Highlights
Used linear and volumetric measurements from 287 skulls of Urocyon species to explore trends in cranial adaptation on islands
Modeled digital brain endocasts from CT scans to examine differences in cerebral cortex regions and structures
Found that in contrast to studies of other island species, the island fox increased in relative brain size in comparison to its mainland counterpart, the gray fox, challenging the inclusion of reduced brain size as a component of “Island Syndrome”
Highlights
Examined five North American fox species from Urocyon and Vulpes genera to examine differences in growth and development related to body size and insularity
Prepared and imaged long bone histological samples from museum materials, contrasting ratios of tissue types and osteonal densities to explore rates of growth
Found that the island fox had a substantially slower growth pattern than both similarly small-bodied and larger-bodied mainland relatives, suggesting insularity to be the most substantial factor in trends of bone growth rates, not body size, likely related to resource limitation and ecological fluctuations in island environments
Highlights
Collected blood samples for RNA-sequencing from island foxes on six islands through collaboration with government, private, and non-profit management agencies
Extracted RNA for whole transcriptome sequencing followed by downstream bioinformatic analysis including: QC, sequence alignment, quantification, DGE, WGCNA, pathway analysis
Contrasted gene expression profiles from related subspecies infected with the same ectoparasite (ear mites) to examine differences in population-level immune response
Preliminary findings indicate that the diverged, geographically isolated subspecies exhibit distinct immune signatures, suggesting multiple immunological pathways to coping with mite infection