚目的非洲侧颈龟外,其余18种曲颈龟线粒体DNA的“WANCY”区中都存在轻链复制起始点（OL）,且它们的二级结构、核苷酸组成高度保守,推测该结构可能是曲颈龟亚目的一个共同特征：5）部分龟鳖类线粒体基因组控制区3’端存在大片段（200～450bp）的重复序列,某些龟鳖类中有由（AT）构成的微卫星序列,并且这些拷贝序列在种间表现出一定的差异,其可作为特异的分子标记,对于龟鳖类动物系统学的研究、亲缘关系的鉴定、物种多样性的保护和研究等方面具有重要的参考价值．     

中国龟鳖动物的分布

本文依据1997年以来的文献,对中国龟鳖动物新增加的分布作了归纳和讨论;并对中国龟鳖动物的分布区系及特征作了初步分析和总结.     

湖南省的龟鳖目动物

根据历年在湖南省各地采集的标本及查阅文献记录,归纳出湖南省龟鳖目动物名录４种１０种。工作中核对了原始记录和标本,并长期饲养观察,对所有记录进行了客观地评价。讨论了当前情况下确定龟鳖类分布的原则以及本报道在中国龟鳖目分布方面的意义。     

龟鳖动物疾病的研究进展

随着养殖规模的扩大,龟鳖动物的疾病日益增多,许多养殖场遭受了巨大的经济损失。为此,一些学者对龟鳖动物的疾病进行了大量研究。本文总结了龟鳖动物疾病的致病因素、诊断及防治等应用方面的研究,指出了龟鳖动物疾病研究中存在的主要问题并提出了相应的建议。     

Relationships of reproductive traits and body size with attainment of sexual maturity and age in Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingi)

To place associations among body size, age at maturity, age, and reproductive traits of a long-lived organism in the context of current life history models based on the concept of norms of reaction, we examined data from a mark-recapture study of Blanding's turtles (Emydoidea blandingi) in southeastern Michigan during 24 of the years between 1953 and 1988. Females matured between 14 and 20 years of age. Both the smallest and largest adult females in the population were reproducing for the first time in their lives. This result suggests that a combination of differences in juvenile growth rates and ages at maturity, and not indeterminate growth, are the primary cause of variation in body size among adults. Body size variation among individuals was not related to age at sexual maturity. Females that had slower growth rates as juveniles matured later at similar mean body size compared to those with more rapid growth that matured at an earlier age. As a result, a linear model of age at sexual maturity with growth rates of primiparous females between hatching and maturity was significant and negative (R² = 0.76). Frequency of reproduction of the largest and smallest females was not significantly different. Clutch size did not vary significantly with age among either primiparous or multiparous females. Clutch sizes of primiparous females and multiparous females were not significantly different. However, older females (>55 years minimum age) reproduced more frequently than did younger females (minimum age <36 y).     

Environmental and scale-dependent evolutionary trends in the body size of crustaceans

The ecological and physiological significance of body size is well recognized. However, key macroevolutionary questions regarding the dependency of body size trends on the taxonomic scale of analysis and the role of environment in controlling long-term evolution of body size are largely unknown. Here, we evaluate these issues for decapod crustaceans, a group that diversified in the Mesozoic. A compilation of body size data for 792 brachyuran crab and lobster species reveals that their maximum, mean and median body size increased, but no increase in minimum size was observed. This increase is not expressed within lineages, but is rather a product of the appearance and/or diversification of new clades of larger, primarily burrowing to shelter-seeking decapods. This argues against directional selective pressures within lineages. Rather, the trend is a macroevolutionary consequence of species sorting: preferential origination of new decapod clades with intrinsically larger body sizes. Furthermore, body size evolution appears to have been habitat-controlled. In the Cretaceous, reef-associated crabs became markedly smaller than those in other habitats, a pattern that persists today. The long-term increase in body size of crabs and lobsters, coupled with their increased diversity and abundance, suggests that their ecological impact may have increased over evolutionary time.     

Do foraging methods in winter affect morphology during growth in juvenile snow geese?

Physical exertion during growth can affect ultimate size and density of skeletal structures. Such changes from different exercise regimes may explain morphological differences between groups, such as those exhibited by lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens caerulescens; hereafter snow geese) foraging in southwest Louisiana. In rice‐prairie habitats (hereafter rice‐prairies), snow geese bite off or graze aboveground vegetation, whereas they dig or grub for subterranean plant parts in adjacent coastal marshes. Grubbing involves considerably more muscular exertion than does grazing. Thus, we hypothesized that rates of bone formation and growth would be lower for juveniles wintering in rice‐prairies than those in coastal marshes, resulting in smaller bill and skull features at adulthood. First, we tested this exertion hypothesis by measuring bills, skulls, and associated musculature from arrival to departure (November–February) in both habitats in southwest Louisiana, using both banded birds and collected specimens. Second, we used the morphological data to test an alternative hypothesis, which states that smaller bill dimensions in rice‐prairies evolved because of hybridization with Ross's geese (C. rossii). Under the exertion hypothesis, we predicted that bill and skull bones of juveniles would grow at different rates between habitats. However, we found that bill and skull bones of juveniles grew similarly between habitats, thus failing to support the exertion hypothesis. Morphometrics were more likely to differ by sex or change with sampling date than to differ by habitat. We predicted that significant, consistent skewness toward smaller birds could indicate hybridization with Ross's geese, but no skewness was observed in our morphological data, which fails to support the hybridization hypothesis. Further research is needed to clarify whether snow geese wintering in Louisiana represent a single polymorphic population that segregates into individually preferred habitats, which we believe at present to be more likely as an explanation than two ecologically and spatially distinct morphotypes.     

Reproductive success in female Neolamprologus mondabu (Cichlidae): influence of substrate types

Individual variation in body size, home range size, and reproductive success among Neolamprologus mondabu (Cichlidae) females were investigated with reference to substrate types in the littoral zone of northern Lake Tanganyika. Larger females occupied sandy substrates and smaller ones stony substrates. Female reproductive success, estimated as the number of offspring successfully released per month, was higher on sandy substrates than on stony substrates. This may be attributable to higher spawning intensity and better protection of broods against predators in open, sandy habitats.