Ossification patterns of the carpus and tarsus in salamanders and impacts of preaxial dominance on the fin-to-limb transition.

Early limb skeletogenesis in salamanders is characterized by preaxial elements, digits I and II forming earlier than their postaxial counterparts (digits III to V), a phenomenon known as preaxial dominance, whereas in amniotes and anurans, these developmental sequences are reversed. This pattern characterizes the late skeletogenesis of digits and zeugopodium of anamniote tetrapods but remains unknown in carpals/tarsals. To correct this gap in knowledge, we investigate the ossification patterns of the carpals/tarsals in six salamander families/clades based on micro-computed tomography scans.

Palatal morphology predicts the paleobiology of early salamanders.

Ecological preferences and life history strategies have enormous impacts on the evolution and phenotypic diversity of salamanders, but the yet established reliable ecological indicators from bony skeletons hinder investigations into the paleobiology of early salamanders. Here, we statistically demonstrate by using time-calibrated cladograms and geometric morphometric analysis on 71 specimens in 36 species, that both the shape of the palate and many non-shape covariates particularly associated with vomerine teeth are ecologically informative in early stem- and basal crown-group salamanders. Disparity patterns within the morphospace of the palate in ecological preferences, life history strategies, and taxonomic affiliations were analyzed in detail, and evolutionary rates and ancestral states of the palate were reconstructed.

Interactive Effects of Glucocorticoids and Cytochrome P450 Polymorphisms on the Plasma Trough Concentrations of Voriconazole.

To explore the interactive influence of glucocorticoids and cytochrome P450 (CYP450) polymorphisms on voriconazole (VRC) plasma trough concentrations (C) and provide a reliable basis for reasonable application of VRC. A total of 918 VRC C from 231 patients was collected and quantified using high-performance liquid chromatography in this study. The genotypes of , , and were detected by DNA sequencing assay.

Comparative osteology of the hynobiid complex Liua-Protohynobius-Pseudohynobius (Amphibia, Urodela): Ⅰ. Cranial anatomy of Pseudohynobius.

Hynobiidae are a clade of salamanders that diverged early within the crown radiation and that retain a considerable number of features plesiomorphic for the group. Their evolutionary history is informed by a fossil record that extends to the Middle Jurassic Bathonian time. Our understanding of the evolution within the total group of Hynobiidae has benefited considerably from recent discoveries of stem hynobiids but is constrained by inadequate anatomical knowledge of some extant forms.

Osteology of Batrachuperus yenyuanensis (Urodela, Hynobiidae), a high-altitude mountain stream salamander from western China.

Batrachuperus yenyuanensis, commonly known as Yenyuan Stream Salamander, is a hynobiid species inhabiting high-altitude (2440-4025 m above sea level) mountain stream and pond environments along the eastern fringe of the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau in western Sichuan Province, China. Although the species has been known for almost 70 years since its initial discovery in 1950, a thorough osteological description has never been provided. Our study provides a detailed account of the bony anatomy of this species, based on micro computed tomography scanning of multiple specimens collected from the type locality Shuangertang at Bailinshan, Yanyuan County, and several other localities in Sichuan Province.

Osteology of (Urodela, Hynobiidae): study of bony anatomy of a facultatively neotenic salamander from Mount Emei, Sichuan Province, China.

The Longdong Stream Salamander , living in a mountain stream environment at Mt. Emei in Sichuan Province, China, represents a rare species that is facultatively neotenic in the family Hynobiidae. Although the species has been known to science for some 40 years since its initial discovery in the late 1970s, anatomical details of its osteology remain poorly understood and developmental information is still lacking for the species.

Aberrant histone modifications of global histone and promoter in CD14 monocytes from patients with coronary artery disease.

Objectives: To investigate whether there are aberrant acetylation modifications in global histone and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1) promoter in monocytes from patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) and demonstrate the potential mechanisms.

Methods: CD14+ monocytes were isolated from 13 patients with CAD and 18 confirmed non-CAD controls using magnetic beads. Global histone H3/H4 acetylation and H3K4/H3K27 tri-methylation levels were measured with enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Downregulation of BDH2 modulates iron homeostasis and promotes DNA demethylation in CD4 T cells of systemic lupus erythematosus.

DNA hypomethylation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Here we investigated whether 3-hydroxy butyrate dehydrogenase 2 (BDH2), a modulator of intracellular iron homeostasis, was involved in regulating DNA hypomethylation and hyper-hydroxymethylation in lupus CD4 T cells. Our results showed that BDH2 expression was decreased, intracellular iron was increased, global DNA hydroxymethylation level was elevated, while methylation level was reduced in lupus CD4 T cells compared with healthy controls.

