Glenn J Tattersall

..The pygmy marmoset shares some similarities in its hypoxic metabolic response with other mammals of similar size yet appears to be unique in its much diminished ventilatory response to hypoxia...

..Concepts explored in this laboratory exercise include animal energetics, diving reflex, pulmonary and cutaneous gas exchange processes, diffusion-based gas flux, and O2 debt...

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..Interestingly, regenerating newts maintained a more stable temperature preference than sham newts, suggesting that accuracy in thermoregulation may be more important to regenerating individuals, than to noninjured individuals...

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..e. circadian), in addition to the depression in regulated T(b)...

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..Our data suggest that in caiman, high levels of inspired CO2 promote slow, deep breathing. This will decrease dead-space ventilation and may reduce stratification in the saccular portions of the lung...

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..Since IR imaging only assesses surface temperatures, the magnitude of the thermogenesis and the changes in deep core temperature could be even more pronounced than is reported here...

..The overall breathing pattern was episodic during the early stages of rewarming, however, suggesting that the respiratory rhythm is only periodically expressed during the initial stages of recovery from hypothermia...

..These results are consistent with the hypothesis that hypoxia leads to a regulated fall in body temperature...

..The findings indicate that torpor expression is accompanied by a decrease in T (b) and MR during normothermy, indicating that a conservation of energy metabolism occurs, not only in torpor, but also during the inter-bout arousal periods...

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..Evidence from this study demonstrates that skin colouration plays a role in body temperature regulation and that the reduction in temperature set-point so prevalent in hypoxia is also manifested in this physiological trait...

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..Although T(b) dropped in hypoxia in both seasons, the decrease was less in the winter with no corresponding decrease in metabolism, indicating that winter chipmunks are more tolerant to hypoxia than summer animals...

..Examining the control of these breathing patterns and their efficacy at regulating head or brain temperature may shed light on the evolution of thermoregulatory mechanisms in other vertebrates, namely the endothermic mammals and birds...

..The presence of all three receptor groups with different degrees of CO2 sensitivity in most reptiles, however, gives rise to what appear to be anomalous responses to environmental CO2...

..Our results emphasize that the precise maintenance and assessment of preferred T(b) is contingent on the quality of the environment, laboratory or natural, that the animal inhabits...

..Our results indicate that the toucan's bill is, relative to its size, one of the largest thermal windows in the animal kingdom, rivaling elephants' ears in its ability to radiate body heat...

..Therefore, the effect of O(2) on D. melanogaster function is non-linear, may be reversible, and may include unique phenotypes that arise at some O(2) concentrations, and not others...

..We conclude that the proper function of the 5-HT system is particularly important under conditions of environmental stress and contributes significantly to the hypercapnic ventilatory response and thermoregulatory cold defense...