A New Mass Burial of Cave Bears (Carnivora,Ursidae, Ursus kanivetz,Vereshchagin, 1973) from the Middle Urals

Doklady Biological Sciences - Remains of a cave bear were studied from a new locality in the Prokoshev Cave in the Middle Urals (58°13´ N, 58°12´ E). Bones from all regions of...     

Megantereon adroveri from the Early Pleistocene of Taurida Cave,Crimea, and the European Lineage of Dirk-toothed Cats

Recent field surveys performed in the newly-discovered Taurida Cave (Crimea, Russia, Late Villafranchian, 1.8–1.5 Ma) enabled us to unearth dentognathic remains of the dirk-toothed cat Megantereon. Here we describe in detail the recovered remains further comparing it anatomically and biometrically with coeval Eurasian and African sites. The performed analysis suggests the inclusion of the Taurida remains in the hypodigm of the Villafranchain European species Megantereon adroveri, a medium-sized saber-toothed cat poorly known in Europe as a consequence of the scarcity and fragmentary nature of the known remains. Our results and the putative transitional characters displayed by the Taurida specimen support the idea put forward by previous authors of a continuous European lineage of dirk-toothed cats.

     

Evidence of Toxocara Eggs in Pachycrocuta brevirostris (Gervais, 1850) Coprolites from the Pleistocene of Taurida Cave (Crimea)

Doklady Biological Sciences - Coprolites of the hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris from the Lower Pleistocene (Upper Villafranchian) of Taurida Cave (Crimea) were studied. One of the three hyena...     

Transcranial magnetic stimulation in research of emotion in the healthy and patients with epilepsy

The main aim of this work was by using transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate mechanisms of interhemispheric organization the emotion in the healthy and patients with epilepsy. The research was carried out on three groups: the first and second groups of healthy and third group of the patients with idiopatical epilepsy. The first and third groups received transcranial magnetic stimulation on right and left frontalis area. The second group was control (sham transcranial magnetic stimulation). Is shown, that transcranial magnetic stimulation of right frontalis area increases the examining time on negative photos and decreases on positive photos. Transcranial magnetic stimulation of left frontalis area in the healthy and patients with epilepsy increases the examining time on positive photos and decreases on negative photos. The right hemisphere at the healthy and patients with epilepsy in the greater degree is connected to negative marks of emotions, and left hemisphere with positive marks of emotions.     

A Mass Burial of Fossil Lions (Carnivora,Felidae, <Emphasis Type="Italic">Panthera</Emphasis> (<Emphasis Type="Italic">Leo</Emphasis>) <Emphasis Type="Italic">ex gr. fossilis-spelaea</Emphasis>) from Eurasia

The vertebrate fauna from the cave deposits in Imanai Cave in the Southern Urals (53°02′ N, 56°26′E) has been studied. It contains 715 bones that belonged to at least 11 individuals of fossil lion (Panthera (Leo) ex gr. fossilis-spelaea). It has been established that this is one of the largest Eurasian burial sites of fossil lions. The bones were accumulated due to the natural death of animals inside the cave. The age and sex estimations have shown that at least six adult males and five adult females died there. According to the accompanying fauna, radiocarbon, geochemical, and mineralogical analyses and archaeological finds, the interval of the lion bone accumulation is determined as the first half to middle of Late Pleistocene (OIS 5–3).     

First Finding of a Representative of Giant Mustelids of the Genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Eomellivora</Emphasis> (Carnivora,Mustelidae) in Russia (Tuva,Upper Miocene)

In the late Miocene deposits in the Taralik–Cher locality (Tuva Republic), fossil remains of a giant mustelid of the genus Eomellivora Zdansky, 1924 have been found. This finding is the first reliable evidence of the Eomellivora inhabiting the modern Russia. Teeth of the Eomelliovra from Taralik–Cher are similar in size to those of E. wimani and E. piveteaui from the late Miocene in Eurasia. The morphology of teeth of the material from Tuva is most similar to that of E. ursogulo; therefore, it is considered a small form of Eomellivora ursogulo. The described finding expands the understanding of diversity, variability, and distribution of representatives of the genus Eomellivora in Asia during the late Miocene.     

Effect of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation on Short- and Long-Term Memory in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

The effect of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of the right and the left frontotemporal areas on the short- and long-term verbal memory was studied in healthy subjects and patients with Parkinson’s disease. TMS with a magnetic induction of more than 1.2 T at 10 Hz was found to affect the short-term memory when applied to the left frontotemporal area and to have no significant effect on this type of memory when applied to the right frontotemporal area. In healthy subjects, TMS applied to the left or the right hemisphere did not affect the long-term memory. However, in patients with Parkinson’s disease, significant changes in the long-term memory were observed upon TMS of either the left or the right hemisphere. The effect was more evident on TMS of the right hemisphere.__________Translated from Fiziologiya Cheloveka, Vol. 31, No. 4, 2005, pp. 33–36.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Gimranov, Mal’tseva.     

Study of Thresholds of Motor Evoked Responses during Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation in Healthy Subjects and Patients with Brain Tumors

Since 1985, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) has been widely used for the investigation of different processes in the human central nervous system. We studied the thresholds of the motor-evoked responses (MER) during TMS and their hemispheric differences in healthy subjects and patients with brain tumors of different localization: in the brainstem projection, left and right motor areas, and left frontal-temporal area. The obtained results testify to a lower threshold of MER in healthy subjects during TMS of the dominant hemisphere. In patients with brainstem tumors, there was a decrease in the thresholds of MER during TMS. In patients with tumors in the motor area, the thresholds of MER were increased on the lesion side, whereas in patients with tumors in the left temporal area, the thresholds were significantly decreased during TMS of the lesioned hemisphere.