Genomes of ubiquitous marine and hypersaline Hydrogenovibrio, Thiomicrorhabdus and Thiomicrospira spp. encode a diversity of mechanisms to sustain chemolithoautotrophy in heterogeneous environments.

Chemolithoautotrophic bacteria from the genera Hydrogenovibrio, Thiomicrorhabdus and Thiomicrospira are common, sometimes dominant, isolates from sulfidic habitats including hydrothermal vents, soda and salt lakes and marine sediments. Their genome sequences confirm their membership in a deeply branching clade of the Gammaproteobacteria. Several adaptations to heterogeneous habitats are apparent.

A peculiar mechanism of bite-force enhancement in lungless salamanders revealed by a new geometric method for modeling muscle moments.

Desmognathine salamanders possess unusual morphological features for lungless salamanders that have been proposed to aid in burrowing and biting, including well-ossified jaws and skull and a pair of robust ligaments connecting the atlas to the mandible. We evaluated the function of these and other peculiar desmognathine cranial features in biting by examining the morphology, mechanics and biting performance of the large We estimated theoretical biting force using a novel geometric method that we describe. Results provide quantitative evidence to bolster earlier conclusions that the unusual atlanto-mandibular ligaments couple ventral head flexion, a unique desmognathine behavior, with biting performance.

Spatial scale modulates the strength of ecological processes driving disease distributions.

Humans are altering the distribution of species by changing the climate and disrupting biotic interactions and dispersal. A fundamental hypothesis in spatial ecology suggests that these effects are scale dependent; biotic interactions should shape distributions at local scales, whereas climate should dominate at regional scales. If so, common single-scale analyses might misestimate the impacts of anthropogenic modifications on biodiversity and the environment.

Cold-blooded snipers: thermal independence of ballistic tongue projection in the salamander Hydromantes platycephalus.

Plethodontid salamanders of the genus Hydromantes capture prey using the most extreme tongue projection among salamanders, and can shoot the tongue a distance of 80% of body length in less than 20 msec. The tongue skeleton is projected from the body via an elastic-recoil mechanism that decouples muscle contraction from tongue projection, amplifying muscle power tenfold. We tested the hypothesis that the elastic-recoil mechanism also endows tongue projection with low thermal dependence by examining the kinematics and dynamics of tongue projection in Hydromantes platycephalus over a range of body temperatures (2-24°C).