scholarly journals Onychophorology, the study of velvet worms, historical trends, landmarks, and researchers from 1826 to 2020 (a literature review)

Uniciencia ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 210-230
Author(s):  
Julián Monge-Nájera
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Ontogenetic Diet Shift ◽  
Velvet Worms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Experimental Taphonomy ◽  
New Research

Velvet worms, also known as peripatus or onychophorans, are a phylum of evolutionary importance that has survived all mass extinctions since the Cambrian period. They capture prey with an adhesive net that is formed in a fraction of a second. The first naturalist to formally describe them was Lansdown Guilding (1797-1831), a British priest from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. His life is as little known as the history of the field he initiated, Onychophorology. This is the first general history of Onychophorology, which has been divided into half-century periods. The beginning, 1826-1879, was characterized by studies from former students of famous naturalists like Cuvier and von Baer. This generation included Milne-Edwards and Blanchard, and studies were done mostly in France, Britain, and Germany. In the 1880-1929 period, research was concentrated on anatomy, behavior, biogeography, and ecology; and it is in this period when Bouvier published his mammoth monograph. The next half-century, 1930-1979, was important for the discovery of Cambrian species; Vachon’s explanation of how ancient distribution defined the existence of two families; DNA and electron microscopy from Brazil; and primitive attempts at systematics using embryology or isolated anatomical characteristics. Finally, the 1980-2020 period, with research centered in Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica, and Germany, is marked by an evolutionary approach: from body and behavior to geographic distribution; the discovery of how they form their adhesive net; the reconstruction of Cambrian onychophoran communities, the first experimental taphonomy; the first country-wide map of conservation status (in Costa Rica); the first model of why they survive in cities; the discovery of new phenomena like food hiding, parental feeding investment, and ontogenetic diet shift; and the birth of a new research branch, onychophoran ethnobiology. While a few names often appear in the literature, most knowledge was produced by a mass of researchers who entered the field only briefly.

scholarly journals History of Onychophorology, 1826-2020

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julian Monge-Najera
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Mass Extinctions ◽  
Half Century ◽  
Ontogenetic Diet Shift ◽  
Velvet Worms ◽  
History Of ◽  
Experimental Taphonomy ◽  
New Research

Velvet worms, or onychophorans, include placental species and, as a phylum, have survived all mass extinctions since the Cambrian. They capture prey with an extraordinary adhesive net that appears in an instant. The first naturalist to formally mention them was Lansdown Guilding (1797-1831), a British priest from the Caribbean island of Saint Vincent. His life is as little known as the history of the field he initiated, onychophorology. This is the first general history of onychophorology, and I have divided it into half century periods. The beginning, 1826-1879, was defined by former students of great names in the history of biology, like Cuvier and von Baer. This generation included Milne-Edwars and Blanchard, and the greatest advances came from France, with smaller but still important contributions from England and Germany. In the 1880-1929 period, work concentrated in anatomy, behavior, biogeography and ecology, but of course the most important work was Bouvier’s mammoth monograph. The next half century, 1930-1979, was important for the discovery of Cambrian species; Vachon’s explanation of how ancient distribution defined the existence of two families; Pioneer DNA and electron microscopy from Brazil; and primitive attempts at systematics using embryology or isolated anatomical characteristics. Finally, the 1980-2020 period, with research centered in Australia, Brazil, Costa Rica and Germany, is marked by an evolutionary approach to everything, from body and behavior to distribution; for the solution of the old problem of how they form their adhesive net and how the glue works; the reconstruction of Cambrian onychophoran communities, the first experimental taphonomy; the first country-wide map of conservation status (from Costa Rica); the first model of why they survive in cities; the discovery of new phenomena like food hiding, parental feeding investment and ontogenetic diet shift; and for the birth of a new research branch, Onychophoran Ethnobiology, founded in 2015. While a few names appear often in the literature, most knowledge was produced by a mass of researchers who entered the field only briefly.

scholarly journals The conservation status of Costa Rican velvet worms (Onychophora)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernal Morera-Brenes ◽  
Julian Monge-Najera ◽  
Paola Carrera-Mora
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Land Protection ◽  
Velvet Worms

