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New Neandertal remains from Trou Magrite, Belgium
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Trou Magrite is a cave site located at Pont-à-Lesse in the Lesse Valley, commune of Dinant, Belgium. It has been known since E. Dupont conducted excavations at the site in 1867 [1]. The most recent fieldwork was done by L. Straus and M. Otte in 1991-92 [2]. Trou Magrite yielded rich lithic assemblages, osseous artifacts, mobiliary art, and numerous faunal remains. Several human re- mains were also recovered and identified as Palaeolithic humans by E. Dupont but have been only partially published thus far. The archaeological record covers a broad time range spanning from the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic to the Mesolithic, Neolithic, and Iron Age. An important Middle Palaeolithic collection is present, probably representing several occupation phases during the Late Pleistocene [2]. Unfortunately, although E. Dupont conducted excavations that can be characterized as modern for that time, the materials from the different so-called “fauna-bearing levels” that he defined in the field were mixed post-excavation [3]. In 2015, we initiated a multidisciplinary re-assessment of the human and faunal collections from Trou Magrite in order to update the inven- tory of human remains already identified, check for the presence of human remains that may have been previously overlooked, and verify their chronocultural context. We revised the already known human collection, conducted a systematic sorting of the faunal material, and combined the use of morphometrics, taphonomy, stable isotopes, dating, and genetic analyses to perform taxonomic and chronocultural identifications. Here we present two previously unidentified Neandertal fossils that we isolated from the Trou Magrite faunal material excavated by E. Dupont in the 19th century. They represent two different individuals: an adult/adolescent, represented by an upper right permanent canine, and a neonate, represented by the diaphysis of a left femur. Whereas no endoge- nous DNA was recovered from the tooth, the palaeogenetic analyses of the neonate femur confirmed its Neandertal status and indicate its sex to be male. We will present the biological characteristics and mitochondrial DNA phylogenetic position of the Trou Magrite Neandertals, in particular with regard to the other Northern European Neandertals. Our project adds Trou Magrite to the list of Belgian sites that have yielded Neandertal fossils and helps to emphasize the importance of the Mosan Basin in Neandertal studies.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Dating the latest appearance of Neanderthals in Belgium
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Belgium represents a key region for studying the Middle to Upper Palaeolithic transition (MUPT) in North-West Europe. This area sits at the crossroads between Palaeolithic cultural facies with influences from eastern, western and southern Europe intermingling during the Late Middle Palaeolithic and the MUPT. Until recently, a temporal gap believed to be around 4ka (ca 42-38 ky calBP) existed between the Late Mousterian and the earliest dated Aurignacian settlements in the region [1, 2]. The dates obtained on Neanderthal remains from Spy fell into this gap, making them the latest Neanderthals in the region [3]. Including the dates from Spy, a gap of two millennia remained between the dates on Neanderthals and the beginning of the Aurignacian. Based on this chronological evidence, the transition from Neanderthals to Anatomically Modern Humans (AMH) in this region was believed to have been without contact between species. AMH would have settled in an area Neanderthals abandoned long before. As part of the PalaeoChron project, we have redated the Neanderthal specimens from Spy (tooth, maxilla and scapula), Engis 2 (skull and tooth) and Fond-de-Forêt (femur), using the compound specific radiocarbon dating method in place at the Oxford Radiocarbon Accelerator Unit. This method is based on the extraction of the amino acid hydroxyproline that occurs in mammalian collagen using preparative liquid chromatography. This method is more efficient than others in eliminating modern carbon contamination such as conservation materials. In this presentation, we report the new radiocarbon dates obtained on the Belgian Neanderthal specimens. These results show how much impact sample preparation can have on the AMS measurement when specimens have been heavily preserved with conservation materials, which is often the case for human remains. These results also now place the Belgian Neanderthal remains from Spy, Engis and Fond-de-Forêt in their proper chronometric context and allow us to refine our understanding of the disappearance of Neanderthals in north-western Europe and integrate this with other evidence for the human occupation of this region during the Palaeolithic.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Control of phytoplankton production by physical forcing in a strongly tidal, well-mixed estuary
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A zero-dimensional model for phytoplanktonicproduction in turbid, macro-tidal, well-mixed estuaries is proposed. It is based on the description of light-dependentalgal growth, phytoplankton respiration and mortality. The model is forced by simple time-functions for solar irradiance, water depth and light penetration. The extinction coefficientis directly related to the dynamics of suspended particulate matter. Model results show that the description of phyto-plankton growth must operate at a time resolution sufficientlyhigh to describe the interference between solarly and tidallydriven physical forcing functions. They also demonstrate that in shallow to moderately deep systems, simulations using averaged, instead of time-varying, forcing functions lead to significant errors in the estimation of phytoplankton productivity. The highest errors are observed when the temporalpattern of light penetration, linked to the tidal cycle of solidssettling and resuspension, is neglected. The model has alsobeen applied using realistic forcing functions typical of two locations in the Scheldt estuary. Model results are consistentwith the typical phytoplankton decay observed along the lon-gitudinal, seaward axis in the tidal river and oligohaline part of this estuary.
