Exploring a developing tourism industry: A resource-based view approach.

This exploratory study examines dimensions related to tourism development in the case of Uruguay. Internal and external analyses were conducted to identify key resources to maximise opportunities and minimise threats to the country’s tourism development. The study, which adopts the resource-based view of the firm, is based on the perspectives of key tourism stakeholders. Unstructured, face-to-face interviews were conducted with eight key informants, three representing government institutions, three private, and two public-private. The interviews revealed opportunities in various fronts, primarily consolidating and expanding international markets, and developing additional offerings, including convention/event and heritage tourism to minimise the effects of seasonality. Strong dependence on neighbouring markets, marginal airline connectivity and knowledge of Uruguay internationally were main perceived barriers to further development. The value of employing the resource-based framework in guiding understanding of the themes under investigation was confirmed. Implications emerging from the findings are discussed, and future research directions suggested

Development and Evolution of the Muscles of the Pelvic Fin

Locomotor strategies in terrestrial tetrapods have evolved from the utilisation of sinusoidal contractions of axial musculature, evident in ancestral fish species, to the reliance on powerful and complex limb muscles to provide propulsive force. Within tetrapods, a hindlimb-dominant locomotor strategy predominates, and its evolution is considered critical for the evident success of the tetrapod transition onto land. Here, we determine the developmental mechanisms of pelvic fin muscle formation in living fish species at critical points within the vertebrate phylogeny and reveal a stepwise modification from a primitive to a more derived mode of pelvic fin muscle formation. A distinct process generates pelvic fin muscle in bony fishes that incorporates both primitive and derived characteristics of vertebrate appendicular muscle formation. We propose that the adoption of the fully derived mode of hindlimb muscle formation from this bimodal character state is an evolutionary innovation that was critical to the success of the tetrapod transition