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Towards a List of Available Names in Zoology , partim Phylum Rotifera
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Many, mostly older, names of animal species are nomenclaturally problematic, either because their orthography is unstable, or they cannot be linked reliably to a taxonomic identity, due to the lack of recognisable descriptions and/or types. Yet, they represent available (sensu International Code of Zoological Nomenclature) names and must be taken into account in zoological works. This situation, with available senior, yet dubious names confounding nomenclature, is undesirable. It creates uncertainties at a time when molecular approaches are revolutionizing our concepts of species diversity, and fails us when the current extinction crisis calls for efficient, accurate, and constructive approaches to document, monitor, and conserve biodiversity. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (The Code) provides a means to address this issue by restricting availability, application and orthography of names to those included in the List of Available Names in Zoology (LAN). The Code (Art. 79) allows an international body of zoologists in consultation with the Commission to propose a candidate part of the LAN for a major taxonomic field. We explore this possibility for 3570 species-group names of Phylum Rotifera (of which 665 are problematic), by presenting such a candidate Rotifera part of the LAN. The web site of the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (http://www.iczn.org) will hold both the candidate list and a forum to facilitate consultation on the candidate list, while the list itself also can already be freely downloaded from three other Internet sites: http://fada.biodiversity.be, http://rotifer.ansp.org/LAN, and www.hausdernatur.at/rotifera. We give here an overview of the general approach and procedures applied in preparation of the candidate list, and anticipate that our effort will promote the process as well as result in a standard list of names for use in taxonomy, the Global Names Architecture and other biodiversity information initiatives.
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Offshore intertidal Hard substrata : a New Habitat Promoting Non-indigenous Species in the Southern North Sea.
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New species in the Old World: Europe as a frontier in biodiversity exploration, a test bed for 21st century taxonomy.
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The number of described species on the planet is about 1.9 million, with ca. 17,000 new species described annually, mostly from the tropics. However, taxonomy is usually described as a science in crisis, lacking manpower and funding, a politically acknowledged problem known as the Taxonomic Impediment. Using data from the Fauna Europaea database and the Zoological Record, we show that contrary to general belief, developed and heavily-studied parts of the world are important reservoirs of unknown species. In Europe, new species of multicellular terrestrial and freshwater animals are being discovered and named at an unprecedented rate: since the 1950s, more than 770 new species are on average described each year from Europe, which add to the 125,000 terrestrial and freshwater multicellular species already known in this region. There is no sign of having reached a plateau that would allow for the assessment of the magnitude of European biodiversity. More remarkably, over 60\% of these new species are described by non-professional taxonomists. Amateurs are recognized as an essential part of the workforce in ecology and astronomy, but the magnitude of non-professional taxonomist contributions to alpha-taxonomy has not been fully realized until now. Our results stress the importance of developing a system that better supports and guides this formidable workforce, as we seek to overcome the Taxonomic Impediment and speed up the process of describing the planetary biodiversity before it is too late.
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Kaart van het gebruik van de Belgische zeegebieden - Carte de l'usage des espaces marins belges.
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Environmental monitoring of offshore renewable energy installations : A plea for timely knowledge sharing.
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Actieplan zeehond van defensief naar offensief milieubeleid in de Noordzee.
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Towards a Global Phylogeny of the "Living Fossil" Crustacean Order of the Notostraca
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First evidence of reproductive adaptation to “Island effect” of a dwarf Cretaceous Romanian titanosaur, with embryonic integument in ovo
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Background: The Cretaceous vertebrate assemblages of Romania are famous for geographically endemic dwarfed dinosaur taxa. We report the first complete egg clutches of a dwarf lithostrotian titanosaur, from Totes¸ti, Romania, and its reproductive adaptation to the ‘‘island effect’’. Methodology/Findings: The egg clutches were discovered in sequential sedimentary layers of the Maastrichtian Saˆnpetru Formation, Totes¸ti. The occurrence of 11 homogenous clutches in successive strata suggests philopatry by the same dinosaur species, which laid clutches averaging four ,12 cm diameters eggs. The eggs and eggshells display numerous characters shared with the positively identified material from egg-bearing level 4 of the Auca Mahuevo (Patagonia,Argentina) nemegtosaurid lithostrotian nesting site. Microscopic embryonic integument with bacterial evidences was recovered in one egg. The millimeter-size embryonic integument displays micron size dermal papillae implying an early embryological stage at the time of death, likely corresponding to early organogenesis before the skeleton formation. Conclusions/Significance: The shared oological characters between the Hat¸eg specimens and their mainland relatives suggest a highly conservative reproductive template, while the nest decrease in egg numbers per clutch may reflect an adaptive trait to a smaller body size due to the ‘‘island effect’’. The combined presence of the lithostrotian egg and its embryo in the Early Cretaceous Gobi coupled with the oological similarities between the Hat¸eg and Auca Mahuevo oological material evidence that several titanosaur species migrated from Gondwana through the Hat¸eg Island before or during the Aptian/Albian. It also suggests that this island might have had episodic land bridges with the rest of the European archipelago and Asia deep into the Cretaceous.
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The earliest Eocene mammal fauna of the Erquelinnes Sand Member near the French-Belgian border
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The earliest Eocene Erquelinnes site was discovered in 1880, but its mammal fauna has been frequently ignored. This paper provides the first detailed overview of the Erquelinnes mammals since 1929. The new faunal list doubles the known diversity at Erquelinnes to a total of 16 species, now also including amphilemurids, hyaenodontids, mesonychids, louisinids, equids and diacodexeids. The majority of the Erquelinnes species is also present in the earliest Eocene Dormaal MP7 reference fauna, with as most notable exceptions the presence of a potentially dwarfed specimen of Dissacus, and of two perissodactyl taxa at Erquelinnes. The ceratomorph perissodactyl Cymbalophus cuniculus is also known from the earliest Eocene of England, but a specimen identified as cf. Sifrhippus sandrae is closely similar to contemporaneous primitive North American equids. This specimen represents the oldest unambiguous European equid and highlights faunal similarities between Europe and North America during this time interval. Faunal differences between Erquelinnes and Dormaal seem mostly due to depositional differences, and the Erquelinnes fauna represents a typical earliest Eocene fauna, closely similar to other MP7 and PEI faunas in Europe.
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A new species of Archaeoryctes from the Middle Paleocene of China and the phylogenetic diversification of Didymoconidae
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Didymoconidae are an enigmatic group of Asian endemic insectivorous mammals. We describe the new didymoconid species Archaeoryctes wangi sp. nov. from the Upper Member of the Wanghudun Formation (Middle Paleocene). This new species from the Qianshan Basin (Anhui Province, China) forms an interesting geographical intermediate between A. notialis from South China and A. borealis and A. euryalis from the Mongolian Plateau. To better understand the origin and evolutionary diversification of Didymoconidae, we performed a cladistic and stratocladistic study of the Didymoconidae and various outgroups. This study of dental material did not resolve the higher level affinities of Didymoconidae, but confirms the validity of the family and its distinctiveness from the morphologically similar Sarcodontidae. Moreover, our results corroborate the current didymoconid classification with the distinction of three subfamilies: “Ardynictinae”, Kennatheriinae and Didymoconinae; “Ardynictinae” are a paraphyletic stemgroup for the two other subfamilies. Our results suggest three distinct didymoconid radiations: (1) primitive ardynictines appeared in South China from the start of the Nongshanian; their evolution continues on the Mongolian Plateau with (2) the radiation of more evolved ardynictines and kennatheriines at the start of the Middle Eocene Arshantan and (3) the origin of didymoconines at the start of the Late Eocene Ergilian.
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