Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools

You are here: Home

Search results

RSS Subscribe to an always-updated RSS feed.

3065 items matching your search terms.
Filter the results.
Item type



































New items since



Sort by relevance · date (newest first) · alphabetically
Article Reference Evidence for early cat taming in Egypt
The remains are described of a young small felid found in a Predynastic burial at Hierakonpolis, Upper Egypt. Osteometric and zoogeographical arguments indicate that the specimen, dated to around 3700 B.C. on the basis of the associated pottery, belongs to Felis silvestris. In the same cemetery several other animal species, both wild and domestic, have been found. The left humerus and right femur of the cat show healed fractures indicating that the animal had been held in captivity for at least 4e6 weeks prior to its burial. We believe that this pathology suggests early cat taming more convincingly than a buried cat recently reported from Neolithic Cyprus (7500 B.C.). Such taming events were probably part of the processes that eventually led to the domestication of Felis silvestris. However, the absence of the cat in Predynastic and Early Dynastic depictions and its rare attestation in the archaeozoological record indicates that domestic status had not yet been attained during those early periods. Other species that were also held in captivity by Ancient Egyptians probably never became domesticated because they had one or more characteristics that prevented it.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Evidence for Faster X Chromosome Evolution in Spiders
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Article Reference Evidence for herbivorous cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) in Goyet Cave, Belgium: implications for palaeodietary reconstruction of fossil bears using amino acid δ15N approaches
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Incollection Reference Evidence from otoliths for establishing relationships between Gadiforms and other groups.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Incollection Reference Evidence from otoliths for establishing relationships within Gadiforms.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Evidence of a Cooler Continental Climate in East China during the Warm Early Cenozoic
The early Cenozoic was characterized by a very warm climate especially during the Early Eocene. To understand climatic changes in eastern Asia, we reconstructed the Early Eocene vegetation and climate based on palynological data of a borehole from Wutu coal mine, East China and evaluated the climatic differences between eastern Asia and Central Europe. The Wutu palynological assemblages indicated a warm temperate vegetation succession comprising mixed needle- and broad-leaved forests. Three periods of vegetation succession over time were recognized. The changes of palynomorph relative abundance indicated that period 1 was warm and humid, period 2 was relatively warmer and wetter, and period 3 was cooler and drier again. The climatic parameters estimated by the coexistence approach (CA) suggested that the Early Eocene climate in Wutu was warmer and wetter. Mean annual temperature (MAT) was approximately 16°C and mean annual precipitation (MAP) was 800–1400 mm. Comparison of the Early Eocene climatic parameters of Wutu with those of 39 other fossil floras of different age in East China, reveals that 1) the climate became gradually cooler during the last 65 million years, with MAT dropping by 9.3°C. This cooling trend coincided with the ocean temperature changes but with weaker amplitude; 2) the Early Eocene climate was cooler in East China than in Central Europe; 3) the cooling trend in East China (MAT dropped by 6.9°C) was gentler than in Central Europe (MAT dropped by 13°C) during the last 45 million years.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2016
Article Reference Evidence of parasites in Burials and cesspits used by the clergy and general population of 13th – 18th century Ghent, Belgium
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Article Reference Evidence of sun-dried fish at Mleiha (S.-E. Arabia) in antiquity
A concentration of fish remains found in a single room of a fortified building at Mleiha (United Arab Emirates) is presented here. Part of it was probably the filling of a bag or an organic container that fell from a bench onto the floor of the room. The various species recovered from these contexts, dating to the second to mid-third centuries AD, are briefly described. Particular attention is paid to the skeletal elements by which the fish are represented and to the corresponding lengths of the animals, as these allow the proposition that the fish had been dried on the seashore before being carried to the site inland. The data from building H will be compared to those from previously studied contexts at Mleiha (Gautier & Van Neer 1999; Mashkour & Van Neer 1999). In addition the ichthyofauna from ed-Dur (Van Neer & Gautier 1993), a coastal site that is partially contemporaneous with the contexts from building H, will be considered.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Evolution and biodiversity in Lake Baikal. In: KOZHOVA, O. & ISTMES’TEVA, L. (eds.). Lake Baikal
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Evolution and Conservation of Central African Biodiversity: Priorities for Future Research and Education in the Congo Basin and Gulf of Guinea
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications