# Help looking for Scientific Publications



## Guest (Jan 4, 2007)

Hi Everyone,

Im looking for scientific articles concerning the evolution of limblessness in reptiles or amphibians. That is usually snakes and Caecilians, but not limited to those groups. Does anyone know of any good publications concerning this? 
Don't be afraid to post if you have one that gets into the details of genes that cause this, like a Hox, and Sonic Hedgehog. THanks!
I need info for a presentation and paper I will be doing, on Monday the 8th of January :shock: 
I was just assigned the subject last night!! :shock: :shock: :evil: 

HELP!!!!


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## Blort (Feb 5, 2005)

Try the PARC forums. There used to be a mailing list where you could get all sorts of good answers, but you may be able to find something on the forums as well...

http://forums.parcplace.org/


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## felicitedanes (May 2, 2005)

I found these in a VIN (veterinary information network) search for "imbless evolution". They look like they might be helpful, if you haven't already found them.
F.


Limbs in whales and limblessness in other vertebrates: mechanisms of evolutionary and developmental transformation and loss
Evol Dev. 2002 Nov-Dec;4(6):445-58.
Lars Bejder, Brian K Hall
Department of Biology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada B3H 4J1. [email protected]

Abstract
We address the developmental and evolutionary mechanisms underlying fore- and hindlimb development and progressive hindlimb reduction and skeletal loss in whales and evaluate whether the genetic, developmental, and evolutionary mechanisms thought to be responsible for limb loss in snakes "explain" loss of the hindlimbs in whales. Limb loss and concurrent morphological and physiological changes associated with the transition from land to water are discussed within the context of the current whale phylogeny. Emphasis is placed on fore- and hindlimb development, how the forelimbs transformed into flippers, and how the hindlimbs regressed, leaving either no elements or vestigial skeletal elements. Hindlimbs likely began to regress only after the ancestors of whales entered the aquatic environment: Hindlimb function was co-opted by the undulatory vertical axial locomotion made possible by the newly evolved caudal flukes. Loss of the hindlimbs was associated with elongation of the body during the transition from land to water. Limblessness in most snakes is also associated with adoption of a new (burrowing) lifestyle and was driven by developmental changes associated with elongation of the body. Parallels between adaptation to burrowing or to the aquatic environment reflect structural and functional changes associated with the switch to axial locomotion. Because they are more fully studied and to determine whether hindlimb loss in lineages that are not closely related could result from similar genetically controlled developmental pathways, we discuss developmental (cellular and genetic) processes that may have driven limb loss in snakes and leg-less lizards and compare these processes to the loss of hindlimbs in whales. In neither group does ontogenetic or phylogenetic limb reduction result from failure to initiate limb development. In both groups limb loss results from arrested development at the limb bud stage, as a result of inability to maintain necessary inductive tissue interactions and enhanced cell death over that seen in limbed tetrapods. An evolutionary change in Hox gene expression--as occurs in snakes--or in Hox gene regulation--as occurs in some limbless mutants--is unlikely to have initiated loss of the hindlimbs in cetaceans. Selective pressures acting on a wide range of developmental processes and adult traits other than the limbs are likely to have driven the loss of hindlimbs in whales.


How lizards turn into snakes: a phylogenetic analysis of body-form evolution in anguid lizards
Evolution Int J Org Evolution. November 2001;55(11):2303-18.
J J Wiens, J L Slingluff
Section of Amphibians and Reptiles, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213-4080, USA. [email protected]

Abstract
One of the most striking morphological transformations in vertebrate evolution is the transition from a lizardlike body form to an elongate, limbless (snakelike) body form. Despite its dramatic nature, this transition has occurred repeatedly among closely related species (especially in squamate reptiles), making it an excellent system for studying macroevolutionary transformations in body plan. In this paper, we examine the evolution of body form in the lizard family Anguidae, a clade in which multiple independent losses of limbs have occurred. We combine a molecular phylogeny for 27 species, our morphometric data, and phylogenetic comparative methods to provide the first statistical phylogenetic tests of several long-standing hypotheses for the evolution of snakelike body form. Our results confirm the hypothesized relationships between body elongation and limb reduction and between limb reduction and digit reduction. However, we find no support for the hypothesized sequence going from body elongation to limb reduction to digit loss, and we show that a burrowing lifestyle is not a necessary correlate of limb loss. We also show that similar degrees of overall body elongation are achieved in two different ways in anguids, that these different modes of elongation are associated with different habitat preferences, and that this dichotomy in body plan and ecology is widespread in limb-reduced squamates. Finally, a recent developmental study has proposed that the transition from lizardlike to snakelike body form involves changes in the expression domains of midbody Hox genes, changes that would link elongation and limb loss and might cause sudden transformations in body form. Our results reject this developmental model and suggest that this transition involves gradual changes occurring over relatively long time scales.


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2007)

Thanks! That second paper is perfect!!
I knew someone here would help.
Thanks to both of you!


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## Guest (Jan 5, 2007)

http://life.bio.sunysb.edu/ee/wienslab/ ... ff2001.pdf

Haha, found it for free online!! hee heeeee!!!


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## Ben_C (Jun 25, 2004)

I haven't read this in a while but...

Wiens, J.J., Slingluff, J.L. 2001. How Lizards turn into snakes: a phylogenetic analysis of body-form evolution in anguid lizards. Evolution 55(11) 2303-2318.

I hope this helps,
B


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## Guest (Jan 6, 2007)

I got that one already. Thanks!!!


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## FishinAggie03 (Jan 27, 2007)

Try the goole scholar search engine. http://scholar.google.com/ It allows you to search through a variety of scientific journals. Depending on the journal, some let you read the full text, some only make the abstract viewable.


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## stchupa (Apr 25, 2006)

I was hoping to find an internet publication on an article I read in National geographic a few months back that included the morph/ development in/of the hox region w/in arthropods. Modification of segments into limbs into wings and even sex organs and mouth parts. An the developmental relation to eyes. But no dice.

If you're doing a paper this is a must include and you get to make more than one association with your interests. All genera should be included.

Plants even exhibit a "hox" like E adaptation, which has now conformed to (in most modern) being a self generating (in interval specificallv/alternately placed) deposite(s) of maintaining the renual of paranchyma tissue. As to induce tissue to be modified for the given condition(s)/need/desire(flowers).

http://www.hhmi.org/research/investigators/carroll.html

This is basically the same info I was looking for.
Check in to the links given on the right hand section of this page also, it goes pretty much as far as you want it.


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## Guest (Feb 9, 2007)

Wow, cooL!!! I'll look into it. However the paper and presentation are done and over. I did extremely well, and Thank you all for your help!!!!! 
I will look into these links as I have been left with an interest in the subject.


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