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Inproceedings Reference A DNA-based pipeline for species-level identification of Belgian mosquitoes
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Article Reference A dynamic 2DH flocculation model for coastal domains
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023
Article Reference A global meta-analysis on the drivers of salt marsh planting success and implications for ecosystem services
Planting has been widely adopted to battle the loss of salt marshes and to establish living shorelines. However, the drivers of success in salt marsh planting and their ecological effects are poorly understood at the global scale. Here, we assemble a global database, encompassing 22,074 observations reported in 210 studies, to examine the drivers and impacts of salt marsh planting. We show that, on average, 53% of plantings survived globally, and plant survival and growth can be enhanced by careful design of sites, species selection, and novel planted technologies. Planting enhances shoreline protection, primary productivity, soil carbon storage, biodiversity conservation and fishery production (effect sizes = 0.61, 1.55, 0.21, 0.10 and 1.01, respectively), compared with degraded wetlands. However, the ecosystem services of planted marshes, except for shoreline protection, have not yet fully recovered compared with natural wetlands (effect size = −0.25, 95% CI −0.29, −0.22). Fortunately, the levels of most ecological functions related to climate change mitigation and biodiversity increase with plantation age when compared with natural wetlands, and achieve equivalence to natural wetlands after 5–25 years. Overall, our results suggest that salt marsh planting could be used as a strategy to enhance shoreline protection, biodiversity conservation and carbon sequestration.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Inbook Reference A jadeitite axehead in the midst of the famous Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes?
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Article Reference A juvenile skull from the early Palaeocene of China extends the appearance of crocodyloids in Asia back by 15–20 million years
The earliest Crocodylia from Asia have been represented so far only by alligatoroids and planocraniids. Although definitive crocodyloids are not known until the late Eocene, it has been hypothesized that Asiatosuchus-like basal crocodyloids originated in Asia before the late Palaeocene. In this paper, we describe a new fossil crocodyloid from the lower Palaeocene of Qianshan Basin, Anhui Province, China. The skull and lower jaw fragment exhibit several characteristics typical of juvenile crocodylians. They also display a combination of features not seen in any other taxon, warranting the erection of a new species and genus, Qianshanosuchus youngi gen. & sp. nov. Its affinities are tested in phylogenetic analyses based on two recent character matrices of Eusuchia. To assess the effect of juvenile characteristics on the outcome of the phylogenetic analyses, juvenile specimens of extant crocodylian taxa are analysed in the same way, showing that the effect of their ontogenetic stage on their placement in the tree is minimal. Our analyses point to a basal crocodyloid position for Q. youngi. With these findings, the presence of Crocodyloidea in Asia is extended to the early Palaeocene, 15–20 Myr earlier than formerly thought. Furthermore, our results corroborate previous hypotheses of a Palaeocene dispersal route of Asiatosuchus-like crocodyloids from Asia into Europe.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022 OA
Article Reference A large meteoritic event over Antarctica ca. 430 ka ago inferred from chondritic spherules from the Sør Rondane Mountains
Large airbursts, the most frequent hazardous impact events, are estimated to occur orders of magnitude more frequently than crater-forming impacts. However, finding traces of these events is impeded by the difficulty of identifying them in the recent geological record. Here, we describe condensation spherules found on top of Walnumfjellet in the Sør Rondane Mountains, Antarctica. Affinities with similar spherules found in EPICA Dome C and Dome Fuji ice cores suggest that these particles were produced during a single-asteroid impact ca. 430 thousand years (ka) ago. The lack of a confirmed crater on the Antarctic ice sheet and geochemical and 18O-poor oxygen isotope signatures allow us to hypothesize that the impact particles result from a touchdown event, in which a projectile vapor jet interacts with the Antarctic ice sheet. Numerical models support a touchdown scenario. This study has implications for the identification and inventory of large cosmic events on Earth.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Article Reference A late antique vessel with Greek texts and the makellon of Sagalassos (SW Anatolia): what a waste?
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Article Reference A late early to early middle Eocene mammal assemblage from Bayan Ulan (Inner Mongolia, China): Implication for the reassessment of the Arshantan Asian Land Mammal Age
Paleogene mammal localities of North China are particularly well represented in the Erlian Basin, Inner Mongolia. Among them, the locality of Bayan Ulan is most famous for its late Paleocene Gashatan fauna. However, the younger Arshantan fauna of the same site is not well known, since no extensive study has been done so far. Here, we present a small mammal assemblage based on dental and tarsal material from a new Arshantan collection retrieved from the red beds of the late early to early middle Eocene Arshanto Formation at Bayan Ulan. It consists of at least six different taxa: the basal lagomorph Dawsonolagus antiquus, the large pantodont Pantolambdodon sp., the tapiroid Schlosseria magister, and the rhinocerotoids Hyrachyus crista and Rhodopagus guoi nov. sp. The assemblage is dominated by perissodactyls, especially Lophialetidae and Hyracodontidae. For the first time, p4-m1 of Dawsonolagus antiquus, tarsal material from Pantolambdodon sp., and lower dentition and tarsals of Hyrachyus crista are described and illustrated. Unlike other described Arshantan faunas, the Bayan Ulan Arshantan mammal assemblage has been collected exclusively from a single locality, which contributes to the reassessment of the misunderstood Arshantan Asian Land Mammal Age.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2021
Inbook Reference A Late Period fish deposit at Oxyrhynchus (el-Bahnasa, Egypt)
We describe the abundant faunal remains that were found in an extensive ritual deposit discovered in 2012 at Oxyrhynchus. This site in Middle Egypt has been famous since the first millennium BC for the mormyrid fish that were worshipped there and after which the town was named. The role played by these fish has already been amply documented through textual evidence, bronze statuettes and paintings, but until now, no remains and no mummies of these fish had been found. We first describe the ritual deposit as a whole, with emphasis on its extent, its stratigraphy and its relationship to the surrounding structures, which, together with a very specific artefact, allow the layers to be dated to the Late Period. The fish remains, as well as the sparse mammal bones, are quantified using both number of identified specimens (NISP) and minimum number of individuals (MNI). Body length reconstructions of the mormyrid fish are carried out using newly derived regression equations. Because of the large quantity of material, we performed the taxonomic identifications and size reconstructions on subsamples from which estimates were then made for the total number of fish that may have been present in the entire deposit. Attention was given to the way in which the fish bundles were prepared, a process that involved both the use of textiles and halfa grass, and to how the deposit was organised. We discuss the species spectrum in relation to both the Egyptian fish cult and evidence from written sources. Finally, we attempt to reconstruct the different events that may have taken place between the capture of the fish and their final deposition at the site, using a combination of both zoological/ecological and papyrological evidence.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Article Reference A masculinizing supergene underlies an exaggerated male reproductive morph in a spider
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2022