Epizootiology, development, and pathology of Geopetitia aspiculata Webster, 1971 (Nematoda: Habronematoidea) in tropical birds at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, Winnipeg, Canada

Geopetitia aspiculata was found in 12 species of Passeriformes, one species of Coraciiformes, and one species of Charadriiformes which died in a free-flight area in the Tropical House at the Assiniboine Park Zoo, Winnipeg, Canada. The nematodes occurred in chronic inflammatory cysts attached to the serosa of the posterior end of the esophagus, proventriculus, and the anterior part of the gizzard. Posterior ends of worms were observed to extend from the cyst into the lumen of the proventriculus. Birds hatched and raised in the Tropical House acquired infections, probably through the agency of feral crickets. Experimental studies showed that G. aspiculata developed to the infective third stage in the fat body of Acheta domesticus (L.). This is the first transmission cycle of Geopetitia spp. to be elucidated and the egg, first, third, and early fifth stages of the parasite are described. The absence of spicules in males of G. aspiculata is confirmed. Geopetitia aspiculata was probably introduced to the Zoo by infected tropical birds obtained from dealers or other zoos. The wild source of the parasite is not known since G. aspiculata has never been reported in wild birds; the report of G. aspiculata in wild Piciformes in Cuba by Barus (1971) is in error.     

Development of Ascarophis sp. (Nematoda: Cystidicolidae) to maturity in Gammarus deubeni (Amphipoda)

Experimentally transmitted Ascarophis sp. (Spirurida) developed to adult worms in the invertebrate host, Gammarus deubeni (Amphipoda), collected in the intertidal zone in Passamaquoddy Bay, New Brunswick, Canada. The morphological development and growth of larval stages is very similar to other cystidicolids, which are found as adults in fish. Unlike virtually all other Spirurida, which require a vertebrate definitive host, infective larvae of Ascarophis sp. migrate from the invertebrate host musculature into the hemocoel where they molt twice to become adults. Gravid females appear at 80 days and 69 days post-infection at 10-12 C and 18-20 C, respectively. While there is little evident host reaction to the parasite within the muscle tissue, within the hemocoel there is hemocytic reaction to shed nematode cuticles, released eggs, and sometimes the worm itself, including some melanization. The worms are morphologically similar to Ascarophis sp. from G. oceanicus in the Baltic and White seas and among Ascarophis species from fish is most similar to A. arctica. It is suggested that Ascarophis sp. no longer requires a vertebrate host and is transmitted between amphipods either through death and disintegration of infected amphipods and dispersal of the nematode eggs, or more likely through cannibalism or necrophagy.     

Eutetrarhynchus pacificus n. sp. (Cestoda: Trypanorhyncha) from Raja inornata Jordan & Gilbert (Batoidea: Rajiformes) off the coast of California with comments on congeners

Systematic Parasitology - Eutetrarhynchus pacificus n. sp. is described from the spiral valve of Raja inornata Jordan & Gilbert off the coast of California, USA. The new species is...     

Spiral valve parasites of blue and common thresher sharks as indicators of shark feeding behaviour and ecology

This study documented the parasite faunas of the spiral valves of blue sharks Prionace glauca (L. 1758) and common thresher sharks Alopias vulpinus (Bonnaterre, 1788) caught in the California Current Large Marine Ecosystem (CCLME) north of the Mexican border. The spiral valves of 18 blue and 19 thresher sharks caught in the CCLME from 2009 to 2013 were examined for parasites. Seven parasite taxa were found in blue sharks and nine in threshers. The tetraphyllidean cestode Anthobothrium sp. (78% prevalence) was the most common parasite in blue sharks, and the phyllobothriid cestode Paraorygmatobothrium sp. (90% prevalence) was the most common in threshers. An adult nematode of the genus Piscicapillaria was found in threshers for the first time and may be a new species. Adult individuals of Hysterothylacium sp. were found in both shark species. The adult acanthocephalan Rhadinorhynchus cololabis and remains of the parasitic copepod Pennella sp. – both parasites of Pacific saury, Cololabis saira – were found in the intestines of threshers, indicating recent feeding on saury. This study paves the way for a more comprehensive examination, including more samples and a wider variety of shark species, to provide a greater understanding of shark feeding behaviour and possibly provide information on shark population biology.     

A Paleolatitude Calculator for Paleoclimate Studies

Realistic appraisal of paleoclimatic information obtained from a particular location requires accurate knowledge of its paleolatitude defined relative to the Earth’s spin-axis. This is crucial to, among others, correctly assess the amount of solar energy received at a location at the moment of sediment deposition. The paleolatitude of an arbitrary location can in principle be reconstructed from tectonic plate reconstructions that (1) restore the relative motions between plates based on (marine) magnetic anomalies, and (2) reconstruct all plates relative to the spin axis using a paleomagnetic reference frame based on a global apparent polar wander path. Whereas many studies do employ high-quality relative plate reconstructions, the necessity of using a paleomagnetic reference frame for climate studies rather than a mantle reference frame appears under-appreciated. In this paper, we briefly summarize the theory of plate tectonic reconstructions and their reference frames tailored towards applications of paleoclimate reconstruction, and show that using a mantle reference frame, which defines plate positions relative to the mantle, instead of a paleomagnetic reference frame may introduce errors in paleolatitude of more than 15° (>1500 km). This is because mantle reference frames cannot constrain, or are specifically corrected for the effects of true polar wander. We used the latest, state-of-the-art plate reconstructions to build a global plate circuit, and developed an online, user-friendly paleolatitude calculator for the last 200 million years by placing this plate circuit in three widely used global apparent polar wander paths. As a novelty, this calculator adds error bars to paleolatitude estimates that can be incorporated in climate modeling. The calculator is available at www.paleolatitude.org. We illustrate the use of the paleolatitude calculator by showing how an apparent wide spread in Eocene sea surface temperatures of southern high latitudes may be in part explained by a much wider paleolatitudinal distribution of sites than previously assumed.     

The response of calcareous nannofossil assemblages to the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum at the Walvis Ridge in the South Atlantic

Compositions and abundances of calcareous nannofossil taxa have been determined in a ca 170 kyrs long time interval across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary at 1-cm to 10-cm resolution from two ODP Sites (1262, 1263) drilled along the flank of the Walvis Ridge in the South Atlantic. The results are compared to published data from ODP Site 690 in the Weddell Sea. The assemblages underwent rapid evolution over a 74 kyrs period, indicating stressed, unstable and/or extreme photic zone environments during the PETM hyperthermal. This rapid evolution, which created 5 distinct stratigraphic horizons, is consistent with the restricted brief occurrences of malformed and/or weakly calcified morphotypes. The production of these aberrant morphotypes is possibly caused by major global scale changes in carbon cycling in the ocean–atmosphere system, affecting also photic zone environments. No marked paleoecologically induced changes are observed in abundances of the genera Discoaster, Fasciculithus and Sphenolithus at the Walvis Ridge sites. Surprisingly, there is no significant correlation in abundance between these three genera, presumed to have had a similar paleoecological preference for warm and oligotrophic conditions.