Labyrinth morphology and the evolution of low-frequency phonoreception in elasmobranchs

Labyrinth morphology in extant elasmobranchs (neoselachians: sharks, skates and rays) and several extinct chondrichthyans ranging in age from Pliocene to Devonian is investigated using high-resolution computed tomography (CT scanning) and digital reconstitution techniques. The elasmobranch labyrinth is highly specialized toward low-frequency semi-directional sound detection (LFSDP), optimally around 100 Hz. Several features associated with LFSDP in neoselachians also occur in Mesozoic hybodonts (e.g., Egertonodus, Tribodus) and in some incertae sedis extinct sharks (Acronemus, Tristychius), but are absent in osteichthyans, extant and fossil holocephalans, and certain Paleozoic chondrichthyans (ctenacanths, symmoriiforms, Pucapampella). Thus, LFSDP is regarded as an evolutionary novelty of elasmobranchs that arose some time after their divergence from chimaeroids. The suite of characters associated with LFSDP was probably acquired progressively, some characters being more widely distributed among fossil chondrichthyans than others. LFSDP evolved only within chondrichthyans whose otico-occipital fissure became secondarily closed during ontogeny.     

Human tissues for research purposes: a conference in the House of Lords

The challenges to using human tissues in research are many and varied. However, there is little consensus on how concerns raised by researchers should be addressed, and who should be responsible for ensuring that patients continue to benefit from medical research carried out using human tissues which have been ethically donated or collected after surgery, or where organs donated for transplant are unsuitable for this purpose. A conference in the House of Lords sought to bring together stakeholders from all areas of human tissue research to discuss the problems experienced, share solutions, and form a Working Party to carry the conference momentum forward into action in the near future.     

Morphology of the Bony Labyrinth Supports the Affinities of Paradolichopithecus with the Papionina

International Journal of Primatology - Discoveries in recent decades indicate that the large papionin monkeys Paradolipopithecus and Procynocephalus are key members of the Late Pliocene –...