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Full-Text Articles in Organisms

The Effect Of Hypoxia On Brain Cell Proliferation In Weakly Electric Fish, Petrocephalus Degeni, Kaitlin Klovdahl Apr 2020

The Effect Of Hypoxia On Brain Cell Proliferation In Weakly Electric Fish, Petrocephalus Degeni, Kaitlin Klovdahl

Senior Theses and Projects

Oxygen levels tend to remain at a steady state concentration in the Earth’s atmosphere, yet in some bodies of water, they can fluctuate and decrease drastically. Many organisms that inhabit the swamps, lakes, streams, and parts of the ocean where this occurs have evolved adaptations to manage this environmental uncertainty and continue normal oxygen consumption. The Lwamunda swamp in Uganda is chronically hypoxic, yet it is home to many species, including the electric fish Petrocephalus degeni. P. degeni are unusual by nature of their immense brain, and the Lwamunda swamp appears ill-suited for maintaining this large, metabolically active organ. To …


Relative Volume Of The Cerebellum In Dolphins And Comparison With Anthropoid Primates, L. Marino, James K. Rilling, Shinko K. Lin, Sam H. Ridgway Jun 2015

Relative Volume Of The Cerebellum In Dolphins And Comparison With Anthropoid Primates, L. Marino, James K. Rilling, Shinko K. Lin, Sam H. Ridgway

Lori Marino, PhD

According to the ‘developmental constraint hypothesis’ of comparative mammalian neuroanatomy, brain growth follows predictable allometric trends. Therefore, brain structures should scale to the entire brain in the same way across mammals. Evidence for a departure from this pattern for cerebellum volume has recently been reported among the anthropoid primates. One of the mammalian groups that has been neglected in tests of the ‘developmental constraint hypothesis’ is the cetaceans (dolphins, whales, and porpoises). Because many cetaceans possess relative brain sizes in the range of primates comparative tests of the ‘developmental constraint hypothesis’ across these two groups could help to delineate the …