Charismatic species, like the panda, play an important role in conservation, and velvet worms arguably are charismatic worms. Thanks to their extraordinary hunting mechanism, they have inspired from a female metal band in Japan, to origami worms in Russia and video game monsters in the USA. Objective: To assess their conservation status in Costa Rica. Methods: we located all collection records of the 29 known species from the Onychophora Database in the map of the Costa Rican Conservation Network. Results: We found that seven species are protected inside forest reserves, five in Protected Zones, four in Wildlife Refuges, two in National Parks and one, Principapillatus hitoyensis, in a strictly pristine Biological Reserve. The largest species in the world, Peripatus solorzanoi, occurs both inside a Forest Reserve and in protected private land. Protection inside Costa Rican nature areas is enforced year round by personnel that includes armed guards, and is supported by educational programs in surrounding communities. Twelve species have not been found in protected areas, but in Costa Rica, all biological species, named and unnamed, are protected by law and cannot be legally collected, or exported, without technically issued permits. Conclusion: Like in the only other country with similar information (New Zealand), the conservation of onychophorans seems to be of least concern for at least two thirds of the known species. Epiperipatus isthmicola, recently rediscovered after a century of absence in collections, can be considered Threatened because nearly all of its natural habitat has now been covered by a city.

scholarly journals Feeding behavior of Costa Rican velvet worms: food hiding, parental feeding investment and ontogenetic diet shift (Onychophora: Peripatidae)

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 85-88
Author(s):  
José Pablo Barquero González ◽  
Alvaro Vega-Hidalgo ◽  
Julián Monge-Nájera
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Ontogenetic Diet Shift ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Velvet Worms ◽  
First Time

We report, for the first time in onychophorans, food hiding, parental feeding investment and an ontogenetic diet shift two weeks after birth: from the parent’s adhesive used to capture prey, to the prey itself. 

scholarly journals Feeding behavior of Costa Rican velvet worms: food hiding, parental feeding investment and ontogenetic diet shift (Onychophora: Peripatidae)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Pablo Barquero-González ◽  
Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo ◽  
Julián Monge-Nájera
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Ontogenetic Diet Shift ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Velvet Worms ◽  
First Time

AbstractWe report, for the first time in onychophorans, food hiding, parental feeding investment and an ontogenetic diet shift two weeks after birth: from the parent’s adhesive used to capture prey, to the prey itself.

scholarly journals The Conservation Status of Costa Rican Velvet Worms (Onychophora)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernal Morera ◽  
Julian Monge-Najera ◽  
Paola Carrera Mora
Keyword(s):  
Costa Rica ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Biological Species ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Land Protection ◽  
Velvet Worms

ABSTRACT: Charismatic species, like the panda, play an important role in conservation, and velvet worms arguably are charismatic worms. Thanks to their extraordinary hunting mechanism, they have inspired from a female metal band in Japan, to origami worms in Russia and video game monsters in the USA. Objective: To assess their conservation status in Costa Rica. Methods: we located all collection records of the 29 known species from the Onychophora Database in the map of the Costa Rican Conservation Network. Results: We found that seven species are protected inside forest reserves, five in Protected Zones, four in Wildlife Refuges, two in National Parks and one, Principapillatus hitoyensis, in a strictly pristine Biological Reserve. The largest species in the world, Peripatus solorzanoi, occurs both inside a Forest Reserve and in protected private land. Protection inside Costa Rican nature areas is enforced year round by personnel that includes armed guards, and is supported by educational programs in surrounding communities. Twelve species have not been found in protected areas, but in Costa Rica, all biological species, named and unnamed, are protected by law and cannot be legally collected, or exported, without technically issued permits. Conclusion: Like in the only other country with similar information (New Zealand), the conservation of onychophorans seems to be of least concern for at least two thirds of the known species. Epiperipatus isthmicola, recently rediscovered after a century of absence in collections, can be considered Threatened because nearly all of its natural habitat has now been covered by a city.

scholarly journals The Feeding Behavior of Costa Rican Velvet Worms: Food Hiding, Parental Feeding Investment and Ontogenetic Diet Shift (Onychophora: Peripatidae)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
José Pablo Barquero-González ◽  
Álvaro Vega-Hidalgo ◽  
Julián Monge-Nájera
Keyword(s):  
Feeding Behavior ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Diet Shift ◽  
Ontogenetic Diet Shift ◽  
Parental Feeding ◽  
Velvet Worms ◽  
First Time

We report, for the first time in onychophorans, food hiding, parental feeding investment and an ontogenetic diet shift, from adhesive to prey, after their first two weeks of life.

scholarly journals The conservation status of Costa Rican velvet worms (Onychophora): geographic pattern, risk assessment and comparison with New Zealand velvet worms

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernal Morera-Brenes ◽  
Julián Monge Nájera ◽  
Paola Carrera Mora
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Costa Rica ◽  
National Parks ◽  
Video Game ◽  
Conservation Status ◽  
Natural Habitat ◽  
Costa Rican ◽  
Private Land ◽  
Land Protection ◽  
Velvet Worms

