Naturwissenschaften (NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN)

Publications in this journal

• Article: A Pathological Late Pleistocene canid from San Sidero (Italy): implications for social- and feeding-behaviour

  Dawid Adam Iurino & Rosario Fico & Mauro Petrucci & Raffaele Sardella
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  ABSTRACT: Evidence of diseases on vertebrate fossil bones can provide detailed information on many aspects of extinct animals. This study focused on pathological craniodental remains (left maxilla and dentary) referred to the canid Cuon alpinus unearthed from a Late Pleistocene karst filling deposit at San Sidero (Apulia, southern Italy). These fossils show clear evidence of a chronic periodontitis that caused the animal’s death. Clinical diagnosis of the disease and the timing of its development have been defined on the basis of a veterinary odontostomatology approach, in addition to radiographic and tomographic techniques. From the initiation of the infection until death, a time span of at least 6 months occurred, and three main steps have been defined: (1) the bacterial infections of the buccal cavity turning into severe periodontitis, (2) the fracture of the lower carnassial and (3) the loss of teeth due to the worsening infection that deformed and/or eroded maxillary and mandibular bones and enlarged alveoli. The analysis of the palaeopathology also provides information about the biomechanics of the bite, on the feeding behaviour and on the relationships of injured members in a pack of Late Pleistocene canids.
  Naturwissenschaften 02/2013;
• Article: Divergent mating patterns and a unique mode of external sperm transfer in Zoraptera - an enigmatic group of pterygote insects

  Dallai R, Gottardo M, Mercati D, Machida R, Mashimo Y, Matsumura Y, Beutel R.G
  Naturwissenschaften 01/2013;
• Article: Leptospirosis risk increases with changes in species composition of rat populations

  Jörn Theuerkauf, Julie Perez, Alefosio Taugamoa, Iasinito Niutoua, Didier Labrousse, Roman Gula, Wieslaw Bogdanowicz, Hervé Jourdan, Cyrille Goarant
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  ABSTRACT: Rats are major reservoirs of leptospirosis and considered as a main threat to biodiversity. A recent introduction of Rattus rattus to the island of Futuna (Western Polynesia) provided the opportunity to test if a possible change in species composition of rat populations would increase the risk of leptospirosis to humans. We trapped rodents on Wallis and Futuna and assessed Leptospira carriage in 357 rodents (Rattus norvegicus, R. rattus, Rattus exulans, and Mus domesticus) from 2008 to 2012. While Leptospira prevalence in rodents and the composition of rat populations on Futuna fluctuated with rainfall, the biomass of Leptospira-carrying rodents has been continuously rising from 2008 to 2012. Our results suggest that the introduction of R. rattus increases the risk to humans being infected with leptospirosis by rats.
  Naturwissenschaften 01/2013;
• Article: Body size phenotypes are heritable and mediate fecundity but not fitness in the lepidopteran frugivore Cydia pomonella

  Thomas Davis, Peter J Landolt
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  ABSTRACT: The inheritance and functional roles of quantitative traits are central concerns of evolutionary ecology. We report two sets of experiments that investigated the heritability and reproductive consequences of body size phenotypes in a globally distributed lepidopteran frugivore, Cydia pomonella (L.). In our first set of experiments, we tested the hypotheses that (1) body size is heritable; and (2) parental body size mediates egg production and offspring survival. Midparent-offspring regression analyses revealed that body mass is highly heritable for females and moderately heritable for males. The contribution of fathers to estimates of additive genetic variance was slightly greater than for mothers. Egg production increased with mean parental size, but offspring survival rates were equivalent. Based on this result, we tested two additional hypotheses in a second set of experiments: (3) male size moderates female egg production and egg fertility, and (4) egg production, egg fertility, and offspring survival rate are influenced by female mating opportunities. Females paired with large males produced more eggs and a higher proportion of fertile eggs than females paired with small males. Females with multiple mating opportunities produced more fertile eggs than females paired with a single male. However, egg production and offspring survival rates were unaffected by the number of mating opportunities. Our experiments demonstrate that body mass is heritable in C. pomonella, and that size phenotypes may mediate fecundity but not fitness. We conclude that male size can influence egg production and fertility, but female mate choice also plays a role in determining egg fertility.
  Naturwissenschaften 06/2012;
• Article: Untersuchungen zur Mydriasis bei Kaninchen durch (−)-Hyoscyamin

