Recent Advances In The Evolution Of Euarchontoglires

The Arthur M. Sackler Colloquia of the National Academy of Sciences address scientific topics of broad and current interest, cutting across the boundaries of traditional disciplines. Each year, four or five such colloquia are scheduled, typically two days in length and international in scope. Colloquia are organized by a member of the Academy, often with the assistance of an organizing committee, and feature presentations by leading scientists in the field and discussions with a hundred or more researchers with an interest in the topic. Colloquia presentations are recorded and posted on the National Academy of Sciences Sackler colloquia website and published on CD-ROM. These Colloquia are made possible by a generous gift from Mrs. Jill Sackler, in memory of her husband, Arthur M. Sackler.

Winner, 2010 PROSE Award for Excellence in the Biological Sciences. Professional and Scholarly Publishing division of the Association of American Publishers In this unique book, Peter S. Ungar tells the story of mammalian teeth from their origin through their evolution to their current diversity. Mammal Teeth traces the evolutionary history of teeth, beginning with the very first mineralized vertebrate structures half a billion years ago. Ungar describes how the simple conical tooth of early vertebrates became the molars, incisors, and other forms we see in mammals today. Evolutionary adaptations changed pointy teeth into flatter ones, with specialized shapes designed to complement the corresponding jaw. Ungar explains tooth structure and function in the context of nutritional needs. The myriad tooth shapes produced by evolution offer different solutions to the fundamental problem of how to squeeze as many nutrients as possible out of foods. The book also highlights Ungar's own path-breaking studies that show how microwear analysis can help us understand ancient diets. The final part of the book provides an in-depth examination of mammalian teeth today, surveying all orders in the class, family by family. Ungar describes some of the more bizarre teeth, such as tusks, and the mammal diversity that accompanies these morphological wonders. Mammal Teeth captures the evolution of mammals, including humans, through the prism of dental change. Synthesizing decades of research, Ungar reveals the interconnections among mammal diet, dentition, and evolution. His book is a must-read for paleontologists, mammalogists, and anthropologists.

Coastal exposures of the Santa Cruz Formation in southern Patagonia have been a fertile ground for recovery of Early Miocene vertebrates for more than 100 years. This volume presents a comprehensive compilation of important mammalian groups which continue to thrive today. It includes the most recent fossil finds as well as important new interpretations based on ten years of fieldwork by the authors. A key focus is placed on the paleoclimate and paleoenvironment during the time of deposition in the Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum (MMCO) between twenty and fifteen million years ago. The authors present the first reconstruction of what climatic conditions were like and present important new evidence of the geochronological age, habits and community structures of fossil bird and mammal species. Academic researchers and graduate students in paleontology, paleobiology, paleoecology, stratigraphy, climatology and geochronology will find this a valuable source of information about this fascinating geological formation.

Gamma/delta (γδ) T-cells are a small subset of T-lymphocytes in the peripheral circulation but constitute a major T-cell population at other anatomical localizations such as the epithelial tissues. In contrast to conventional α/β T-cells, the available number of germline genes coding for T-cell receptor (TCR) variable elements of γδ T-cells is very small. Moreover, there is a prefential localization of γδ T-cells expressing given Vgamma and Vdelta genes in certain tissues. In humans, γδ T-cells expressing the Vg9Vd2-encoded TCR account for anywhere between 50 and >95% of peripheral blood γδ T-cells, whereas cells expressing non-Vd2 genes dominate in mucosal tissues. In mice, there is an ordered appearance of γδ T-cell „waves“ during embryonic development, resulting in preferential localization of γδ T-cells expressing distinct VgammaVdelta genes in the skin, the reproductive organs, or gut epithelia. The major function of γδ T-cells resides in local immunosurveillance and immune defense against infection and malignancy. This is supported by the identification of ligands that are selectively recognized by the γδ TCR. As an example, human Vgamma9Vdelta2 T-cells recognize phosphorylated metabolites („phosphoantigens“) that are secreted by many pathogens but can also be overproduced by tumor cells, providing a basis for a role of these γδ T-cells in both anti-infective and anti-tumor immunity. Similarly, the recognition of endothelial protein C receptor by human non-Vdelta2 γδ T-cells has recently been identified to provide a link for the role for such γδ T-cells in immunity against epithelial tumor cells and cytomegalovirus-infected endothelial cells. In addition to „classical“ functions such as cytokine production and cytotoxicity, recent studies suggest that subsets of γδ T-cells can exert additional functions such as regulatory activity and – quite surpisingly – „professional“ antigen-presenting capacity. It is currently not well known how this tremendous extent of functional plasticity is regulated and what is the extent of γδ TCR ligand diversity. Due to their non-MHC-restricted recognition of unusual stress-associated ligands, γδ T-cells have raised great interest as to their potential translational application in cell-based immunotherapy. Topics of this Research Focus include: Molecular insights into the activation and differentiation requirements of γδ T-cells, role of pyrophosphates and butyrophilin molecules for the activation of human γδ T-cells, role of γδ T-cells in tumor immunity and in other infectious and non-infectious diseases, and many others. We are most grateful to all colleagues who agreed to write a manuscript. Thanks to their contributions, this E-book presents an up-to-date overview on many facets of the still exciting γδ T-cells. Dieter Kabelitz & Julie Déchanet-Merville

