We studied the effects of acute external acidification on the acid-base status and plasma and red cell ion concentrations of lampreys. Mortality was observed within 24 h at pH5 and especially at pH4. The main reason for the high sensitivity of lampreys to acid water appears to be the large drop in blood pH: 0.6 and 0.8 units after 24 h at pH5 and pH4, respectively. The drop of plasma pH is much larger than in teleost fishes exposed to similar pH values. The difference in the plasma pH response between lampreys and teleosts probably results from the low buffering capacity of lamprey blood, since red cells cannot participate in buffering extracellular acid loads. Acidification also caused a decrease in both Na+ and C− concentrations and an elevation in K+ concentration of plasma. The drop in plasma Na+ concentration occurred faster than the drop in plasma Cl− concentration which, in turn, coincided with the decrease in total CO2 concentration of the blood.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
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preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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