Blood circulates through the vascular system to carry oxygen, nutrients and metabolites to
and away from tissues, and as such is a key-component of animal physiology. The impacts …

Chelonians are one of the most imperiled vertebrate taxa on the planet due to changes in
the environment, anthropogenic influences, and disease. Over the last two decades …

Mercury (Hg) is a toxic contaminant present in most aquatic ecosystems. High
concentrations pose serious threats to organisms and to human health. Because previous …

The metabolism of tortoises is influenced by many factors, which in turn also influences the
clinical chemistry parameters in these animals. There are currently limited data available on …

Freshwater turtles are long-lived sedentary organisms used as biological sentinels to assess
anthropogenic perturbations in freshwater-ecosystems; notably because pollutants tend to …

The threatened Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) exhibits temperature-dependent
sex determination, and individuals appear externally sexually monomorphic until sexual …

Ectothermic organisms often experience considerable variation in their body temperature
throughout the circadian cycle. However, studies focusing on the measurement of …

Blood glucose is vital for many physiological pathways and can be quantified by clinical
chemistry analyzers and in-house point-of-care (POC) devices. Pre-analytical and analytical …

Abstract The Western subspecies of Hermann's tortoise (Testudo hermanni hermanni: WT) is
threatened by habitat loss, fragmentation, wildfires, illegal harvesting, and likely …

Currently available tests for the diagnosis of inflammatory disease in reptiles are limited and
poorly sensitive. However, a number of hematological and plasma biochemical analytes are …