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A Middle-Late Byzantine pottery assemblage from Sagalassos
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Sic transit gloria mundi. Does it really? Wasting seventh century AD Sagalassos (SW Turkey)
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Combined Hybridization Capture and Shotgun Sequencing for Ancient DNA Analysis of Extinct Wild and Domestic Dromedary Camel
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RBINS Staff Publications
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A taste of time. Foodways and cultural practices in Late Achaemenid-Early Hellenistic DüzenTepe (SW Anatolia)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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Locomotor behavior of Paleocene mammals: Insights from the semicircular canals of the inner ear
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The end-Cretaceous mass extinction triggered the collapse of ecosystems and a drastic turnover in mammalian communities leading to the demise of many ecologically specialized species. While Mesozoic mammals were ecomorphologically diverse, recognizable ecological richness was only truly established in the Eocene. Questions remain about the ecology of the first wave of mammals radiating after the extinction. Here, we use the semicircular canals of the inner ear as a proxy for locomotor behavior. Thirty new inner ear virtual endocasts were generated using high-resolution computed tomography scanning. This sample was supplemented by data from the literature to construct a dataset of 79 fossils spanning the Jurassic to the Eocene alongside 262 extant mammals. Vestibular sensitivity was measured using the radius of curvature against body mass and the residuals of this relationship were analyzed. The petrosal lobule size relative to body mass were compared with the inner ear data as they have a role in maintaining gaze stabilization during motion. Paleocene mammals exhibited smaller canal radius of curvature, compared to Mesozoic, Eocene, and extant taxa. In the early Paleocene, canal radius and associated petrosal lobules were relatively smaller on average compared to other temporal groups, suggesting less ability for fast movements. Our results support previous work on tarsal morphology and locomotor behavioral ancestral state reconstructions suggesting that ground dwelling mammalian species were more common than arboreal taxa during the Paleocene. Ultimately, this may indicate that the collapse of forested environments immediately after extinction led to the preferential survivorship of more terrestrially adapted mammals.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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New specimens and CT data of the longirostrine crocodylian Thoracosaurus isorhynchus from the Maastrichtian of Mont-Aimé (Paris Basin, France)
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Thoracosaurs are a polyphyletic group of Cretaceous–Paleogene longisrostrine crocodylians from Europe and North America. Traditionally perceived as gavialoids, phylogenetically closer to Gavialinae than to Tomistominae, they play a key role in the gharial problem: their old age and seemingly close relationship to Gavialinae is inconsistent with molecular clock estimates indicating a far younger origin of Gavialoidea. Moreover, the phylogenetic position of thoracosaurs is debated, as recent studies suggested thoracosaurs are non-crocodylian eusuchians instead. Here we describe thoracosaur material from Mont-Aimé, France, rediscovered in the collections of the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle de Lille. The Mont-Aimé is famous for its richness in fossil vertebrates, among which the longirostrine species Thoracosaurus isorhynchus (formerly T. macrorhynchus). Confusion about the age of the vertebrate layers has recently been solved, indicating that they are Maastrichtian in age instead of Danian. The new material most likely belongs to T. isorhynchus based on a flexure in the ectopterygoid–pterygoid suture, a distinctive character found in adults of this taxon. Our study reveals new characters not visible on previously known material. An example is the short posterior non-dentigerous process of the maxilla, a character shared with early Paleogene longirostrines and tomistomines but not with gavialines. Furthermore, microCT data of the skull reveal for the first time endocranial characters of this taxon, such as the presence of an internal recess in the parietal. Together with redescribed T. isorhynchus material from the Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, this leads to an updated phylogenetic position of this taxon.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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DNA barcoding fishes from the Congo and the Lower Guinean provinces: Assembling a reference library for poorly inventoried fauna
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Abstract The Congolese and Lower Guinean ichthyological provinces are understudied hotspots of the global fish diversity. Here, we barcoded 741 specimens from the Lower and Middle Congo River and from three major drainage basins of the Lower Guinean ichthyological province, Kouilou-Niari, Nyanga and Ogowe. We identified 194 morphospecies belonging to 82 genera and 25 families. Most morphospecies (92.8%) corresponded to distinct clusters of DNA barcodes. Of the four morphospecies present in both neighbouring ichthyological provinces, only one showed DNA barcode divergence <2.5%. A small fraction of the fishes barcoded here (12.9% of the morphospecies and 16.1% of the barcode clusters representing putative species) were also barcoded in a previous large-scale DNA analysis of freshwater fishes of the Lower Congo published in 2011 (191 specimens, 102 morphospecies). We compared species assignments before and after taxonomic updates and across studies performed by independent research teams and observed that most cases of inconsistent species assignments were due to unknown diversity (undescribed species and unknown intraspecific variation). Our results report more than 17 putative new species and show that DNA barcode data provide a measure of genetic variability that facilitates the inventory of underexplored ichthyofaunae. However, taxonomic scrutiny, associated with revisions and new species descriptions, is indispensable to delimit species and build a coherent reference library.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Parasite introduction with an invasive goby in Belgium: double trouble?
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Non-indigenous species may have negative impacts on the native fauna in their competition for food and habitat, but they can also introduce non-indigenous parasite species, with sometimes devastating consequences. Cointroduction of parasites should therefore be carefully monitored, but this aspect is mostly overlooked. The round goby Neogobius melanostomus (Pallas, 1814) and the tubenose goby Proterorhinus semilunaris (Heckel, 1937), both known for their invasiveness, have recently been discovered in Belgium. Here, we morphologically and genetically document the cointroduction of the Ponto-Caspian Gyrodactylus proterorhini Ergens, 1967, originally described on tubenose goby in southern Slovakia. Because of their direct life cycle and extraordinary reproductive capacities, gyrodactylid monogenean parasites can readily invade new areas together with the host. Moreover, G. proterorhini has a wide host range and might therefore represent a threat to other gobiid fishes. The Gyrodactylus parasite found on the Belgian round goby population is probably acquired through secondary infection from local fish, as suggested by molecular phylogenetic analysis.
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Prevalence of Angiostrongylus vasorum, Aelurostrongylus abstrusus and Crenosoma vulpis larvae in native slug populations in Germany
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RBINS Staff Publications 2018
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From depressed to detached: extreme shell shape variation in some Peruvian Bostryx species (Gastropoda: Bulimulidae)
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
