Type specimens of non-passerines in Naturalis Biodiversity Center (Animalia, Aves)

The non-passerine type specimens in Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden are listed as an update to Van den Hoek Ostende et al. (1997) ‘Type-specimens of birds in the National Museum of Natural History, Leiden, Part 1. Non-Passerines’ and Roselaar and Prins (2000) ‘List of type specimens of birds in the Zoological Museum of the University of Amsterdam (ZMA), including taxa described by ZMA staff but without types in the ZMA’. All new names published by Temminck and Schlegel are listed, even when types are not in Naturalis but in other collections. We have added 380 new names and deleted 13 names originally listed in Van den Hoek Ostende et al. (1997)

Breaking evolutionary and pleiotropic constraints in mammals: On sloths, manatees and homeotic mutations

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Mammals as a rule have seven cervical vertebrae, except for sloths and manatees. Bateson proposed that the change in the number of cervical vertebrae in sloths is due to homeotic transformations. A recent hypothesis proposes that the number of cervical vertebrae in sloths is unchanged and that instead the derived pattern is due to abnormal primaxial/abaxial patterning.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We test the detailed predictions derived from both hypotheses for the skeletal patterns in sloths and manatees for both hypotheses. We find strong support for Bateson's homeosis hypothesis. The observed vertebral and rib patterns cannot be explained by changes in primaxial/abaxial patterning. Vertebral patterns in sloths and manatees are similar to those in mice and humans with abnormal numbers of cervical vertebrae: incomplete and asymmetric homeotic transformations are common and associated with skeletal abnormalities. In sloths the homeotic vertebral shift involves a large part of the vertebral column. As such, similarity is greatest with mice mutant for genes upstream of <it>Hox</it>.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We found no skeletal abnormalities in specimens of sister taxa with a normal number of cervical vertebrae. However, we always found such abnormalities in conspecifics with an abnormal number, as in many of the investigated dugongs. These findings strongly support the hypothesis that the evolutionary constraints on changes of the number of cervical vertebrae in mammals is due to deleterious pleitropic effects. We hypothesize that in sloths and manatees low metabolic and activity rates severely reduce the usual stabilizing selection, allowing the breaking of the pleiotropic constraints. This probably also applies to dugongs, although to a lesser extent.</p

Correction to: Breaking evolutionary and pleiotropic constraints in mammals: on sloths, manatees and homeotic mutations (EvoDevo, (2011), 2, 1, (11), 10.1186/2041-9139-2-11)

In Table 1 of this article [1], the name of the three-toed sloth, Bradypus tridactylus, should be 5 rows higher in Table 1 and start with collection nr. RMNH.MAM.21576. The corrected Table 1 is given in this erratum. (Table presented.)

A global approach for natural history museum collections

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