PONE-D-20-39348

Existence and Features of the Myodural Bridge in Gentoo Penguins: a morphological study

PLOS ONE

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PLOS ONE

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Reviewers' comments:

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Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Partly

Reviewer #2: Yes

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2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: N/A

Reviewer #2: N/A

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3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

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4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: This is an interesting study that could provide some novel comparative interpretations of a rarely considered anatomical region in animals.

However, there are a number of aspects that need to be improved before it would be acceptable for publication. Most importantly, the discussion currently provides a very limited analysis of the specific anatomy in the target species and unique aspects might relate to specific aspects of species biology. A more thorough analysis of the comparative anatomy of the species included within the discussion and the relationship between this and the potential functional correlates is necessary.

There are numerous grammatical, typographical and formatting issues (some of which i have highlighted within the pdf document) that need to be addressed.

The resolution of the photographs within the figures is currently not adequate, and many of the labels are not legible.

Reviewer #2: Thank you for this addition to the literature regarding the myodural bridges.

In the abstract, cut the sentence "The present authors suggest..." as it does not add to the main effort of this submission. Also, move the sentence "While foraging..." to follow the statement about the Gentoo penguins being the fastest diving birds.

In the introduction, there are several myodural bridges described, so add the word "Each" at the beginning of the second sentence to make it, "Each myodural bridge (MDB) is..."

In the methods on "histological slices and staining" you use both "Picrosirius Red (PRS)" and "Picric acid-Sirius red" to describe the stain. While the two terms are synonymous, you might want to pick one version and use it consistently in this paper.

In the results, the legends for Figures 3, 4, and 5 all have the same typo. I would suggest "In the atlanto-axial interspace, the dense fiber bundles (arrow) originating from the ventral SIDE OF THE RCDmi run ventrally" or something similar. I use the capital letters only for emphasis, they should be lower case in the revision.

In the Discussion, there should be a space between "In" and "1995" in the first sentence. You might want to define "natatores" as swimming birds since some readers (myself included) may not already be familiar with the term. Also, was that sentence meant to end with a question mark? That would make more sense in context. In the fourth paragraph, third sentence, change "found" to "exists". In the fifth paragraph, fourth sentence, change "ocean" to "depths".

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Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: Yes: Peter J. Ward

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Attachments

Attachment

Submitted filename: PONE-D-20-39348_reviewer_NW.pdf

Existence and Features of the Myodural Bridge in Gentoo Penguins: a morphological study

PONE-D-20-39348R1

Dear Dr. Chen,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

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Kind regards,

Aldo Corriero, Ph.D.

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Additional Editor Comments (optional):

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

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2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: N/A

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

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5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: All my comments from the first round of review were incorporated appropriately. I have no additional concerns.

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7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: Yes: Peter J Ward