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- De La Garza, Randolph Glenn, et al.
(författare)
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An ancestral hard-shelled sea turtle with a mosaic of soft skin and scutes
- 2022
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Ingår i: Scientific Reports. - : Nature Research. - 2045-2322. ; 12:1
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The transition from terrestrial to marine environments by secondarily aquatic tetrapods necessitates a suite of adaptive changes associated with life in the sea, e.g., the scaleless skin in adult individuals of the extant leatherback turtle. A partial, yet exceptionally preserved hard-shelled (Pan-Cheloniidae) sea turtle with extensive soft-tissue remains, including epidermal scutes and a virtually complete flipper outline, was recently recovered from the Eocene Fur Formation of Denmark. Examination of the fossilized limb tissue revealed an originally soft, wrinkly skin devoid of scales, together with organic residues that contain remnant eumelanin pigment and inferred epidermal transformation products. Notably, this stem cheloniid—unlike its scaly living descendants—combined scaleless limbs with a bony carapace covered in scutes. Our findings show that the adaptive transition to neritic waters by the ancestral pan-chelonioids was more complex than hitherto appreciated, and included at least one evolutionary lineage with a mosaic of integumental features not seen in any living turtle. © 2022, The Author(s).
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| 2. |
- Lindgren, Johan, et al.
(författare)
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Soft-tissue evidence for homeothermy and crypsis in a Jurassic ichthyosaur
- 2018
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Ingår i: Nature. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0028-0836 .- 1476-4687. ; 564:7736
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Ichthyosaurs are extinct marine reptiles that display a notable external similarity to modern toothed whales. Here we show that this resemblance is more than skin deep. We apply a multidisciplinary experimental approach to characterize the cellular and molecular composition of integumental tissues in an exceptionally preserved specimen of the Early Jurassic ichthyosaur Stenopterygius. Our analyses recovered still-flexible remnants of the original scaleless skin, which comprises morphologically distinct epidermal and dermal layers. These are underlain by insulating blubber that would have augmented streamlining, buoyancy and homeothermy. Additionally, we identify endogenous proteinaceous and lipid constituents, together with keratinocytes and branched melanophores that contain eumelanin pigment. Distributional variation of melanophores across the body suggests countershading, possibly enhanced by physiological adjustments of colour to enable photoprotection, concealment and/or thermoregulation. Convergence of ichthyosaurs with extant marine amniotes thus extends to the ultrastructural and molecular levels, reflecting the omnipresent constraints of their shared adaptation to pelagic life.
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| 3. |
- Zhang, Yang, et al.
(författare)
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Planning and operation of an integrated energy system in a Swedish building
- 2019
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Ingår i: Energy Conversion and Management. - : Elsevier. - 0196-8904 .- 1879-2227. ; 199
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- More flexibility measures are required due to the increasing capacities of variable renewable energies (VRE). In buildings, the integration of energy supplies forms integrated energy systems (IES). IESs can provide flexibility and increase the VRE penetration level. To upgrade a current building energy system into an IES, several energy conversion and storage components are needed. How to decide the component capacities and operate the IES were investigated separately in studies on system planning and system operation. However, a research gap exists that the system configuration from system planning is not validated by actual operation conditions in system operation. Meanwhile, studies on system operation assume that IES configurations are predetermined. This work combines system planning and system operation. The IES configuration is determined by mixed integer linear programming in system planning. Actual operation conditions and forecast errors are considered in system operation. The actual operation profiles are obtained through year-round simulations of different energy management systems. The results indicate that the system configuration from system planning can meet energy demands in system operation. Among different energy management systems, the combination of robust optimization and receding horizon optimization achieves the lowest yearly operation cost. Meanwhile, two scenarios that represent high and low forecast accuracies are studied. Under the high and low forecast accuracy scenarios, the yearly operation costs are about 4% and 6% higher than that obtained from system planning.
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