Tuesday's comparative physiology posters at EB 2012

Here are my favorite posters from today's session:

-Scott G, Schnurr ME, Yin Y, Johnston IA. "Embryonic temperature produces persistent effects on the capacity for thermal acclimation in adult zebrafish"
Scott et al., found that exposing embryonic zebrafish to varying temperatures impacted the animal's ability to acclimate (swimming performance) to different temperatures as an adult. The effect was at least partially attributed to differences in the development of muscle fiber types with varying temperatures.

-Howard SA, Rothstein K, Laske TG, Garshelis DL, Iaizzo PA. "Estimating water loss during hibernation in the American black bear (Ursus americanus)"
During hibernation American black bears do not eat or drink. Howard et al., wanted to find out if the animals were able to prevent the loss of water vapor in their expired air. So they tracked radio-collared bears to their dens and analyzed the expired water vapor in anesthetized animals. What they found supported their hypothesis in that the animals only lost ~2.3L of water over the course of 5 months. What I find even more amazing is that they are willing to study bears.

-Roberts S, Lane S, Mancinelli G, Martinez E, Sandoe L, Kopke D, Elekonich M. "Effects of age and lifetime behavioral patterns on locomotion in Drosophila."
Roberts et al., found that flies prevented from flying actually lived longer than those allowed or encouraged to fly. Unfortunately, these long-lived flies lost their flight capacity earlier than the other flies as they aged.

And now for my all-time favorite, simply because I love stories about extinct animals:

-Wilson T, Golbach LP. "Sabertooth cat (Smilodon) attack involved inflicting pneumothorax."
Wilson and Golbach provided evidence that sabertooth cats may have killed their prey by puncturing the thoracic wall causing pneumothorax, or collapsed lungs. Yikes!!