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Article Reference infraFADA: Upgrading the taxonomic backbone of global freshwater animal biodiversity research infrastructures
The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) comprises an extensive set of global taxa lists for freshwater animal groups. At present, more than 125,000 described freshwater animal species in more than 11,000 genera have been documented. However, taxonomy is a living scientific discipline, where new taxa are continuously being described, and existing taxa are being placed in new taxonomic positions. Therefore, after a period of relative inactivity, the BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) project “infraFADA” (2023-2026) re-establishes the global FADA consortium of taxonomic experts, so that all taxa lists will be brought up to date, both technically and in terms of content. infraFADA is developing a living, updated, and global FADA database, fully in open access and according to the FAIR principles. Part of FADA’s data originates from existing global resources such as FishBase. In particular, the freshwater fish component of FADA was established in close collaboration with FishBase as a primary reference to ensure taxonomic consistency and completeness of species lists. While FishBase offers authoritative coverage of fish species worldwide—including freshwater fishes—FADA goes further by encompassing all freshwater animal groups, from invertebrates to other vertebrates. SeaLifeBase is likewise relevant, as it includes many non-fish marine taxa with freshwater representatives or life stages, highlighting important connections between these systems. The FADA database is intended for use and consultation by the freshwater scientific community or interested stakeholders, for example, ecosystem managers, biodiversity conservationists, and others. On the other hand it helps the experts to curate their data using FADAtims. Most importantly, FADA will also serve as a taxonomic backbone for other global biodiversity data infrastructures, such as the Catalogue of Life (CoL), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Freshwater Information Platform (FIP), and others. As such, FADA will provide a digital and living heritage of freshwater data, building bridges between science and society and helping to sustainably maintain freshwater resources.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference infraFADA: Upgrading the taxonomic backbone of global freshwater animal biodiversity research infrastructures
The Freshwater Animal Diversity Assessment (FADA) comprises an extensive set of global taxa lists for freshwater animal groups. At present, more than 125,000 described freshwater animal species in more than 11,000 genera have been documented. However, taxonomy is a living scientific discipline, where new taxa are continuously being described, and existing taxa are being placed in new taxonomic positions. Therefore, after a period of relative inactivity, the BELSPO (Belgian Science Policy) project “infraFADA” (2023-2026) re-establishes the global FADA consortium of taxonomic experts, so that all taxa lists will be brought up to date, both technically and in terms of content. infraFADA is developing a living, updated, and global FADA database, fully in open access and according to the FAIR principles. On the one hand, the infraFADA database helps the experts to curate their data (using FADAtims; see separate poster), on the other hand it is intended for use and consultation by the scientific freshwater community or interested stakeholders, for example, freshwater ecosystem managers, biodiversity conservationists, and others. Most importantly, FADA will also serve as a taxonomic backbone for other global biodiversity data infrastructures, such as the Catalogue of Life (CoL), the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), the Freshwater Information Platform (FIP), and others. As such, FADA will provide a digital and living heritage of freshwater data, building bridges between science and society and helping to sustainably maintain freshwater resources.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Horizontal Transfer of Vingi Retrotransposons in a Putative Ancient Asexual
Ostracods are microscopic, bi-valved crustaceans with the best fossil record of living arthropods. The non-marine ostracod Darwinula stevensoni is furthermore one of the last remaining examples of an ancient asexual, and likely abandoned sexual reproduction >20 million years ago. Despite the limited genetic diversity of D. stevensoni, its cosmopolitan distribution in different aquatic habitats indicates this species can survive asexually in the long-term. To unravel the novel adaptations that made this possible, the UNTANGLE project is deeply investigating the D. stevensoni genome. Now, four families of the Vingi non-LTR retrotransposons within the D. stevensoni genome were found to be highly identical to those from other species. This suggests Vingi was horizontally transferred between these species, which include turtles, lamprey, and deep-sea tube worms. Vingi consensus sequences were generated for D. stevensoni using Oxford Nanopore and Illumina assemblies, and mapped to >10,000 Metazoan genomes. High-quality mappings will be used to generate species-specific consensus sequences, upon which phylogenetic trees can be based and compared to those of other transposons, as well as with the host phylogenies. HTT will be visible as discorrespondence across phylogenetic trees. In a deeper exploration, the divergence between Vingi copies from each host and their consensus will also be used for the relative aging of their HTT events.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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 Molecular evolution of rhabdocoel flatworms as a case study on the acquisition of endosymbiosis
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
Article Reference The Upper Palaeolithic domestication of the dog
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference The Troisième caverne of Goyet (Belgium): An exceptional site with both Neandertal and UpperPaleolithic human remains
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference The exploitation of faunal resources in north-west Europe: updated review of the main sites
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Neanderthal occupations and land use in karstic environments from southern Belgium and south-eastern France during the early Upper Pleistocene: regional or common features?
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) carcasses from European greatplain mass death sites as an important food resource of the cave hyaenas (Crocuta crocuta spelaea) during theLate Pleistocene
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications