Differences in activity level between cownose rays (Rhinoptera bonasus) and Atlantic stingrays (Dasyatis sabina) are related to differences in heart mass, hemoglobin concentration, and gill surface area

Response to comment on "Exceptional preservation of organs in Devonian placoderms from the Gogo largerstätte"

Jensen et al. (1) question evidence presented of a chambered heart within placoderms, citing its small size and apparently ventral atrium. However, they fail to note the belly-up orientation of the placoderm within one nodule, and the variability of heart morphology within extant taxa. Thus, we remain confident in our interpretation of the mineralized organ as the heart.

Hypoxia effects on gill surface area and blood oxygen-carrying capacity of the Atlantic stingray, Dasyatis sabina

Atlantic stingrays, Dasyatis sabina, are common residents of shallow-water seagrass habitats that experience natural cycles of severe hypoxia during summer months. We hypothesized that stingrays exposed to hypoxic episodes would improve their hypoxia tolerance by increasing branchial surface area and altering blood oxygen-carrying capacity. To this end, we compared critical oxygen minimum, gill morphology, and hemoglobin/hematocrit levels in a control group of Atlantic stingrays held at continuous oxygen saturations of 80-90% (≥5.5 mg/l), to treatment groups exposed to a 7-h hypoxic interval at 55% (~4.0 mg/l), or 30% oxygen saturation (~2.0 mg/l). Stingrays in hypoxic treatment groups significantly improved their hypoxia tolerance. Critical oxygen minimum values fell from 0.7 ± 0.11 mg/l in control fish to 0.4 ± 0.05 and 0.4 ± 0.06 mg/l in the 55 and 30% saturation treatment groups, respectively. Mass-specific gill surface area between control fish and the 30% saturation treatment group increased by 1.7-fold, from 85 to 142 mm(2)/g. Although stingrays did not show an increase in hematocrit or hemoglobin levels, production of more efficient hemoglobin isoforms could not be ruled out. An increase in hypoxia tolerance allows Atlantic stingrays to forage for longer times and across a wide range of hypoxic habitats that are less accessible to predators and competitors.

Intraspecific scaling of the resting and maximum metabolic rates of the crucian carp (Carassius auratus)

The question of how the scaling of metabolic rate with body mass (M) is achieved in animals is unresolved. Here, we tested the cell metabolism hypothesis and the organ size hypothesis by assessing the mass scaling of the resting metabolic rate (RMR), maximum metabolic rate (MMR), erythrocyte size, and the masses of metabolically active organs in the crucian carp (Carassius auratus). The M of the crucian carp ranged from 4.5 to 323.9 g, representing an approximately 72-fold difference. The RMR and MMR increased with M according to the allometric equations RMR = 0.212M (0.776) and MMR = 0.753M (0.785). The scaling exponents for RMR (b r) and MMR (b m) obtained in crucian carp were close to each other. Thus, the factorial aerobic scope remained almost constant with increasing M. Although erythrocyte size was negatively correlated with both mass-specific RMR and absolute RMR adjusted to M, it and all other hematological parameters showed no significant relationship with M. These data demonstrate that the cell metabolism hypothesis does not describe metabolic scaling in the crucian carp, suggesting that erythrocyte size may not represent the general size of other cell types in this fish and the metabolic activity of cells may decrease as fish grows. The mass scaling exponents of active organs was lower than 1 while that of inactive organs was greater than 1, which suggests that the mass scaling of the RMR can be partly due to variance in the proportion of active/inactive organs in crucian carp. Furthermore, our results provide additional evidence supporting the correlation between locomotor capacity and metabolic scaling.