The ventral cephalic sutures of the genus Staurocephalus Barrande, 1846, are described and are shown to be eu-ptychopariid type, the rostral plate being extremely large. The origin of this structure in Staurocephalus is discussed. The similarities between Staurocephalus and Oedicybele Whittington, 1938, are pointed out and the two genera are taken to constitute a separate family - the Staurocephalidae. Staurocephalus clavifrons Angelin , Staurocephalus sp.a, Staurocephalus sp.b, Staurocephalus sp.c, and Oedicybele kingi Whittington are described.
Kielan, Z., Ziółkowska, B., Falkus, B. and Jethon, Z.: Effect of cadmium intoxication on glucose utilization in energy metabolism of muscles. Acta physiol, pol., 1989,40(5-6): 535-543. The influence of cadmium intoxication on carbohydrate metabolism in skeletal muscles and liver of the male Wistar rats has been studied. Cadmium was administered as cadmium acetate in a dose of 0.3 mg Cd² /kg body weight for three months. At the same time the control rats were injected with 0.9% NaCl. The animals were decapitated and samples of their skeletal muscles: the soleus muscle (composed mainly of red slow twitch fibers; ST) the gastrocnemius muscle containing two types of fibers (white fast twitch fibers FTb and red fast twitch fibers, FTa) and the liver were dissected out. In the samples of muscles, liver and serum contents of glycogen, glucose, pyruvate and lactate, as well as activities of hexokinase, pyruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase were measured. Intoxication of rats with cadmium for three months resulted in a reduction of glycolytic enzymes in the serum, ST and FTa muscle fibers and in the liver but did not change the activities of glycolytic enzymes in the FTb muscle fibers. The data obtained for the concentrations of glycogen in the liver and skeletal muscles suggest different mechanisms of cadmium influence on glycogen utilization in these organs.