Rays of the family Rhinopteridae Jordan & Evermann, 1896 are highly migratory and widely distributed in warm tropical and temperate waters. Along the Brazilian coast, the presence of two species has been recorded: Rhinoptera bonasus Mitchill, 1815 and Rhinoptera brasiliensis Müller, 1836. These stingrays are commonly caught as bycatch in trawl fisheries, however, the two species lack distinctive external morphological features...

While bats are known to harbor various viruses and bacteria, their role as hosts for hemoparasites has not been extensively studied. This research investigated the presence of ectoparasites and vector-borne pathogens—including Anaplasmataceae agents, hemoplasmas, apicomplexans, and kinetoplastids—in 74 Phyllostomidae bats sampled from an urban forest fragment in southeastern Brazil. Overall, 31.1% of the bats were infested wit...

Increasing life expectancy has been accompanied by a higher prevalence of age-associated conditions, underscoring the need to better understand biological mechanisms of aging and to identify accessible biomarkers. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid-bilayer vesicles that mediate intercellular communication by transporting proteins, lipids, and regulatory RNAs, including microRNAs (miRNAs). Here, we investigated whether the...

This study documents the lifecycle and large-scale environment of a large-hail producing supercell that occurred in southern Brazil (SB) on 6 October 2015. The supercell underwent a merger with a nascent supercell near a Doppler weather radar and rapidly intensified shortly after the interaction. The original (premerger) supercell developed in a high-shear, high-instability pre-cyclogenesis environment and remained isolated un...

Cephalopods play a key role in marine ecosystems but are difficult to study directly; hence, beaks recovered from predator stomachs are critical to further understand their distribution and ecology. Cephalopod species have traditionally been identified from beak morphology, a time-consuming method limited by degree of beak digestion, lack of specialist expertise, and limited coverage in reference collections. Here, we provide...

The growing demand for renewable energy and sustainable waste management has driven interest in the thermochemical valorization of agro-industrial residues. This study investigated the thermokinetic, thermodynamic, and pyrolysis behavior of four lignocellulosic biomasses—coconut shell, orange pomace, banana pseudostem, and compost barn—for bioenergy applications. Thermogravimetric analysis (TG/DSC) and kinetic modeling using i...