Biomedical subjects

Yaoming Hu

Publications and source records attributed to Yaoming Hu.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2006

A Mesozoic gliding mammal from northeastern China.

Gliding flight has independently evolved many times in vertebrates. Direct evidence of gliding is rare in fossil records and is unknown in mammals from the Mesozoic era. Here we report a new Mesozoic mammal from Inner Mongolia, China, that represents a previously unknown group characterized by a highly specialized insectivorous dentition and a sizable patagium (flying membrane) for gliding flight. The patagium is covered with dense hair and supported by an elongated tail and limbs; the latter also bear many features adapted for arboreal life. This discovery extends the earliest record of gliding flight for mammals to at least 70 million years earlier in geological history, and demonstrates that early mammals were diverse in their locomotor strategies and lifestyles; they had experimented with an aerial habit at about the same time as, if not earlier than, when birds endeavoured to exploit the sky.

Animals↗

PubMed2005

Large Mesozoic mammals fed on young dinosaurs.

Mesozoic mammals are commonly portrayed as shrew- or rat-sized animals that were mainly insectivorous, probably nocturnal and lived in the shadow of dinosaurs. The largest known Mesozoic mammal represented by substantially complete remains is Repenomamus robustus, a triconodont mammal from the Lower Cretaceous of Liaoning, China. An adult individual of R. robustus was the size of a Virginia opossum. Here we report a new species of the genus, represented by a skeleton with most of the skull and postcranium preserved in articulation. The new species is 50% larger than R. robustus in skull length. In addition, stomach contents associated with a skeleton of R. robustus reveal remains of a juvenile Psittacosaurus, a ceratopsian dinosaur. Our discoveries constitute the first direct evidence that some triconodont mammals were carnivorous and fed on small vertebrates, including young dinosaurs, and also show that Mesozoic mammals had a much greater range of body sizes than previously known. We suggest that Mesozoic mammals occupied diverse niches and that some large mammals probably competed with dinosaurs for food and territory.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

A euprimate skull from the early Eocene of China.

The debut of undoubted euprimates (primates of modern aspect) was in the early Eocene, about 55 Myr ago. Since their first appearance, the earliest euprimates can be distinguished as Cantius, Donrussellia and Teilhardina. Nonetheless, the earliest euprimates are primarily known from isolated teeth or fragmentary jaws. Here we describe a partially preserved euprimate skull with nearly complete upper and lower dentition, which represents a new species of Teilhardina and constitutes the first discovery of the genus in Asia. The new species is from the upper section of Lingcha Formation, Hunan Province, China, with an estimated age of 54.97 Myr ago. Morphology and phylogeny analyses reveal that the new species is the most primitive species of Teilhardina, positioned near the root of euprimate radiation. This discovery of the earliest euprimate skull known to date casts new light on the debate concerning the adaptive origin of euprimates, and suggests that the last common ancestor of euprimates was probably a small, diurnal, visually oriented predator.

Animals↗

PubMed2004

Application of HS-SPME and GC-MS to characterization of volatile compounds emitted from Osmanthus flowers.

Headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) combined with gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was developed for characterization of volatile compounds emitted from two varieties Osmanthus flowers of O. fragrans var. latifolius and O. fragrans var. thunbergii. The SPME parameters were studied, the optimum conditions of a 65 microm carbowax/divinylbenzene (CW/DVB), extraction temperature of 22 degrees C and extraction time of 10 min were obtained and applied to extraction of the volatile emissions. Fourteen compounds released from both varieties of Osmanthus flowers were separated and identified by GC-MS, which mainly included alpha-linalool, beta-linalool, trans-linalool oxide, cis-linalool oxide, alpha-lonone, beta-lonone, capraldehyde and decalactone. By comparing their peak areas, we found that the sums of the fourteen compounds from the two Osmanthus flowers were very close, while the relative contents of individual volatile compounds in the two emissions were very different. The relative content of alpha-linalool and beta-linalool in O. fragrans var. latifolius were 39.46% and 0.51%, while in O. fragrans var. thunbergii were 9.53% and 27.71%. Due to their different relative contents, the two varieties of flower have different fragrances.

Aldehydes↗

PubMed2002

Rapid diagnosis of phenylketonuria and other aminoacidemias by quantitative analysis of amino acids in neonatal blood spots by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

A new method for quantifying specific amino acids in small volumes of plasma and whole blood has been developed. Volatile derivatives of amino acids are analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The method only takes a few minutes to perform and requires minimal sample preparation. The accurate assay of phenylalanine, tyrosine and other amino acids in dried blood spots could be used for neonatal screening for phenylketonuria and other aminoacidemias. Because of the low cost, this neonatal screening method is suited to application in developing countries such as China.

Amino Acid Metabolism, Inborn Errors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Chemical composition of the essential oils of two Alpinia species from Hainan Island, China.

The essential oils of two Alpinia species, ie. A. hainanensis and A. katsumadai, from Hainan Island, China were analyzed by using GC-MS. The major constituents in the leaf oil of A. hainanensis were ocimene (27.4%), beta-pinene (10.1%), 9-octadecenoic acid (6.5%), n-hexadecanoic acid (5.8%), 9,12-octadecadienoic acid (5.4%), and terpinen (4.3%). The oil constituents obtained from the flowers of A. hainanensis were ocimene (39.8%), beta-pinene (17.7%), terpinene (5.5%), p-menth-1-en-ol (4.9%), caryophyllene (4.9%), and phellandrene (4.4%). In A. katsumadai, the major constituents in the leaf oil were p-menth-1-en-ol (22.0%), terpinen (19.0%), 4-carene (9.1%), 1,8-cineole (8.3%), and camphor (5.6%). The major constituents in the flower oil were p-menth-1-en-ol (21.3%), 1,8-cineole (20.2%), terpinen (12.6%), phellandrene (7.0%), 4-carene (6.4%), and beta-pinene (5.2%).

Alpinia↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Rapid determination of volatile compounds emitted from Chimonanthus praecox flowers by HS-SPME-GC-MS.

A novel rapid, simple and solvent-free method was developed for determination of the volatile compounds from the flowers of Chimonanthus praecox Link using headspace solid-phase microextraction (HS-SPME) and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). The SPME conditions were firstly optimized and applied to sampling of the volatile compounds emitted from living Chimonanthus praecox L. flowers and excised Chimonanthus praecox L. flowers. Thirty-one compounds emitted from living flowers were identified for the first time, which mainly included 4-methyl-1,3-pentadiene (2.0%), a-phellandrene (4.7%), benzyl methanol (11.1%), trans-linalool oxide (furanyl ring) (5.3%), a-linalool (36.0%), methyl salicylate (24.5%) and acetic acid benzyl ester (5.9%). Comparing the emission from living flowers and excised flowers, twenty-eight compounds were found to be detected in the two emissions, and three compounds, n-pentadecane, n-cetane and n-heptadecane, were only found in the emission from the living flowers, which shows that they might be biomarker compounds.

China↗