Evolutionary Neuroscience is a collection of articles in brain evolution selected from the recent comprehensive reference, Evolution of Nervous Systems (Elsevier, Academic Press, 2007). The selected chapters cover a broad range of topics from historical theory to the most recent deductions from comparative studies of brains. The articles are organized in sections focused on theories and brain scaling, the evolution of brains from early vertebrates to present-day fishes, amphibians, reptiles and birds, the evolution of mammalian brains, and the evolution of primate brains, including human brains. Each chapter is written by a leader or leaders in the field, and has been reviewed by other experts. Specific topics include brain character reconstruction, principles of brain scaling, basic features of vertebrate brains, the evolution of the major sensory systems, and other parts of brains, what we can learn from fossils, the origin of neocortex, and the evolution of specializations of human brains. The collection of articles will be interesting to anyone who is curious about how brains evolved from the simpler nervous systems of the first vertebrates into the many different complex forms now found in present-day vertebrates. This book would be of use to students at the graduate or undergraduate levels, as well as professional neuroscientists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists. Together, the chapters provide a comprehensive list of further reading and references for those who want to inquire further. The most comprehensive, authoritative and up-to-date single volume collection on brain evolution Full color throughout, with many illustrations Written by leading scholars and experts

The order Rodentia is the most abundant and successful group of mammals, and it has been a focal point of attention for compar ative and evolutionary biologists for many years. In addition, rodents are the most commonly used experimental mammals for bio medical research, and they have played a central role in investi gations of the genetic and molecular mechanisms of speciation in mammals. During recent decades, a tremendous amount of new data from various aspects of the biology of living and fossil rodents has been accumulated by specialists from different disciplines, ranging from molecular biology to paleontology. Paradoxically, our understanding of the possible evolutionary relationships among different rodent families, as well as the possible affinities of rodents with other eutherian mammals, has not kept pace with this information "explosion. " This abundance of new biological data has not been incorporated into a broad synthesis of rodent phylo geny, in part because of the difficulty for any single student of rodent evolution to evaluate the phylogenetic significance of new findings from such diverse disciplines as paleontology, embryology, comparative anatomy, molecular biology, and cytogenetics. The origin and subsequent radiation of the order Rodentia were based primarily on the acquisition of a key character complex: specializations of the incisors, cheek teeth, and associated mus culoskeletal features of the jaws and skull for gnawing and chewing.

The ontogeny of each individual contributes to the physical, physiological, cognitive, neurobiological, and behavioral capacity to manage the complex social relationships and diverse foraging tasks that characterize the primate order. For these reasons Building Babies explores the dynamic multigenerational processes of primate development. The book is organized thematically along the developmental trajectory:conception, pregnancy, lactation, the mother-infant dyad, broader social relationships, and transitions to independence. In this volume, the authors showcase the myriad approaches to understanding primate developmental trajectories from both proximate and ultimate perspectives. These collected chapters provide insights from experimental manipulations in captive settings to long-term observations of wild-living populations and consider levels of analysis from molecule to organism to social group to taxon. Strepsirrhines, New World monkeys, Old World monkeys, apes, and humans are all well-represented. Contributions by anthropologists, microbiologists, psychologists, population geneticists, and other primate experts provide Building Babies a uniquely diverse voice. Building Babies features multi- and trans-disciplinary research approaches to primate developmental trajectories and is particularly useful for researchers and instructors in anthropology, animal behavior, psychology, and evolutionary biology. This book also serves as a supplement to upper-level undergraduate courses or graduate seminars on primate life history and development. In these contexts, the book provides exposure to a wide range of methodological and theoretical perspectives on developmental trajectories and models how researchers might productively integrate such approaches into their own work.