| EDITORIAL
As
we approach the end of the 20th century, onychophoroly
seems to be in good condition, as you can see from the news
included in this edition, but the number of published studies
is low, possibly because some important researchers have retired,
and because others are working on large papers that require
years to finish. I hope that we will see more publications
in forthcoming years, particularly much needed field studies
and better DNA analyses. It is no secret that I am often dissatisfied
with biochemical studies that consistently produce contradictory
results and come from professionals with no previous experience
with onychophorans. Molecular biologists should meet the quality
standard that our Australian colleagues have set. Conservation
biology is a must for the 21st. century.
The Onychophora Newsletter has grown and this is good,
but it has become impossible for me to finance the mailing
of a printed version to all of you, so I am sending only this
contents description and beg you to see the complete newsletter
in my web page (Onychophora On-Line inside www.ots.ac.cr).
Only libraries, and those of you who write mentioning lack
of Internet access will receive the complete printed version.
And finally: thank you very much to those who sent checks
to help finance this edition.
MICHAEL
GHISELIN'S ONYCHOPHORA BIBLIOGRAPHY IS NOW AVAILABLE
A
highly comprehensive and carefully assembled bibliography on the Onychophora was
prepared by one of the leading Darwinian authorities of the
century, and well known expert about onychophoran evolution,
Dr. Michael Ghiselin of the California Academy of Science.
A first version of his growing database is available on-line
to Internet users in the Onychophora On-Line page that
is part of Tropiweb:
http://www.ots.ac.cr or http://www.ots.duke.edu
The
OTS site is growing rapidly and requires periodic reorganization,
so if you fail to find it there, use a finder (such as Lycos,
Altavista, Yahoo, Webcrawler or similar) and look for Onychophora
On-Line or for my name. The onychophoran community (particularly
students in countries with poor libraries) will no doubt be
greatly indebted to Dr. Ghiselin for sharing his database.
ONYCHOPHORAN
SWARMING IN TASMANIA
Dr.
Robert Mesibov provides a very interesting observation about
Tasmanian egg-laying onychophorans (Ooperipatellus decoratus
Baehr 1977). 'Mass swarming' occurs on tree-trunks in wet forest (he was accompanied by German student
Claudia Brockmann). Additionally, he comments on onychophoran
conservation, a field in which he is a pioneer.
NEW
FINDING ABOUT THE ONYCHOPHORA OF LA SELVA
University
of Colorado’s Dr. Terrence P. McGlynn tells us about
his experience with onychophorans in La Selva, an Organization for Tropical Studies field station in Caribbean Costa
Rica. He discusses possible associations among onychophorans,
ants and habitat characteristics.
HOW
DID ONYCHOPHORAN LEGS ORIGINATE?
A
paper by a large team in which our good friend and well known
onychophoran expert Dr. Muriel Walker was a member recently
published "The origin and evolution of animal appendages"
(Proc. Ntl. Acad. Sci.
USA 94: 5162-5166). They wanted to know if the Distal-less (Dll) homeoprotein
appeared in both protostomes and deuterostomes, suggesting
a very old origin of the genes that control appendage growth.
Studied taxa included the South African onychophoran Peripatopsis
capensis. They suggest that the Dll gene evolved in association
with antenniform outgrowths in a pre-Cambrian worm, and that
it allowed independent development of parapodia in polychaetes
and of "lobopodia" (oncopods) in onychophorans.
They mention, however, that some of their results could also
reflect crossreactivity of the Dll antibody to other proteins
and that the Dll genes "could have been co-opted independently
for appendage formation from some other function".
NEW
STUDY ON ONYCHOPHORAN LEG AND INTEGUMENT
Chantal
Gabriel (cjgab@yahoo.com), a third year biology student at
the University of Natal in South Africa is beginning a study
of integument and leg structures of two local species, Peripatopsis
moseleyi and Opisthopatus cinctipes. If she sends
reports of her results, I will include them in a future edition.
ONYCHOPHORA
OF MEXICO
The
second volume of The Arthropoda of Mexico will be published
by the prestigious Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
(UNAM) before the end of 1999. It will include a chapter on
Mexican Onychophora written by J. Monge-Nájera The chapter
reviews the biology of the phylum as well as the history of
research in Mexico, the state of collections and estimates
the number of undescribed species. Of particular interest
for non-Mexican readers may be the statistical analysis of
bibliometric trends about the phylum that covers more than
150 years of technical literature.
ONYCHOPHORA
AND THE EVOLUTION OF ARTHROPODA
The
Aragon Entomological Society will publish a new volume of
their thick Boletín de la Sociedad Entomológica Aragonesa
dedicated to the latest about evolution and phylogeny of Arthropoda.
Antonio Melic, its editor, has reported that it will include
a section about Onychophora. The Boletín traditionally presents
extensive reviews of an impressive quality and is based in
Zaragoza.
HOW
TO COLLECT AND PRESERVE ONYCHOPHORANS
Onychophorans
are rare animals and should be preserved with the greatest
care to guarantee scientific value and to justify removal
from the genetic pool of each species. This guide explains
how to find them and how to properly preserve them for museum
and for DNA study (in Spanish, a volunteer for translating
it into English is wanted).
COSTA
RICAN STUDIES ABOUT ONYCHOPHORAN EVOLUTION
A
journalistic account written by Andrea Brenes and published
in a university bulletin, that describes the Costa Rican contribution
to our knowledge of onychophoran evolution.
UPDATED
DIRECTORY OF PEOPLE INTERESTED IN ONYCHOPHORANS
Finally
an updated directory, with complete addresses (including
e-mail in some cases) and geographically classified, is available
on-line in this edition.
GERMAN
VOLUNTEER TO SCAN SLIDES
I
was contacted by a German biologist who kindly offered to
scan material from the Ruhberg collection of onychophoran
photographs. Unfortunately, I lost all his data when my computer
crashed (I was without Internet access for months). If you
know him, please help us re-establish contact.
ONLY
IN Onychophora On-Line:
The ascent
of life: a comparison of the philosophical
views of Alexander Skutch and Stephen Gould using onychophorans
as a guide
· A life of change: the external body changes of onychophorans
from embryo to
adult
· The evolution
of Onychophora: on-line version of the published
study that placed 150 years under a Darwinian perspective
· Onychophoran habitats: on-line version of the only published comparison of onychophoran habitats
· Onychophorans versus scorpions: on-line version of the published
study about why these two groups of small predators took different
evolutionary roads.
· Photos from the Böckeler expeditions to Costa Rica,
including Ira Richlings slides of a dark giant onychophoran
from the Atlantic versant.
Keep
visiting the page for these sections and for related news
HOW
TO HELP
You
can assist by providing text, images, translations, volunteer
work and small money contributions (if so, please state if
you want to remain anonymous).
Text:
send in Rich Text Format or Microsoft Word as e-mail attachment,
in diskette or if these are impossible, in printed form.
Images:
send photographs, drawings, paintings, etc. in Jpeg, GIF,
Tiff or Photoshop format as e-mail attachment, in diskette
or if these are impossible, in printed form.
Translations:
our official language is English to reach the greatest readership,
but I have sections in other languages for lack of time to
translate them: if you can do a better job than an automatic
translator, please let me know.
Volunteer
work: if you can help produce the next newsletter, or are
coming to Costa Rica and want to help just for the satisfaction,
let me know.
Money:
Globalization hit Costa Rican industries because markets were
open to large foreign companies, but it also had one good
effect; Costa Rican banks now accept checks in dollars from
any bank of the world, so money orders and the like are no
longer necessary. Contact me for additional information. |
