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Imagine a future where dynamically, from year to year, we can track the progression of alien species (AS), identify emerging problem species, assess their current and future risk and timely inform policy in a seamless data-driven workflow. One that is built on open science and open data infrastructures. By using international biodiversity standards and facilities, we would ensure interoperability, repeatability and sustainability. This would make the process adaptable to future requirements in an evolving AS policy landscape both locally and internationally. In recent years, Belgium has developed decision support tools to inform invasive alien species (IAS) policy, including information systems, early warning initiatives and risk assessment protocols. However, the current workflows from biodiversity observations to IAS science and policy are slow, not easily repeatable, and their scope is often taxonomically, spatially and temporally limited. This is mainly caused by the diversity of actors involved and the closed, fragmented nature of the sources of these biodiversity data, which leads to considerable knowledge gaps for IAS research and policy. We will leverage expertise and knowledge from nine former and current BELSPO projects and initiatives: Alien Alert, Invaxen, Diars, INPLANBEL, Alien Impact, Ensis, CORDEX.be, Speedy and the Belgian Biodiversity Platform. The project will be built on two components: 1) The establishment of a data mobilization framework for AS data from diverse data sources and 2) the development of data-driven procedures for risk evaluation based on risk modelling, risk mapping and risk assessment. We will use facilities from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF), standards from the Biodiversity Information Standards organization (TDWG) and expertise from Lifewatch to create and facilitate a systematic workflow. Alien species data will be gathered from a large set of regional, national and international initiatives, including citizen science with a wide taxonomic scope from marine, terrestrial and freshwater environments. Observation data will be funnelled in repeatable ways to GBIF. In parallel, a Belgian checklist of AS will be established, benefiting from various taxonomic and project-based checklists foreseen for GBIF publication. The combination of the observation data and the checklist will feed indicators for the identification of emerging species; their level of invasion in Belgium; changes in their invasion status and the identification of areas and species of concern that could be impacted upon by bioinvasions. Data-driven risk evaluation of identified emerging species will be supported by niche and climate modelling and consequent risk mapping using critical climatic variables for the current and projected future climate periods at high resolution. The resulting risk maps will complement risk assessments performed with the recently developed Harmonia+ protocol to assess risks posed by emergent species to biodiversity and human, plant, and animal health. The use of open data will ensure that interested stakeholders in Belgium and abroad can make use of the information we generate. The open science ensures everyone is free to adopt and adapt the workflow for different scenarios and regions. The checklist will be used at national level, but will also serve as the Belgian reference for international databases (IUCN - GRIIS, EASIN) and impact assessments (IPBES, SEBI). The workflow will be showcased through GEO BON, the Invasivesnet network and the COST Actions Alien Challenge and ParrotNet. The observations and outcomes of risk evaluations will be used to provide science-based support for the implementation of IAS policies at the regional, federal and EU levels. The publication of Belgian data and checklists on IAS is particularly timely in light of the currently ongoing EU IAS Regulation and its implementation in Belgium. By proving that automated workflows can provide rapid and repeatable production of information, we will open up this technology for other conservation assessments.

A new species of the recently re-established genus Tenguella is described from the Sultanate of Oman. It is compared with three of the four species included in this genus: Tenguella granulata (Duclos, 1832), the type species and a common species occurring in the Indo-Pacific, Tenguella ceylonica (Dall, 1923) known from south-eastern India to the Philippines and Tenguella marginalba (Blainville, 1832) from eastern Australia.

En Mauritanie occidentale, le site de Nouadhfat, au nord-est de Nouakchott, est essentiel, tant pour la connaissance des paléoenvironnements holocènes que pour celle du Néolithique. Le site se trouve à proximité d’un important paléoréseau hydrographique et sur le rivage d’un vaste paléolac marqué par des diatomites, des gastéropodes d’eau douce et des pistes animales imprimées dans la boue. L’habitat fut occupé par des chasseurs-cueilleurs, des pêcheurs (présence de harpons) et des éleveurs, qui profitèrent d’un milieu évoluant progressivement vers moins d’humidité : une première fois au Néolithique moyen (autour de 6400 cal. BP), puis plus récemment (3900 – 3300 cal. BP), après une crise aride très marquée. Nouadhfat, qui est le site le mieux daté de la région, s’inscrit dans un ensemble d’une grande richesse sur au moins quatre millénaires. La caractéristique principale de ce groupe est sans doute l’existence de nombreuses cultures, qui se sont succédé ou ont cohabité, avant que la limite septentrionale du Sahel ne se décale nettement vers le sud.

