Wood charcoal (anthracological) remains accumulated in archaeological deposits provide a valuable tool for reconstruction of past local vegetation and its use. They can offer evidence complementary to pollen analysis or be the main source on past vegetation change in areas where no pollen preservation is available. The current study assembles the anthracological evidence from 18 Neolithic sites situated in the zone spanning between the Lower Danube plain and the Aegean coast. This evidence is presented within the broader archaeological and paleoecological context of the region and in cal. years BC and/or BP. The data is interpreted in terms of land-use related to woodland management and exploitation of woodland resources during three chronological phases which could be distinguished within the Neolithic of south-eastern Europe: a) 6500-5800 cal. BC, b) 5800-5500 cal. BC, and c) 5500-4900 cal BC). The main vegetation type targeted by the Neolithic population were the thermophilous, mixed deciduous oak communities, which contained a rich and diverse undergrowth of light-demanding and fruit/nut bearing trees, shrubs and herbs. Those plant communities were the major source of fuel wood, forest pasture, fodder, gathered fruits, etc. The analyses indicate stability and sustainability of the firewood procurement and woodland management practices for the whole considered period and further suggest that the Neolithic land-use strategies favoured the rich and often fruit-bearing undergrowth of the oak forests and woodland.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
In addition to the type species, Binkhorstia ubaghsii, which is fairly common in the upper part of the Nekum Member (Maastricht Formation) in the wider vicinity of Maastricht (the Netherlands) and Binkhorstia euglypha, which appears to be restricted to the overlying Meerssen Member of the same formation (uppermost Maastrichtian), a third member, B. desaegheri nov. sp., is recorded from the upper middle Santonian of the Campine area in north-east Belgium. The history of Binkhorstia is convoluted, serving as a prime example of how attempts to unravel the higher-level taxonomic position of late Mesozoic crabs may prove difficult. Over time, the genus has been referred to various families or subfamilies, either podotreme or putative eubrachyuran; here the new family Binkhorstiidae is placed in the superfamily Retroplumoidea. Binkhorstiids appear to have been a relatively short-lived endemic group that fell victim to Cretaceous‒Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary perturbations.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
How asexual reproduction shapes transposable element (TE) content and diversity in eukaryotic genomes remains debated. We performed an initial survey of TE load and diversity in the putative ancient asexual ostracod Darwinula stevensoni. We examined long contiguous stretches of DNA in clones from a genomic fosmid library, totaling about 2.5 Mb, and supplemented these data with results on TE abundance and diversity from an Illumina draft genome. In contrast to other TE studies in putatively ancient asexuals, which revealed relatively low TE content, we found that at least 19% of the fosmid dataset and 26% of the genome assembly corresponded to known transposons. We observed a high diversity of transposon families, including LINE, gypsy, PLE, mariner/Tc, hAT, CMC, Sola2, Ginger, Merlin, Harbinger, MITEs and helitrons, with the prevalence of DNA transposons. The predominantly low levels of sequence diversity indicate that many TEs are or have recently been active. In the fosmid data, no correlation was found between telomeric repeats and non-LTR retrotransposons, which are present near telomeres in other taxa. Most TEs in the fosmid data were located outside of introns and almost none were found in exons. We also report an N-terminal Myb/SANT-like DNA-binding domain in site-specific R4/Dong non-LTR retrotransposons. Although initial results on transposable loads need to be verified with high quality draft genomes, this study provides important first insights into TE dynamics in putative ancient asexual ostracods.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2021
