-
The Spy VI child: a newly discovered Neandertal infant.
-
Spy cave (Jemeppe-sur-Sambre, Belgium) is reputed for the two adult Neandertal individuals discovered in situ in 1886. Recent reassessment of the Spy collections has allowed direct radiocarbon dating of these individuals. The sorting of all of the faunal collections has also led to the discovery of the remains of a Neandertal child, Spy VI. This individual is represented by two mandibular corpus fragments. The left fragment is the most complete and both sides preserve the mental foramen. Four deciduous teeth are associated with these mandibular remains: three incisors and one canine. The lower left canine (Spy 645a) conjoins with the corresponding alveolar socket in the left part of the mandible. Following extant standards, the developmental stage of the preserved teeth indicate an age at death of about one and a half years. In addition to performing a classical morphometric comparative study of the mandible and teeth,we have evaluated the dental tissue proportions using high-resolution microtomographic techniques. Our results show that Spy VI generally falls withinthe Neandertal range of variation. However, this specimen also exhibits particular traits, notably in the dental internal structural organization, whichreveals that variation in the immature Neandertal variation is larger than what was variation currently represented by the available fossil record. These observations demonstrate the need for investigating the frequency and expressionof immature Neandertal traits in fossil anterior teeth, as well as their temporal and geographic variation. Direct radiocarbon dating of the Spy VI specimen has been conducted in two different laboratories. The results of Spy VI confirm the age previously determined for the two adults, making the Spy Neandertal remains the youngest ever directly dated in northwest Europe.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The status of the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean small mussel drills of the Ocinebrina aciculata complex (Mollusca: Gastropoda: Muricidae) with the description of a new species
-
The northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean small mussel drills of the Ocinebrina aciculata complex are here revised and consist of at least 3 species. The type species, Ocinebrina aciculata (Lamarck, 1822), characterized by a slender shell with rounded whorls and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, lives throughout the northeastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Sea at depths usually ranging between 0 and 105 m. Its synonymy is here stabilized by a neotype selection for Murex corallinus Scacchi, 1836. Ocinebrina corallinoides Pallary, 1912 (=Ocinebrina buzzurroi Cecalupo and Mariani, 2008, new synonymy), characterized by a strongly elongate and weakly convex shell and primary and secondary spiral cords of approximately similar size, is endemic to the Gulf of Gabès and is here considered a distinct species, pending genetic studies. Ocinebrina reinai n. sp. is here described from the central Mediterranean Sea (where it is sympatric with O. aciculata) on the basis of morphological diagnostic features of shell (rarest presence of labral tooth, commoner presence of infrasutural apertural denticle, dark spots on the ribs and spiral sculpture with differently sized primary and secondary cords and smaller threads) and radula, confirmed by genetic data. Divergence in COI sequences with sympatric samples of O. aciculata (>7%), confirm their status as a distinct species. A comparative table reporting diagnostic features of the congeneric species of the complex and those with which the new species was previously misidentified is offered.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The stranding anomaly as population indicator: the case of harbour porpoise Phocoena phocoena in North-Western Europe.
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The stratigraphic architecture of the Quaternary deposits as support for hydrogeological modelling of the central area of Hanoi (Vietnam)
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The stratigraphic position of the Cambrian Jodoigne Formation redefined (Brabant Massif, Belgium)
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The stratigraphic position of the Lower Oligocene Yrieu Sands (Southwestern France), based on calcareous nannofossils and a new Helicosphaera species.
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The Streif classification system: a tribute to an alternative system for organising and mapping Holocene coastal deposits
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
-
The synonymy of Haplochromis pharyngalis and Haplochromis petronius (Cichlidae)
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2020
-
The systematics and evolution of the Sri Lankan rainforest land snail Corilla: New insights from RADseq-based phylogenetics
-
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications 2023 OA
-
The Tachakoucht–Iriri–Tourtit arc complex (Moroccan Anti-Atlas): Neoproterozoic records of polyphased subduction-accretion dynamics during the Pan-African orogeny
-
We report new mapping, tectonic, metamorphic and U–Pb zircon dating data on the polyphased Tachakoucht–Iriri and Tourtit arc-related units within the Moroccan Pan-African belt (Sirwa window, Anti-Atlas). The studied area contains four different sub-units, from south to north: (1) the Tachakoucht gneisses intruded to its northern part by (2) Iriri intrusions. To the north, the Tachakoucht–Iriri massif is thrusted by (3) the south-verging 760 Ma Khzama ophiolitic sequence intruded by (4) the Tourtit meta-granitic complex. The Tachakoucht gneiss represents former andesitic to dacitic porphyritic rocks crystallized around 740–720 Ma in an intra-oceanic arc setting (IOAS). Subsequently, it has been buried and metamorphosed to 700 °C, 8 kbar in response to early accretion of the arc onto the West African Craton (WAC). This tectono-metamorphic event also led to the dismembering and stacking of back-arc ophiolite onto the arc unit. Subsequently, the Iriri intrusions, a suite of hydrous mafic dykes (hornblende gabbro and fine-grained basalt) and ultramafic (hornblendite) plutons showing subduction zone affinities, intruded the Tachakoucht gneiss under P–T conditions of 750–800 °C and 2–5 kbar. Emplacement of Iriri intrusions led locally to pronounced partial melting of the Tachakoucht gneiss and to the production of leucogranitic melts. These melts crop out into the Iriri–Tachakoucht gneiss contacts as leucogneissic bands (former leucosomes, dated at 651 ± 5 Ma) but also intruded the Khzama ophiolite to form the Tourtit granite (dated at 651 ± 3 Ma). These ages (651–641 Ma) also constrain the timing of Iriri intrusion emplacement. The entire complex has been overprinted by a second deformation event under greenschist to amphibolite facies conditions marked by transposition of primary structures and a development of mylonitic shear zones. These results and those published on the Bou Azzer window show that two phases of subduction-related magmatism occurred in the Anti-Atlas belt and that they were separated by an early accretion of the intra-oceanic arc system (IOAS) onto the West African craton passive margin. Our interpretations also validate thermo-mechanical models predicting an intense perturbation of subduction dynamics during arc-continent collision (i.e. composite subductions, polarity reversal) which can expand the production of typical hydrous arc magma and induces a late magmatic phase after partial or total accretion of the IOAS.
Located in
Library
/
RBINS Staff Publications
