| a new species of vexillata (nematoda: trichostrongylina: ornithostrongylidae) parasite of heteromys desmarestianus (rodentia: heteromyidae) from costa rica. | in july 1999, 2 heteromyid rodents heteromys desmarestianus gray, 1868, were collected from the area de conservación guanacaste, costa rica, and examined for parasites. individuals of a new species of vexillata (travassos, 1937) durette-desset, 1970, were found from the intestine of hosts. vexillata brooksi n. sp. differs from all other congeners by the presence of spicules divided at the tip instead of simple spicules. the new species closely resembles vexillata legallae denke, 1977, and vexill ... | 2005 | 15986608 |
| the interaction of disturbances and small mammal community dynamics in a lowland forest in belize. | 1. three floods (july 2000, august 2002, september 2003) and a hurricane (october 2001) that occurred in a lowland forest in the southern maya mountains of belize presented an opportunity to evaluate the influence of these disturbances on the structure of a small mammal assemblage. 2. four terrestrial and four primarily scansorial/arboreal species were trapped july 2000-march 2005 in six grids over 14 irregularly spaced trapping periods. 3. community dynamics were characterized more by changes i ... | 2006 | 17032355 |
| the numerical and functional responses of a granivorous rodent and the fate of neotropical tree seeds. | despite their potential to provide mechanistic explanations of rates of seed dispersal and seed fate, the functional and numerical responses of seed predators have never been explicitly examined within this context. therefore, we investigated the numerical response of a small-mammal seed predator, heteromys desmarestianus, to disturbance-induced changes in food availability and evaluated the degree to which removal and fate of seeds of eight tree species in a lowland tropical forest in belize we ... | 2009 | 19569370 |
| seed predation by mammals in forest fragments in monteverde, costa rica. | few studies have evaluated seed predation in fragmented landscapes, in which lower species diversity is expected to modifying ecological interactions. the rates of seed removal by mammals were investigated in a continuous forest and two fragmented patches of premontane tropical moist forest, in monteverde, costa rica. the composition of mammalian seed-predators in each site was recorded during 16 months. the removal of four native tree species of experimental seeds: ocotea valeriana and ocotea w ... | 2009 | 19928478 |
| a strong conditional mutualism limits and enhances seed dispersal and germination of a tropical palm. | seed predation and seed dispersal can have strong effects on early life history stages of plants. these processes have often been studied as individual effects, but the degree to which their relative importance co-varies with seed predator abundance and how this influences seed germination rates is poorly understood. therefore, we used a combination of observations and field experiments to determine the degree to which germination rates of the palm astrocaryum mexicanum varied with abundance of ... | 2010 | 20049480 |
| comparative analysis of active retrotransposons in the transcriptomes of three species of heteromyid rodents. | virtually every eukaryotic genome is replete with transposable elements (tes). te activity, or lack thereof, is of considerable evolutionary interest as te insertions actively drive genome evolution by altering gene expression and/or function through different mechanisms. herein, we take a comparative approach to better understand the variation in te transcriptional activity. our goals were to identify transcriptionally active tes and to evaluate their relative expression levels in an effort to ... | 2015 | 25704534 |
| transcriptomic characterization of the immunogenetic repertoires of heteromyid rodents. | when populations evolve under disparate environmental conditions, they experience different selective pressures that shape patterns of sequence evolution and gene expression. these may be manifested in genetic and phenotypic differences such as a diverse immunogenetic repertoire in species from tropical latitudes that have greater and/or different parasite burdens than more temperate species. to test this idea, we compared the transcriptomes of one tropical species (heteromys desmarestianus) and ... | 2014 | 25341737 |
| natural selection and the genetic basis of osmoregulation in heteromyid rodents as revealed by rna-seq. | one adaptation of ecological and evolutionary interest is the extraordinary ability of desert rodents to retain water during waste production. much is known regarding the unique kidney physiology of kangaroo rats (dipodomys spp.) and their ability to retain water during waste production, yet the genetic basis of these physiological adaptations is relatively unknown. herein, we utilized rna-seq data to conduct a comparative study to identify osmoregulatory genes expressed in heteromyid rodents. w ... | 2014 | 24754676 |
| effect of coffee agriculture management on the population structure of a forest dwelling rodent (heteromys desmarestianus goldmani). | most of the natural habitat in tropical regions exists as scattered fragments embedded in a matrix of different agricultural uses. as a result of this agricultural expansion, habitat loss and fragmentation have become the main drivers of biodiversity loss. understanding the long-term effects of agricultural management on populations is of great importance for the development of successful conservation strategies. our study uses genetic data to determine the effect of agricultural management prac ... | 2018 | 29606927 |