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Calcardea junnei Gingerich, 1987 from the late Paleocene of North America is not a heron, but resembles the early Eocene Indian taxon Vastanavis Mayr et al., 2007
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We revisit the holotype of Calcardea junnei Gingerich, 1987 from the latest Paleocene (Clarkforkian) of the Willwood Formation (Wyoming, USA). The species is based on a partial skeleton and was originally assigned to the Ardeidae (herons). As we show, this classification cannot be upheld and Calcardea Gingerich, 1987 more closely resembles the taxon Vastanavis Mayr et al., 2007 (Vastanavidae), a parrot-like bird from the early Eocene of India. Even though C. junnei is a large bird, its long wings and short tarsometatarsus argue against a predominantly terrestrial way of living, and the morphology of the tarsometatarsus and pedal phalanges instead suggest strong grasping feet.We conclude that an assignment of Calcardea to the landbird clade (Telluraves) is better supported than its classification into the waterbird clade (Aequornithes), which includes Ardeidae and other ‘ciconiiform’ and ‘pelecaniform’ taxa. Calcardea junnei is one of the oldest known representatives of Telluraves and its morphology shows plesiomorphic features, which contributed to its previous misidentification as a heron. Calcardea exhibits a distinctive osteology and affords a glimpse of a previously unknown late Paleocene avian morphotype.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Calcified uterine leiomyomata from a post‐medieval nunnery in Brussels, Belgium
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Calibration and validation of a generic multisensor algorithm for mapping of Total Suspended Matter in turbid waters
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Calibration of sclerosponge oxygen isotope records to temperature using high-resolution δ18O data
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Camels in the northern Provinces of the Roman Empire
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Can habitat characteristics of a West African forest-savanna mosaic landscape model bee community composition?
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Bees are vital to both ecosystems and humans worldwide; supplying a range of key support facilities for the successful breeding of the majority of flowering plants. The aim of this study was to assess the bee species composition in a Sudano-Guinean savanna zone and determining the impact of a set of environmental parameters influencing this species composition in four habitat types. Sampling was carried using yellow pan traps protocol. A total of 846 bees belonging to 3 families, 25 genera and 52 species were collected. The largest number of bee individuals was found in the Apidae family. The most abundant species was Hypotrigona sp. The highest bee species and number of individuals was recorded in the shrubby savanna. Bee species diversity and abundance were found closely correlated with the plant diversity. Gaining a better understanding of the factors influencing bee community dynamics in the given landscape can provide valuable information for conservation efforts, habitat management and help identifying species which ones could be domesticated.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Can multiple mating compensate for slower development and shorter adult life in a male dimorphic dwarf spider?
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Oedothorax gibbosus (Blackwall, 1841) is a dwarf spider characterized by the occurrence of a male dimorphism: the tuberosus male does not show any remarkable differentiation at the dorsal side of the carapace; the gibbosus morph on the contrary has a hunch behind the eye region, with a transversal groove densely clothed with hairs. These structures play an important function in the gustatorial courtship, being the uptake of secretions by the female from a body part of the male during courtship. Based on standardized survival experiments we show that tuberosus has a greater overall survival strength for different humidity levels than gibbosus. The two male morphs of O. gibbosus also have a different mating strategy: tuberosus as well as gibbosus copulate with virgin females, but gibbosus copulates significantly more with already inseminated females. Because of this strategy gibbosus secures its offspring notwithstanding the faster development, the longer adult life and the greater overall survival strength of tuberosus. (C) 2004 The Linnean Society of London
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Canids as persons: Early Neolithic dog and wolf burials, Cis-Baikal, Siberia
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Interpretations of dog burials made by ancient foraging groups have tended to be based upon our own relationships with such animals and modern western cosmological and ontological concepts. Osteological studies of early dogs often focus only on issues of taxonomy, and as a result very little is known about these animals’ life histories. Eastern Siberia has produced many Holocene dog burials, but these are typically not well described and the explanatory frameworks provided for them are very underdeveloped. Here we examine in detail two Cis-Baikal canid burials, one of a wolf and the other a dog, both in large Middle Holocene hunter-gatherer cemeteries. We link the mortuary treatment of these animals to other cultural practices, particularly the treatment of the human dead, and broader patterns in Northern human-animal relationships. This interpretive model is combined with detailed osteobiographies for the canids and contextual information for these and other dogs and wolves from Middle Holocene Cis- Baikal. It is argued that canids here were understood and treated in a variety of ways. We suggest that some animals with unique histories were known as distinct persons with ‘souls’ and because of this at death required mortuary rites similar to those of their human counterparts.
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Caractérisation de la céramique médiévale d’Autelbas (Arlon, Belgique) et identification de la source de la matière première.
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Caractérisations physicochimiques et minéralogiques de la céramique des sites d’habitat de l’espace Mangoro de Katiola (Centre-nord, Côte d'Ivoire).
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018