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Termite mounds Effects on Composition and Plant Species Functional Types and Traits in Pendjari Biosphere Reserve (Benin, West – Africa).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Termites (Isoptera) in Kibale Forest National Park, Western Uganda
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Terrestrial contributions to Afrotropical aquatic food webs: The Congo River case
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Testing for Depéret’s Rule (body size increase) in Mammals using Combined Extinct and Extant Data
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Whether or not evolutionary lineages in general show a tendency to increase in body size has often been discussed. This tendency has been dubbed “Cope’s rule” but because Cope never hypothesized it, we suggest renaming it after Depéret, who formulated it clearly in 1907. Depéret’s rule has traditionally been studied using fossil data, but more recently a number of studies have used present-day species. While several paleontological studies of Cenozoic placental mammals have found support for increasing body size, most studies of extant placentals have failed to detect such a trend. Here we present a method to combine information from present-day species with fossil data in a Bayesian phylogenetic framework. We apply the method to body mass estimates of a large number of extant and extinct mammal species, and find strong support for Depéret’s rule. The tendency for size increase appears to be driven not by evolution towards larger size in established species, but by processes related to the emergence of new species. Our analysis shows that complementary data from extant and extinct species can greatly improve inference of macroevolutionary processes.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Testing for hybridization between Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) and blue spotted tilapia (Oreochromis leucostictus) in the Lake Edward system
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Testing the accuracy of feldspar single grains to date late Holocene cyclone and tsunami deposits
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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Thamnophyllides et Acanthophyllides près de la limite Eifelien-Givetien à Wellin et Pondrôme (Belgique)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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The 10,000-year biocultural history of fallow deer and its implications for conservation policy
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Over the last 10,000 y, humans have manipulated fallow deer populations with varying outcomes. Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) are now endangered. European fallow deer (Dama dama) are globally widespread and are simultaneously considered wild, domestic, endangered, invasive and are even the national animal of Barbuda and Antigua. Despite their close association with people, there is no consensus regarding their natural ranges or the timing and circumstances of their human-mediated translocations and extirpations. Our mitochondrial analyses of modern and archaeological specimens revealed two distinct clades of European fallow deer present in Anatolia and the Balkans. Zooarchaeological evidence suggests these regions were their sole glacial refugia. By combining biomolecular analyses with archaeological and textual evidence, we chart the declining distribution of Persian fallow deer and demonstrate that humans repeatedly translocated European fallow deer, sourced from the most geographically distant populations. Deer taken to Neolithic Chios and Rhodes derived not from nearby Anatolia, but from the Balkans. Though fallow deer were translocated throughout the Mediterranean as part of their association with the Greco-Roman goddesses Artemis and Diana, deer taken to Roman Mallorca were not locally available Dama dama, but Dama mesopotamica. Romans also initially introduced fallow deer to Northern Europe but the species became extinct and was reintroduced in the medieval period, this time from Anatolia. European colonial powers then transported deer populations across the globe. The biocultural histories of fallow deer challenge preconceptions about the divisions between wild and domestic species and provide information that should underpin modern management strategies.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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The “miacids” (Carnivoraformes, Mammalia) from the Early Eocene locality of Le Quesnoy (MP7, France); first occurrence of Vassacyon in Europe
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We describe here “miacid” taxa from the Early Eocene Paris Basin locality of Le Quesnoy (Oise, France). We describe the new species Vassacyon taxidiotis, the first European record of this genus. The other “miacids” identified from Le Quesnoy are Miacis latouri and Gracilocyon solei. The P4 of G. solei is described here for the first time. Its morphology (e.g., wide protocone, short postmetacrista) supports a close relationship with Miacis rundlei from Abbey Wood (MP8 + 9, England). The latter species is therefore classified as Gracilocyon rundlei. Three new tooth positions are known for Miacis latouri: P4, p4 and m2. They support its reference to Miacis. These specimens imply that the European species is more basal than the North American species. The fauna from Le Quesnoy shares with Dormaal the presence of Miacis latouri and Gracilocyon solei, but the “miacid” fauna from Le Quesnoy also contains Vassacyon taxidiotis. The presence in Le Quesnoy of the two former taxa supports a reference to MP7 level of the French locality. The presence of three distinct genera in European localities show that the “Miacidae” were diversified in Europe, as previously observed in North America. The genera Gracilocyon, Miacis, and Vassacyon probably dispersed from Europe to North America during the Palaeocene/Eocene boundary.
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The ‘rotiferologist’ effect and other global correlates of species richness in monogonont rotifers
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RBINS Staff Publications
