Skin
- Presence and persistence of a highly ordered lipid phase state in the avian stratum corneum
Summary: House sparrows possess skin lipids that remain tightly packed to resist cutaneous water loss even at high temperatures. This finding provides evidence that bird skin differs greatly from mammalian skin.
- Crawling without wiggling: muscular mechanisms and kinematics of rectilinear locomotion in boa constrictors
Summary: Unlike most limbless vertebrates, snakes can propel themselves without bending their long axis because of muscles that both move the skin relative to the underlying skeleton and modulate skin stiffness.
- Tail regeneration and other phenomena of wound healing and tissue restoration in lizards
Summary: We highlight how lizards can inform, enhance and expand our understanding of the biology of regeneration.
- Cutaneous water collection by a moisture-harvesting lizard, the thorny devil (Moloch horridus)
Highlighted Article: Desert lizards such as thorny devils harvest moisture from different sources using their skin surface. Moist sand seems to be the most routine water source to meet their water demand.
- Lipid composition and molecular interactions change with depth in the avian stratum corneum to regulate cutaneous water loss
Highlighted Article: Lipid composition changes with depth in the avian skin, but these changes vary by season. This seasonal variation affects rates of cutaneous water loss.
- Visual phototransduction components in cephalopod chromatophores suggest dermal photoreception
Highlighted Article: Squid and cuttlefish skin chromatophores contain rhodopsin, Gqα and sTRP channels, which are necessary components for photoreception.