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Aquatic fauna from the Takarkori rock shelter reveals the Holocene central Saharan climate and palaeohydrography
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The abundant faunal remains from the Takarkori rock shelter in the Tadrart Acacus region of southwestern Libya are described. The material that covers the period between 10,200 to 4650 years cal BP illustrates the more humid environmental conditions in the Central Sahara during early and middle Holocene times. Particular attention is focussed on the aquatic fauna that shows marked diachronic changes related to increasing aridification. This is reflected in the decreasing amount of fish remains compared to mammals and, within the fish fauna, by changes through time in the proportion of the species and by a reduction of fish size. The aquatic fauna can, in addition, be used to formulate hypotheses about the former palaeohydrographical network. This is done by considering the possible location of pre-Holocene relic populations combined with observations on the topography and palaeohydrological settings of the Central Sahara.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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Aquatic life in Neotropical rainforest canopies: Techniques using artificial phytotelmata to study the invertebrate communities inhabiting therein
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In Neotropical rainforest canopies, phytotelmata ("plant-held waters") shelter diverse aquatic macroinvertebrate communities, including vectors of animal diseases. Studying these communities is difficult because phytotelmata are widely dispersed, hard to find from the ground and often inaccessible. We propose here a method for placing in tree crowns "artificial phytotelmata" whose size and shape can be tailored to different research targets. The efficacy of this method was shown while comparing the patterns of community diversity of three forest formations. We noted a difference between a riparian forest and a rainforest, whereas trees alongside a dirt road cutting through that rainforest corresponded to a subset of the latter. Because rarefied species richness was significantly lower when the phytotelmata were left for three weeks rather than for six or nine weeks, we recommend leaving the phytotelmata for twelve weeks to permit predators and phoretic species to fully establish themselves.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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Aquatic long-distance dispersal and vicariance shape the evolution of an ostracod species complex (Crustacea) in four major Brazilian floodplains.
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Cladogenesis is often driven by the interplay of dispersal and vicariance. The importance of long-distance dispersal in biogeography and speciation is increasingly recognised, but still ill-understood. Here, we study faunal interconnectivity between four large Brazilian floodplains, namely the Amazon, Araguaia, Pantanal (on Paraguay River) and Upper Paraná River floodplains, investigating a species complex of the non-marine ostracod genus Strandesia. We use DNA sequence data from the mitochondrial COI and the nuclear Elongation Factor 1 alpha genes to construct molecular phylogenies and minimum spanning networks, to identify genetic species, analyse biogeographic histories and provide preliminary age estimates of this species complex. The Strandesia species complex includes five morphological and eleven genetic species, which doubles the known diversity in this lineage. The evolutionary history of this species complex appears to comprise sequences of dispersal and vicariance events. Faunal and genetic patterns of connectivity between floodplains in some genetic species are mirrored in modern hydrological connections. This could explain why we find evidence for (aquatic) long-distance dispersal between floodplains, thousands of kilometres apart. Our phylogenetic reconstructions seem to mostly indicate recent dispersal and vicariance events, but the evolution of the present Strandesia species complex could span up to 25 Myr, which by far exceeds the age of the floodplains and the rivers in their current forms.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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Aquatic resources in human diet in the Late Mesolithic in Northern France and Luxembourg: insights from carbon, nitrogen and sulphur isotope ratios
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We investigated the contribution of freshwater resources to the diet of seven Late Mesolithic hunter-gatherers (ca. 5300–7000 BC) from Northern France and Luxembourg using stable isotope ratios. In addition to the carbon and nitrogen stable isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N), we explored the potential of the sulphur isotopic ratios (δ34S) to detect and quantify the proportion of protein derived from aquatic foodstuff. In only two sites, animal remains from an associated settlement were available and subsequently examined to decipher the isotopic differential between terrestrial and freshwater resources. The quantification of their relative contribution was simulated using a Bayesian mixing model. The measurements revealed a significant overlap in δ13C values between freshwater and terrestrial resources and a large range of δ15Nvalues for each food category. The δ34S values of the aquatic and terrestrial animals were clearly distinct at the settlement in the Seine valley, while the results on fish from Belgium demonstrated a possible overlap in δ34S values between freshwater and terrestrial resources. Local freshwater ecosystem likely contributed to ca. 30–40 % of the protein in the diet of the individuals found in the Seine settlement. Out of this context, the isotopic signature and thus contribution of the available aquatic foods was difficult to assess. Another potential source of dietary protein is wild boar. Depending on the local context, collagen δ34S values may contribute to better assessment of the relative contribution of freshwater and terrestrial resources.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2016
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Aramazdospirifer orbelianus (Abich, 1858) n. comb., a new cyrtospiriferid brachiopod genus and a biostratigraphically important species from the lower Famennian (Upper Devonian) of Armenia.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2022
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Archaeological structures as factors affecting bird abundance and spectra in archaeological contexts from medieval and modern Belgium
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The present study aims to evaluate the effect of archaeological structures in the preservation and recovery of bird remains, in particular by considering the overall shape, open or enclosed, of the structure. Indeed, hollow structures, sometimes of an enclosed shape that may be constructed in masonry, are supposed to have a protective effect on the fragile bones of birds. This is evaluated by considering different variables, such as the ratio of bird remains compared to those of the main domestic mammals used as meat suppliers, the number of bird taxa, or the identification rates for different types of archaeological structures. In a second step, once the impact of the type of structure is evaluated, the same variables are examined according to the social status, to verify their relevance to document this aspect. It transpires that the bird to mammal remains ratio is strongly influenced by the type of structure, as it is higher in enclosed structures. However, some open structures also deliver high bird ratios, in particular at high status sites. In contrast, the bird identification rate is lower in enclosed structures, but this is probably related to the recovery method. Finally, the number of taxa seems more affected by the social status of the consumers responsible for the accumulation of an archaeological assemblage than by the kind of archaeological structure the faunal assemblage was discarded into. This has implications for sampling strategies since open structures, when sieved, sometimes yield high bird to mammal ratios as well as a high number of bird taxa. Therefore, more systematic sieving of large samples of sediment should be applied not only to enclosed structures but also to open contexts such as refuse layers or floors, especially in sites of (potentially) high social status.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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Archaeometric and archaeological characterization of the fired clay brick production in the Brussels-Capital Region between the XIV and the end of the XVIII centuries (Belgium).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Archaeoziphius microglenoideus, a new primitive beaked whale (Mammalia, Cetacea, Odontoceti) from the Middle Miocene of Belgium
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Are car-bonate barrier islands mobile? Insights from a mid- to late-Holocene system, Al Ruwais, northern Qatar
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
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Are Cardinium infections causing asexuality in non-marine ostracods?
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RBINS Staff Publications 2020