Earliest filter-feeding pterosaur from the Jurassic of China and ecological evolution of Pterodactyloidea.

Pterosaurs were a unique clade of flying reptiles that were contemporaries of dinosaurs in Mesozoic ecosystems. The Pterodactyloidea as the most species-diverse group of pterosaurs dominated the sky during Cretaceous time, but earlier phases of their evolution remain poorly known. Here, we describe a 160 Ma filter-feeding pterosaur from western Liaoning, China, representing the geologically oldest record of the Ctenochasmatidae, a group of exclusive filter feeders characterized by an elongated snout and numerous fine teeth.

A New Basal Salamandroid (Amphibia, Urodela) from the Late Jurassic of Qinglong, Hebei Province, China.

A new salamandroid salamander, Qinglongtriton gangouensis (gen. et sp. nov.

Melanosome evolution indicates a key physiological shift within feathered dinosaurs.

Inference of colour patterning in extinct dinosaurs has been based on the relationship between the morphology of melanin-containing organelles (melanosomes) and colour in extant bird feathers. When this relationship evolved relative to the origin of feathers and other novel integumentary structures, such as hair and filamentous body covering in extinct archosaurs, has not been evaluated. Here we sample melanosomes from the integument of 181 extant amniote taxa and 13 lizard, turtle, dinosaur and pterosaur fossils from the Upper-Jurassic and Lower-Cretaceous of China.

A new stem-neopterygian fish from the Middle Triassic of China shows the earliest over-water gliding strategy of the vertebrates.

Flying fishes are extraordinary aquatic vertebrates capable of gliding great distances over water by exploiting their enlarged pectoral fins and asymmetrical caudal fin. Some 50 species of extant flying fishes are classified in the Exocoetidae (Neopterygii: Teleostei), which have a fossil record no older than the Eocene. The Thoracopteridae is the only pre-Cenozoic group of non-teleosts that shows an array of features associated with the capability of over-water gliding.

Late Jurassic salamandroid from western Liaoning, China.

A Jurassic salamander, Beiyanerpeton jianpingensis (gen. et sp. nov.

Reconstruction of Microraptor and the evolution of iridescent plumage.

Iridescent feather colors involved in displays of many extant birds are produced by nanoscale arrays of melanin-containing organelles (melanosomes). Data relevant to the evolution of these colors and the properties of melanosomes involved in their generation have been limited. A data set sampling variables of extant avian melanosomes reveals that those forming most iridescent arrays are distinctly narrow.

Plumage color patterns of an extinct dinosaur.

For as long as dinosaurs have been known to exist, there has been speculation about their appearance. Fossil feathers can preserve the morphology of color-imparting melanosomes, which allow color patterns in feathered dinosaurs to be reconstructed. Here, we have mapped feather color patterns in a Late Jurassic basal paravian theropod dinosaur.

Implications of flexible-shelled eggs in a Cretaceous choristoderan reptile.

Flexible, or soft-shelled, eggs are almost unknown in the fossil record, leaving large gaps in our knowledge of the reproductive biology of many tetrapod clades. Here, we report two flexible-shelled eggs of the hyphalosaurid choristodere Hyphalosaurus baitaigouensis from the Early Cretaceous of China, one containing an embryo and the second associated with a neonate. Choristoderes are an enigmatic group of aquatic reptiles that survived the K-T extinction but died out in the Miocene.

A life table for Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis: initial insights into ornithischian dinosaur population biology.

Very little is known about nonavian dinosaur population biology. Multi-individual sampling and longevity estimation using growth line counts can be used to construct life tables-the foundation for population analyses in ecology. Here we have determined the size and age distribution for a sample consisting of 80 individuals of the small ornithischian, Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis from the early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China.

A giant ornithomimosaur from the Early Cretaceous of China.

Ornithomimosaurs (ostrich-mimic dinosaurs) are a common element of some Cretaceous dinosaur assemblages of Asia and North America. Here, we describe a new species of ornithomimosaur, Beishanlong grandis, from an associated, partial postcranial skeleton from the Aptian-Albian Xinminpu Group of northern Gansu, China. Beishanlong is similar to another Aptian-Albian ornithomimosaur, Harpymimus, with which it shares a phylogenetic position as more derived than the Barremian Shenzhousaurus and as sister to a Late Cretaceous clade composed of Garudimimus and the Ornithomimidae.

A longirostrine tyrannosauroid from the Early Cretaceous of China.

The fossil record of tyrannosauroid theropods is marked by a substantial temporal and morphological gap between small-bodied, Barremian taxa, and extremely large-bodied taxa from the latest Cretaceous. Here we describe a new tyrannosauroid, Xiongguanlong baimoensis n. gen.