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Inproceedings Reference Ammonites on the brink of extinction
Keynote of session Cretaceous II, presented by Neil Landman on 09/09/2014 of 9th ISCPP Zurich, Switzerland.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Ammonoids and anoxia from the Belgian Frasnian: the Carrière de Lompret section
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2018
Inbook Reference Amniotic eggshells from the Haţeg Basin (Upper Cretaceous, Romania).
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Inproceedings Reference Amphibians and Squamates from the Late Pleistocene of Caverne Marie-Jeanne (Belgium)
Archaeological sites usually provide important information about the past distribution of the small vertebrate fauna, and by extension about past terrestrial environments and climate in which human activities took place. In this context, Belgium has an interesting location in North-western Europe between the well-studied zooarchaeological record of Germany and England. The Late Pleistocene (Marine Isotope Stages 3 and 2) locality of Caverne Marie-Jeanne (southeast of Belgium, Ardennes region) yielded a large collection of disarticulated bone fragments and numerous plant, mollusk, and archaeological remains. They have been collected during the first field campaign in 1943 and stored in the Quaternary collections of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences. A recent revision of the rich micromammal fauna (31 taxa of insectivores, bats, and rodents among 9897 identified specimens, corresponding to a minimum of 4980 individuals) revealed the presence of the steppe lemming and the European pine vole. We present here the revision of the herpetofauna based on the 1970 Jean-Claude Rage’s study and the revision of the “indeterminate” small vertebrate specimens. It is now by far the largest Late Pleistocene collection of the Belgian institute with more than 20,500 recognized bones of amphibians and reptiles and covering the last 60,000 years. The herpetofaunal list now comprises two urodeles (Lissotriton gr. L. vulgaris and Salamandra salamandra), four anurans (Bufo gr. B. bufo-spinosus, Epidalea calamita, Rana temporaria and Rana cf. R. arvalis), three lizards (Lacerta cf. L. agilis, Zootoca vivipara and Anguis gr. A. fragilis) and three snakes (Natrix gr. N. natrix-astreptophora, Coronella austriaca and Vipera berus). This study highlights the first fossil record in Belgium for L. gr. L. vulgaris, R. arvalis, Z. vivipara, N. gr. N. natrix-astretophora and C. austriaca. This assemblage suggests a patchy humid landscape under colder and dryer climatic conditions in comparison with present ones. The study also underlines the importance to carefully reexamine old collections. Grant Information: Grant 2017-SGR-859 (Gov. of Catalonia, AGAUR), CGL2016-80000-P (Spanish Min. of Econ. & Comp.), RYC-2016-19386 (Ramón y Cajal), Synthesys BE-TAF-4385, -5469, -5468, -5708.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Inproceedings Reference Amphisbaenes (Squamata) du Paléogène européen
Le groupe des amphisbaenes ne comprend que des lézards fouisseurs, aux habitudes presque exclusivement souterraines. Ils sont dépouvus de membres à l’exception des Bipedidae qui montrent deux petits appendices antérieurs. La monophylie des amphisbaenes a fréquemment été reconnue mais les relations entre ses membres sont toujours disputées et il y a souvent désaccord entre les études moléculaires et morphologiques. Rappelons que les amphisbaenes actuels regroupent six familles, les Rhineuridae, les Bipedidae (Amérique du Nord), les Amphisbaenidae (Afrique, Amérique du Sud et Centrale), les Trogonophiidae (Afrique, Arabie), les Blanidae (Région Méditerranéenne) et les Cadeidae (Antilles). Le registre fossile des amphisbaenes à longtemps été cantonné à l’Amérique du Nord et les formes européennes négligées, voire ignorées. Pourtant le Paléogène européen a livré un ensemble de fossiles d’amphisbaenes presque continu depuis le début du Paléocène à l’actuel. La présence des premiers amphisbaenes dans le Crétacé terminal de Lano (Espagne) n’est toujours pas confirmée. Par contre l’appartenance aux amphisbaenes des mâchoires et des vertèbres trouvées dans le Paléocène de Roumanie et du Bassin de Paris ne se discute pas (Folie et al, 2013). Certains de ces fossiles présentent un aspect primitif avec, entre autres, une rangée dentaire comportant toujours plus de dix dents. Les premiers fossiles attribuables à des familles actuelles sont reconnus dans le Paléogène américain (Rhineuridae) et le début de l’Eocène européen (Blanidae de Dormaal, Belgique). L’Oligocène européen livre les premiers fossiles d’Amphisbaenidae (Oligocène inférieur de Valbro) alors qu’il faut attendre le Pliocène (Maroc) pour voir les premiers restes de Trogonophiidae. Plus atypique, un lézard du gisement de Messel serait une forme d’amphisbaene primitif, montrant encore beaucoup de caractères de Lacertoidea (Lacertidae + Teiidae), le groupe frère des amphisbaenes selon les phylogénies moléculaires. Ce registre finalement très riche devient incontournable pour qui étudie l’évolution des amphisbaenes : datation des lignées ; distribution des familles et événements géologiques qui ont marqué l’histoire du groupe. Voici un exemple : La distribution géographique de la famille des Amphisbaenidae englobe l’Afrique et l’Amérique du Sud et Centrale. Le groupe est donc séparé par l’Atlantique et cette distribution est devenue une des références illustrant les vicariances faisant suite à la fragmentation du Gondwana, ici l’ouverture de l’Atlantique Sud durant le Crétacé inférieur. Cette interprétation a été prise en défaut par les datations moléculaires qui donnent un âge beaucoup trop jeune aux Amphisbaenidae (50 Myr ago, Vidal et al., 2008) pour avoir été séparés par l’ouverture de l’Atlantique. Le registre fossile confirme ce point de vue, avec la présence du premier fossile d’Amphisbaenidae dans l’Oligocène européen et l’absence de tout reste d’amphisbaeniens dans le Crétacé inférieur et la presque totalité du Crétacé supérieur.