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Crab clockwork: the case for interactive circatidal and circadian oscillators controlling rhythmic locomotor activity
1School of Ocean Sciences, University of Wales-Bangor, Marine Science Laboratories, Anglesey, Gwynedd, U.K.
Chronobiology International
|August 1, 1996
Abstract:
The circalunidian hypothesis that tidal rhythms in coastal animals are controlled by two lunar-day (c.24.8 h) oscillators coupled in antiphase is challenged. Rhythmic locomotor activity patterns of the shore crab Carcinus maenas, and probably of some other species too, are more economically explained by interacting circadian (c.24 h) and true circatidal (c.12.4 h) physiological oscillators. A testable hypothesis is proposed that combines a circadian promotor and a circatidal inhibitor of locomotor activity.