Introduction: Charismatic species, like the panda, play an important role in conservation, and velvet worms arguably are charismatic worms.  Thanks to their extraordinary hunting mechanism, they have inspired from a female metal band in Japan, to origami worms in Russia and video game monsters in the USA. Objective: To assess their conservation status in Costa Rica (according to data in the UNA Onychophora Database) and compare it with equivalent data from elsewhere. Methods:  we located all collection records of the 29 species in the map of the Costa Rican Conservation Network. Results: We found that seven species are protected inside Forest Reserves, five in Protected Zones, four in Wildlife Refuges, two in National Parks and one, Principapillatus hitoyensis, in a strictly pristine Biological Reserve. The largest species in the world, Peripatus solorzanoi, occurs both inside a Forest Reserve and in protected private land. Protection inside Costa Rican nature areas is enforced year-round by personnel that includes armed guards and is supported by educational programs in surrounding communities. Twelve species have not been found in protected areas, but in Costa Rica, all biological species, named and unnamed, are protected by law and cannot be legally collected, or exported, without technically issued permits. Conclusion: Like in the only other country with similar information (New Zealand), the conservation of onychophorans seems to be of least concern for at least two thirds of the known Costa Rican species. Epiperipatus isthmicola, recently rediscovered after a century of absence in collections, can be considered Threatened because nearly all of its natural habitat has now been covered by a city.

FBI and Religion

2017 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Religious Orientation ◽  
Religious Communities ◽  
Academic Scholarship ◽  
History Of ◽  
Interdisciplinary Assessment ◽  
Civic Religion ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The Way

This volume is an interdisciplinary assessment of the relationship between religion and the FBI. We recount the history of the FBI’s engagement with multiple religious communities and with aspects of public or “civic” religion such as morality and respectability. The book presents new research to explain roughly the history of the FBI’s interaction with religion over approximately one century, from the pre-Hoover period to the post-9/11 era. Along the way, the book explores vexed issues that go beyond the particulars of the FBI’s history—the juxtaposition of “religion” and “cult,” the ways in which race can shape the public’s perceptions of religion (and vica versa), the challenges of mediating between a religious orientation and a secular one, and the role and limits of academic scholarship as a way of addressing the differing worldviews of the FBI and some of the religious communities it encounters.

Reframing the Sciences of the Long Eighteenth Century

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 58-66
Author(s):  
Giuliano Pancaldi
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
History Of Science ◽  
Science Policy ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
History Of ◽  
Long Eighteenth Century ◽  
Past Half

Here I survey a sample of the essays and reviews on the sciences of the long eighteenth century published in this journal since it was founded in 1969. The connecting thread is some historiographic reflections on the role that disciplines—in both the sciences we study and the fields we practice—have played in the development of the history of science over the past half century. I argue that, as far as disciplines are concerned, we now find ourselves a bit closer to a situation described in our studies of the long eighteenth century than we were fifty years ago. This should both favor our understanding of that period and, hopefully, make the historical studies that explore it more relevant to present-day developments and science policy. This essay is part of a special issue entitled “Looking Backward, Looking Forward: HSNS at 50,” edited by Erika Lorraine Milam.

Clause Structure and Word Order in the History of German

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Word Order ◽  
Left Periphery ◽  
Structural Factors ◽  
Clause Structure ◽  
Verb Second ◽  
Verb Forms ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Research ◽  
The Right ◽  
Theoretical Analyses

Over roughly the last decade, there has been a notable rise in new research on historical German syntax in a generative perspective. This volume presents a state-of-the-art survey of this thriving new line of research by leading scholars in the field, combining it with new insights into the syntax of historical German. It is the first comprehensive and concise generative historical syntax of German covering numerous central aspects of clause structure and word order, tracing them throughout various historical stages. Each chapter combines a solid empirical basis and valid descriptive generalizations with reference also to the more traditional topological model of the German clause with a detailed discussion of theoretical analyses couched in the generative framework. The volume is divided into three parts according to the main parts of the clause: the left periphery dealing with verbal placement and the filling of the prefield (verb second, verb first, verb third orders) as well as adverbial connectives; the middle field including discussion of pronominal syntax, order of full NPs and the history of negation; and the right periphery with chapters on basic word order (OV/VO), prosodic and information-structural factors, and the verbal complex including the development of periphrastic verb forms and the phenomena of IPP (infinitivus pro participio) and ACI (accusativus cum infinitivo). This book thus provides a convenient overview of current research on the major issues concerning historical German clause structure both for scholars interested in more traditional description and for those interested in formal accounts of diachronic syntax.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document