The biogeography of the mucosa-associated microbiome in health and disease.

Introduction: Little is known about the biogeography of the mucosa associated microbiome (MAM) in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) versus controls in different segments of the gastrointestinal tract, as well as the links between the MAM, gastrointestinal symptoms, and use of proton pump inhibitors (PPI).

Methods: We recruited 59 controls (without structural abnormalities and gastrointestinal symptoms), 44 patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) and 31 with Crohn's disease (CD). Biopsies from various segments of the upper and lower gastrointestinal tract were collected.

Allometric Growth and Scaling of Body Form of the Spadenose Shark ().

The versatility of the shark body form is suggested to be one of the key factors underlying their evolutionary success and persistence. Nevertheless, sharks exhibit a huge diversity of body forms and morphological adaptations. More subtly, it is increasingly evident that in many species, morphology varies through ontogeny.

Cautionary tales on the use of proxies to estimate body size and form of extinct animals.

Body size is of fundamental importance to our understanding of extinct organisms. Physiology, ecology and life history are all strongly influenced by body size and shape, which ultimately determine how a species interacts with its environment. Reconstruction of body size and form in extinct animals provides insight into the dynamics underlying community composition and faunal turnover in past ecosystems and broad macroevolutionary trends.

Sharks Violate Rensch's Rule for Sexual Size Dimorphism.

Systematic trends in body size variation exist in a multitude of vertebrate radiations, however their underlying ecological and evolutionary causes remain poorly understood. Rensch's rule describes one such trend-in which the scaling of sexual size dimorphism (SSD) depends on which sex is larger. Where SSD is male-biased, SSD should scale hyperallometrically, as opposed to hypoallometrically where SSD is female-biased.