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference An (inter)national network to support the FishBase Consortium in parasitology, pathology, ichthyo(parasito)logical mainstreaming and capacity development
FishBase, a global biodiversity information system on finfishes (www.fishbase.org), is a knowledge resource for the management and conservation of fishes. It is the largest and most frequently accessed online database on fishes. This multifunctional ecological tool, widely cited in scientific publications, reached the top 1% of all cited items published in the 21st and 20th centuries. Recently, it attracted >1200 citations/year in the peer-reviewed literature. FishBase receives ca. 80 million hits/month (2023) and up to 1 million visits from over 300 000 unique users monthly. The FishBase Consortium scientifically guides the development and functioning of FishBase and SeaLifeBase (www.sealifebase.org), a similar information platform for marine organisms other than fishes with a focus on policy-relevant species. FishBase is an intensively used resource in fish parasitology, rendering parasitologists among the users most frequently citing FishBase. Conversely, the FishBase tools that pertain to fish parasites and diseases are underdeveloped compared to other applications within the database. Hence, parasitologists mainly use FishBase to find information on fishes but not on parasites. They rarely contribute data themselves to FishBase, and new fish-related results in parasitological literature go largely unnoticed. This also relates to, and exacerbates, the limited extent to which biodiversity databases of hosts and their pathogens are, in general, interoperable. FishBase and comparable informatics resources for aquatic biodiversity, such as the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), and the Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA), mostly inaccurately reflect host-parasite relationships. The information they contain on aquatic parasites is far from complete. Fish parasites constitute risks because of their potential pathogenicity towards their hosts, while also providing important ecosystem services to their hosts and ecosystems, e.g., related to the development of immunity, the regulation of energy fluxes and populations, and the maintenance of species-richness. Parasites are especially abundant, diverse, and impactful in ecotones such as wetlands. Lack of accessible information on the parasites of fishes, therefore, is a limitation to the management and conservation of wetland fishes in situ and ex situ. The principal investigators of the Aquatic Biodiversity team at Hasselt University focus on fish parasitology, ichthyology, wetland monitoring, and the management of aquatic ecosystems. In collaboration with the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, an observer within the FishBase Consortium, they initiated and obtained funding for a network of national and international partners to support the FishBase Consortium in: (1) updating information on host-parasite links underlying parasitological and pathological tools within FishBase, and expanding these tools for diagnostics; (2) mainstreaming information on fish (parasites) in response to priorities proposed by stakeholders; and (3) developing (inter)national ichthyo(parasito)logical capacity through training and awareness raising. This project builds on the expertise of 22 Flemish and 48 international partners, encompassing stakeholders from universities, natural history institutions, other governmental research institutes, public aquariums, and the policy, non-profit and private sectors. Referring to empirical data on, e.g., the weatherfish Misgurnus fossilis, we hope to grasp this short introduction to our project as opportunity to hear from the audience how our approach can contribute to understand and conserve European wetland fishes.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Inproceedings Reference An 85-million-year-old diet: buccal mass and digestive system in fossil and extant Nautilida.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022
Proceedings Reference An Antarctic chondrite story: from the field to the lab
Located in Library / No RBINS Staff publications
Article Reference An attempt of time calibration of the Tournaisian and Viséan stages (Lower and Middle Mississippian) based on long duration orbitally forced sequences
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Inproceedings Reference An attempt of time calibration of the Lower Tournaisian (Hastarian Substage) based on orbitally forced sequences
Located in Library / No RBINS Staff publications