We employed camera traps to collect data on the activity patterns, across a 24 hour period, of three free ranging adult Chinese crocodile lizards (Shinisaurus crocodilurus), a primitive reptile and the only lizard species in the family Shinisauridae. Our study demonstrated that during the non-hibernation season, diurnal Chinese crocodile lizard spent 96.73% of their time immobile (rest+sleep), 2.89% moving and 0.26% basking. Individuals regularly woke up around 5:30 AM and rested between 7:30AM to 8:20 PM. Four substrates used by Chinese crocodile lizards with per branch for 47.07±33.3% the ground for 28.34±15.56%, bodies of water for 1.2±0.7% and stem .for 0.9±0.43%. Additional analyses suggest that several factors including the exploitation of a small home range, a high starvation tolerance, extended periods of immobility (sleep + rest), and inhabiting a stable environment, enable the Chinese crocodile lizard to minimize energy costs associated with travel and thermoregulation, promoting its survival over long evolutionary periods.

The red swamp crayfish Procambarus clarkii is one of the global invasive species and has caused huge damage to aquaculture, biodiversity and ecology in the world. Antennal-expressed receptors are important for P. clarkii to detect olfactory cues for mate attraction, et al.. However, few olfactory and chemosensory-related genes were reported in P. clarkii until now. In the present study, we used RNA sequencing to investigate the olfactory and chemosensory-related genes of the antenna of P. clarkii during the non-mating and mating period. A total of 59218 unigenes with an average length of 1056.41 bp, and 4889 differentially expressed unigenes (DEGs) with 2128 up-regulated and 2761 down-regulated unigenes were obtained. Of which, 13 up-regulated and 9 down-regulated DEGs were identified to associated with olfaction and chemical reception, including 4 IRs or iGluRs, 8 G-protein coupled receptor, 5 transient receptor potential channels (TRP channels), 1 sodium-calcium exchanger, 1 olfactory receptor, 1 isomerase and 2 chemosensory proteins (CSPs). CSPs were preliminarily classified into pheromone receptors in male red swamp crayfish. The results of quantitative real-time reverse transcription PCR (RT-qPCR) showed that the expression trends of 8 selected unigenes were consistent, and this result also validated the RNA-Seq data. Our results provide more comprehensive data of olfactory and chemical communication mechanism after crayfish entering the mating period.

The intestinal microbiota play an important role in the life of amphibians. The composition of the intestinal microbial community may vary by developmental stage. In this study, 16S rRNA high-throughput sequencing was used to study the intestinal microbiota of Hynobius maoershanensis tadpoles and adults that exclusively inhabit the Maoer Mountain swamp at an altitude of approximately 2000 m. The results indicated that there was no significant difference in intestinal microbiota between tadpoles and adults. Nevertheless, the abundance of intestinal microbiota in adults was much higher than that in tadpoles. Specifically, at the phylum level, Bacteroidetes was more abundant in adults than in tadpoles. At the genus level, Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, Cyanobacteria, and Planctomycetes were more abundant in tadpoles, whereas Burkholderiaceae, Caedibacter, Bacteroides, and Serratia were more abundant in adults. A functional prediction analysis revealed that there was no significant difference between tadpoles and adults; however, the function of the intestinal microbiota in H. maoershanensis includes amino acid transport and metabolism, general function prediction only, transcription, energy production and conversion, liquid transport, and metabolism. The aquatic and terrestrial living environment of tadpoles and adults may be the main reason for the difference in intestinal microbiota between tadpoles and adults. Our study provides evidence of variations in the intestinal microbiota of tadpoles and adult amphibians, highlighting the influence of historical developments on the intestinal microbiota and the need for increased understanding of the importance of physiological characteristics in shaping intestinal microbiota of amphibians, which consequently help us to understand the adaptative mechanism of amphibians from an aquatic to a terrestrial environment.