scholarly journals EFFECTS OF RADIATION ON A FENCED POPULATION OF HORNED LIZARDS (PHRYNOSOMA PLATYRHINOS) IN SOUTHERN NEVADA.

1972 ◽  
Author(s):  
P.A. Medica ◽  
F.B. Turner ◽  
D.D. Smith
2009 ◽  
Vol 87 (2) ◽  
pp. 112-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
T.A. Scott Newbold ◽  
James A. MacMahon

A suite of factors including prey availability and prey defenses influence prey selection by consumers and ultimately define an animal’s feeding strategy (e.g., generalist or specialist). Here we examined the relationship between availability and selection of ants by the desert horned lizard ( Phrynosoma platyrhinos Girard, 1852) to test the hypothesis that P. platyrhinos are specialist predators on harvester ants, and to investigate which factors influence the prey preference of lizards. Variation in ant availability and lizard diets was assessed using 83 plots established along a Great Basin shrub–steppe bajada in northwestern Utah, USA. Across the study site, 14 of 20 ant species were represented in the lizard diet. However, 70% of that diet consisted of just two species. In contrast to previous studies, P. platyrhinos did not show a disproportionate preference for harvester ants. Instead, larger ants of any species (including harvester ants) were preferentially selected over medium-sized and smaller ants. These findings suggest that desert horned lizards demonstrate an opportunistic feeding strategy in which lizards select ants based on their body size and abundance. More generally, these results emphasize the importance of assessing predator response across naturally varying gradients in prey availability to evaluate feeding specialization.


Copeia ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 1975 (1) ◽  
pp. 141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric R. Pianka ◽  
William S. Parker

Author(s):  
J. Langmore ◽  
M. Isaacson ◽  
J. Wall ◽  
A. V. Crewe

High resolution dark field microscopy is becoming an important tool for the investigation of unstained and specifically stained biological molecules. Of primary consideration to the microscopist is the interpretation of image Intensities and the effects of radiation damage to the specimen. Ignoring inelastic scattering, the image intensity is directly related to the collected elastic scattering cross section, σɳ, which is the product of the total elastic cross section, σ and the eficiency of the microscope system at imaging these electrons, η. The number of potentially bond damaging events resulting from the beam exposure required to reduce the effect of quantum noise in the image to a given level is proportional to 1/η. We wish to compare η in three dark field systems.


Author(s):  
Kenneth H. Downing ◽  
Hu Meisheng ◽  
Hans-Rudolf Went ◽  
Michael A. O'Keefe

With current advances in electron microscope design, high resolution electron microscopy has become routine, and point resolutions of better than 2Å have been obtained in images of many inorganic crystals. Although this resolution is sufficient to resolve interatomic spacings, interpretation generally requires comparison of experimental images with calculations. Since the images are two-dimensional representations of projections of the full three-dimensional structure, information is invariably lost in the overlapping images of atoms at various heights. The technique of electron crystallography, in which information from several views of a crystal is combined, has been developed to obtain three-dimensional information on proteins. The resolution in images of proteins is severely limited by effects of radiation damage. In principle, atomic-resolution, 3D reconstructions should be obtainable from specimens that are resistant to damage. The most serious problem would appear to be in obtaining high-resolution images from areas that are thin enough that dynamical scattering effects can be ignored.


Author(s):  
Judy Ju-Hu Chiang ◽  
Robert Kuo-Cheng Chen

Germ cells from the rice stem borer Chilo suppresalis, were examined by light and electron microscopy. Damages to organelles within the germ cells were observed. The mitochondria, which provide the cell with metabolic energy, were seen to disintegrate within the germ cell. Lysosomes within the germ cell were also seen to disintegrate. The subsequent release of hydrolytic enzymesmay be responsible for the destruction of organelles within the germ cell. Insect spermatozoa were seen to lose the ability to move because of radiation treatment. Damage to the centrioles, one of which is in contact with the tail, may be involved in causing sperm immobility.


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