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The Earliest Bats from Europe
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Chiroptera is one of the few modern mammal orders for which no fossil record has been associated with the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum that happened 55.8 million years ago. With the exception of complete skeletons from the early Middle Eocene of the Messel Formation in Germany and the late Early Eocene Green River Formation in Wyoming, all early bats are only represented by isolated elements, mainly teeth and fragmentary jaws, making the diversity and taxonomic affinities more difficult to establish. Here we revise all of the Early Eocene bats from Europe based on dental features, including digitally reconstructed teeth using micro-CT scanning technology of some complete skeletons. The diversity of European early bats is composed of the families Onychonycteridae, Icaronycteridae, Archaeonycteridae, Palaeochiropterygidae, and some of undetermined affinities. Dental features and synapomorphies of each family are characterized for the first time. The earliest bats are dated from the early Early Eocene and are all of small size with lower molars less than 1.3 mm in length. They are represented by: Eppsinycteris anglica from Abbey Wood, east London, England, an onychonycterid with reduced lower p4 and long molars; Archaeonycteris? praecursor from Silveirinha, Portugal, an archaeonycterid with long postcristid on wide lower molars; a new archaeonycterid genus and species from Meudon, North France with long trigonid and shorter postcristid on wide lower molars. These results indicate that the diversity of European Early Eocene bats is higher than previously recognized and that diversification began early in the Early Eocene.
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New primate postcrania from the Eraly Eocene of Vastan Mine, Gujarat, India
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The Cambay Formation at Vastan Mine in Gujarat yields the oldest fossil primates known from India. New age estimates suggest that the fossils date from approximately 54.5 Ma (early Ypresian), about 2 million years older than initially thought and comparable in age to early Wasatchian Wa-4 faunas from North America. The Vastan primate fauna comprises predominantly the asiadapine adapoids Marcgodinotius and Asiadapis. Two species of omomyid primates, Vastanomys gracilis and V. major, are much rarer, each known from a single dental specimen. In addition to primate dental remains, Vastan Mine has produced the best preserved early Eocene primate postcranial elements known from anywhere in the world. Here we present new limb bones, including humeri, ulnae, femora, tibiae, and a talus, from three of the recognized primate species. They include the first omomyid postcrania from India: two femora, a talus, and a potential proximal tibia. We also report additional asiadapine postcrania: a pristine femur of Marcgodinotius and the first complete tibia of Asiadapis. Five new humeri (two complete) consist of one asiadapine and four that lack specializations of either group, making allocation difficult. Two ulnae are attributed to indeterminate euprimates due to lack of adequate comparative material. The elements attributed to Vastanomys are more primitive than any other known omomyid postcrania and are only subtly different from those of asiadapines, in contrast to the more distinct postcranial bones of their middle and late Eocene relatives. The femora attributed to Vastanomys exhibit features suggestive of leaping behavior (cylindrical femoral heads, lateral condyle higher than medial, proximal position of the third trochanter), as in other omomyids. However, while the talus of Vastanomys resembles those of omomyids more than those of other primates, features such as the relatively short, medially angled neck, and oval rather than spherical head suggest that Vastanomys was not as specialized for leaping as younger omomyids. Although asiadapines have been described as close to notharctids in morphology, the relatively wider distal femur and symmetrical condyles of Marcgodinotius resemble adapids more than notharctids and may also reflect less leaping. The revised age of the fossils, together with the similarity in morphology of omomyid and asiadapine postcrania, suggests that the postcrania, like the teeth of the most primitive members of each family, are converging toward a common morphology as we approach the base of the Eocene.
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Quantification of practical and matched CO2 storage capacity for insufficiently known reservoirs
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Virtual biomechanical analysis of the lower limbs of a Neandertal
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The First Upper Paleolithic Human Remains from Belgium: Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian Fossils at the “Troisième caverne” of Goyet
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There is ample evidence of human occupation across Northern Europe throughout various periods of the Upper Paleolithic. However, the biological characteristics of the Northern European Upper Paleolithic humans and their mortuary practices remain largely unknown because of a dearth of human fossils. In Belgium, although the presence of humans has been verified at multiple archeological sites, no Upper Paleolithic fossil has yet been identified. In this context, the recent discovery of Upper Paleolithic human remains at Goyet (Belgium) fills in an important chronological gap. The “Troisième caverne” of Goyet, excavated at the end of the 19th and early 20th century, yielded a rich archeological sequence ranging from the Middle and Upper Paleolithic to historical times. In 2008, we began documenting the Paleolithic occupations of the “Troisième caverne” by reassessing the collections from the site which heretofore had only been partially studied. The updated inventory of human remains was accomplished by conducting a detailed sorting of the paleontological collections in order to identify human remains that may have been overlooked thus far. As a result, the collections from the “Troisième caverne” now include nearly 200 human bones/bone fragments and isolated teeth that correspond to various materials from different periods. The morphometric study of the human specimens from Goyet, completed by direct radiocarbon dating and stable isotope analysis, shows that they represent two main samples—a series of Late Neandertal remains (Rougier et al. 2012) and a set of modern human specimens from three periods of the Upper Paleolithic, namely the Aurignacian, Gravettian, and Magdalenian. The latter include fragmentary elements from the cranial and infracranial skeleton. Interestingly, those from the Gravettian and Magdalenian present anthropogenic traces and ochre traces. We will discuss the importance of these new fossils in the context of the human population of Northern Europe during the Upper Paleolithic.
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La détermination du sexe grâce à la méthode probabalistic diagnosis dans un environnement virtuel
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The hip bone is one of the most reliable indicators of sex in the human body due to the fact it is the most dimorphic bone. Probabilistic Sex Diagnosis (developed by Murailet al., 2005) is a method based on a worldwide hip bone metrical database and relies on the actual physical bone for analysis. Sex is determined by comparing specific measurements taken from each specimen using sliding calipers and computing the probability of the specimens being female or male. In forensic science it is sometimes not possible to sex a body due to corpse decay or injury. Skeletinization and dissection of a body is a laborious process and desecrates the body. The current study aimed to see if it was possible to virtually utilise the DSP method to avoid this process. Forty-nine innominate bones of unknown sex were obtained from ULB. Bones were analysed by two researchers using the manual DSP method and a good correlation was found between researchers. CT scans of available bones were analysed to obtain three-dimensional (3D) virtual models using a commercially available software (Amira, www.amiravis.com). Available models were imported into a customized software programme called lhpFusionBox (developed at ULB from the MAF open-source library). lhpFusionBox is an advanced musculo-skeletal software which includes many operations relevant to Biomechanics. It also enables distances to be measured via virtually- palpated bony landmarks. DSP measurements were then obtained from the located bony landmarks. There was 100% accuracy between the manual and virtual DSP analysis. To further test the method 30 virtual bones of known sex were analysed (researchers had no prior knowledge of sex before analysis). There was found to be a 97% accuracy rate with only one bone leading to a wrong determination. These
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Palaeolithic dogs at the Gravettian Předmostí site, the Czech Republic
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Reconstruction of Gravettian food-web in Předmostí I using isotopic tracking of bone collagen
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Mandibles from Palaeolithic dogs and Pleistocene wolves at Předmostí, the Czech Republic
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A new archaic shark-toothed dolphin from the late Oligocene-early Miocene of Peru
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