These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: The development of endothermy during pouch life in the eastern barred bandicoot (Perameles gunnii), a marsupial.
    Author: Ikonomopoulou MP, Rose RW.
    Journal: Physiol Biochem Zool; 2006; 79(3):468-73. PubMed ID: 16691513.
    Abstract:
    Marsupials are born ectothermic and gradually become endothermic during pouch occupancy. In order to study the timing of this transition, we measured the metabolic rates of eight pouch-young eastern barred bandicoots (Perameles gunnii) at 25 degrees C (the thermoneutral zone of adults), at 35 degrees C (pouch temperature), and after injection with norepinephrine. From 5 to 7 wk of age, oxygen consumption (VO(2)) was higher at 35 degrees C than at 25 degrees C. At 8 wk, VO(2) was significantly higher at 25 degrees C than at 35 degrees C. Norepinephrine administration at 5 and 6 wk had no effect on metabolic rate, but at 8 wk, near pouch vacation, it resulted in a significant increase in metabolic rate. Our results indicate that signs of thermoregulation for P. gunnii begin at 7 wk, and at 8 wk the species is endothermic, that is, able to increase heat production in response to both cold and norepinephrine. The appearance of fur, first seen at the age of 6 wk and fully developed at 8 wk, coincides with the onset of endothermy.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]