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Article Reference Oxygen and sulfur stable isotope ratios of Late Devonian vertebrates trace the relative salinity of their aquatic environments
Late Devonian aquatic environments hosted the fin-to-limb transition in vertebrates. Upper Devonian (ca. 365–360 Ma) strata in Pennsylvania, USA, preserve a diversity of fishes and tetrapods in coastal marine to fluvial depositional environments, making this region ideal for investigating the ecology and evolution of Late Devonian vertebrates. A key unresolved issue has been reconstructing the specific aquatic habitats that hosted various vertebrates during this period. Specifically, the salinity of environments spanning fresh to shallow marine water is difficult to discern from sedimentological and paleontological analyses alone. Here, we analyze rare earth elements and yttrium (REY) as well as stable oxygen and sulfur isotope compositions (δ18O, δ34S) in fossil vertebrate bioapatite from late Famennian (ca. 362–360 Ma) strata of the Catskill and Lock Haven formations in the Appalachian Basin, USA, to determine the relative salinity of their aquatic environments. These results confirm the ecological euryhalinity of several taxa (Bothriolepis sp., tristichopterids, and Holoptychius sp.). Our results are the first demonstrating that some early tetrapod species occupied unequivocally freshwater habitats by late Famennian time (ca. 362–360 Ma). Our study shows that integrating sedimentological and paleontological data with combined oxygen and sulfur isotope analysis allows precise tracing of the relative salinity of vertebrate habitats deep in the past.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2024
Inproceedings Reference Towards a paleoecological and paleogeographical model of ammonoids during Deccan volcanism
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2018
Article Reference stimating European Pilchard (Sardina pilchardus) Total Length: New Equations for the Ichthyoarchaeological Record
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2026
Article Reference François Roffiaen's terrestrial and freshwater gastropod types in the collection of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences
Jean François Xavier Roffiaen (1820–1898) was a Belgian landscape painter with a profound interest in malacology. A founding member of the Société malacologique de Belgique, Roffiaen contributed several publications on molluscs. Among such studies, his 1868 paper on Swiss terrestrial and freshwater gastropods introduced 14 new taxa (species and varieties) belonging to the Clausiliidae, Discidae, Helicidae, Lymnaeidae, Valvatidae, and Viviparidae. However, Roffiaen’s malacological contributions largely faded from recognition, primarily due to the unknown whereabouts of his type material. This study revisits his work by identifying and analysing specimens from the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS). Of the 14 taxa described by Roffiaen, type specimens for nine (including the two full species) have been recovered, enabling a reassessment of their taxonomic status as synonyms of better-known and widespread species. The serendipitous finding of these type specimens reaffirms the importance of maintaining museum collections, and the implementation of digitization programs to uncover/recover such “lost” information, enabling it to be made available to the scientific community at large.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2025
Article Reference Extreme tooth enlargement in a new Late Cretaceous rhabdodontid dinosaur from Southern France
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Article Reference Synchrotron scanning reveals amphibious ecomorphology in a new clade of bird-like dinosaurs
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Article Reference Taming the late Quaternary phylogeography of the Eurasiatic wild ass through ancient and modern DNA
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Article Reference Unusual geologic evidence for coeval seismic shaking and tsunamis reinforces variability in earthquake size and recurrence in the area of the giant 1960 Chile earthquake.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2017
Article Reference First record of a Lessepsian migrant: the sea cucumber Holothuria (Theelothuria) hamata Pearson, 1913
First record of a Lessepsian migrant: the sea cucumber Holothuria (Theelothuria) hamata Pearson, 1913. A single specimen of the Indo-West Pacific sea cucumber Holothuria (Theelothuria) hamata Pearson, 1913 has been captured in 2017 in the Mediterranean Sea, Turkey, Iskenderun Bay, at 30 m depth. This specimen is here described, and the taxonomy of the species is briefly discussed. Despite the lack of timed biogeographic evidence, we here argue that H. hamata is a Lessepsian migrant; the first in its genus and only the second holothuroid.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Book Reference Field guide to the brittle and basket stars (Echinodermata: Ophiuroidea) of South Africa
Brittle and basket stars (ophiuroids) are one of five extant classes of the phylum Echinodermata and have a fossil record dating back almost 500 million years to the Early Ordovician. Today, they remain diverse and widespread, with over 260 described genera and 2,077 extant species globally (Stöhr et al. 2018), more than any other class of echinoderm. Ophiuroid species are found across all marine habitats from the intertidal shore to the abyss. In southern Africa, the ophiuroid fauna has been studied extensively by a number of authors and is relatively wellknown. The last published review of the southern African Ophiuroidea however was by Clark & Courtman-Stock in 1976. It included 101 species reported from within the boundaries of South Africa. In the 40 years since that publication the number of species has risen to 136. This identification guide includes a taxonomic key to all 136 species, and gives key references, istribution maps, diagnoses, scaled photographs (where possible), and a synthesis of known ecological and depth information for each. The guide is designed to be comprehensive, well illustrated and easy to use for both naturalists and professional biologists. Taxonomic terms, morphological characteristics and technical expressions are defined and described in detail, with illustrations to clarify some aspects of the terminology. A checklist of all species in the region is also included, and indicates which species are endemic (33), for which we report significant range extensions (23), which have been recorded as new to the South African fauna (28) since the previous monograph of Clark & Courtman-Stock (1976) and which have undergone taxonomic revisions since that time (28).
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019