  Gottfried Werner, Rolf Würker
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):627-627.
• Article: Die Pliozänfauna Ostafrikas

  Th. Arldt
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 5(23):380-383.
• Article: Polarographische Untersuchungen meta-substituierter Nitrobenzol-derivate in wasserfreiem Acetonitril

  L. Holleck, R. Schindler, O. Löhr
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):625-626.
• Article: Die Korrosion des Messings in Kondensatorrohren nach den Arbeiten des englischen Korrosionskomitees

  G. Masing
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 13(47):941-944.
• Article: Über die Isolierung von Mykobakteriophagen aus Erde

  Wolfgang Käppler
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):629-630.
• Article: Untersuchungen über Eisen-Ruthenium-Legierungen

  Walter Obrowski
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):624-625.
• Article: Zur Kantenlumineszenz des Zinkoxyds

  B. Andress, E. Mollwo
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):623-624.
• Article: Nachweis einer makroskopischen Verfestigungsinhomogenität bei der Zugverformung reinen Nickels

  K. Kolb, E. Macherauch
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):624-624.
• Article: Über Kernäquivalente und Reduktionsorte in Bakterien

  Fred E. Hahn
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 39(22):527-528.
• Article: Über absolute Zeitmessung in der Geologie auf Grund der radioaktiven Erscheinungen

  Robert W. Lawson
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 5(27):452-459.
• Article: Neue Ergebnisse zur Frage nach der chemischen Natur der Induktionsstoffe beim Organisatoreffekt Spemanns

  Heinz Tiedemann
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 46(22):613-623.
• Article: Die organische Ernährung bei höheren grünen Pflanzen

  Friedrich Czapek
  Naturwissenschaften 05/2012; 8(12):226-231.
• Article: Water input requirements of the rapidly shrinking Dead Sea

  Shahrazad Abu Ghazleh, Jens Hartmann, Nils Jansen, Stephan Kempe
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  ABSTRACT: The deepest point on Earth, the Dead Sea level, has been dropping alarmingly since 1978 by 0.7m/a on average due to the accelerating water consumption in the Jordan catchment and stood in 2008 at 420m below sea level. In this study, a terrain model of the surface area and water volume of the Dead Sea was developed from the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission data using ArcGIS. The model shows that the lake shrinks on average by 4km2/a in area and by 0.47km3/a in volume, amounting to a cumulative loss of 14km3 in the last 30years. The receding level leaves almost annually erosional terraces, recorded here for the first time by Differential Global Positioning System field surveys. The terrace altitudes were correlated among the different profiles and dated to specific years of the lake level regression, illustrating the tight correlation between the morphology of the terrace sequence and the receding lake level. Our volume-level model described here and previous work on groundwater inflow suggest that the projected Dead Sea–Red Sea channel or the Mediterranean–Dead Sea channel must have a carrying capacity of >0.9km3/a in order to slowly re-fill the lake to its former level and to create a sustainable system of electricity generation and freshwater production by desalinization. Moreover, such a channel will maintain tourism and potash industry on both sides of the Dead Sea and reduce the natural hazard caused by the recession.
  Naturwissenschaften 04/2012; 96(5):637-643.
• Article: Die Strahlenempfindlichkeit der Kaninchenlinse und ihre Abhängigkeit von spezifischen Genen

  U. Ehling, A. Mex, E. Krokowski
  Naturwissenschaften 04/2012; 46(22):633-634.