A new Miocene pinniped Allodesmus (Mammalia: Carnivora) from Hokkaido, northern Japan

A nearly complete pinniped skeleton from the middle Miocene Okoppezawa Formation (ca 16.3-13.9 Ma), Hokkaido, northern Japan, is described as the holotype of Allodesmus uraiporensis sp. nov. The new species is distinguishable from other species of the genus by having the palatine fissure (incisive foramen) that is located anterior to the canine, an anteriorly located supraorbital process of the frontal, and by having the calcaneum with a developed peroneal tubercle. Our phylogenetic analysis suggests that the subfamily Allodesminae are represented by two genera, Atopotarus and Allodesmus, and the latter genus is represented by at least six species; Al. kernensis, Al. sinanoensis, Al. naorai, Al. packardi, Al. demerei and Al. uraiporensis sp. nov. Allodesmus uraiporensis sp. nov. is one of the oldest and the northernmost record of the genus in the western North Pacific, and it suggests that the diversification of the genus in the western North Pacific was synchronous to the time of their diversification in the eastern North Pacific.

New evaluation index for the retainability of a swimmer's horizontal posture

This study aims to investigate the effect of changes in buoyancy when a swimmer respires in a horizontal posture. We attempted to evaluate the levelness of swimmers’ streamline posture by simultaneously measuring the lung capacity and buoyancy under water. The buoyancy was measured based on the changes in the vertical loads of the upper and lower limbs on the subjects’ streamline posture under water. The horizontal x-axis as lung ventilation and the vertical y-axis as buoyancy forms a linear equation y = ax + b. The relation between hand (upper-limb) buoyancy and lung ventilation is defined as y = a1x + b1 and that between foot (lower-limb) buoyancy and lung ventilation as y = a2x + b2. Horizontal levelness was calculated as a ratio by dividing a2 by a1 using the inclination (a) values from these formulas for an underwater streamline posture. We defined this ratio as the breathing–balance (BB) ratio. Although the performance levels in the present study did not show any difference in the absolute quantity of air that humans can inhale in a streamline posture, the BB ratio was higher in a statistically significant manner in junior swimmers competing at international levels compared with the other groups of subjects (P < 0.001). This statistical difference in horizontal levelness, despite the absence of a noticeable difference in the absolute quantity of inhaled air, may be attributable to the way in which each person inhales and exhales air. Top-level junior swimmers that exhibited a high BB ratio might have inhaled in a way that would counteract the sinking of the lower limbs, for example, through abdominal respiration. When exhaling, on the other hand, they might have let out air gradually to mitigate the acceleration force involved in submerging the lower limbs.