The Democratic Republic of the Congo has the highest diversity of ant species in the Afrotropical region, even though it remains largely understudied in the modern era. The aim of this study is to report on an inventory of the litter ants from the Yangambi Biosphere Reserve in the Tshopo Province, north of the Congo River. Three habitats (fallow, secondary forest and primary forest) were sampled at six localities. A total of 190 ant species belonging to 50 genera and 8 subfamilies, have been recorded in the Yangambi biosphere region. Besides, 96 species were added to Tshopo Province, bringing the total to 306, a 44% increase; and we added 55 species to the already diverse Democratic Republic of the Congo, raising the total record to 791 species, a 7% increase. At least 10% of the collected species are new to science.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
The large faunal sample from Spy, a Belgian cave site famous for its Neandertal remains, is for the first time studied in detail. Some 11,600 bones were examined. A wide spectrum of Pleistocene species is present. Horse, cave hyena, mammoth, woolly rhinoceros and reindeer are the primary taxa. Hyena scavenging activities are indicated by the gnawed mammoth and rhinoceros postcranial bones and cervid antlers. Bears used the cave as a hibernation den evidenced by remains of cubs, and of female and male adult bears. Indications of human manipulation (cut marks, ochre traces, worked bone/tooth) occur especially on remains from foxes, mammoth and deer. The age profile of the mammoth is dominated by calves. This selective mortality suggests that they were hunted by prehistoric people. AMS dates range from c. 44,400 BP to c. 25,700 BP. The Spy bone assemblage therefore accumulated through a series of agents over a long period of the Pleniglacial.
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