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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
Origin And Evolution Of Large Brains In Toothed Whales, Lori Marino, Daniel W. Mcshea, Mark D. Uhen
Origin And Evolution Of Large Brains In Toothed Whales, Lori Marino, Daniel W. Mcshea, Mark D. Uhen
Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection
Toothed whales (order Cetacea: suborder Odontoceti) are highly encephalized, possessing brains that are significantly larger than expected for their body sizes. In particular, the odontocete superfamily Delphinoidea (dolphins, porpoises, belugas, and narwhals) comprises numerous species with encephalization levels second only to modern humans and greater than all other mammals. Odontocetes have also demonstrated behavioral faculties previously only ascribed to humans and, to some extent, other great apes. How did the large brains of odontocetes evolve? To begin to investigate this question, we quantified and averaged estimates of brain and body size for 36 fossil cetacean species using computed tomography and …
Evolution Of Nociception In Vertebrates: Comparative Analysis Of Lower Vertebrates, Lynne U. Sneddon
Evolution Of Nociception In Vertebrates: Comparative Analysis Of Lower Vertebrates, Lynne U. Sneddon
Veterinary Science and Medicine Collection
Nociception is an important sensory system of major fundamental and clinical relevance. The nociceptive system of higher vertebrates is well studied with a wealth of information about nociceptor properties, involvement of the central nervous system and the in vivo responses to a noxious experience are already characterised. However, relatively little is known about nociception in lower vertebrates and this review brings together a variety of studies to understand how this information can inform the evolution of nociception in vertebrates. It has been demonstrated that teleost fish possess nociceptors innervated by the trigeminal nerve and that these are physiologically similar to …