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Article Reference Analysis of postcranial elements of cave bear material (Ursus spelaeus) from Goyet (Condroz/Belgium)
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Anatomy and phylogeny of the gavialoid crocodylian Eosuchus lerichei from the Paleocene of Europe
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Ancient breeds of domestic fowl (Gallus gallus f. domestica) distinguished on the basis of traditional observations combined with mixture analysis
Using a large assemblage of domestic fowl bones from a classical site, a methodology is presented that allows the recognition of breeds. The approach differs from previous research in which tarsometatarsi were used exclusively. In the present paper, frequency histograms of long bone lengths and mixture analysis were combined with observations on medullary bone development. By concentrating on the analysis of bones with medullary bone, only the securely sexed part of the population (the females) is considered, thereby avoiding problems related to the use of spur development in tarsometatarsi. Three breeds of different sizes could be recognized, of which the smallest shows a high incidence of spurred females.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Ancient DNA reveals lack of postglacial habitat tracking in the arctic fox
How species respond to an increased availability of habitat, for example at the end of the last glaciation, has been well established. In contrast, little is known about the opposite process, when the amount of habitat decreases. The hypothesis of habitat tracking predicts that species should be able to track both increases and decreases in habitat availability. The alternative hypothesis is that populations outside refugia become extinct during periods of unsuitable climate. To test these hypotheses, we used ancient DNA techniques to examine genetic variation in the arctic fox (Alopex lagopus) through an expansion/contraction cycle. The results show that the arctic fox in midlatitude Europe became extinct at the end of the Pleistocene and did not track the habitat when it shifted to the north. Instead, a high genetic similarity between the extant populations in Scandinavia and Siberia suggests an eastern origin for the Scandinavian population at the end of the last glaciation. These results provide new insights into how species respond to climate change, since they suggest that populations are unable to track decreases in habitat availability. This implies that arctic species may be particularly vulnerable to increases in global temperatures. © 2007 by The National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Ancient DNA suggests modern wolves trace their origin to a Late Pleistocene expansion from Beringia
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2019
Article Reference Ancient DNA suggests modern wolves trace their origin to a Late Pleistocene expansion from Beringia
Grey wolves (Canis lupus) are one of the few large terrestrial carnivores that have maintained a wide geographical distribution across the Northern Hemisphere throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene. Recent genetic studies have suggested that, despite this continuous presence, major demographic changes occurred in wolf populations between the Late Pleistocene and early Holocene, and that extant wolves trace their ancestry to a single Late Pleistocene population. Both the geographical origin of this ancestral population and how it became widespread remain unknown. Here, we used a spatially and temporally explicit modelling framework to analyse a data set of 90 modern and 45 ancient mitochondrial wolf genomes from across the Northern Hemisphere, spanning the last 50,000 years. Our results suggest that contemporary wolf populations trace their ancestry to an expansion from Beringia at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum, and that this process was most likely driven by Late Pleistocene ecological fluctuations that occurred across the Northern Hemisphere. This study provides direct ancient genetic evidence that long‐range migration has played an important role in the population history of a large carnivore, and provides insight into how wolves survived the wave of megafaunal extinctions at the end of the last glaciation. Moreover, because Late Pleistocene grey wolves were the likely source from which all modern dogs trace their origins, the demographic history described in this study has fundamental implications for understanding the geographical origin of the dog.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2020
Article Reference Ancient West African foragers in the context of African population history
Our knowledge of ancient human population structure in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly prior to the advent of food production, remains limited. Here we report genome-wide DNA data from four children—two of whom were buried approximately 8,000 years ago and two 3,000 years ago—from Shum Laka (Cameroon), one of the earliest known archaeological sites within the probable homeland of the Bantu language group1–11. One individual carried the deeply divergent Y chromosome haplogroup A00, which today is found almost exclusively in the same region12,13. However, the genome-wide ancestry profiles of all four individuals are most similar to those of present-day hunter-gatherers from western Central Africa, which implies that populations in western Cameroon today—as well as speakers of Bantu languages from across the continent—are not descended substantially from the population represented by these four people. We infer an Africa-wide phylogeny that features widespread admixture and three prominent radiations, including one that gave rise to at least four major lineages deep in the history of modern humans.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2020
Book Reference Annie V. Dhondt Memorial volume. Bulletin de l'Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, Série Sciences de la Terre
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications
Article Reference Annotated catalogue of the click-beetle subfamily Tetralobinae (Coleoptera: Elateridae)
Located in Library / RBINS collections by external author(s)
Book Reference Annotated Iconography of the fossil Chondrichthyan Fishes in the collection of the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Brussels
This book is an extensive iconography of all types of material of Elasmobranchii (mostly teeth) of which the type specimens were found in the collections of the RBINS, in total there are 119 species. Unfortunately, 11 type series were incomplete and 17 were no longer found in the collection at all. The latter are listed in the book, but of course not depicted. It is often about Holocephali from the Paleozoic, but also about some species from the Cenozoic (e.g. Mustelus vanderhoeft, the type of which was never deposited by the author in the RBINS). All species are listed in systematic order, according to the original name, followed by the collection number. The authors have searched the original literature to the type locality and the type stratum as they were specified at the time. Since many species were defined in the19th and early20th centuries, much of that data was outdated, but they were completely revised and adapted to modern nomenclature, a titanic work. Furthermore, the original publication is given species by species and the modern systematic status is given in the notes. The photographs are of high quality and often with more views per copy so that more details are now visible than was possible in older publications. Usually one page per species is provided. It contains an extensive bibliography and the index (with both the old and modern species names) makes searching easier. Thanks to the excellent iconography, the book can also be used as a determination work, but of course only for the types in the RBINS collection.
Located in Library / RBINS Staff Publications 2023