The undirectional transcutaneous fluxes of Na, Cl, water and urea were measured, in vitro, in the pipoid anuran Xenopus laevis. An active uptake (outside to inside) of Na was observed but Cl movements appeared to be passive. The effluxes of Na and Cl were low compared to those measured in other species of amphibians. The active Na transport was less than that of more terrestrial species and, although it could be stimulated by vasotocin, aldosterone was ineffective. The permeability of the skin to water was also low and although it was increased in the presence of vasotocin the magnitude of the response was much less than seen in more terrestrial anurans. The skin was permeable to urea but the movement of this solute was not remarkable when compared to that in other amphibians. These properties of the skin are discussed in relation to the animal's aquatic manner of life.
In the field: an interview with Martha Muñoz
Martha Muñoz is an Assistant Professor at Yale University, investigating the evolutionary biology of anole lizards and lungless salamanders. In our new Conversation, she talks about her fieldwork in Indonesia, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic and the Appalachian Mountains, including a death-defying dash to the top of a mountain through an approaching hurricane.
Call for new preLighters
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preLights is the preprint highlighting community supported by The Company of Biologists. At the heart of preLights are our preLighters: early-career researchers who select and write about interesting new preprints for the research community. We are currently looking for new preLighters to join our team. Find out more and apply here.
Graham Scott in conversation with Big Biology
Graham Scott talks to Big Biology about the oxygen cascade in mice living on mountaintops, extreme environments for such small organisms. In this JEB-sponsored episode, they discuss the concept of symmorphosis and the evolution of the oxygen cascade.
Trap-jaw ants coordinate tendon and exoskeleton for perfect mandible arc
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Trap-jaw ants run the risk of tearing themselves apart when they fire off their mandibles, but Greg Sutton & co have discovered that the ants simultaneously push and pull the mandibles using energy stored in a head tendon and their exoskeleton to drive the jaws in a perfect arc.
Hearing without a tympanic ear
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In their Review, Grace Capshaw, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard and Catherine Carr explore the mechanisms of hearing in extant atympanate vertebrates and the implications for the early evolution of tympanate hearing.
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