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Salinity predicts the distribution of chlorophyll a spring peak in the southern North Sea continental waters
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In the North Sea, the coastal waters of Belgium and The Netherlands regularly exhibit intense spring phytoplankton blooms where species such as Phaeocystis recurrently form a potential ecological nuisance. In the Belgian and Dutch continental shelves (BCS and DCS), we observe a direct correlation between the chlorophyll a spring maximum (Chlmax) and the nutrients (DIN and DIP) available for the bloom. As the nutrients are themselves strongly correlated with salinity, a rationale is developed to predict Chlmax from winter salinity. The proposed rationale is first tested in a theoretical case with a 3D-biogeochemical model (3D-MIRO&CO). The method is then applied to independent sets of in situ observations over 20 years in the BCS and the DCS, and to continuous FerryBox data in April 2008. Linear regressions explain the relationships between winter nutrients and winter salinity (R2 = 0.88 to 0.97 with model results, and R2 = 0.83 to 0.96 with in situ data). The relationship between Chlmax and the available nutrients across the salinity gradient is also explained by yearly linear regressions (R2 = 0.82 to 0.94 with model results, and R2 = 0.46 to 0.98 with in situ data). Empirical ‘DIP requirement’ and ‘DIN requirement’ for the spring biomass bloom formation are derived from the latter relationships. They depend i.a. on the losses from phytoplankton during the spring bloom formation, and therefore show some interannual variability (8–12% for DIP and 13–20% for DIN). The ratio between nutrient requirements allows predicting in winter which nutrient will eventually limit the spring biomass bloom along the salinity gradient. DIP will generally be limiting in the coastal zone, whereas DIN will generally be limiting offshore, the switch occurring typically at salinity 33.5 in the BCS and 33.6 in the DCS. N reduction should be prioritized to limit Phaeocystis in the coastal zone, with target winter DIN:DIP ratios below 34.4 molN molP−1 in the BCS, or 28.6 molN molP− 1 in the DCS.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Changes in chlorophyll concentration and phenology in the North Sea in relation to de‐eutrophication and sea surface warming
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At least two major drivers of phytoplankton production have changed in recent decades in the North Sea: sea surface temperature (SST) has increased by ~ 1.6°C between 1988 and 2014, and the nitrogen and phosphorus loads from surrounding rivers have decreased from the mid‐1980s onward, following reduction policies. Long time series spanning four decades (1975–2015) of nutrients, chlorophyll (Chl), and pH measurements in the Southern and Central North Sea were analyzed to assess the impact of both the warming and the de‐eutrophication trends on Chl. The de‐eutrophication process, detectable in the reduction of nutrient river loads to the sea, caused a decrease of nutrient concentrations in coastal waters under riverine influence. A decline in annual mean Chl was observed at 11 out of 18 sampling sites (coastal and offshore) in the period 1988–2016. Also, a shift in Chl phenology was observed around 2000, with spring bloom formation occurring earlier in the year. A long time series of pH in the Southern North Sea showed an increase until the mid‐1980s followed by a rapid decrease, suggesting changes in phytoplankton production that would support the observed changes in Chl. Linear correlations, however, did not reveal significant relationships between Chl variability and winter nutrients or SST at the sampling sites. We propose that the observed changes in Chl (annual or seasonal) around 2000 are a response of phytoplankton dynamics to multiple stressors, directly or indirectly influenced by de‐eutrophication and climate warming.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Evidence for Faster X Chromosome Evolution in Spiders
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RBINS Staff Publications 2019
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Species turnover between the northern and southern part of the South China Sea in the Elaphropeza Macquart Mangrove fly communities of Hong Kong and Singapore (Insecta: Diptera: Hybotidae)
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The spingtail catchers of the genus Neurigona (Insecta, Diptera, Dolichopodidae) in the primary forest of Bukit Timah Nature Reserve, Singapore
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Empidoid flies from Cabo Verde (Diptera, Empidoidea, Dolichopodidade and Hybotidae) are not only composed of Old World tropical species
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Comparing the results of four widely used automated bat identification software programs to identify nine bat species in coastal Western Europe
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Belgian Journal of Zoology
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Bibliographic References
