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Activity and behaviour of Nathusius’ pipistrelle Pipistrellus nathusii at low and high altitude in a North Sea offshore wind farm
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Several bat species are known to migrate long distances between summer and winter roosts. During migration, many bats even cross the North Sea. The developments of offshore wind farms in the North Sea could therefore pose a collision risk for migrating bats. While bats have been observed inside offshore wind farms, their activity at turbine rotor height yet remains unknown. We therefore installed acoustic bat detectors at wind turbines in the Belgian part of the North Sea. Seven detectors were installed on the service platform of the transition piece (16 m above mean sea level) and four were installed on the nacelle of the turbines, in the centre of the rotor swept area (93 m above mean sea level). A total of 151 recordings of call sequences of Pipistrellus nathusii (Nathusius’ pipistrelle) were made during 20 nights over an entire autumn migration season (8 August – 30 November 2017). 45 recordings contained more than 10 calls. These were further investigated for behavioural clues. We identified 32 recordings of animals in transit and 10 sequences of animals passing by while simultaneously exploring. Only three detections contained feeding buzzes and/or intense exploratory behaviour. The number of recordings at 93 m were around 10% of the number of recordings made at 16 m. This indicates that the activity of P. nathusii at our study site, measured at that particular altitude is low. Our observations therefore suggest that the collision risk might be lower than what could be expected from low altitude observations. However, a low number of recordings at nacelle height does not necessarily mean that only a low number of bats will collide with the turbines. The activity in the outer parts of the rotor swept zone, outside the detection range of our acoustic detectors, remains unknown and should be further investigated.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Adaptation of a polyphagous herbivore to a novel host plant extensively shapes the transcriptome of herbivore and host
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Generalist arthropod herbivores rapidly adapt to a broad range of host plants. However, the extent of transcriptional reprogramming in the herbivore and its hosts associated with adaptation remains poorly understood. Using the spider mite Tetranychus urticae and tomato as models with available genomic resources, we investigated the reciprocal genomewide transcriptional changes in both spider mite and tomato as a consequence of mite's adaptation to tomato. We transferred a genetically diverse mite population from bean to tomato where triplicated populations were allowed to propagate for 30 generations. Evolving populations greatly increased their reproductive performance on tomato relative to their progenitors when reared under identical conditions, indicative of genetic adaptation. Analysis of transcriptional changes associated with mite adaptation to tomato revealed two main components. First, adaptation resulted in a set of mite genes that were constitutively downregulated, independently of the host. These genes were mostly of an unknown function. Second, adapted mites mounted an altered transcriptional response that had greater amplitude of changes when re-exposed to tomato, relative to nonadapted mites. This gene set was enriched in genes encoding detoxifying enzymes and xenobiotic transporters. Besides the direct effects on mite gene expression, adaptation also indirectly affected the tomato transcriptional responses, which were attenuated upon feeding of adapted mites, relative to the induced responses by nonadapted mite feeding. Thus, constitutive downregulation and increased transcriptional plasticity of genes in a herbivore may play a central role in adaptation to host plants, leading to both a higher detoxification potential and reduced production of plant defence compounds.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Adaptive, preadamtive and non-adaptive components of radiations in ancient lakes: a review
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Additional data on eastern Pantepui Orthalicoidea land snails (Mollusca, Gastropoda)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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Additional postcranial elements of Teilhardina belgica: the oldest European Primate
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Teilhardina belgica is one of the earliest fossil primates ever recovered and the oldest fossil primate from Europe. As such, this taxon has often been hypothesized as a basal tarsiiform on the basis of its primitive dental formula with four premolars and a simplified molar cusp pattern. Until recently [see Rose et al.: Am J Phys Anthropol 146 (2011) 281–305; Gebo et al.: J Hum Evol 63 (2012) 205–218], little was known concerning its postcranial anatomy with the exception of its well-known tarsals. In this article, we describe additional postcranial elements for T. belgica and compare these with other tarsiiforms and with primitive adapiforms. The forelimb of T. belgica indicates an arboreal primate with prominent forearm musculature, good elbow rotational mobility, and a horizontal, rather than a vertical body posture. The lateral hand positions imply grasps adaptive for relatively large diameter supports given its small body size. The hand is long with very long fingers, especially the middle phalanges. The hindlimb indicates foot inversion capabilities, frequent leaping, arboreal quadrupedalism, climbing, and grasping. The long and well-muscled hallux can be coupled with long lateral phalanges to reconstruct a foot with long grasping digits. Our phyletic analysis indicates that we can identify several postcranial characteristics shared in common for stem primates as well as note several derived postcranial characters for Tarsiiformes.
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Additional vertebral material of Thaumastophis (Serpentes: Caenophidia) from the early Eocene of India provides new insights on the early diversification of colubroidean snakes
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The Ypresian Cambay Shale Formation at Vastan, Mangrol, and Tadkeshwar lignite mines in Gujarat, western India, has yielded a rich vertebrate fauna including madtsoiid, palaeophiid, booid, and colubroideanlike snakes. The latter are particularly abundant, but their systematic affinities are difficult to resolve. Here we describe new specimens of the colubroidean-like snake Thaumastophis missiaeni, including anterior, middle, and posterior trunk vertebrae, as well as caudal vertebrae. The combination of primitive and derived caenophidian and colubroidean vertebral characters confirms Thaumastophis as the earliest known stem-colubriform snake while Procerophis, from the same beds, is more derived and considered to represent a crown-Colubriformes. Additionally, Thaumastophis shares with Renenutet enmerwer from the late Eocene of Egypt a unique combination of vertebral characters that suggests an exchange with North Africa was possible along the southern margin of the Neotethys. We erect the new family Thaumastophiidae for Thaumastophis and Renenutet on the basis of their shared derived vertebral morphology.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
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Adhoc: an R package to calculate ad hoc distance thresholds for DNA barcoding identification
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Adulis and the transshipment of baboons during classical antiquity
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Adulis, located on the Red Sea coast in present-day Eritrea, was a bustling trading centre between the first and seventh centuries CE. Several classical geographers—Agatharchides of Cnidus, Pliny the Elder, Strabo—noted the value of Adulis to Greco-Roman Egypt, particularly as an emporium for living animals, including baboons (Papio spp.). Though fragmentary, these accounts predict the Adulite origins of mummified baboons in Ptolemaic catacombs, while inviting questions on the geoprovenance of older (Late Period) baboons recovered from Gabbanat el-Qurud (‘Valley of the Monkeys’), Egypt. Dated to ca. 800–540 BCE, these animals could extend the antiquity of Egyptian–Adulite trade by as much as five centuries. Previously, Dominy et al. (2020) used stable isotope analysis to show that two New Kingdom specimens of Papio hamadryas originate from the Horn of Africa. Here, we report the complete mitochondrial genomes from a mummified baboon from Gabbanat el-Qurud and 14 museum specimens with known provenance together with published georeferenced mitochondrial sequence data. Phylogenetic assignment connects the mummified baboon to modern populations of P. hamadryas in Eritrea, Ethiopia, and eastern Sudan. This result, assuming geographical stability of phylogenetic clades, corroborates Greco-Roman historiographies by pointing toward present-day Eritrea, and by extension Adulis, as a source of baboons for Late Period Egyptians. It also establishes geographic continuity with baboons from the fabled Land of Punt (Dominy et al., 2020), giving weight to speculation that Punt and Adulis were essentially the same trading centres separated by a thousand years of history.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Advantages of high quality SWIR bands for ocean colour processing: Examples from Landsat-8
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Advantages of high quality SWIR bands for ocean colour processing: examples from Landsat-8
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RBINS Staff Publications