Numerous fossil localities were investigated in western central Africa during the Belgian expeditions that started in the 19th century. At least 47 localities were excavated or analyzed in the framework of Edmond Dartevelle’s paleontological expeditions of 1933 and 1937-1938, producing a large and unique collection of Mesozoic-Cenozoic vetebrates from the margin of the Congo Basin along the coastal area of Angola to Gabon. Among them, snake vertebrae from the marine Paleocene-Eocene Landana section, Cabinda enclave, Angola have been referred to the aquatic snake Palaeophis aff. typhaeus. New investigation of the old Dartevelle’s collections has led to relocation of a few undescribed snake vertebrae from Landana and the nearby locality of Sassa Zao, permitting a revision of Palaeophis aff. typhaeus. The results of this work indicate that all specimens from Landana originate from the same stratigraphic level (layers 31-32) and are of Lutetian age based on the rich associated elasmobranch fauna. The locality of Sassa Zao is also Lutetian based on elasmobranchs that are similar to those of layer 32 of Landana. All of the vertebrae, ten in total, can be attributed to a single large species of Palaeophis. The maximum width across the prezygapophyses is 35 mm and the maximum length of the centrum is 27 mm. The weak lateral compression of trunk vertebrae, low development of the pterapophyses, diapophyses not very low, and the marked lateral projection of the zygapophyses indicate that this species belongs to the ‘primitive’ grade of Palaeophis and thus differs from species of the ‘advanced’ group such as P. casei, P. ferganicus, P. littoralis, P. toliapicus, P. typhaeus, P. grandis, P. tamdy, P. nessovi, and P. udovichenkoi. Among ‘primitive’ grade species, it differs from the giant P. colossaeus by smaller size, proportionally longer vertebrae, the cotyle and condyle more oval in shape, and the zygosphene not larger than the cotyle; from P. africanus by the neural spine that does not approach the zygosphene and shorter hypapophyses that are not prolonged by a ventral carina; from P. vastaniensis, P. virginianus, and P. zhylan by less depressed vertebrae. In size and morphology it most closely resembles P. maghrebianus but differs by more developed hypapophyses and paradiapophyses that do not extend over the cotyle posteriorly. This new species was apparently poorly adapted to aquatic life and was more closely related to the North African Ypresian P. maghrebianus than to West African Lutetian species. Grant Information This abstract is a contribution to the project BR/121/A3/PalEurAfrica funded by the Belgian Science Policy Office.

Mesonychians are an extinct group of primitive hoofed mammals. They have been found all over Laurasia and were well diversified: more than 20 genera are presently recorded. Mesonychia are divided into two families: Hapalodectidae and Mesonychidae. Hapalodectidae are recorded from the late Paleocene to the middle Eocene in Asia (Gashatan to Irdinmanhan), and in the early Eocene in North America (from Wasatchian to early Bridgerian). Hapalodectids remained small: the species of Hapalodectes, the type genus of the family, weighed between 500 g and 1 kg. Because the hapalodectids are relatively rare mammals, the discovery of new specimens, especially in the Paleocene, is crucial for understanding the evolution of these peculiar mammals. Field work in Qianshan Basin (Anhui Province, China) led to the discovery of a new lower jaw of the mesonychian Hapalodectes in Gashatan (late Paleocene) sediments. It is worth noting that the fragmentary mandible is only the third specimen of Hapalodectidae discovered in the Paleocene, and the first in southeast China. The premolars and molars of the new fossil are morphologically similar to Hapalodectes dux, the most primitive hapalodectid, but their relative proportions recall H. paleocenus and the Eocene Hapalodectes species. As a result, the fossil described herein appears to be different from the other previously described species of Hapalodectes in being morphologically intermediate between H. dux and the other Hapalodectes species; it is thus identified as a new species. Its discovery is important because it sheds light on the initial radiation of the hapalodectids. The presence of the most primitive hapalodectids in Mongolia (e.g., H. dux) suggests that the Mongolian area is the center of origination of this carnivorous family. The differences between the new species and the Eocene hapalodectids from China, H. huanghaiensis and H. hetangensis, imply that these species do not derive from the newly described species. Therefore, the new Chinese hapalodectid allows reconstructing the existence of two dispersals from the Mongolian area to the southeast of China, before and shortly after the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. At that latter time, Hapalodectes also dispersed from Asia to North America; this event was part of the 'East of Eden' dispersals. The Paleocene/Eocene transition thus appears as a crucial event for the distribution and radiation of the hapalodectids with the establishment of two distinct groups, respectively in North America and in the southeast of China. Grant Information This abstract is a contribution to the Belgian Bilateral Cooperation Project Belspo BL/36/C54 and China International S&T Cooperation Project MOST 2009DFA32210.