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Paenemarmota Hibbard and Schultz, 1948 includes 3 species of giant ground squirrels within Marmotini (Rodentia, Sciuridae) from the Late Miocene and Pliocene of central and western North America. We developed skeletal and dental models for estimating body mass across modern species of Marmotini and apply these models to Paenemarmota. The most reliable models for estimating body mass of modern species (on the basis of length and width of femur, lengths of p4 and P4) generally yielded lower estimates of body mass for Paenemarmota than less reliable models (on the basis of lengths of m1, m2, M1, and M2). Models that were most reliable across modern species yielded 2 nonoverlapping estimates for P. barbouri Hibbard and Schultz, 1948: 9.5–9.8 kg on the basis of femur dimensions, and 14.4–16.2 kg on the basis of lengths of premolars. On the basis of lengths of premolars, P. mexicana (Wilson 1949) closely resembled P. barbouri in estimated mass (14.4–15.7 kg), but P. sawrockensis (Hibbard 1964) was smaller (10.0–12.4 kg). These large ground squirrels probably differed in mass-dependent biological attributes from all modern marmotines.

The discovery, development, production and clinical application of recombinant glycoproteins for therapeutic administration in humans has been, and continues to be, an area of intensive scientific and medical effort. This effort has engendered considerable interest in the biological and therapeutic implications of post-translational modifications, particularly the most elaborated and sophisticated of these, protein glycosylation. As a result, numerous studies have appeared in the literature, especially within the past few years, which have greatly expanded our understanding of the biology of protein glycosylation. This review seeks to summarize these studies, illustrating that protein glycosylation, by modulating numerous biological attributes, is of central import in defining the utility of recombinant therapeutics.

Two different methods for determining the establishment rates of natural enemies during biological control attempts are presented. The "total-attempts" method bases rates of establishment on the total of all releases and all establishments. The "average-fraction" method uses the fraction of attempts involving the same target species and potential natural enemy that result in establishment to minimize the effects of multiple counting. The two methods give similar results, so any effects of multiple counting probably do not cause consistent biases. In addition, I examined biological attributes of host and parasitoid to determine whether they influence overall establishment rates of parasitoids released for biological control. Many features appeared to be important in influencing establishment of parasites, but most of these concerned the biology of the host. For practitioners of biological control, the most important results concern the features of the parasitoids because these are the only organisms whose introduction is a matter of choice. Of these features, only the climatological origin of the parasite appears to have a large influence on establishment rate.

There seem to be no guidelines for predicting the various impacts an invading species such as the African bee, Apis mellifera scutellata, might have on an indigenous fauna and flora, and on people and human endeavors. Although some consequences can be estimated in these cases, often, important variables such as weather and economics, that will determine the magnitude of the impact, remain unpredictable. Thus, precise statements are likely to be incorrect. Nevertheless, given specific premises, and some basic assumptions, it is possible to bracket the possible outcomes. In the discussion that follows I will emphasize the biological attributes of feral African bees and how these attributes might affect the honeybee industry, agriculture and the public in the United States.